1. Parent Engagement: The Law, Assessment, Strategies and Evaluation
District (LEA) and School/Building Expectations and Requirements
Welcome to the Michigan Department of Education’s webinar for parental involvement. I am MDE consultant, Badriyyah Sabree and the focus of this presentation is to highlight major requirements related to parental involvement under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and provide some implementation strategies. Helpful resources and handouts will be provided relevant to the implementation of successful parent engagement programs that will impact student achievement. Parent involvement provisions are found in title programs: Title I, Part A; Title I, Part C; Title I, Part D; Title II, Part A; Title II, Part D and Title III. All title programs recognize parents as key stakeholders in their children’s education and as such, parents are to have a role in ensuring those programs respond to the needs of their children.

2. NCLB Definition
“… the participation of parents in regular, two way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities.”
Congress places great emphasis on having schools help build capacity for parents to have participatory roles in improving the academic achievement of their children in core subject areas.

3. Section 1118 (Parent Involvement) of NCLB Addresses the Following Topics:
District Parent Involvement Policy
Reservation of Funds
School/Building Parent Involvement Policy
Building Capacity for Involvement
Shared Responsibilities
Parent Compact
Michigan Department of Education consultants, Dan Reardon, Lynda Miller, and Sadie Mahone will cover parent involvement information contained in Section 1118 of NCLB related to Title I. Topics will include: District Parent Involvement Policy; Reservation of Parent Involvement Funds; School Parent Involvement Policy; Building Capacity for Involvement; Shared Responsibilities for High Student Academic Achievement; and the Parent Compact. Once they conclude, I will briefly highlight the parent involvement provisions in Sections 1111, 1112, and 1116 of NCLB. At this time, I would like to introduce Dan Reardon who will cover the first two topics under Section 1118.

4. PARENT INVOLVEMENT POLICY
DISTRICT
PARENT INVOLVEMENT POLICY
The Parent Involvement Policy results in higher grades and test scores, better attendance and behaviors for students. Please refer attached legislation regarding parent involvement (Section 1118)

5. Parent Involvement Policy
District (LEA)
Parent Involvement Policy
The law reads: “Each local educational agency may receive funds… only if such agency implements programs, activities, and procedures for the involvement of parents in programs assisted under this part… Such… shall be planned and implemented with meaningful consultation with parents of participating children.”
There is a strong correlation between elements of the Parent Involvement Legislation and the research on Parent Involvement’s positive impact on student achievement, behavior and attendance. Where teachers report high levels of outreach to parents, reading scores increase at a rate 50% higher than schools where teachers report low levels of outreach. Survey show that the vast majority of parents believe that their support is the most important way to improve schools while parents report the lack of parent involvement is the biggest problem facing our public schools.

6. The Planning Process Gather Data Study Do Plan Student Achievement
We begin with data collection and the assessment of how and to what degree parents are currently involved. We can examine each of the types of parent involvement and the results they are producing. The six types of parent involvement are: Parenting, Communicating, Volunteering, Learning at Home, Decision Making and Collaborating with community. Research best practice and study what appears to be working in schools of similar demographics. Develop a One Year Plan that includes specifies specific activities, who is responsible and the results you expect. Finally implement or do. The parent involvement team or council will meet periodically to assess progress and revise as necessary.

7. Required Components of District Parent Involvement Policy
The written policy shall describe how the LEA will involve parents in:
Development of the plan
The process of school review and improvement…
The policy must describe how parents were involved in the joint development of the plan and the process of school review and improvement.

