Issue Analysis for an Elementary School Parental Involvement



Increasing Parent Involvement

Cory Schildroth

University of New England

EDU 715

Introduction

Parent involvement is a pillar to successful elementary school education. Without parents or guardians that support the lessons and the school community then learning simply stops at the sound of the dismissal bell. The link between home and school needs to be fostered and supported by both sides.

The small school located in a coastal Maine town that I am the sole special education teacher of has a difficult time with parental involvement. Parent teacher conferences, open houses, and IEP meetings all have suffered due to parent attendance. Our school has three times in the year that we ask parents to come in for a Parent Teacher Conference. This is a great opportunity for parents to meet with the teacher to find out how their child is doing and what they can do to assist in the education process. We schedule two evenings for parents to come in. We put notice in the school newsletter, individual teachers send home sign-up sheets, and they even call home. Unfortunately we have only about 60% of our parents come in to meet. Additionally, when we offer open houses or informational meeting nights, we have much less than 50% parent involvement. To encourage parents to attend those functions we usually offer a family dinner that is free. Since I am the sole Special Education teacher at our school I attend every PET meeting. These meetings are crucial for parents whose children are, or will be, receiving special education services. Out of 15 students on my caseload I have about 10 meetings a year that the parent is in attendance.

Connection to Senge’s Five Disciplines

Three out of the five disciplines Senge describes in the text needs to be address with regard to the lack of parental involvement. Shared vision, team learning, and system thinking cannot be truly successful without a learning community that involves parents.

As Senge describes, “The discipline of shared vision is the set of tools and techniques for bringing all of these disparate aspirations into alignment around the things people have in common,” (Senge, 2000). Without the communication the shared vision becomes invisible and is not attempted to be attained. Senge would consider the parent involvement, whether it is meetings, discussions, or simply being in the school building, a tool set that needs to be in place to develop a shared vision.

The faculty has focused many teachers’ meetings around the subject of increasing parent participation, especially in parent teacher conferences. Parents either do not sign up for a time slot to meet with teachers or do sign up but simply do not show up. Without the proper communication that a parent teacher conference allows it makes building a strong home to school foundation almost impossible.

Without parent involvement in IEP meetings and teacher conferences there is no dialogue. Senge describes parents’ participation as the part of the classroom team that, “gives the classroom some of its power,” (Senge, 2000). Dialogue is one of the most effective aspects of team learning. It allows members of a team to, “learn how to think together-not just in the sense of analyzing a shared problem or creating new pieces of shared knowledge but in the sense of occupying a collective sensibility, in which the thoughts, emotions, and resulting actions belong not to one individual, but to all of them together,” (Senge, 2000). As teachers we know how important dialogue is with parents. Many times I fill out goals on IEP reports of parents that were not present for the meeting and find myself wishing I could talk with the parents in order to find out what their input is and what they found to be concerns of their child. Without dialogue we are not learning or working as a team.

System thinking uses feedback as a building block. The process of system thinking is building success through connecting all people in a community (Senge, 2000). If our staff built a procedure to increase parent participation in my school it will increase the involvement and make it possible to solve problems by allowing parents and teachers to, “act with more effective leverage than a “short-attention-span culture” generally permits,” (Senge, 2000). This type of bridge between home and school will be sure to contribute to the answer of what is good for kids, and that is what education is built upon.

In the small coastal Maine school I teach at the issue of how staff can increase parent involvement initiatives such as Internet safety, response to intervention, and standards based education. A goal of my school is to find a way to increase the involvement by parents in all of these along with parent teacher conferences, I.E.P. meetings and general curriculum presentations. I have identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that should be analyzed and thought upon before a plan is laid out. With increase in parent involvement my school will “…develop images of “the future we want to create together” along with the values that will be important in getting there and the goals they hope to achieve along the way.” (Senge, 2000) I have developed a chart below to clearly explain the aspects of my plan.

|Strengths: |Weakness: |

| | |

|Familiar with all family’s because of school size. |Parents ability to leave work. |

|Staff is willing to participate. |60% of parents are involved in IEP meetings. |

|Administration is accommodation and encouraging of parent |40% of parents are involved in parent teacher conferences. |

|involvement. |Parents economic status. |

|Dedicated and involved teaching staff. |Parents have a negative perception of school. |

|PTF (Parents, Teachers, and Friends group) is established. |Lack of technology the school has previously used in conducting |

|Channels of communication to home are present through weekly |and informing about meetings. |

|newsletter. |PTF (Parents, Teachers, and Friends group) does not communicate |

| |well and disagrees on may issues. |

|Opportunities: |Threats: |

|Parents and teachers will have a shared vision. |Scheduling time for parents and teachers to meet can be a |

|Parents will be involved in their child’s learning. |difficult task. |

|Parents will have an opportunity to continue the curriculum at |Unsatisfied parents spreading negative views of the school to |

|home. |other parents and community members. |

|Parents will benefit from programs the school sponsors such as |Teachers not having an open mind to parental willingness. |

|internet safety and reading workshops. |Expectations by students teachers and parents not aligned with |

|Students will be motivated to impress both parents and teachers. |each other. |

|Will increase the willingness of students to become and continue |Teachers may feel like they are more open for securitization by |

|being life long learners. |parent involvement and treated less professionally. |

| |Teachers may not feel comfortable with parents being more |

| |involved especially if there is more volunteering . |

SWOT Analysis

SMART Goals

SMART Goal 1:

I would like to start a blog that teachers and parents can update and communicate on various issues. I would like this blog to be easy for teachers and parents to use. I would like teachers to practice implementing this blog for the 2011-2012 school year and have it fully implemented in the 2012-2013 school year. The technology teacher would over see the technical aspects of this blog. I will work with the staff and parents to encourage comfortable use for communication. I would like to see 90% of teachers and parents using the blog for communication on a weekly or biweekly basis by school year 2012-2013.

SMART Goal 2:

I will work with the school principal to establish a more flexible schedule for parent teacher conferences, such as weekday nights, and a more concrete procedure for teachers contacting parents to sign up for conferences times. I would like to see parent teacher conference attendance to increase to 80% of parents and guardians. I will work with the principal at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year. I would like to establish this procedure before the first parent teacher conferences that are held in November so I will begin work on this goal in October 2011.

SMART Goal 3:

I would like to develop a family game night at the school in order to foster the idea that school is a fun and welcoming place to be. I would like to work with the staff to establish a rotating night that a majority of the staff could come and perhaps bring a snack and their favorite game to play. I will propose this to the staff the beginning of 2011-2012 school year and would like to see this program in place by November of 2011. I would like to see parent participation increase each week to 40% of the parent population.

References

Senge, P., McCabe, N. C., Lucas, T., Kleiner, A., Dutton, J., & Smith, B. (2000). Schools

that learn: A fifth discipline fieldbook for educators, parents, and everyone who

cares about education. New York: Doubleday.

References

Senge, P., McCabe, N. C., Lucas, T., Kleiner, A., Dutton, J., & Smith, B. (2000). Schools

that learn: A fifth discipline fieldbook for educators, parents, and everyone who

cares about education. New York: Doubleday.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download