Format
Individual Presentation
First Presenter's Institution
Cobb County School District
Second Presenter's Institution
Cobb County School District
Third Presenter's Institution
Cobb County School District
Fourth Presenter's Institution
N/A
Fifth Presenter's Institution
N/A
Location
Session 5 (Plimsoll)
Strand #1
Family & Community
Relevance
The support of family and community is one of the most crucial aspects needed to set pathways for success to at risk youth. Increasing the presence and participation of families and the community is a huge task to conquer. Maintaining participation is an even larger challenge but an important long-term goal. Amongst language barriers, high levels of poverty, a lack of resources, and work time constraints of families, how can we start and continue developing family and community support for our youth? We have five golden rules that have attributed to successful support of families through parent communication, partnerships and effective collaboration with the community.
Brief Program Description
“Too busy!” “Hectic work schedule!” Have you heard these before? Administrators, teachers, stakeholders, YOU hold the key that unlocks parent and community engagement! But how?! From school events and resources to parent support and community partnerships, let’s explore five golden rules that create high levels of parent and community engagement; ultimately investing into the success of our at risk youth.
Summary
Norton Park is focused on living through our vision and mission every day. Parents, Partners, and the Park drive the daily focus of engagement. The partnership between the school and parents is paramount in the success of a student. It is important to focus on engaging parents. The session will focus on how to help schools use engagement strategies to help increase student achievement. This session will allow our stakeholders to share in responsibility while enhancing their knowledge. How do we make our schools more culturally sensitive to the everyday dynamics? Participants will receive ways on how to incorporate a fail free way of incorporating meaningful parental involvement activities that can be sustained over years.
This session will present a framework for increasing parental engagement. This topic is timely because it coincides with an increasing focus on academic achievement in this pivotal era of the new Every Student Succeeds Act. We will focus on a framework, which includes what we consider to be the 5 “Golden Rules of Engagement”: build (relationships), connect (communication), engage (activities), sustain (input…voice), and extend (community). As a school, we must first “build” relationships with parents. After building the relationships, we “connect.” Connecting with parents requires great communication. Once the communication is established, we have to “engage” our parents. We engage them through the activities that we plan to welcome them into the school environment to let them know that they belong. As parents become more engaged, we” sustain” them by giving them opportunities for input and allowing them to have a voice. The final step to increased parental engagement is “extending” our partnership to the rest of the community.
Evidence
During the school year of 2017-2018, our new principal focused on engaging parents and staff to support students. The parents felt left out of activities, not wanted in the building, and unsure of how to help their students. During this school year, the principal took a different approach on building and sustaining meaningful relationships that will affect student success. Literacy Parent led activities, along with academic celebrations was incorporated into the school. Parents were given an opportunity to enter the classrooms and see what students are learning. Data was tracked based on the number of parent volunteers week and compared to previous years. Surveys were given to parents to request input on desired professional development needed to strengthen their knowledge of the standards.
Biographical Sketch
Michelle Curry: Principal of Norton Park Elementary School, Cobb County School District. She is an innovative leader that thinks outside the box. Her focus is on developing relationships that are sustainable. She has over 20 years of experience that has focused on serving Title I schools. She has presented at the district level and had proposals accepted at the national level. She has a passion for focusing on teaching and learning daily.
Tamara Morgan: Academic Coach at Norton Park Elementary in Cobb County School District. Tamara has 19 years of experience as an instructional leader. She has worked at both the elementary and middle school levels. She had had numerous professional development opportunities at both the local and the district level.
Tania Watson: Tania is currently an academic coach in the Cobb County School District. She serves at Norton Park Elementary. Tania has had experiences at both the local school level, as well as the district level at a presenter of effective instructional strategies.
Keyword Descriptors
parental involvement, parent engagement
Presentation Year
2019
Start Date
3-5-2019 10:15 AM
End Date
3-5-2019 11:30 AM
Recommended Citation
Watson, Tania; Morgan, Tamara Javonne; and Curry, Michelle W., "“Rules of Engagement”; 5 GOLDEN Rules for Increasing and Maintaining Family Engagement" (2019). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 42.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2019/2019/42
NPK Slideshow
“Rules of Engagement”; 5 GOLDEN Rules for Increasing and Maintaining Family Engagement
Session 5 (Plimsoll)
“Too busy!” “Hectic work schedule!” Have you heard these before? Administrators, teachers, stakeholders, YOU hold the key that unlocks parent and community engagement! But how?! From school events and resources to parent support and community partnerships, let’s explore five golden rules that create high levels of parent and community engagement; ultimately investing into the success of our at risk youth.
