Plan Organizes Parents - Door to Door

Plan Organizes Parents - Door to Door
In Nation's Lowest Performing Schools
Initiative Seeks DoEd. "i3" Innovation Grants

ST. LOUIS, Dec 2009 - Project Appleseed stands poised on the brink of launching an unprecedented initiative to turn around so called “failing” schools. The plan rests on two truths: First, we know that when parents and caring adults volunteer in schools and commit themselves to supporting children, educational outcomes skyrocket. And second, while recruiting such school volunteers is not always easy, aggressively recruiting community members by going door to door—in other words, community organizing—does work.

"Our plan is called Capacity Building Partnerships. It puts the two together. Project Appleseed will organize family and community involvement, door-to-door, in the lowest performing Title I schools & districts in selected states. We think that states like Missouri, Maryland, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and Oregon present opportunities to demonstrate how to use organized parental involvement, to turn around struggling schools in urban and rural districts," said Kevin Walker, president of Project Appleseed.

The focus is to improve achievement for high-need students through organizing and increasing parental involvement. Project Appleseed's Capacity Building Partnerships has two priorities:

Turn around persistently low-performing schools - By employing the Parental Involvement Pledge to recruit large numbers of school volunteers as prescribed under section 1118 of Title I.
Improve the use data - By implementing a accountability system which measures parent participation in relationship to student performance.

In an average sized state like Missouri, that would include districts such as - St. Louis, Kansas City and nearly 79 others. There, Project Appleseed will recruit parents, grandparents and caring adults to take the Parental Involvement Pledge. With the Pledge, we ask these volunteers to spend at least five hours each semester assisting with school and fifteen minutes reading with a child each evening.

The beauty of the plan is that it provides exponential returns on investment at every level. First, and most importantly, while the Parental Involvement Pledge isn’t much to ask of any one adult, the cumulative benefit of having these volunteers in our neediest schools is immense. Our plan will organize 75,000 adults to volunteer a minimum of 10 hours each year in Missouri’s lowest performing 225 public schools. This will result in 750,000 man-hours of work, immediately and directly infused in our struggling schools. If teachers dedicated similar time one-on-one with their students, the minimum dollar benefit to children and schools would be $25 million. That far exceeds the $1.4 million spent by the federal government, in Title I parental involvement stimulus funds, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Second, the plan is set up so that relatively modest investments by supporters reap exponential rewards. Project Appleseed is requesting Investing in Innovation Fund or (i3) grants, from th United States Department of Education, to fund statewide partnerships that include multiple school districts. The federal government may require a 20% private match for grant funding. Every dollar donated will help save these schools, it will bring in four more and ultimately result in an army of volunteers, transforming failure into success.

This is an initiative whose time has come. We know that community organization works. We know that parental involvement works. In the words of President Barack Obama to Congress,

Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has echoed the president’s faith in parental involvement. He is calling for innovative and aggressive approaches to transforming America’s schools. This initiative is precisely that approach.

"For us at Project Appleseed, the question is not ever whether or when we should take action to boost failing schools, but can we ever afford not to? These children—our nation’s children—are always worth our time, our resources, and our best efforts," said Walker.

download our powerpoint here

"Responsibility for our children's education must begin at home."