Published
Version to Share With Colleagues: 
NNPS Partnership Award Winners Show How
to Develop Excellent Programs
Three
schools, six districts, one organization, and one state department of
education are winners of the NNPS 2004 Partnership Awards. For the first
time, nine of the award winners received "Special Recognition" and a
prize of $500 for exceptional programs and sustained progress. All winners
received a plaque and one free registration to a future NNPS conference.
The award winners, from diverse communities in California, Georgia,
Minnesota, Ohio, and Washington, were recognized for excellent goal-oriented
programs of school, family, and community partnerships.
NNPS Members Collaborate on Special
Focus Studies
NNPS
districts and schools have agreed to work with NNPS researchers on two
"Special Focus" studies to learn more about district leadership on partnerships
and the effects of interactive homework on student achievement in math,
science, and reading/literacy.
Issues and Insights—Emerging
Issues in NCLB: Understanding School-Parent Compacts
Many NNPS members have asked questions about NCLB's requirements for family and community involvement in Section 1118. One confusing term that we must understand is the school-parent compact. Just what is a compact?
Making Homework Family-Friendly
The
start of a new school year inevitably generates discussions about homework—at
school, at home, and in the media. What can teachers do to make homework
more family-friendly? Two strategies include monitoring the amount of
time students spend on homework and communicating clearly in homework
assignments.
Meeting the Challenge—Working
with Families and Communities to Develop Student Scientists
Developing
students' science skills such as prediction, hypothesis testing, and
inferential reasoning is an important goal for educators and schools.
International comparisons of science knowledge and skills place U.S.
students among the lowest achieving in industrialized nations. These
comparisons, and the impending reality that students' achievement test
scores in science will soon be used as an indicator of successful or
failing schools (e.g., No Child Left Behind Act), have made teaching
students science a challenge all schools must face. In Promising
Partnership Practices 20041, schools share innovative
ways students and families work on science together, as well as ways
they create community partnerships to enrich the science experiences
of students and their families.
Elementary School Report—Answers
to Members' Frequently Asked Questions on the UPDATE Survey
NNPS
members complete UPDATE to renew membership and provide important
information about program development. The comment section of UPDATE
encourages two-way communication between NNPS members and staff, but
the large number of school members prohibits individual responses. The
most frequently asked questions can be answered in this newsletter,
however, so keep reading to see what's on members' minds.
Leadership Line—Seattle School
District Uses Evaluation to Strengthen Partnership Programs
Seattle
Public Schools' Family Partnerships (FP) Office worked with evaluation
specialists to develop several tools to evaluate the progress of its
school and district programs to create quality partnerships with parents
and the community. "For the first time, we have been able to show hard
data about the Family Partnerships Project as required by Seattle Public
Schools and the City of Seattle," explained Adie Simmons, Project Manager.
Leadership Line—California
Builds Partnerships to Offer Trainings to Schools and Districts
California
Department of Education (CDE), through its Title I Policy and Partnerships
Office, has collaborated with multiple partners to offer training on
school, family, and community partnerships to LEAs, schools, and other
organizations. CDE contracted with the California Parent Center, a Parent
Information Resource Center, to create a curriculum based on the NNPS
approach to partnerships and to pilot the curriculum in a series of
trainings. "Using Parent Involvement to Increase Student Success and
Academic Achievement" is a two-day training that presents the NNPS model
with grade specific information.
Middle and High School Report—Teenagers
Rate Parent-Led Book Clubs a Success
"Way
more fun than doing a book report," said one student at Glenmary School
in Peace River, Alberta, Canada about the seventh and eighth grade book
clubs. Glenmary's Action Team for Partnerships (ATP) started the book
clubs two years ago in response to increasingly complex reading tasks
on required tests and low parent satisfaction with the amount of reading
children do in their free time. The ATP also developed the book clubs
to help support the school improvement goal of increasing reading comprehension.
Research Brief—Scientifically
Based Evidence of the Effects of Partnership Programs
Researchers and policy leaders agree that we always must strive to
improve the methods used to study the effects of family involvement
on student outcomes. In an effort to strengthen the quality of research
on the effects of school, family, and community partnership programs
on student outcomes, NNPS conducted a study that investigated whether
or not schools working on partnerships have students who perform better
on standardized tests and attend school more regularly than schools
that are not working on partnerships.
NNPS Welcomes New Staff to Assist Members
Cecilia Martin, Senior Program Facilitator, joins NNPS to assist schools, districts, states, and organizations across the country to strengthen and sustain goal-oriented partnership programs. She is an expert communicator and will be able to help new and experienced NNPS members take the next best steps in program development. Cecelia has teaching and facilitation experience in the Baltimore City Public School System and Baltimore City Community College. She can be reached at 410.516.6793 or cmartin@csos.jhu.edu.
Brenda Thomas, Maryland Director of Partnership Program Development, joined NNPS and The Family Works, a Maryland Parent Information Resource Center (PIRC). She will assist district leaders across the state of Maryland to help their schools organize, implement, and improve programs of school, family, and community partnerships. Brenda was a Coordinator of Parental Involvement in Baltimore City Public Schools and has experience as a teacher and facilitator. She can be reached at 410.516.8819 or bthomas@csos.jhu.edu.