The Parental Involvement
C h e c k l i s t
 One way to start improving your school's
parent-school partnerships is by assessing present practices. The following questions can
help you evaluate how well your school is reaching out to parents.
- Which partnership practices
are currently working well at each grade level?
- Which partnership practices
should be improved or added in each grade?
- How do you want your
school's family involvement practices to look three years from
now?
- Which present practices
should change and which should continue?
- Which families are
you reaching and which are hard to reach?
- What can be better
done to communicate with the latter?
- What costs are associated
with the improvements you want?
- How will you evaluate
the results of your efforts?
- What opportunities
will you arrange for teachers, parents, and students to share
information on successful practices in order to strengthen their
own efforts?
 A Checklist For An Effective
Parent-School Partnership
STANDARD 1
- VOLUNTEERING
GOAL: Recruit and organize parent help and support
SAMPLE
BEST PRACTICES
- Distribute Project
Appleseed's learning compact known as the Parental
Involvement Pledge to recruit and organize parent volunteers.
- Distribute Project
Appleseed's Parental Involvement Report
Card. The Report Card is intended to help parents evaluate
their contributions to their child's success at school .
- Use the Parental
Involvement Pledge Volunteer Information Survey to identify
all available talents, times, and locations of volunteers.
- School and classroom
volunteer program to help teachers and administrators students
and other parents. Parent room or center for volunteer work,
meetings, resources for families.
- Class parent, telephone
tree, or other structures to provide all families with needed
information.
- Parent patrols or other
activities to aid safety and operation of school programs.
 Findings
from the U.S. Department of Education's Prospects Study
(1993) reveal that students in schools with pledges or learning
compacts in place perform better than children in similar schools
without them because of greater reinforcement of learning at
home. Furthermore, effects of the pledge on student learning
were stronger than effects from other forms of school-home interactions.
-
- Challenges
- Use
the Parental Involvement Pledge
to recruit volunteers widely so that all families know that their
time and talents are welcome.
- Make flexible schedules
for volunteers, assemblies, and events to enable parents who
to participate.
- Organize volunteer
work, provide training, match time and talent with school, teacher,
and student needs, and recognize efforts so that participants
are productive.
-
- Results
- For Students
- Skill in communicating
with adults.
- Increased learning
of skills that receive tutoring or targeted attention from volunteers.
- Awareness of many skills,
talents, occupations, and contributions of parents and other
volunteers.
- For Parents
- Understanding teacher's
job; increased comfort in school interactions and carryover of
school activities at home.
- Self-confidence in
ability to work in school and with children, or take steps for
own education or work.
- All-family awareness
that families are welcomed and valued at school.
- Gains in specific skills
of volunteer work.
- For Teachers
- Readiness to involve
families in new ways, including those who do not volunteer at
school.
- Awareness of parent
talents and interest in school and children.
- Greater individual
attention to students, with help from volunteers.
Contact the School
Three ways to let your school know you want to be involved.
The Learning Community
STANDARD 2
- PARENTING
GOAL: Help all families establish home environments to support
children as students.
SAMPLE
BEST PRACTICES
- School provides suggestions
for home conditions that support learning at each grade level.
- School provides workshops,
videotapes, and/or computerized phone messages on parenting and
child-rearing at each grade level.
- Parent education and
other courses or training for parents (e.g., GED, college credit;
family literacy).
- Family support programs
to assist families with health nutrition, and other services.
- Home visits at transition
points to preschool, elementary, middle and high school; and
neighborhood meetings to help families understand schools and
to help schools understand families.
-
- Challenges
- Provide information
to all families who want it or who need it, not just to the few
who can attend workshops or meetings at the school building.
- Enable families to
share information about culture, background, children's talents
and needs with schools.
- Assure that all information
for and from families is clear, usable, and linked to children's
success in school.
-
- Results
- Students
 Awareness
of family supervision; respect for parents
- Positive personal qualities,
habits, beliefs, values, taught by family.
- Balance in time on
chores, other activities, and homework.
- Awareness of importance
of school.
