The Parental
Involvement Checklisttm
One way to start improving your school's parent-school partnerships is by assessing present practices and establishing standards for parent involvement. The following questions can help you evaluate how well your school is reaching out to parents.
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"Responsibility for our
children's education must begin at home."
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Slice 1
- VOLUNTEERING GOAL: Recruit
and organize parent
help and support
SAMPLE
BEST PRACTICES
Parent patrols or other activities to aid safety and operation of school programs.
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
Slice 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.
Slice 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.
Slice
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.
Slice 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.
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.
Slice 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.
Increased skills and talents through enriched curricular and curricular experiences.
Awareness of careers, and options for future education and work.
Specific benefits linked to programs, services, resources, and opportunities that connect students with the community.
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.
- The Parental Involvement Pledge.pdf, branded with your school's name, for distribution to every student and family. (Title I Learning Compact!)
- Web page for the Parental Involvement Pledge Online, branded with your school's name, for accessibility anywhere!
- The Parental Involvement Report Card.pdf - a self diagnostic tool for distribution to every parent, grandparent, and caring adult.
- Parent Organizing Database 1.0.1 software runs on any Windows computer, and is easy enough for everyone to learn. Features List.pdf
- Parental Involvement Certificates for Schools and Individual Volunteers.
Also Included:
Masterfiles are in Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf files). Toolboxes are delivered by e-mail.
- Family Wellness Compact. Fitness and Nutrition Parental Involvement Pledge!
- PowerPoint Central! The Best Parental Involvement Training Resources In America
- How To Run A Successful Pledge Campaign
- Project Appleseed's Newsletter Appleseed Today
- Regular e-mail updates on Project Appleseed and parental involvement best practices.
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Parents Advocating Challenging Education PACE
501 (c)(3) Tax Exempt Organization
520 Melville / St. Louis, Missouri / 63130-4506
Fax: (314) 725-2319
headquarters@projectappleseed.org
Copyright 2008, PACE / Project Appleseed, the National Campaign for Public School Improvement, a 501 (c) (3) Nonprofit Missouri Corporation. Parents Advocating Challenging Education, Project Appleseed, The National Campaign for Public School Improvement, Leave No Parent Behind, Leave No Dollar Behind, The Parental Involvement Pledge, Family Involvement Pledge, The Parental Involvement Report Card, National Parental Involvement Day, Public School Volunteer Week, Organized Parental Involvement, are trademarks of the National Campaign for Public School Improvement. All Rights Reserved.
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