1. Engaging All Families with Parent Leaders
Engaging All Families with Parent Leaders
Family engagement is a piece of the student proficiency puzzle
Merle Siefken
Illinois Statewide Technical Assistance Collaborative
Family and Community Engagement Focus Area
9:30 AM
This is a presentation of the Illinois Statewide Technical Assistance Collaborative (ISTAC). All rights reserved.
NCLB February 2014

2. Discuss with a partner
Whose responsibility is the success of each child?
How does your school district engage families to support student success?
Do parents have the skills and knowledge to be engaged?
Do parents feel welcomed to engage?

3. Learning Objectives Today we will:
Examine the role of parent leaders in public education
Identify strategies to partner with parent leaders to engage more families

4. Working Agreements Everyone shares knowledge and skills
Common courtesy
Avoid distracting side conversations
What’s said here stays here, what’s learned here leaves
Turn electronics to silent or vibrate mode

5. Did you know?
The number one predictor of a child’s success at school is the mother’s literacy.

6. Did you know?
Home factors account for 49% of a child’s success at school.

7. Barriers to Engaging Families
Lack of knowledge about the importance of family engagement
Lack of confidence and skills to work with families
Lack of time
Unwelcoming venues

8. Barriers to Families Engaged
Lack of knowledge about the importance of their role in their child’s education
Lack of confidence and skills to work with teachers
Lack of time
Lack of trusting relationships

9. Barriers to Families Engaged
Lack of confidence and skills
Lack of knowledge
Lack of trust
Lack of time
Unwelcoming venues
Avoidance

10. NCLB, Title 1 Building Capacity for Involvement
Section 1118 (e) (3), “shall educate teachers, pupil services personnel, principals, and other staff, with the assistance of parents, in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners, implement and coordinate parent programs, and build ties between parents and the school.”

11. NCLB, Title 1 Schools Shall Build Capacity for Involvement by:
Providing professional development for staff with the assistance of parents
Understanding the value and utility of contributions of parents
Learning how to reach out to and communicate with parents
Working with parents as equal partners
Implementing and coordinating parent programs
Building ties between parents and the school

12. Remove the barriers by Creating a Welcoming environment
Building knowledge around the role of parents
Developing skills to be equal partners
Providing quality time to partner
Creating a Welcoming environment

13. Family engagement is built upon the idea that we ALL want students to do well.

14. The choice is to work in partnership or isolation.

15. Students benefit from partnerships
Higher grades and test scores
Better attendance/more homework done
Less need for student support services
More positive attitudes and behavior
Higher graduation rates
More post-secondary education
A New Wave of Evidence

16. If we are serious about improving student achievement, we must be serious about improving family engagement.

17. Schools that succeed
In engaging families from very diverse backgrounds share three key practices:
Focus on building trusting collaborative relationships among teachers, families, and community members.
Recognize, respect, and address families needs, as well as class and cultural differences.
Embrace a philosophy of partnership where power and responsibility are shared.

18. Do our Schools reflect our Communities
Student Information
Teacher Information
White – 51%
Black – 18%
Hispanic – 23.6%
Asian – 4.2%
Two or more races – 2.8%
White – 83.3%
Black – 7.1%
Hispanic – 5.3%
Asian – 1.3%
Two or more races - 0.8%
2012 Illinois State Report Card

19. NCLB, Title 1 Building Capacity for Involvement
Section 1118 (e) (9), “may train parents to enhance the involvement of other parents.”

20. Parents may be nurtured as leaders
For a variety of purposes:
Educating
Advocating
Engaging
Connecting
Organizing
Deciding

21. Parent Leaders help parents:
Understand they should be involved
Know they are capable of making a contribution
Feel invited by the school and their children
Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler

22. Roles of Parent Leaders
Build parental capacity to be teachers of their own children
Build school capacity to reach the underrepresented
Build trust between families and schools

23. Do we need to check our temperature or pulse?
Parent Engagement Assessment

24. Parent Leaders assist Schools to:
Build a community of parents committed to school improvement
Develop relationships of trust between parents and schools
Enhance parent participation and leadership skills
Provide parent opportunity to influence the process and outcomes of an issue
Create parent participation in a deliberation process where all participants are on an equal footing

25. What steps do you need to take
3 things you learned today?
2 things you found interesting and would like to learn more about?
1 question you still have about the information?

26. Our time has just begun
Merle Siefken , ext. 222