family engagement in education - traditional vs. new paradigms
TRANSCRIPT
At this Emerging Minority Leaders Conference, it is important we understand
the shift from parent involvement to family engagement. The adults who
are responsible for our children are not just the parents but all those who take
on the duties of providing for them, protecting them and making sure they are
getting a good education. Engagement implies something new, something
beyond what we meant by involvement.
Today we will make some comparisons
and contrasts but don’t take this as
negative criticism. There are many
different ways that parent involvement
has been done in our schools and in our
organizations. None of these were wrong
nor misguided. Yet if we want to look at
the idea of involvement or participation
from a different point of view, it might give
us some insights into those families who
are not active in our organizations and in
the schools their children attend.
Family Engagement:Traditional vs. New Paradigms
In this presentation, we will:
• Compare and contrast approaches for involving parents
• Review key principles of family leadership in education & illustrate them in a
Comunitario PTA
• Arrive at implications for new and emerging leaders within PTA
Setting the Learning Climate
What’s a successful experience you have
had in engaging parents in education?
Let’s review the key kinds
of activities a traditional
PTA has carried out.Voluntarism – How many of you have volunteered
at your schools?
Fundraising – Why has this been important?
Parenting – How to be a better parent. How has
your PTA supported this?
Traditional Parent Involvement
for Title I Schools
School holds informational meetings
Meetings are designed to sign-off on what the school is doing anyway
Parents serve on side or support committees
T
Title I refers to the supplemental funds provided by the U.S. Department of Education to schools serving high
numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all children meet
challenging state academic standards
Family Leadership at IDRAActionable Data -- There are many aspects of IDRA’s approach to family leadership
but one key element is that the families are presented with data about their schools
and are asked to take action on the data. If the students are doing poorly in math, the
families investigate further into what is blocking the learning of math and what can
help students learn math.
Collective Leadership -- A second aspect is how leadership is viewed. Rather than
identifying the super-mom the approach looks toward forming community and
supporting families to take on many roles together to improve schools.
Education Projects -- Projects are taken on that focus on school policies and
practices that will have significant effect in improving schools.
IDRA Family Leadership in Education
Principles• Families are their children’s strongest advocates.
• Families of different race, ethnicity, language, and class are equally valuable.
• Families care about their children’s education and are to be treated with
respect, dignity, and value.
• Within families, many individuals play a role in the children’s education.
• Family leadership is most powerful at improving education for all children
when collective efforts create solutions for the common good.
• Families, schools, and communities, when drawn together, become a strong,
sustainable voice to protect the rights of all children.
1. Families can be their children’s
strongest advocatesThe neediest (by whatever definition) of families will
defend their children’s rights to an excellent
education… based on the natural almost universal
inclination in families to defend their children. It points
to the potential that all families have in speaking for,
defending and supporting their children.
The concept of parents as advocates has been difficult
to capture in the research and literature, especially
connecting it to student achievement. IDRA’s premise
isnot an unreal, romanticized view of the reality of our families…there are
dysfunctional families in all classes, races and communities.
Nevertheless, just as our principle about children is that all children are
valuable; none is expendable, so our view of families is that each must
be approached with respect and high expectations.
2. Families of different race, ethnicity,
language, and class are equally valuable
There is no reason to de-value (condescend, talk down to or preach to) families
because of neighborhood, home language, race or ethnicity. Each group has assets,
traditions and a language that is worthy of respect.
Our experience shows that when this principle is evident in the outreach and work
done with families, there is a marked in increase in the amount and quality of families’
engagement with their children’s schools and education.
3. Families care about their children’s education and
are to be treated with respect, dignity and value
The ‘Leave it to Beaver’ family is long gone
and really did not ever exist in many of our
neighborhoods. Latinos and others consider
education of their children a priority.
Surveys, interviews and conversations with
parents of all races, classes and national
origin have reinforced the concern that
families have for their children’s education
and the desire to be treated with respect
This almost universal concern is the critical
connection between families and schools
and a most useful basis for beginning a
dialogue and a project that engages families
more fully in the education of their children
and informs effective outreach efforts.
