At the April meeting, those present primarily discussed cultural and institutional barriers to greater parent participation in school decision making. Schools may have to re-envision their committees from the ground up to truly involve parents in all aspects of decision-making to make it clear that parents have power and choice all the way through the process, not just at the end after major decisions have all but been cemented. Joe Trunk mentioned the Indistar online tool being used by SINIs and DINIs and restructuring schools, which has research-based indicators including ones on parent involvement. This further argues for some kind of common statewide measures and assessments that establish clear standards, objectives and indicators. Please visit the Standard 5 Wiki Page for more from this conversation.

At the March 22 meeting, Barbara Publicover of the Merrimack Special Education Parent Support Group (see www.merrimackpact.com) shared at length about the excellent collaboration this group has with the district and local schools. The group has the full support of the district, and really helps parents keep up to date with learning opportunities and policy changes regarding special education. The group facilitates respectful communication by helping both sides understand each other better and by promoting a "we're all in this together" attitude. Please come to the wiki to read more of Ms. Publicover's sharing from that meeting. The notes also include additional discussion by task force members.

At the February 23 meeting, teachers Courtney Tomich and Lynne Lamontagne from Dr. Norman Crisp School in Nashua presented on their "Almost Sleepover" Annual Family Event (download PowerPoint here - 3MB). Over 300 parents and children (representing 107 families) attended a literacy-focused event over 2 hours, that included dinner and activities for adults and children on the specific strategy of questioning and inquiry. Participants came in their pajamas, were fed dinner, given a book and a glow bracelet (per child), plus items from each activity. Teachers facilitated learning stations but parents worled with children to complete tasks by using scripted questions provided on cards, such as "What have you tried?" Activities included puppet show, making dreamcatchers, math, and science. Participants received "passports" that were punched for each activity in order to get a free book. Activity materials were kept simple and could be done at home for little cost. All of this was done on an $800 budget and with a lot of donations and adult and student volunteer hours. Publicity was a major push, and included each child getting a "golden ticket." Positive peer pressure helped turnout. Staff feels that this activity is a success example of Standard 3 - Supporting Learning at Home as it provides parents with specific strategies to support children's ongoing learning. No analysis has been done to determine how this activity impacts student performance. Parents report feeling welcome at the school. More information about this event can be found on the wiki.

Stephanie Lafreniere shared information about the Task Force and the 6 Standards with the statewide Title I group. Members of the task force discussed how to better learn what is actually happening in NH Schools, which may include creating opportunities for school-based Title I teams (including parents) to present at regional meetings or to arrange Skype video interviews or other video recording sessions. Also discussed was the option of creating a Recognition event where such stories would be shared and celebrated.

Sam Lafortune shared about the positive impacts of the Navy Sea Cadet program on students in her local school (Rindge).

Esther Kennedy shared about the current challenges of working with parents in the economic downturn, including newly homeless; Parent involvement can involve grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. For homeless families, the engagement has to be with someone they trust, and the approach has to be unique for each person

At the January 26 meeting, we had presentations from two NH schools demonstrating the application of Standard 2: Effective Communication (Families and school staff engage in regular, two-way, meaningful communication about student learning). First up were Noreen McAloon, Principal, and Cathie Terry, Title I Coordinator, from Hillsboro-Deering Elementary School. They shared their evolving Communicatiuon Rubric (which is detailed on the wiki). Highlights included: Various family curveys, weekly letters sent to parents and poisted online, the use of the Samsung Exhibio (TV) system for posted notices near the entrace of the school, open door policies, conversations with the principal, School Community Council, etc. The audio of their presentation can be heard below (1hr 11min, video coming soon) or download it here (16.5MB).

Next up were were members of the parent-school partnership team from Ledge St School in Nashua, led by Principal Janet Valeri. They shared their numerous school-parent and teacher-parent communication strategies undertaken over the past several years. Please listen to the audio of their presentation below (28 min) or download it here (6.5MB).

Both schools are using the Solid Foundation program developed by Academic Research Institute and supported by Karen Gerdts and NH State PIRC. Please see this page for more information.

At the December 22 meeting, the Task Force was host to two presentations that exemplify the work being done in NH schools, especially related to Standard 1: Welcoming All Famliies into the School Community. First, Karen Gerdts, Partnership Development Coordinator for NH State PIRC, described work being done by Solid Foundation-enrolled schools, including a Volunteer Handbook and volunteer-promoting resources at McDonough Elementary in Manchester, and the "Parent Connector" role and subsequent projects at Valley View Elementary School in Farmington. Listen to the presentation below or download it here (15MB mp3, about 30 minutes long).

