1 Detroit Public Schools Title I Parent Involvement Policy Faye Blumberg Michaela Norman Kathryn O’Hara-Wallis EAD 850 Critical Policy Analysis

2 Presentation Outline  Policy Summary  Introduction  Requirements of DPS  Requirements of Individual Schools  Opportunities for Parents  Policy Evaluation  Critical Policy Analysis  Inclusive Culture  Public Investment in Education  Fairness  Recommendations  Involve Parents in Implementation  Team Involvement  Family Engagement Initiatives  References Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

3 Policy Summary: Introduction  Title 1 of the (NCLB) No Child Left Behind Act is a federal education-funding program that provides funding for schools whose poverty rate is above 40% to help students who are behind academically or at risk of falling academically behind (p.18). gg  According to the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) website, approximately 77% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch services, a statistic that contributes to all DPS schools receiving Title 1 funds.  The NCLB Act requires that school districts receiving Title 1 funds should develop a written parent involvement policy (p. 1).  This policy establishes parental involvement expectations of each Detroit Public School in the district and explains how DPS will fulfill the requirements of NCLB (p. 1). Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy (Parent Involvement, 2006)

4 Policy Summary: Introduction  g  The purpose of this policy is to improve partnership between families and schools to increase student achievement (p. 1). Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy (Parent Involvement, 2006)

5 Policy Summary: Introduction  Specific Goals  Involve parents in the creation and annual evaluation of the Parent Involvement Policy (p. 3).  Inform parents about children’s eligibility for services and support under Title-1 and inform about specific instructional objectives (p. 3).  Support the efforts of parents to work with their students to improve academic levels at home as well as to support parents to work with staff to build partnerships and school-home connections (p. 3).  Ensure all parents have an opportunity to participate fully regardless of cultural differences (p. 3). Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy (Parent Involvement, 2006)

6 Policy Summary: Requirements of DPS  Involve parents in the process of creating the parent involvement plan at a district-wide meeting that will take place within 45 days after the beginning of a new school year (p. 4).  Conduct parent involvement meetings at various times (in the morning and evening) to ensure flexibility for parent schedules. These meetings will provide transportation, child care, or home visits, using funds provided under Title-1 (p. 4).  Operate workshops, seminars, and conferences that help parents learn how to assist their children to achieve academic excellence (p.2). Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy (Parent Involvement, 2006)

7  Provide full opportunities and understandable formats for participation of parents with limited English proficiency or parents with disabilities (p. 2).  Provide accessible school performance profiles and individual student assessment results (p. 3).  Educate parents about stages of Adequate Yearly Progress and include information about Public School Choice, Supplemental Education Services, and Targeted Assistance for school-wide programs (p. 3).  Allow opportunities for parents to give feedback about the Parent Involvement Policy, and submit the parent comments to the State Department of Education (p. 2).  Reserve no less than 1% of the received Title-1 funds for the purpose of promoting parent involvement (p. 9). Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy Policy Summary: Requirements of DPS Continued (Parent Involvement, 2006)

8  Create a school-wide parent involvement policy which meets all legal requirements, and submit it to to Superintendent and Board of Education for review (p. 10).  Implement school-parent learning compacts, which are agreements designed by schools and parents to foster parent-school partnership (p. 2). These compacts will invite teachers and parents to define each other’s expectations and responsibilities related to student learning (p. 15). Policy Summary: Requirements of Individual Schools Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy (Parent Involvement, 2006)

9  Establish an open membership Title 1 Parent Involvement Committee, with documented membership (p. 9).  Conduct parent-teacher conferences for all grade levels at least once annually (p. 2).  Inform parents of school activities in several ways including newsletters, teacher notes, parent-teacher conferences, phone calls, and (p. 3). Policy Summary: Requirements of Individual Schools Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy (Parent Involvement, 2006)