8. Required Components The LEA Will Provide:
Coordination
Technical assistance
Other support
Assistance in planning and implementing activities to improve student academic achievement
The law addresses the importance of Coordinating with Other programs, such as: Head Start, Reading First, Early Reading First, Even Start, Parents as Teachers, Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters, and State-run preschool programs (MSRP). Consider local day cares as well. Coordination also speaks to the integration of parent activities and community involvement with the goals in your District improvement plan and your goals in the School Improvement Plans.
The Policy will outline the Technical Assistance to be provided for support needed by the schools to achieve the goals of their parent involvement plans. For example staff training in strategies in how to communicate and involve parents from a variety of cultural, socio-economic and diverse language backgrounds.
Other support may describe how the curriculum is presented to parents with strategies they can use to help their children. The policy describes specific school programs and teacher practices that guide parents in how to help their children at home.

9. Required Components The LEA Will:
Build the schools’ and parents’ capability for strong parental involvement
Coordinate and integrate parental involvement strategies
You have assessed your current parent involvement program, identified challenges, written goals, and researched strategies and now you provide the training necessary for school staff and parents to implement a system-wide parent involvement program.

10. The LEA will Annually Evaluate
Content and effectiveness
Identify barriers to greater participation: Vision to See, Faith to Believe and Courage to Do
Revise, if necessary
The effectiveness of parent involvement is often measured by the attendance at parent/conferences or the number of parents coming to an open house. Many parents may not participate in traditional methods of parent involvement due to conflicting demands on their time, past negative experiences and their own feeling of competency. Effectiveness of your parent involvement program must be assessed based on the programs impact on student achievement. Barriers may be logistical or in the nature of a mindset. Logistical barriers would include transportation, time of day while a mindset may be an initial resistance to parent involvement by school staff. Staff will embrace a vision that expects every parent or guardian to be empowered to support their child’s education. Review the research for the best practices. Provide metrics on how the implementation of strategies and activities are to be rated. Use these measures annually before you revising next years plan to determine which activities should be repeated, removed, added or improved. We encourage you to review midyear to make adjustments.
Barriers to involvement take many forms.

11. RESERVATION OF FUNDS
The Legislation requires that Districts receiving $500,000 set aside at least 1% of the allocation for parent involvement. The District is not limited to 1%.

12. Reservation of Funds
Reserve not less than 1% of such agency’s allocation … except that this paragraph shall not apply if 1% of such agency’s allocation … is $5,000 or less
(B) Parents of children receiving services under this part shall be involved in decisions regarding how funds reserved … are allotted for parental involvement activities
(C) Not less than 95% of the funds … shall be distributed to schools served under this part
(Read Slide)
Now, Lynda Miller will discuss with you, the requirements of the School Level Parent Policy and Building Capacity for Involvement.

13. PARENT INVOLVEMENT POLICY
SCHOOL
PARENT INVOLVEMENT POLICY
According to Title I, Part A, Section 1118, each school will:
Jointly develop with parents a written parent involvement plan that reflects the needs of the individual
The following slides will describe what needs to be included in a school level parental involvement plan

14. School Parent Involvement Policy
Each school will distribute to parents of participating children a written parental involvement policy, agreed to by parents
The School Parent Involvement Plan describes what components must be included in the Parent Involvement Section of the Title I School Improvement Plan. It must be developed by and distributed to the parents of children participating in Title I activities. This means that parents must be members of the committee working on developing the Parent Involvement Policy.
The school must collect documentation as evidence that the policy was developed in collaboration with parents of participating children.

15. School Policy Requirements
Annual meeting
Convenient time
Parents invited/encouraged to attend
Explain Title I programs
Rights of parents to be involved
The school policy must state that:
Annual meeting, at a convenient time, must be convened at the school level for parents to attend. This must be held as early as possible to encourage parental participation.
Title I parents will be invited and encouraged to come to the meeting.
During the meeting, the Title I programs should be explained to them, along with the rights of the parents under the law while seeking input from parents regarding Title I Program.

16. School Policy Flexible meetings
Use funds to provide transportation, child care, or home visits related to parent involvement
Parent meetings must be offered at flexible times, for instance in the morning, afternoon, and evenings. Other barriers may include transportation, child care, disabled, speak little or no English, or our illiterate. Title I funds may be used to remove barriers to participation for parents. This includes using Title I funds to provide transportation, child care, and home visits.

17. School Policy Requirements
Involve parents in planning, reviewing, and improvement of programs
Including improvement of parental involvement and Title I program plans
The school policy must provide opportunities to parents in planning and evaluation of Title I Programs. This includes planning and evaluating the parental involvement plan and the Schoolwide Program Plan.
Please note: The law under this portion allows that if a school already has in place a process for involving parents in the joint planning and design of the school’s programs, the school may use that process PROVIDING such process includes an adequate representation of parents of participating children.

18. School Policy Requirements
A description and explanation of the curriculum in use at the school
Forms of academic assessment used
The proficiency level students are expected to meet
Respond to any suggestions as soon as possible
Parental comments to be attached to the submitted Title I Plan
The curriculum and assessments must be explained in parent friendly language. What are glicks (GLCEs)? What would the best way of describing them to parents? What would a parent want to know about them? What is all the fuss about the MEAP Test? What does AYP mean? Why do educators use so many acronyms?
There is also a provision which provides that parents, if not satisfied with the Title I plan, may submit their comments on the plan to the school when the plan is made available to the LEA. The LEA must attach the comments to the Title I plan when it is requested by the State for approval.

19. DEVELOPING THE CAPACITY FOR PARENT INVOLVEMENT AT THE SCHOOL LEVEL
The law includes provisions for building capacity for parents to participate in the education of their children.

20. Developing Capacity For Parent Involvement
Educate teachers, pupil services personnel, principals, and other staff, with the assistance of parents:
To communicate
Work as equal partners
Implement and coordinate programs
Ensure effective involvement of parents
First, the law requires capacity building by educating teachers, pupil services personnel, principals and other staff, in how to communicate and engage with the parents of their students.
How does a teacher make a parent feel welcome at school? How does the school and the parent work together as equal partners? What are some effective techniques that a teacher can use to provide parents with capacity-building information? How does the school implement and coordinate programs to ensure effective involvement of parents?
This is a schoolwide responsibility. Help staff from different life experiences and cultures understand their parents.

21. Developing Capacity For Parent Involvement
Provide assistance to parents in understanding:
State’s academic content standards
State and local academic assessments
How to monitor a child’s progress and work with educators
The second way for developing capacity is helping parents build the confidence to help their children learn. How does the school communicate the State’s academic content standards so that parents understand them? How do school personnel communicate the results of local and State assessments to parents in a language they can understand? How can schools help parents monitor their children’s progress? How and when should they assist their children in classroom learning activities? What are some techniques, strategies and skills that they can use at home? (very important)

22. Developing Capacity For Parent Involvement
Provide materials and training to help parents work with their children
Support a partnership with the school, parents, and the community
Improve student academic achievement
In addition, the school must develop capacity; the school could provide materials and training for parents, such as, literacy training, and using technology. Building capacity for parents means supporting a partnership with the school, parents and the community in order to improve student academic achievement.

23. Developing Capacity For Parent Involvement
Coordinate and integrate involvement in programs such as Head Start, Reading First, Early Reading First
Send information related to school and parent programs in a format parents can understand
Provide other support for parental involvement as parents request
The law states, that the school will coordinate and integrate programs, send information to parents in a format they can understand, and provide other support that may be requested by the parents. The policy assures that the school will do this. The purpose of the parent policy is to foster parent/school/community partnerships. Sadie Mahone will discuss Shared Responsibilities for High Student Achievement and the Parent Compact.

24. SHARED RESPONSIBILITIES FOR HIGH STUDENT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
In order for students to achieve to their capabilities, teachers, parents and students must assume their individual responsibilities in making this happen. Learning is everyone’s business!

25. Shared Responsibilities for High Student Academic Achievement
Jointly develop a school-parent compact
Outlines how the parents, the school staff and students, will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement
Teachers and parents must develop a school-parent compact which should be considered as a binding agreement. When appropriate, students should contribute to the development of the agreement. The compact outlines how students will improve their academic performance as a result of the shared responsibilities among the parents, the school staff and the students.

26. PARENT COMPACT
The compact outlines how the parents, the entire school staff, and the students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership that will help children achieve the State’s high standards. The link below from the U.S. Department of Education website is a reference outlining possible commitments as well as requirements for schools receiving Title I funds:

27. Parent Compact School’s responsibility:
Provide high-quality curriculum and instruction
Supportive and effective learning environment
Enable children to meet State’s academic achievement standards
Identify challenges confronting the parents’ ability to help their children
The school is required to:
Provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables the participating children to meet the State’s student academic standards (See attached resources on effective learning environments)
Hold parent-teacher conferences (at least annually in elementary schools) during which the compact will be discussed as it relates to the individual child’s achievement
Provide parents with frequent progress reports, support in interpreting the reports, and assistance in how to use the information to help their children
Provide parents reasonable access to staff
Provide parents opportunities to volunteer and participate in their child’s class, and to observe classroom activities

28. Parent Compact Parent’s responsibility: Support their child’s learning
Participate, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their children and positive use of extracurricular time
Parent responsibilities to support their children’s learning might include:
Monitoring their child’s attendance
Making sure that homework is completed
Monitoring the amount of television their children watch
Volunteering in their child’s classroom
Participating, as appropriate, in decisions relating to their children’s education
Promoting positive use of their child’s extracurricular time
Staying informed about their child’s education and communicating with the school by promptly reading all notices from the school or the school district either received by their child or by mail and responding, as appropriate
Serving, to the extent possible, on policy advisory groups, such as being the Title I, Part A parent representative on the school’s School Improvement Team, the Title I Policy Advisory Committee, the District wide Policy Advisory Council, the State’s Committee of Practitioners, the School Support Team or other school advisory or policy groups

29. Parent Compact On-going communication between teachers and parents:
Annual parent-teacher conferences in elementary schools to discuss the individual child’s achievement
Frequent reports to parents on children’s progress
Access to staff and opportunities to volunteer and participate in child’s class
The school is required to provide on-going communication between teachers and parents. In addition to the annual parent-teacher conferences, the frequent progress reports and the volunteer opportunities, schools may wish to facilitate frequent communication by implementing some of the following:
communications
School web-sites
High quality parent workshops
Meetings with community stakeholders who can provide support to parents in helping them help their children achieve
Frequently disseminated information on State standards, the Grade Level Content Expectations, the new high school standards, standards based report cards if used, prepared in understandable vocabulary and in languages representative of the school community
Establishing parent resource centers in the schools
Employing school parent liaisons
Parent surveys to gather perception data on the federally funded program at the school
Disseminating information via no cost, public access, community cable channels
Posting student class data trends outside classrooms
Teaching children to graph their academic progress in core subjects and share the graphs frequently with parents
Identifying parent experts as guest speakers at parent meeting sessions
Homework help packets for parents to assist them in helping their children
See Slides for Effective Learning Environment Resources.

30. Parents’ Right to Know:
Section 1111 of NCLB Addresses the Following Topics Related to Parent Involvement
Annual Report Cards
Parents’ Right to Know:
Teacher and Paraprofessional Qualifications
Student Achievement
Non-Highly Qualified Teachers
(Annual Report Cards) – On an annual basis, districts must disseminate to parents, schools and the public, an annual report with aggregate information, including student achievement (disaggregated by category), graduation rates, performance of the District, teacher qualifications and other required information
Parents have the right to know – Teacher and Paraprofessional Qualifications) District have the responsibility to inform parents of Title I, Part A students that parents may request, and the district then will provide, certain information on the professional qualifications of the student’s classroom teachers and paraprofessionals providing services to the child
Parents have the right to know that the school must provide to each individual parent information on the level of achievement of the parent’s child in each of the state academic assessments
Parent have the right to know if their children are being taught by Non-Highly Qualified Teachers) Schools or districts must provide timely notice to each individual parent that the parent’s child has been assigned to, or taught for four or more consecutive weeks by, a teacher who is not highly qualified