Following that, John Freeman, Superintendent of Pittsflield School District, spoke about the Pittsfield Parent Connection, a family-school partnership group that convened last summer to address issues such as school transitions and parent-school communication. Listen to his presentation below or download it here) (10MB mp3, about 20 minutes long). After the recorder ran out of juice, John went on to share some wonderful school improvement work being done in Pittsfield, much of which was capture on the wiki.

You can read more about these two presentations and access related files and links on the wiki, on the Standard 1 page, under the section "Promising Practices and Success Stories."

Over the summer, the Task Force Steering Committee met and decided to ask Commissioner Barry to adopt the PTA National Standards for Family-School Partnerships. Cmsr. Barry agreed and the Task Force has since decided to focus on compiling a toolkit for use by schools, districts, parent groups, and others. The toolkit will including success stories and promising practices from around NH, policy and action recommendations for teachers, parents, administrators, students, and community organizations, and resources such as tip sheets, assessment tools, websites, etc.

Please download Joe Trunk's Notes from the May 25, 2011.

Please download Kate Gill Kressley's Powerpoint presentation.

Please download notes from the group discussion on April 14. 2011.

Joe Trunk with opening comments at February 16 meeting. Joe is the Task Force Facilitator from the New England Comprehensive Center. Click image to play.

Kathleen Murphy, Director, Division of Instruction, NH Department of Education, speaks about the importance of family engagment in education at Feb 16 meeting. Click image to play.

#1.—What is currently going well in your school regarding F and C Involvement?

• Sandown-Blue ribbon volunteerism
• Portsmouth- PEAK-Integrated early childhood Head Start
• Manchester- Parent Portal-Aspen system
• Pittsfield-Community Advisory Council
• SAU 41- there is apparently something going on here but notes are not clear as to what it is
• Allenstown District- Parent/teacher involvement, principal, too.

You see that we received identified responses from school districts.  There were a lot of other entries about practices and perhaps these were from schools but were not identified as such.  Some of these practices were:

• Embracing organizations to help move this (PI?) forward
• Embracing philosophy of family driven strategies
• Successful professional involvement for parents (including math and reading, museum)
• PBIS

It is obvious that there are good things happening in NH regarding F/C but we need more detail about those good things such as how many are involved, what are the goals, are evaluations done on the activities, and where these activities are happening.

#2- In what areas do you need the most assistance to further the work in F and C involvement?

• Stronger leadership on district, school and classroom level
• Teachers not comfortable talking with parents
• Parents feel they are not welcome
• Need for better two way communication—there were a lot of comments about communication
• Parents may be far away from other parents/peers/family 
• Schools-doing what laws require
• Educating school boards

These comments seem to be consistent with those we have all heard over the years concerning the challenges of developing positive attitudes towards F/C involvement.  Certainly enough has been written about these challenges to give us all a sense of direction in how to address them.  One comment stands out to me and that is: Understand the state of family involvement in each town and district in the state.  Part of our work, I think, needs to involve a census or other way of getting accurate information about what exists already in New Hampshire to give us an idea of best practices that can be shared and to see what else needs to be done. This would probably involve identifying district and school parent coordinators or persons responsible for parent/family involvement as responders.

#3- How can your family engagement work become more on-going, systematic and integrated into general culture?

• Must be part of “how we do business”
• Vision for parent engagement that involves all stakeholders
• Family engagement includes fathers
• Build a school culture
• Have a parent liaison/coordinator.  A paid position, with space and presence so that they can be part of the school culture.
• Share data with towns and citizens about the outcome measures, etc.
• How to get buy-in from administrators
• Asking parents to contribute on a systemic level
• Have respect for each other what we do in our role
• Word of mouth about positive experiences is a good tool

There are a lot of similarities between the responses to questions 2 and 3 in that what schools and districts need further assistance in to further their work would help them also have their work become more on-going, systematic and integrated into the general culture.  Perhaps another reason for there to be a NHDOE statewide   uniform PI policy or at least a list of expectations.  (This is also where Federal expectations would be helpful.)  And another reason for us to compile a list of best practices and a common area in which to share them.