10 Policy Summary: Opportunities for Parents  Attend Parent Involvement meetings and become District-wide Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) members, which will review and evaluate the policy annually for effectiveness. DPAC will hold monthly meetings will review individual schools monthly to check for implementation of the policy as well as the impact it is having on academic quality (p.1).  Aide in the production of their child’s school’s School Parent Involvement Policy (p. 20).  Participate with workshops, seminars, and conferences provided free of charge by district and with accommodations made for language barriers or disabilities (p. 2). Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy (Parent Involvement, 2006)

11 Policy Summary: Opportunities for Parents Continued  Submit comments about Parental Involvement Policy to the State Department of Education (p. 2).  Involve themselves in decisions regarding how the 1% of Title 1 funds allotted for parental involvement can be utilized (p. 2).  Attend parent-teacher conferences (p. 2).  Monitor children’s school-wide and individual performance (p. 3).  Educate themselves through district information about Adequate Yearly Progress, Public School Choice, Supplemental Education Services, and Targeted Assistance and school-wide programs (p. 3). Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy (Parent Involvement, 2006)

12 Policy Summary: Policy Evaluation  Title 1 parents and school staff will have an opportunity to jointly assess the effectiveness of their school policy using an evaluation (p. 5). The evaluation will assess the number of parents who attend meetings, the number of parent volunteers at the school, a description of programs the school has in place for parental involvement, as well as parent and staff comments (p. 6).  Effectiveness of the policy will be tracked using student academic data (p. 6) Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy (Parent Involvement, 2006)

13 Critical Policy Analysis  Three themes:  Inclusive Culture  Public Investment in Education  Fairness Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

14 Critical Policy Analysis: Inclusive Culture  A policy should have well intended attempts to create a more inclusive institutional culture. (Iverson, 2010, p. 194)  Create an inclusive access and equitable climate for all members in the community. (Iverson, 2010, p. 194)  Multiculturalism in education serves as a vessel of power/knowledge which allows national citizens both the ability and willingness to work through difference. (Mitchell, 2003, p. 392)  It works to create a partnership between the family and schools in order to increase student achievement. (Parent Involvement, 2006)  The policy exists to include parents in decision making and have an active role in their child education. (Parent Involvement, 2006) Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

15 Critical Policy Analysis: Inclusive Culture  Creating an inclusive culture is the fundamental reason the Parent Involvement policy exists.  It works to create a partnership between the family and schools in order to increase student achievement. (Parent Involvement, 2006)  The policy exists to include parents in decision making and have an active role in their child’s education. (Parent Involvement, 2006) Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

16 Critical Policy Analysis: Public Investment in Education  There is an investment in education that sanctions the idea that education is acceptable only to the extent that it yields a return on investment. (Ayers, 2005, p. 532)  If you invest in education, in return you will have a greater yield.  With a higher level of productivity, comes with greater profits and thus economic growth (Ayers, 2005, p. 533) Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

17 Critical Policy Analysis: Public Investment in Education In this policy there are investments in education to ensure growth:  Schools pay reasonable and necessary expenses associated with local and district wide parent involvement activities, including transportation and child care costs, to enable parents to participate in school-related meetings. (Parent Involvement, 2006, p. 7)  DPS may provide support for parental involvement activities under this section as parents may request. (Parent Involvement, 2006, p. 1)  DPS may train and support parents to enhance the involvement of other parents. (Parent Involvement, 2006, p. 1) Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

18 Critical Policy Analysis: Fairness in Parental Support  In general, accountability is closely linked to the relative political powers in the community (Lipman, 2003, p. 338)  The powerful individuals usually control the rules of engagement in educational experiences while the marginalized voices are not heard. (Gorski, 2008, p. 517)  Parents in affluent districts had robust parental organizations that were able to influence and challenge policies (Lipman, 2003, p. 339)  Parents in lower income are have had less luck in being able to transform changes in the school or have any influential political power. (Lipman, 2003, p. 339) Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

19 Critical Policy Analysis: Fairness in Parental Support Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy  As a philosophical orientation, multiculturalism celebrates diversity. It requires governments and organizations to encourage diversity through public policy (Bloemraad, 2011).  The parent policy requires DPS to provide full opportunities for parents with cultural differences, language barriers, and disabilities to participate in the program (p. 3).  Accommodating minorities through multicultural policies will also benefit the majority in the medium to long-term (Bloemraad, 2011).  The parent policy has contributed to improvement in attendance at school (Abramson, 2012).