The extended family for many children is
their base of nurture, early learning and
support in schooling.
All families must be
approached as
intelligent caring and
willing partners in
the educational and
social success of
their children.
4. Within families, many individuals play a role in the
children’s education
As stated in the brief explanation of the use of the
word family, we acknowledge that there are many
key caretakers of children who are not genetic
parents. The combination of all who live within a
home are important influences on children and can
be a collective force for creating excellent schools.
For educators this means that rather assuming that
a biological parent will be present to design
activities for whomever arrives and rejoice in the
presence of whomever the family members are.
5. Family leadership is most powerful at improving
education for all children when collective efforts
create solutions for the common good
Families connected and united are powerful and in any
given neighborhood can continue to support strong
neighborhood public schools even as school personnel
move on and change. The individualistic, charismatic
leader model is too narrow and does not sustain
communities, families and excellent schools over time.
Assertive individuals are good sparks and energizers,
but the staying power resides in the network of families.
When families connect around the education of their
children and move to the group consciousness, they are
drawing on the combined intelligence, energy and
power to transform a school and to catalyze
administrators to raise their hopes, standards and
expectations for all children.
Collective efforts draw on the powerful roots of our democracy and are sustained
with peer compassion, cooperation and revolving spokespersons. When families
operate out of optimism, draw on individual and neighborhood assets, and move a
school to achieve new heights, all children benefit.
6. Family leadership is most powerful at improving
education for all children when collective efforts
create solutions for the common good
Our experience with school change
supports a concurrent “within and without’
process. Schools in collaboration and
connection with families and with the
broader community can excellent schools
for all children.
Transformation and improvement of
schools doesn’t last if it is only led from
within.
Families attempting to reform schools,
when only acting as an external force, no
matter how strong, rarely last beyond a
few years. When families partner with
school people and the broader community
participates, there is a greater possibility
for a sustained and positive reform of a
school.
IDRA’s Comunitario PTA model is an innovation for school-family-
community collaboration. Comunitario PTAs are affiliated with the
national PTA organization, but are based in a community organization,
rather than in a single school. And their sole purpose is to collaborate
with schools to improve the success of students in the community.
With the base of a community organization that already exists and that is
committed to serving its community, the Comunitario PTA it cultivates has
built in sustainability. Through shared revolving leadership, the
organization is not dependent on a central charismatic leader or
individual volunteers who tend to move on when their children move from
one school to another.
Our First Comunitario
PTAs• Economically disadvantaged
neighborhoods and families
• English learners
• Outlying communities
Key elements of the
Comunitario PTA• Community based
• Authentic family connections
• Actionable data projects
• Community-school peer partnerships
Comunitario PTA
Community members come
together
Comunitario PTAs are born in
their communities. They must
have a community base,
connected to a local organization
that commits to focus on
education (among its other
mission areas). Meetings are
attended by parents,
grandparents, students’ older
siblings, neighbors and all who
consider themselves custodians
of children’s academic success
and future education.
Comunitario PTA
They partner with schools
Comunitario PTAs partner with
schools in their neighborhood.
Collaboration includes co-
planning, sharing in
responsibilities for outreach and
conducting ongoing activities to
improve education in their
neighborhood public schools.
Comunitario PTA
Students excel
Comunitario PTAs carry out education
projects using actionable data. Some
group projects have included campus
visitations to introduce the new
organization, open hearings with
school board candidates, large public
events to protest cuts to the state
education budget, and surveys about
how new graduation plans are being
implemented and their impact on poor
and minority students.
Challenges & Next Steps• Starting in the community
• Forms and patterns new to PTA
• Redefining leadership
• Asset mapping
Visit the Comunitario PTA Website for more info
Intercultural Development Research Association Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, President & CEO
5815 Callaghan Road, Suite 101
San Antonio, Texas 78228
210-444-1710 • [email protected]
www.idra.org
Assuring educational opportunity for every child
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