(L to R): Tammy Pawloski (Director), Markey Bee (Community Liaison), Kendal Hughes,
Angel Parson, Krista Roscoe, Regina Pompey, Brenda Hill (center).
Strengthen Leadership for Partnerships: Summer Institute
The Francis Marion University Center of Excellence (COE) to Prepare Teachers of Children of Poverty, a prior award winner, held its second Summer Institute in June 2009. The Institute is a day-long event on campus to provide participants with practical, research-based information about the needs and abilities of low-income children. The agenda for this year’s program included an opening address, panel discussion, two featured speakers, and over 25 workshop sessions. Attendees included undergraduate and graduate students in education, area teachers, and school administrators. A primary goal was to equip the college students and educators with knowledge and skills for working with children, families, and community resource providers. To that end, a number of sessions focused on developing effective school, family, and community partnerships, including activities that were in several NNPS books of Promising Partnership Practices. Over 250 participants attended, which encouraged COE to consider expanding Summer Institute 2010 to two-days to give more local teachers and schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships a chance to share their best practices.
Encourage Districts and Schools to Improve their Partnership Programs: Follow-Up for Action Teams for Partnerships
In February 2009, the Center of Excellence (COE) School, Family, and Community Liaison and an NNPS Facilitator partnered to conduct a workshop called A Follow-Up Session for Action Teams for Partnerships (ATPs). At the workshop, ATPs reviewed the four major components of the NNPS model (team, plan, implement, evaluate). Presenters emphasized steps in organizing a well-functioning ATP and the importance of writing a goal-linked annual Action Plan for Partnerships. After discussing how to apply this information, participants shared successful practices, challenges, and solutions and identified their “next steps” in improving their own school-based programs. Principals, ATP Chairs and Co-Chairs, and parents from seven Partnership Schools in Darlington County attended. At the request of the district’s assistant superintendent, the Center of Excellence also invited the principals of all 19 of Darlington County’s schools, regardless of partnership status, to increase their awareness of the new directions for research-based partnership programs.
COE and the schools know that students benefit when school teams work to reach all families and improve partnerships over time. These schools expect that with more and better practices of family and community involvement, more students will improve their grades, attendance, and attitudes about school.
See Frances Marion University’s Center of Excellence Partnership Organization Award in 2008 and examples of Promising Partnership Practices on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in the section Success Stories.Visit COE at http://www.fmarion.edu/academics/centerofexcellence.