-
- Parents
- Understanding and confidence
about parenting, child and adolescent development, and changes
in home conditions for learning as children proceed through school.
- Awareness of own and
others' challenges in parenting.
- Feeling of support
from school and other parents.
-
- Teachers
- Understanding families'
backgrounds, cultures, concerns, goals, needs, and views of their
children.
- Respect for families'
strengths and efforts.
- Understanding of student
diversity.
- Awareness of own skills
to share information on child development.
STANDARD 3
- COMMUNICATING
GOAL: Design more effective forms of school-to-home and home-to-school
communications with all families each year about school programs
and their children's progress.
 SAMPLE BEST PRACTICES
- Conferences with every
parent at least once a year, with follow-ups as needed.
- Language translators
assist families as needed.
- Weekly or monthly folders
of student work are sent home and reviewed, parental comments
returned to teacher.
- Parent and student
pick-up of report card, with conferences on improving grades.
- Regular schedule of
useful notices, memos, phone calls, newsletters, and other communications.
- Clear information on
choosing schools, or courses, programs, and activities within
schools.
- Clear information on
all school policies, programs reforms, and transitions.
-
- Challenges
- Review the readability,
clarity, form, and frequency of all memos, notices, and other
print and non-print communications.
- Consider parents who
do not speak English well, do not read well, or need large type.
- Review the quality
of major communications such as the schedule, content, and structure
of conferences; newsletters; report cards and others.
- Establish clear two-way
channels for communications from home to school and school to
home.
-
- Results
- For Students
- Awareness of own progress,
and actions needed to maintain or improve grades.
- Understanding of school
expectations and procedures for behavior attendance and other
policies.
- Informed decisions
about courses and programs.
- Awareness of own role
in partnerships, serving as courier and communicator.
- For Parents
- Understanding school
programs and policies.
- Monitoring and awareness
of child's progress.
- Conduct of responsive
activities to address student's problems as needed.
- Interactions with teachers
and ease of communications with school and teachers.
- For Teachers
- Increased diversity
and use of communications with families, and awareness of own
ability to communicate clearly.
- Appreciation and use
of parent network for communications.
- Increased ability in
two-way communications for family views of children's programs
and progress.
Home is Your Child's First School
Tips to prepare your child for school and lifelong success.
STANDARD 4
- LEARNING AT HOME 
GOAL: Provide information and ideas to families about how to
help students at home with homework and other curricular-related
activities, decisions, and planning.
SAMPLE
BEST PRACTICES
- Information for families
on skills required for students in all subjects at each grade.
- Information on homework
policies and how to monitor, and discuss schoolwork at home.
Information on how to assist students to improve skills on various
class and school assignments.
Regular schedule of homework that requires students to discuss
and interact with families on what they are learning in class
(e.g., TIPS).
Calendars with activities for parents and students at home.
Family math, science, and reading, activities at school.
Goal setting for students with families each year, and for future
plans for college or work.
Challenges
- Design and organize
a regular schedule of interactive homework (e.g., weekly or bimonthly)
that gives students responsibility for discussing important things
they are learning, and helps families stay aware of the content
of their children's class work.
- Coordinate family linked
homework activities, if students have several teachers.
- Involve families with
their children in all important curricular related decisions.
-
 Results
- For Students
- Gain skills, abilities,
and test scores linked to homework and class work.
- Homework completion.
- Positive attitudes
toward schoolwork.
- View of parent as more
similar to teacher, and home more similar to school.
- Self concept of ability
as learner.
- Awareness of own role
in sharing schoolwork at home, and of links of learning to real
life situations.
- For Parents
- Know how to support,
encourage, and help student at home each year.
- Discussions of school,
class work, and homework.
- Understanding of instructional
program each year, and what child is learning in each subject.
- Appreciation of teaching
skills.
- Awareness of child
as learner.
- For Teachers
- Better design of homework
assignments.
- Respect of family time.
- Recognition of equal
helpfulness of single parent, working mom, and less formally
educated families to motivate and reinforce student learning.
