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Family/school/community engagement is key to a child’s success
Posted: 5/22/2010 7:22:36 PM
WEAC President Mary Bell welcomes the crowd of the Family/School/Community Engagement Summit at the Waukesha County Technical College campus in Pewaukee.
PEWAUKEE – After a day-long summit Saturday, more than 190 Wisconsin parents, teachers and community and elected leaders issued 16 recommendations to help increase family and community engagement in student education.
“Wisconsin’s great schools are a result of a long history of strong family and community engagement,” Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) President Mary Bell said in her welcome to the crowd. “But with new challenges facing our state and increasing challenges facing our families and our schools, talking together about how we focus on our children and their success is even more important than ever.”
The Family/School/Community Engagement Summit was held at the Waukesha County Technical College campus in Pewaukee. The main sponsors were WEAC, the National Education Association (NEA), the Office of Governor Jim Doyle, and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
A diverse group of people from over 90 organizations representing the school, business and faith communities participated in the summit and showed their commitment to increasing family and community engagement in children’s education from birth through high school graduation.
“I’m proud to stand among all of you here today, sharing a common goal of strengthening that which builds strong families, strong schools and strong communities,” Bell said. “I applaud your willingness to roll up your sleeves, and stand ready to work cooperatively to accomplish more than any one of us could alone.
“This is a group committed to the belief that families, schools and communities not only should, but must join forces so that our children have what they need for the future. When the idea of this summit was broached, it didn’t take our members long to sign on the dotted line. I said, ‘You’re preaching to the choir. We’re in.’”
Doyle, a strong advocate of parental and community involvement in education, and First Lady Jessica Doyle, a long-time teacher, have made education a top priority in their duties. They also spoke at the summit.
“This summit couldn’t have come at a better or more critical time,” Governor Doyle told participants. “We have worked hard to meet the educational needs of our students. You can’t say to a second-grader, ‘I’m sorry, come back in a couple of years and we’ll see what we can do.’”
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers said research shows that engaging families and communities as partners with schools contribute to a child’s academic success.
“This conference offers us a unique opportunity to exchange our challenges and success as parents, teachers, school administrators, community members and business leaders who are all responsible for the well-being and education of the children in Wisconsin,” Evers said. “Family engagement is critical to closing the achievement gap, to helping struggling schools, and to ensuring that all children experience success in school, no matter if they live in Slinger or Spooner, Madison or Milwaukee, Florence of Fennimore.”
During the summit, small groups focused discussions on what policies, practices and actions are needed to increase the engagement of various types of families in supporting student learning. Each group developed a set of recommendations and actions which were synthesized into a comprehensive set and presented to the participants. The recommendations are to:
• Design educational opportunities that demonstrate the many ways to create partnerships with families, businesses and the school community to increase engagement in learning.
• Develop a state/local action team including all educational, community and parental stakeholder groups who will develop strategies based on a common definition of family, social, community engagement. Include: best practices – state – national; implementation strategies; tools/resource/supports; as reflected in Professional Development Plan as part of Teacher and Administrator licensure – PI 34.
• Conduct and share a parent-involvement needs-assessment and/or focus groups on what parents and teachers need to support a child’s education including best delivery methods; share results and create a plan to meet those needs.
• Train educational staff on communication skills with parents (i.e., tone, body language, cultural competency, jargon etc.).
• Implement a new state standard for all candidates of human services professional degree programs that incorporates an active, reflective and measurable participation with community, schools and families.
• Implement in every school district a plan of engagement for family, community and citizens at large from cradle to career, based on Joyce Epstein and other research-based models. Elements of a plan may include the following:
− Educate families & schools on how to access services & community resources information.
− Inform and train staff, families, citizens in cultural competencies, hidden rules.
− Incorporate the Epstein model in future teacher training.
− Build ownership and trust among all stakeholders.
• Implement a new fair and equitable school finance system that provides resources from balanced sources to meet the needs of all students regardless of their poverty status, special needs and geographic location.
• Evaluate, recommend and develop university curriculum to prepare future educators in multicultural diversity and socio-economic issues in order to provide a positive understanding of school, home, and community.
• Design and implement a district-wide staff development plan in cultural competency training for working with families and community organizations.
• Convene state-wide stakeholders (higher education institutes, D.P.I., parents, school board associations, PTA, WEAC, PIRC and other) to implement curricula addressing research and importance of parental involvement including “how to implement parental involvement in your program/school/classroom for pre-service teachers.
• Create structures and incentives for business and industry to engage schools, educators and students by:
− Business-to-schools, schools-to-business, interaction.
− Promoting on-the-job training and education for advancement.
− Setting up scholarship programs for access to higher education from school or job.
• Provide economic incentives (grants) to encourage active partnerships between local job centers and school districts in order to provide vocational and apprentice training opportunities as well as economic competency to middle and high school students. Funding could provide for outreach coordinator to connect schools and job centers.
• Use current information, surveys and collaboration models to identify strengths, opportunities, and needs in communities to develop strategies to bridge gaps between early education, schools and business/industry to match needs with capacity.
• Increase business engagement in family/community to enlist their participation in improving education from cradle through career.
• Communicate the return on investment data about family/ community/ school partnerships.
• Create opportunities to plan and implement joint initiatives for business, educational, and community leaders at the state, regional and local levels.
The summit was only the beginning of what will be a major development in both policy and action to increase collaboration among schools, families, and their communities, thereby increasing graduation rates, closing achievement gaps and ensuring educational success for our children.
Wisconsin coalition summit partners include: AFT – Wisconsin, Celebrate Children Foundation, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, League of Wisconsin Municipalities, Milwaukee Association of Black School Educators, Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH), Milwaukee Public Schools Title I Office, NAACP – Madison, Office of US Senator Herb Kohl, Parents Plus-Parent Information Resource Center, Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, Wisconsin Association of School Boards, Wisconsin Association of Middle Level Educators, Wisconsin Association of School Councils, Wisconsin Association of School Counselors, Wisconsin Association of School Districts Administrators, Wisconsin Council of Administrators of Student Services, Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, Wisconsin Early Childhood Association, Wisconsin Family Assistance Center for Education, Training & Support (FACETS), Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Wisconsin Pre K-16 Leadership Council, Wisconsin Parent Teachers Association, and the Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance.
To see a slidesow from the summit, click below:
To see more photos from the summit, click here.