20 Critical Policy Analysis: Fairness in Parental Support This policy gives voice to all parents by giving them representation in their schools and with their child’s education  Parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education (Parent Involvement, 2006, p. 1)  DPS and its schools will provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities (Parent Involvement, 2006, p. 2) Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

21 Recommendation: Involve Parents in Implementation  Ensure parental involvement in the implementation, and evaluation of programs  Documentation should be more specific in its explanation on how parents can implement or evaluate projects or designs that are organized.  Doing so will provide more voice to those who could otherwise be marginalized. It will work to empower individuals to act in their environment and challenge dominant ideology. ( Blackmore, 1999; Marshall, 1999 as cited in Iverson, 2004, p. 195)  Without the implementation and evaluation aspect, parents may feel powerless, developing a lack of autonomy, little creativity, or judgment in their own work. (Harro, 2010, p. 40) Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

22 Recommendation: Team Involvement  Develop a plan outlining how students, parents, and school staff would work as a TEAM to meet decreased achievement gap and meet academic standards.  A specific outline regarding how the three will work together to meet the standards and student growth has yet to be determined.  In early childhood education there is a policy push towards traditional standards across borders. These standards and performance benchmarks will help enable equity (Luke, 2011, p. 372) Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

23 Recommendation: Family Engagement Initiatives  Implement systemic family engagement initiatives that will purposely promote school wide improvement and student learning. This is opposed to“random acts” of engagement  More specific requirements: for example: how often should newsletters be sent home, what exactly can the parents do to support the child at home, and how does the policy support the parents as educators?  Lifelong education and adult education is crucial for a democratic and socially just society. It stresses the shift from“knowing that”to“knowing how” (Rizvi and Lingard, 2010, p. 83) Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

24 References  Abramson, L. (2012). Detroit schools’ no. 1 mission: Getting kids to class. Retrieved from no-1-mission-getting-kids-to-class  Ayers, D. F. (2005). Neoliberal ideology in community college mission statements: A critical discourse analysis. The Review of Higher Education, 28(4),  Detroit public schools title I parent involvement policy. (2006). Retrieved from I_ParentInvolvementPolicy.pdf  Gorski, P. (2008). Good intentions are not enough: A decolonizing intercultural education. Intercultural Education, 19 (6),  Harro, B. (2010). Ch. 6 The cycle of socialization; Ch. 7 The cycle of liberation. In M. Adams, W. Blumenfeld, R. Castaneda, H.W. Hackman, M. Peters, X Zuniga (Eds.), Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (45- 51; 52-58). New York: Routledge.  Iverson, S.V. (2010). Producing diversity: A policy discourse analysis of diversity action plans. In Allan, Iverson, & Ropers-Huilman (Eds.), Reconstructing policy analysis in higher education: Feminist poststructural perspectives (pp ). New York: Routledge.  Lipman, P. (2003). Chicago school policy: Regulating Black and Latino youth in the global city. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 6(4), 331–355.  Luke, A. (2011). Generalizing across borders: Policy and the limits of educational science. Educational Researcher 40:  Mitchell, K. (2003). Educating the national citizen in neoliberal times: From the multicultural self to the strategic cosmopolitan. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 28(4),  Rizvi and Lingard (2010). Ch 4: Education policy and allocation of values. In Globalizing education policy (pp ). New York: Routledge. Detroit Public Schools Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy