1. I’m pleased to tell you more about the National PTA School of Excellence program.
The goal of the School of Excellence program is to enrich the educational experience and overall well-being of students by forming family-school partnerships that leverage community resources to strengthen family engagement. Through the program PTA becomes a key partner for continuous school improvement.
Whether you are looking to step-up your PTA’s involvement in school improvements or something meaningful is already happening between your PTA and school that deserves recognition, this program will provide the encouragement, structure and support to help you achieve your goals.
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How many of you have seen these standards before?
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These standards are the foundation for the National PTA School of Excellence program and are embedded into our practice. They articulate what family engagement should look like at the school level. These standards are in use by school, PTA and community leaders nationwide as a framework for thinking about, structuring, and assessing family engagement.
The six standards are:
Standard 1: Welcoming all families into the school community
Standard 2: Communicating effectively
Standard 3: Supporting student success
Standard 4: Speaking up for every child
Standard 5: Sharing power
Standard 6: Collaborating with community
Now, with new research in the field, the School of Excellence program is informed by and in alignment with National PTA’s Center for Family Engagement to promote Transformative family engagement, as defined by: a shared effort of families, schools and community leaders to advance programs, practices and policies that empower every parent to make their child’s potential a reality.

2. Program Timeline August – Celebrate Excellence March – June
May – October
Enroll!
September – November
Submit Initial Application with Baseline Survey Results
School Year
Use Roadmap to Excellence to improve Family-School Partnership
March – June
Complete Final Application with Final Survey Results and Narrative
August – Celebrate Excellence
Program Timeline
This is a snapshot of the program timeline so you can see key steps to achieving the School of Excellence designation. We will discuss each step in detail in the following slides.

3. Step 1: ENROLL and Gain Support May 1 - Oct 1
To make a joint commitment of PTA and school leaders who want to work together for school improvement, the first step is enrolling online at PTA.org/Excellence between May 1 and October 1. Once enrolled, you’ll receive s and access to an online toolkit with the Program Leader Guide, tools and tips on the process. We encourage PTAs to enroll early so there is plenty of time to familiarize yourselves with the program process and materials before the start of the school year.
We also want you to have plenty of time to build an inclusive Excellence Team representing families, administrators, staff, student leaders (depending on age), and community members to improve family-school partnerships. When recruiting volunteers, consider building a diverse team that is representative of your entire school community. Diversity enriches the process by bringing a variety of perspectives, connections and ideas to the table. This Excellence Team will work together throughout the school year to conduct baseline and final surveys administered to your entire school community, set shared goals for school improvement and oversee the implementation of your school’s customized plan.

4. Step 2: Deploy Baseline Survey Sept – Nov 1
From September-November, you and your School of Excellence team will deploy the National PTA’s Baseline Family-School Partnership Survey questions to your entire school community including families, administrators and teachers.
While some PTAs opt to deploy the paper surveys by paper only, others create an online survey to deploy as well (i.e. SurveyMonkey, Survey Face, Google Forms) to ensure that input from all families is welcomed and included.
While the survey questions themselves are provided for you (in English and Spanish), the method of how to deploy these questions will be dependent on what works best for your PTA, school and family members. We ask that you do not manipulate the survey questions as the results will serve as a baseline snapshot of current perceptions of current family-school partnership efforts. You will administer this survey again at the end of the school year to see if perceptions of family-school partnerships at your school have changed.

5. Step 3: Set a Shared Objective
Use survey findings to set specific and actionable shared focus area
Choose an objective in one of the following: education, health & safety or the arts
This will help you focus on improvements with specific resources from National PTA
Using your school’s improvement plan(s) and survey results, your Excellence Team and school administrator will meet to discuss what you have learned and ways the PTA can support by engaging families throughout the year. Where does he or she think that PTA’s involvement and enhanced family engagement could make the biggest difference? Then, you will choose one area of focus and objective for the school year in one the following areas: education, health and safety, or the arts.
Sept – Nov 1