- Satisfaction with family
involvement and support.
STANDARD 5
- DECISION MAKING
GOAL: Include parents in school decisions, developing parent
leaders and representatives.
SAMPLE
BEST PRACTICES
Active PTA/PTO or other
parent organizations, school advisory councils, or committees
(e.g., curriculum, safety, personnel, and other committees) for
parent leadership and participation (Go to http://www.projectappleseed.org
to start a parent group).
- Independent
advocacy groups to lobby and work for school reform and improvements.
- District level councils
and committees for family and community involvement.
- Information on school
or local elections for school representatives.
- Networks to link all
families with parent representatives.
-
Challenges
- Include parent leaders
from all of racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and other groups in
the school.
- Offering training to
enable leaders to serve as representatives of other parents,
with input from and return of information to all parents.
- Include students (along
with parents) in decision making groups.
-
- Results
- For Students
- Awareness of representation
of parents in school decisions.
- Understanding that
students' rights are protected.
- Specific benefits linked
to policies enacted by parent organizations and experienced by
students.
-
-
- For Parents
- Input into policies
that affect child's education.
- Feeling of ownership
of school.
- All-family awareness
of parents' voices in school decisions.
- Shared experiences
and connections with other families.
- Awareness of school,
district, and state policies.
- For Teachers
- Awareness of parent
perspectives in policy development and decisions.
- View of equal status
of family representatives on committees and in leadership roles.
STANDARD 6-
COLLABORATING WITH COMMUNITY
GOAL: Identify and integrate resources and services from the
community to strengthen school programs, family practices, and
student learning and development.
SAMPLE
BEST PRACTICES
- Information for students
and families on community health, cultural, recreational, social
support, and other programs or services.
- Information on community
activities that link to learning skills and talents, including
summer programs for students.
- Planned service integration
of school in partnership with businesses, civic, counseling,
cultural, health, recreation, and other agencies and organizations.
- Service to the community
by students, families, and schools (e.g., recycling, art, music,
drama, and other activities for seniors or others, etc.) Alumni
to link to school programs for students.
Challenges
- Solve turf problems
of responsibilities, funds, staff, and locations for collaborative
activities.
- Inform families of
community programs for students, such as mentoring, tutoring,
business partnerships, and other programs.
- Assure equity of opportunities
for students and families to participate in community programs
or to obtain services.
- Match community contributions
with school goals; integrate child and family services with education.
-
- Results
- For Students
- Increased skills and
talents through enriched curricular and curricular experiences.
- Awareness of careers,
and options for future education and work.
- Pride in community,
and in own service to the community.
- Specific benefits linked
to programs, services, resources, and opportunities that connect
students with the community.
- For Parents
-
- Knowledge and use of
local resources by family and child to increase skills and talents,
or obtain needed services.
- Family pride in and
contributions to community.
- Interactions with other
families in community activities.
- Awareness of school's
role in the community, and community support and contributions
to the school.
- For Teachers
-
 Awareness of community resources
to enrich curriculum and instruction.
- Openness to and skill
in using mentors, business partners, community volunteers, and
others to assist students and teaching practice.
- Knowledgeable, helpful
referrals of children and families to needed services.
- Pride and participation
in community.
Originated
by the Center on Families Communities, Schools, and Children's
Learning
which provides a variety of research literature and practical
guides on parent involvement. To obtain a listing of resources,
write the Center, Attention: Publications, The Johns Hopkins
University, 3505 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218.
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A Checklist for Checking in at School
5 tips for a successful parent teacher conference
The Learning Community
Leave No Parent Behind
No Child Left Behind Speakout, Texas Statewide Hearing
Linda & Reginald
- Reagan High School, Houston A-Plus
AS A PARENT, GRANDPARENT, OR
CARING ADULT, I hereby give my
pledge of commitment to help our community's children achieve a truly independent future. My
declaration
of
responsibility
and commitment
to my
public
schools
is stated in these
five self-evident truths as spoken by President Woodrow Wilson:
 In the 21st century school improvement
works like the double helix that combines and recombines genetic
material to renew life.
