Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

Wess Walters & Associates

Second Presenter's Institution

NA

Third Presenter's Institution

NA

Fourth Presenter's Institution

NA

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Session 6 (Plimsoll)

Strand #1

Family & Community

Relevance

This proposal relates to “HOME”: Family & Community as it supports the school’s goal of increasing parent engagement and involvement. It also provides schools with research based strategies on how to enhance the school’s overall Parent/Guardian experience, which leads to an increase in parent participation, as well as student success.

Brief Program Description

Parent/Guardian eXperience: How creating an awesome Parent/guardian experience can lead to increased parent participation, and how parent participation leads to success of the student & the overall success of the school. The goal of this presentation is to engage parents in their child’s school experience by building a genuine connection with the school and a positive parent experience.

Summary

(PGX) Parent/guardian eXperience is the product of an interaction between a school and the parent or guardian over the duration of time that their child is enrolled in the school. This interaction includes a parent's attraction, awareness, discovery, cultivation, advocacy and turning that parent into an ambassador of the school. This interaction is made up of three parts: the parent/Guardian journey, the school’s touchpoints that the parent/guardian interacts with & the environment the parent or guardian experiences the touchpoints. The PGX is scalable, executable, and relevant. It focuses on creating a parent centric environment which puts parents first.

The parent/guardian experience shows schools that parents are in fact their customers and that they should be treated the way any business treats its loyal customers.

Parent/Guardian eXperience: How schools can improve the Parent experience and how that leads to positive outcomes tackles the Misconceptions & Assumptions/Myths of low parent/guardian engagement, highlights the benefits of engaged parents/guardians for both the school and the student, common mistakes parents make, and leave parents with Proactive Practices for Partnering (PPP) that they can implement immediately with their child’s school.

The PGX is broken down into 3 pillars of success which are THE FIRST IMPRESSION-

the first thing the parent sees about the school, THE CONNECTION- the human touch of the school as it is delivered by faculty & staff, how it is received by the parent and THE EXECUTION-the school’s ability to deliver on its brand promise to educate the student in a safe environment.

The goal of this project is to engage parents/guardians in their children’s school experience by building a genuine connection with school stakeholders and a positive parental guardian experience. The results of this project will lead to the improvement of relationships and interactions of parents/guardians & school faculty and staff, which impacts the overall parent perception, their reality and ultimately the student’s success.

Evidence

In David J. Dwyer and Jeffrey B. Hecht’s research Minimal Parental Involvement, the data proves that a lot of the myths that are currently thought of as for the reason for low parent participation such as low income, apathy, single parent homes are just that, myths. Our research via focus groups and calls proves that the main reason why there is low parent participation is because parents ultimately don’t feel welcomed by their child’s school. In this presentation we show what schools can do to make the school more welcoming for the parents, which boosts parent participation, which leads to better performing students, better standardized test scores and a shift with the climate and culture of the school.

Biographical Sketch

As a parent first I have personally experienced a disconnect, an unfortunate perspective when entrusting educators with creating an environment that is welcoming and inclusive towards parents. Over the years of my listening and learning I have made it a mission to teach parents/guardians how to advocate for their students, sit at the table and how to insert their voices. I realized that this is only successful if they are welcomed from the start. I have a masters in business and currently conducts UCX (Undercover Customer Experiences) for businesses. I have taken that same strategy and applied it to the school system to gain insight into what the school is like from a parent’s perspective, highlight the variables that the school is not aware of that are repelling parents as well as leading to low participation and teaches the school how to remove those hurdles.

Outcomes:

  • Increase parent participation

  • Improve the overall parent experience

  • Engage parents and make them feel included

  • Improve communication between parents and schools

  • Create a more inclusive school environment

  • Increase parent and school staff morale

  • Reduce the number of barriers that prevent parent involvement

Keyword Descriptors

Parent engagement, PGX, PTA, relevance, Standardized test

Presentation Year

March 2020

Start Date

3-10-2020 1:00 PM

End Date

3-10-2020 2:15 PM

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Mar 10th, 1:00 PM Mar 10th, 2:15 PM

Parent/Guardian eXperience: How schools can improve the Parent eXperience and how that leads to positive outcomes.

Session 6 (Plimsoll)

Parent/Guardian eXperience: How creating an awesome Parent/guardian experience can lead to increased parent participation, and how parent participation leads to success of the student & the overall success of the school. The goal of this presentation is to engage parents in their child’s school experience by building a genuine connection with the school and a positive parent experience.