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| Row 1: Christine Cardinal (NNPS Key Contact), Maria Castro (Principal), and Monica Plaster. Row 2: Tammy Villegas, Debra Pridgin, Jill Jackson, David Bergeman, Mai Houa Vang, Choua Her, and Diane Klienfelter. Not Pictured: Josephine Elizondo, Cecilia Fogarty and Debra Vail. |
For the third consecutive year, Roosevelt Elementary School in St. Paul, MN, won an NNPS Partnership School Award for its excellent family involvement program. The highly diverse school serves Latino, Asian, African American, and white students from kindergarten through third grade. The school has a well-functioning, 14-member Action Team for Partnerships (ATP) of the principal, teachers, parents, grandparents, and community partners, guided by a part-time coordinator supported by the district.
The team meets monthly, with a light lunch served, and members communicate by phone, notes, and e-mail at other times. New members join as team members leave or as the team forms new partnerships with the community. Sometimes, a team meeting is held at a new community partner's site to promote their affiliation, such as at the Dodge Nature Center. Roosevelt's ATP has sustained its work because of the strong commitment of the principal and the continuity of team members and chairperson. In keeping with the diversity of the school, the ATP fills its ranks with representatives from many communities. New members commit to a two-year term, but may stay longer.
In its One-Year Action Plans, the ATP includes involvement activities to support math, reading, writing, and science linked to goals in the School Continuous Improvement Plan (SCIP). At Roosevelt's “Oops—Turn Me Off” Science Family Night, the science teacher, ATP, and other school staff conducted demonstrations on the uses of energy—such as hooking up a bike to power a generator and producing a spark of electricity. The event taught students neat ways of applying scientific concepts and how to conserve electricity—a goal set by the Saint Paul School District. Roosevelt will expand the program next year to include more families and more learning stations.
Improving on the past year's program has become a hallmark of Roosevelt's ATP. For example, the school built on the popularity of last year's Girls Night In by including third-grade girls and boys and mothers and fathers this year. Speakers came to share careers as a cobbler, nurse, Peace Corps worker, police officer, and fire safety educator. The ATP and other staff served a pizza dinner, obtained donated bicycles, books, stuffed animals, and gift certificates as door prizes for the third graders, and provided childcare for younger children.
The ATP also organizes partnerships with community groups. For example, the team added a member from the nearby Dodge Nature Center, and will conduct a field trip there in the next school year. Other partnership activities brought volunteer tutors and readers to help the students learn. In 2005, a partnership with Comcast Cable resulted in fifty bicycles for all students who had perfect attendance or missed just one day of school—a fine reward for perseverance!
The ATP assesses its programs using oral and written evaluations of all activities. It also uses district-level planning and evaluation tools, NNPS UPDATE surveys, and One-Year Action Plans to chart plans and evaluate progress. Along with good teaching, family and community involvement contributes to the academic success and personal development of Roosevelt's students.
See Roosevelt Elementary School's history of Partnership District Awards in 2003 and 2004, and examples of Promising Partnership Programs on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in the section In the Spotlight. Also visit www.roosevelt.spps.org for more information about the school.