Maureen Moran, JoAnne Carter, Barbara Scherr (NNPS Key Contact), Ann Chafin, Nancy Grasmick (Superintendent), and Maria Lamb.
State-Level Leadership for Partnerships
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) recognizes that parent involvement contributes to student achievement and success in school. To emphasize its policy and expectations, the State Superintendent formed M-PAC - Maryland’s Parent Advisory Council -- a statewide group of 120 parents, educators and advocate for recommendations on how to improve programs of family and community involvement in all districts and their schools. The Main Council of M-PAC oversaw the work of three subcommittees: parent/family involvement and its impact on student achievement; communication and partnership through non-traditional channels such as community and faith-based groups; and education policy issues.
M-PAC collected research on partnerships, convened meetings of state and national experts, provided progress reports, and held public forums in all 24 school districts for the public to review and provide feedback on the preliminary recommendations. The final report, A Shared Responsibility: Recommendations for Increasing Family and Community Involvement in Schools, included several recommendations for increasing parent representation on all state and local committees and task forces, for increasing the participation of all families in school decisions, improving communications with all families in multiple languages, and improving programs of involvement in all districts and their schools. With the assistance of many partners, the recommendations are being implemented and will improve the quality of partnership programs across the state.
Encourage Districts and Schools to Improve their Partnership Programs
Maryland’s leaders for partnerships are located in the Program Improvement and Family Support Branch of the Division of Student and School Services. Their work highlights the importance of family involvement for student success in school. As one of many activities, the state’s staff specialists on partnerships conduct periodic meetings with at least one designated leader for partnerships from every school district. The information and topics for discussion aim to help each of the 24 districts in the state build its leadership and capacity for developing partnership programs at the district level and in every school.
The state leaders also work with the Maryland PIRC on this agenda. The PIRC provides district leadership workshops and team training to any district that is ready to implement the state’s policies and meet requirements for parental involvement in NCLB. In addition to targeted workshops, the state, PIRC and other partners also conduct an annual conference for parents and educators to share best practices, a Fact Sheet on requirements in NCLB and Title I, publications in English and other languages for parents on the state’s website and for distribution, and other information that districts and their schools can use.
See Maryland’s history of Partnership State Awards in 2002 on the NNPS website at www.partnershipschools.org, and activities in Promising Partnership Practices 2007 in the section Success Stories. Visit the state at: http://marylandpublicschools.org/msde.