6. Step 4: Complete Initial Application
Once you have collected surveys from all members of your school community, as well as determined a shared focus area and objective with your school administrator, you will submit this information in an Initial Survey online, by November 1. Here, National PTA will collect your highest ranked response to each survey question as well as the objective you chose.
Oct 1 – Nov 1

7. Step 5: Follow Your Roadmap to Excellence
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As part of the toolkit, you will have access to a new, online Roadmap to Excellence which contains recommendations from National PTA and their partners to support your action plan.
This Roadmap to Excellence contains specific recommendations that respond directly to the results you shared and the focus area you identified. It also includes a range of tools to support your focus area in improving education, ensuring students’ health and safety and supporting the arts.
Throughout the school year, your Excellence Team will work together to develop and implement an action plan to improve family-school and community partnerships.
Throughout School Year
W e l c o m i n g A l l F a m i l i e s
Our school has friendly signs inside and outside to welcome families and visitors in the multiple languages hey speak.
You said, “Sometimes." Good start—but there is room for improvement! Families feel more welcome when they see friendly signs in multiple lguages throughout the building. Use school demographic data to determine the three languages most commonly spoken by families in your school community. Work with the school and your membership committee to update signs throughout th building in these languages. Start with the signs families see first upon entering the building, such as welcome signs on the front door and front office entrances.
Our school and PTA translate communications into the school’s major languages.
You said, "Never." This is an opportunity for improvement! You want families from diverse backgrounds engaged in all school activities. In order to achieve this, it is important to keep all families informed about issues and events occurring at the school. If your school is not translating this information into families' native languages, you may be missing a great opportunity for effective communication between school and home. Take the first step: Work with your parent liaison, school secretary or parent advisory committee to review current communication practices at your school. You may need to advocate for a more deliberate communication plan to reach all school families.

8. Step #6: Deploy Final Survey March – June 1
Towards the end of the school year, you will conduct a Final Survey to evaluate your progress over the school year. Once again, you will gather feedback from your school community and repeat Steps #2 and Step #3 – deploying the survey and setting a new, shared objective for the following school year.

9. Step #7: Complete Final Application
In order to remain in consideration for the School of Excellence designation, you must complete the Final Application online by June 1. The Final Application includes the results of your Final Survey, a new focus area and objective for the following year, and a brief supporting narrative describing how you have strengthened family engagement in alignment with the National Standards for Family-School Partnerships.
By June 1

10. Step #8: Celebrate Your Excellence
A team of National PTA volunteers will review applications and narratives. The National School of Excellence designation will be awarded to those PTAs and schools that meet a specific threshold or make significant improvements in strengthening their family-school partnership. The review process will take into account the fact that PTAs and schools are starting at different levels of existing family engagement and have varying resources. This approach helps to even the playing field and ensure that all PTAs have the opportunity to participate and achieve excellence.
If awarded the National PTA School of Excellence designation, you will receive information on how to plan your school and community celebrations. You also will receive a certificate and banner to display prominently at your school. Your school will carry this designation for two years.
National PTA School of Excellence recipients are recognized in a number of ways, such as on the National PTA website and at National and State PTA Conventions.
Despite the two-year designation, National PTA Schools of Excellence are encouraged to renew every year, to continuously strengthen family-school partnerships. In addition, working toward the School of Excellence designation will help attract new, action-oriented PTA members who want to focus on the issues that affect our children the most. Consider this program a powerful membership development tool.
PTAs that do not qualify for the National PTA School of Excellence designation will not receive the designation but they will receive a Certificate of Merit and encouraged to reenroll to build on the momentum they started and pursue excellence during the following school year.
August

11. Enroll May - October 1 PTA.org/Excellence Excellence@PTA.org
As one PTA put it: “The National PTA of Excellence program was the catalyst for a thorough review, evaluation and consideration for opportunities to improve not only our PTSA, but the relationships with our school and its administration that are the foundation of every successful PTSA. We believe this process has transformed our PTSA and has put us on the path for great things to come.”
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Do you have any questions about this opportunity?
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We look forward to celebrating with you as you earn this designation!