A
comprehensive family-school partnership
(which Epstein defines as an ongoing relationship rather than a program
or event) addresses allsix
types
of
family involvement:
parenting,
communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and
collaborating with the community.
All over America parent
volunteers are
filling roles as
secretaries, aides, crossing guards and more after budget cuts.
Supersize
your
school's
parent
engagement - all year!See related story...
If
family volunteer service were
calculated into the school budget at $34.00
an hour*, based on the average teacher pay in America, then 100 family
volunteers who take the Parental
Involvement
Pldge will generate at
least $34,000.00
of
volunteer service for
their school each year!The
Parental
Involvement
Toolbox
has
the
cost
effective,
research-based
tools,
like
our
learning
compact
called
the
Parental
Involvement
Pledge. *
Wall Street Journal
Use
the Parental
Involvement
Pldge and supersize
your school's parent engagement. Project
Appleseed's
Parental
Involvement Toolbox is designed for educators and parent leaders who
strive to increase family engagement. The Toolbox is aligned
with the Six
Slices of Parental
Involvement. By purchasing the Toolbox, your schools can
organize parent responsibility with an effective researched based
program - that meets district and state mandates and best
practices.
Independent media reports of schools using
the Toolbox:
Individual School:
According
to Education
World, "Prior to Project Appleseed, parental involvement at Abington Junior High School in Pennsylvania was
typical for a large, suburban junior-high school and was limited to
active PTO members. Parents wanted to volunteer, but the role of parent
involvement was not defined. Project
Appleseed brought greater clarity
to volunteer activities and became a vehicle for organizing volunteer
opportunities. Today, team members at the school aren't shy about
asking parents to be a force in their children's education." Read
the
full
story...
School Districts:
See how all the schools in Muskogee
Public Schoolsworked to get the entire
community
involved in Project Appleseed!Read reporting from community
newspaper articles:
The Parental
Involvement Pledge
Online,
branded with your school's name, and linked to your school's web site -
for accessibility anywhere.
The
Parental Involvement Report
Card - branded with your school's name and school logo, this is 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.
TheToolkit for
Title I Parental Involvement from SEDL - 33
Tools (Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory) We provide the most recent research inside the
Toolbox with detailed explanations of the Title I, Part A parental
involvement provisions. The
toolkit includes information on the following topics:
Policy,
Planning, and Building Capacity
Communication, Notification, Reporting, and Information
Sharing
Parent Rights and Options
Meaningful Involvement and Decision Making
Fund Allocation
Certificates of Parental
Involvement for schools and
parents!
One Year -
$300.00 for
each
individual
school
one
calendar
year.
$250.00 for each additional
district school.
Two
Years - $400.00 for
each
individual
school one
calendar
year.
$300.00 for each additional
district school.
Three
Years -
$500.00 for
each
individual
school
one
calendar
year.
$400.00 for each
additional
district school.
Masterfiles
are
in Adobe
Portable Document Format (.pdf files). Toolboxes are delivered by
e-mail.
One
Day Rush Delivery!
Title I,
Transformation, Turnaround &
Restart
All Schools
Make Project Appleseed Part Of Your
School Improvement Plan
Six Key Leverage Points
1. Every Title I school must havea written parent involvement policy,
developed with and
approved by parents. This policy should spell out how parents will be
involved in a meaningful way and how they will be involved in the
school. The policy must be updated periodically to reflect the changing
concerns of parents. 2. Every
Title
I
school
must
have
a
school-parent
compact, developed and approved by
parents, that describes how the school and parents will build a
partnership to improve student achievement. This compact should explain
how the school will meet the needs of its students so that they will
achieve high standards. 3. Every school district must have
a writtenTitle I parent
involvement policy that is
developed with and approved by parents, and evaluated every year.
This
policy must spell out how the district will engage parents in
developing its Title 1 plan and how it will help parents gain the
knowledge and skills to be involved effectively in decisions about the
program and in the schools. 4.
The school district must distribute a report card specifying how
every school and the
district as a whole is performing. This applies to Title I and
non-Title I schools, as well as to charter schools. 5.If a Title I school has not made adequate
progress over the past two or more years,
parents have two options. They can ask to transfer their
children to a
school that is making adequate progress, or they can request
supplemental services and become involved in improving the school. 6.The state education agency must
monitor the school districts’ Title I programs to make
sure they carry out the law. If the district is not involving parents,
parents and community members should appeal to the state.
“No
Child
Left
Behind:
What’s
in
it
for
Parents”
by
Anne
Henderson,
2002