Published
Version to Share With Colleagues: 
Awards Supplement:
New Grant Will Assist Districts and Schools Serving
Children of Military Families
NNPS has a grant from the Department of Defense Military Child in Transition and Deployment State Liaison Office, in collaboration with the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University (JHSPH). The Military Child Initiative (MCI), headed by Dr. Robert Blum at JHSPH, includes components to improve educational programs and school climate, with a special focus on children from military families.
New Facilitators and Researcher Will Assist NNPS Members
NNPS staff grows and changes as a result of new and continuing grants and personal decisions about career paths. In fall 2005, we welcome three colleagues, identify new responsibilities, and bid farewell to a former facilitator.
Issues and Insights—NNPS: A Research-Based
Approach to School, Family, and Community Partnerships
Prospective members often ask: "Is NNPS a research-based model?" The term is important for all school improvement programs and for the No Child Left Behind requirements for parental involvement. Just as educators want research-based curricular and instructional approaches, they also want family and community involvement programs to be based on solid knowledge and tested tools.
Leadership Line—New NNPS Inventory Helps
District Leaders
NNPS guides district leaders to create systemic change by taking responsibility for district-level leadership on partnerships and direct facilitation of schools to support their programs of partnerships. Studies show that this dual focus on district leadership and facilitation improves the sustainability of school, family, and community partnerships so that student success increases over time.
Meeting the Challenge—Using Family and Community
Partnerships to Improve Student Health and Safety
Many
children of the 21st century must contend with health issues such as
childhood obesity and increasing violence in their neighborhoods. Changes
in lifestyles and society's civility require new solutions to help children
become healthy and productive adults. Schools represent a major source
of initiatives that focus on the well-being of the whole child. NNPS
schools are finding ways to involve families and communities to improve
their students' health and safety.
Research Brief—Factors Affecting Implementation
of NCLB Family Involvement Requirements
Passage
of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act set off plenty of debate, with
most of the discussions focusing on testing standards and requirements,
teacher quality, and school choice. Title I, Section 1118, the provision
of NCLB that calls for greater family involvement, receives less attention;
however, it offers another important tool in the effort to improve student
achievement.
Elementary School Report—Video
Helps Parents Support Reading at Home
Lights!
Camera! Action! The Hawthorn Hills Site Council took creative steps
to help inform parents about the importance of reading and how to encourage
their children to pick up a book at home.
Middle and High School Report—Three
Ways to Involve Families in Middle School
As
students enter the middle grades, they seek greater independence. Parents
try to help their children expand their horizons, but they may lack
confidence in their ability to assist with the increasingly difficult
schoolwork and social issues. Research shows that parent involvement
decreases as students start middle school. The pressures preteens face,
however, are ones that parents can address if they are given assistance
from educators. NNPS middle schools show how to involve parents to help
their children reach their full potential.
Supplement—2005 Partnership Award Winners
Each year, the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) at Johns Hopkins University recognizes members who have developed and sustained excellent programs of school, family, and community partnerships for at least two years. For 2005, six schools, four districts, four organizations, and three state departments of education won NNPS Partnership Awards. The winners, from diverse communities in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, provided evidence of comprehensive, goal-oriented programs of school, family, and community partnerships.