Task Force Launched
On February 16, 2011, about 40 people came together at the NH Department of Education in Concord to launch the New Hampshire Family, School and Community Engagement Task Force. The goals of this initiative are:
- To establish a framework for best practices to engage all families in the education of their children and school reform,
- To develop a means of measuring the impact of family, school and community engagement practices and effectiveness at the school and district level and,
- To provide a way for schools to share what’s working
Present were parents, principals, superintendents, representatives of community organizations, various representatives from the NH Department of Education, and others. The meeting was facilitated by Joe Trunk from the New England Comprehensive Center, a partner in this project.
World Café Input
During the Feb 16 meeting, a "World Café" conversation process was undertaken, where all present had the opportunity to discuss three questions:
- What's working in your school or district?
- What is your greatest need to promote parent involvement in your school community?
- How can parent involvement be made more systemic?
The conversations were written down by table moderators, and the input was shared with the entire group. A summary and the complete notes of the World Café input are available below.
Download Word File
#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.
Links
National PTA Standards for Family-School Partnerships (PDF, 72 pages)
Proposed NH Family-School-Community Engagement Standards, (2-page PDF, adapted from PTA Standards)
Harvard Family Research Project
HFRP Webinar Series
NH Parent Involvement Special Education Survey
Parent Information Center
New England Comprehensive Center
Parents Make the Difference (& NH Parent Involvement in Education Month)
A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement
Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships
Audio presentation below: Beyond the Bake Sale -- Family-School Partnerships. Anne Henderson and Karen Mapp discuss how to form the essential, family-school partnerships and how to make them work. (April 25, 2007). Click title below to open/close player panel.