An effective school
improvement strategy must combine two complementary strands:
- The inside strand
focuses on the
content of schooling - curricula, academic standards, incentives
and work rules for teachers and a philosophy of school management.
- The outside strand
attracts and
mobilizes community and political support, social capital, and
other resources from outside the traditional school bureaucracy
- from parents, grandparents, community members, alumni, businesses
and the larger community.
A hundred years ago,
at the turn of the last century, America's stock of social capital
was at an ebb, reduced
by urbanization, industrialization, and vast immigration that
uprooted Americans from their friends, social institutions, and
families, a situation similar to today's. Faced with this challenge,
the country righted itself. Within a few decades, a range of
organizations was created, from the National PTA, Red Cross,
Boy Scouts, and YWCA to Hadassah and the Knights of Columbus
and the Urban League. With these and many more cooperative societies
we rebuilt our social capital.
We can learn from the
experience of those decades as we work to rebuild our eroded
social capital. It won't happen without the concerted creativity
and energy of Americans nationwide.(Putnam, 2000)
Many communities have
the financial, intellectual, and leadership resources needed
to rebuild their own educational improvement strategies. To initiate
an effort to improve public schools in all of our nation's communities,
Project Appleseed concentrates on the outside strand of school
improvement. We mobilize Americans to volunteer and give to their
local public schools.(Hill, 1989)
The
Parental Involvement Pledge
What Is It?
The Parental
Involvement Pledge has two components. It provides an opportunity
for parents to formalize their commitment to working with their
child's school through a written agreement they can complete and take to their parent leader,
school secretary, teacher, or principal. The Pledge also provides
a survey of parent volunteer interests. The survey identifies
37 areas in which parents can volunteer in school, outside the
classroom and at home. The Pledge is based on the Six Types of
Parental Involvement developed by Dr. Joyce Epstien at John's
Hopkins University.
How Do You Use
It?
The Pledge is a tool to
share with staff and parent organizations as a way of recruiting
volunteers and appropriately
connecting them with specific needs and activities.
When Do You Use It?
Title
I of No Child Left Behind requires that a Pledge or other
learning compact be used during parent-teacher conferences. Use it also when you want to
encourage parents to volunteer or when you want teachers to invite
and encourage parental involvement on National
Parental Involvement Day, the third Thursday in November
or Public School Volunteer Week which
is the third week of April.
 Why
Do You Use It?
U.S. Department of Education research (Prospects
Study 1993) demonstrates that schools that use learning compacts
like the Parental Involvement Pledge have higher student achievement
than those that don't use them. The
Pledge provides a concrete way to help parents volunteer because
it allows them to choose very specific activities. It is easier
to get a commitment and follow-through if it is clear exactly
what is being asked and what is expected.
Who Do You Involve?
When parents are involved,
their children do better in school, and they go to better schools.
Why is this true?
Because when parents are welcome in the school and are consulted
about decisions affecting their children, an atmosphere of trust
and collaboration develops between school and home. When this
happens, our children will perform at a higher level, and the
school will become more effective. The school is a critically
important community institution, since the quality of education
shapes not only our children's individual future, but also the
future of your community and society. Your support of public
schools is important; involvement and action by several
parents in a group can influence school policy-makers and result
in decisions and choices than can benefit many children. Use
the Pledge with parents, parent groups, and staff as a tool and
encouragement for parental involvement.
Do You Need More
Parental Involvement
Information?
Download Now!
Effective Involvement
Parent Organizing Database 1.0.1
 Order the Parental Involvement Toolbox
for your schools today! Get the Parent
Organizing Database 1.0.1.
Does your school
or parent group need to manage parent volunteer contacts and
contributions without making a huge investment of money or time?
You've come to the right place. The Parent Organizing Database
runs on any Windows computer, and is easy enough for everyone
to learn.
View a sample of
the software as slideshow!
- These screens show
the process of finding a record, editing basic info
- These screens show
entering donations, viewing donations, doing
queries/reports on previous payments.