31. SECTION 1112 OF NCLB ADDRESSES THE TOPIC OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT AS RELATED TO LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENT STUDENTS
Under Section 1112 of NCLB, Districts must implement effective outreach to inform parents of limited English proficient children of how those parents can be involved in their children’s education and active participants in helping their children attain English proficiency, and high achievement levels in core academic subjects, and meet state standards, including notices of opportunities for and holding regular meetings.

32. Section 1116 of NCLB Addresses the Following Topics Related To Parent Involvement
Progress Review
Schools Identified for School Improvement, Corrective Action, or Restructuring
Choice – Schools Identified for School Improvement, Corrective Action and Restructuring
Supplemental Services – Schools in the Second Year of Improvement, In Corrective Action, or in Restructuring
Schools Identified for Restructuring
Districts must disseminate to parents, teachers, principals, schools and the community the results of the districts yearly progress review of each school
Districts must provide to parents of each student an explanation of what the identification means, how the schools compare to others, reasons for the identification, the districts and schools’ responses, how parents can become involved, any corrective action taken, the parental choice and supplemental services options as applicable, restructuring, and other information. This must be done promptly following identification.
Districts must notify parents of all children in such schools that they have the right to transfer to other schools in the District that are not in improvement
Districts with schools that fail to make AYP by the end of the first full school year after being identified for improvement must provide notice to parents of the availability of SES, the identity of the providers, a description of the services and other information
Districts with school tat fail to make AYP after one full school year of corrective action must provide prompt notice to teachers and parents and provide opportunity to comment and participate in preparing a restructuring plan

33. QUESTIONS
It is our hope that this webinar has been beneficial and will assist schools and districts in implementing the parent involvement requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Our last slides will provide you with resources to plan and implement your parent involvement initiatives. For further assistance, contact the MDE field consultant for your region.

34. Parent Involvement Resources
US Department of Education (USED):
Engaging Parents in Education (USED):
Partnership Schools:
Simple Solutions Educational Services:
Visit any of these sites to find research, models, etc., regarding parent involvement activities.

35. Parent Involvement Resources
Alliance for Parental Involvement:
The Center for Comprehensive School Reform:
Joyce Epstein - Center on School Family and Community Partnerships:

36. Parent Involvement Resources
National Campaign for Public School Improvement:
50 Ways to Involve Parents:
Parent Engagement Information and Tools:

37. Effective Learning Environment Resources
Brucato, John M. (2005), Creating a Learning Environment: An Educational Leader’s Guide to Managing School Culture. Scarecrow Education.
Dermody, Julie. (2003). Creating Caring Schools, Developing the caring classroom. Classroom Leadership, vol.6, #7.
Irvin, Judith, et. al. (2007). Taking Action on Adolescent Literacy, chpt.1 Student motivation, engagement, and achievement. ASCD publication.

38. Effective Learning Environment Resources
Freiberg, H. Jer. (1999), School Climate: Measuring, Improving and Sustaining Healthy Learning Environments. Routledge 1 Edition.
Perkins-Gough. (2008). The Positive Classroom Special Report / School Climate: Urban Parents’ Views. Educational Leadership, vol. 66, #1, pgs

39. Effective Learning Environment Resources
Victor-Reed, Evelyn and Stronge, James H. (2001). More Strategies for Educating Everybody’s Children, chpt 2 Diverse teaching strategies for homeless children. ASCD publication.
Willis, Clarissa Ann, (2008). Creating Inclusive Learning Environments for Young Children: What to do on Monday Morning. Corwin Press.

40. Questions and Answers
Contact your regional Office of School Improvement consultant:
Region
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