- Organizers' Database
includes sophisticated features for querying your
data, printing, import, export, categorizing, and customization.
- Parent Organizing Database
1.0.1 Features List
Free
when ordering the Parental Involvement Toolbox!
Box Tops Kids Caucus
 Box Tops for Education asked how the kids
and their parents would improve involvement if they were principal
for a day.
Kayleigh Parravicini, Grade 5
Marlborough Intermediate Elementary School,
Marlborough, MA
What Kayleigh would
do: Start the "Parental Involvement Pledge"
"Parents
would be asked to sign a parent involvement, or 'Parental Involvement'
pledge, stating they will spend at least fifteen minutes everyday
helping their child with homework, reading to, or with, their
child, practicing math facts and concepts, or just listening
to how their child's day in school went. Students would be asked
to sign a pupil involvement, also a 'Parental Involvement' pledge,
promising to work hard in school, to tell their parents about
their day in school, and to ask for help with their studies,
if needed." A chart of time spent "could be turned
in at the end of the month and the family would receive one ticket
entry for a raffle drawing to win a cool prize."
Kayleigh Parravicini,
Grade 5
Marlborough (Mass.) Intermediate Elementary School
We began National Parental Involvement
Day in 1994 and Public School Volunteer Week in 1997, to provide
opportunities in which parents can volunteer in their local public
schools. Five million parents in 3500 school districts are involved
in this effort. Below we provide examples of their dedication
to this cause. Join
us on the 15th Annual National Parental Involvement Day, third
Thursday of November 2007, and the11th Annual Public School Volunteer
Week, third week of April in 2008. The campaign wants more parents and caregivers
to take the Parental Involvement Pledge.
The Pledge is a written learning compact in which parents commit
to be involved in a child's education. The Pledge is the most
widely distributed learning compact in the United States and
our celebrations are observed from coast-to-coast. Join us by
ordering the Parental Involvement Toolbox
for your schools today!
Public School
Volunteer Weektm
Third Week of April
Illinois: City
of Des Plaines Mayor Signs Proclamation For National Public School
Volunteer Week 2006
Illinois: City
of Des Plaines Mayor Signs Proclamation For National Public School
Volunteer Week 2005
Kentucky School Advocate:
Hugs,
smiles and learning: school volunteers get as much as they give
Maryland: Carroll
County Proclimation Public School Volunteer Week
Maryland: Washington
County Public Schools Public School Volunteer Week Proclamation
Minnesota: Minneapolis
Public Schools Calendar Public School Volunteer Week
Michigan: Redford
Remind Parents that Homework is Not Just for Kids, It's for Parents,
Too
New Jersey School
Board Association Salutes NJ's Volunteer School Board Members
National
Parental Involvement Daytm
Third Thursday of November
National: National
Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)
Arizona: Tucson
Finding mentors for teens focus of S. Side town hall
Deleware: Christina
School District Superintendent to hold Staff Forums and Parent
Forums to discuss topics of interest
Georgia: Latino
parents get involved at Lilburn
Maryland:
Washington County Public School
Missouri: Project
Appleseed: No parent left behind in Kennett
North Carolina: Mary
Scroggs Elementary
Pennsylvainia: Moniteau
News Parent Teacher Conferences and National Parental Involvement
Day
Texas: Alief
Independent School District Monday Message
Texas: Los
Fresnos Parent Fair
Texas: Pine
Tree Indep School District PTA
Texas: Colonial
Hills sponsors Parent Involvement Week
Wisconsin: Education
Calendar - November 2006
Volunteering
for duty
A salute to schools'
'service members' in Colorado
Volunteer Carl Herbet helps third-grader
Anna Huebler, 8, read a Harry Potter book in the library at Eisenhower
Elementary School in Boulder last November. National Parental
Involvement Day was November 16, just in time for the season
of school parties and holiday programs that come right behind,
volunteer advocates were encouraging people to help. Photo by Ellen Jascko
Four Myths
of Parent Involvement
in Schools
Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory
has combed through research to learn how
parents can help improve their
children's achievement.
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