In Hawaii, state, regional, and school leaders are working together to improve the organization and quality of programs of school, family, and community partnerships. With strong support from the Hawaii State Board of Education, leaders for partnerships from 15 complex areas (like "districts" in other states) and their Parent Community Network Coordinators (PCNC) are working to strengthen their programs of family and community involvement to help all students meet success.
NNPS and Hawaii leaders conduct professional development workshops on family
and community involvement for schools across the state
Left to right, first row: Brenda Thomas, Cecelia Martin, Leila Hayashida (Education Specialist and Key Contact to NNPS), Amy Ng. Second Row: Andreas Wiegand, Dr. Paul Ban, Katherine Kawaguchi (Assistant Superintendent for the Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Support), Dr. Allan Awaya
Leila Hayashida, Education Specialist at the State Department of Education, coordinated a full week of NNPS professional development workshops for complex area leaders for partnerships and their schools. The special workshops occurred along with a state conference on creating good connections in schools.
Last June, Ms. Hayashida attended the NNPS two-day intensive District Leadership Institute in Baltimore. Because Hawaii is a single-statewide school district, she was able to use the information for large school districts, along with her state’s policy on parental involvement and her office’s goals, to develop a long-term plan for helping the complex areas of Hawaii and their schools organize more goal-linked partnership programs.
NNPS Senior Facilitators, Cecelia S. Martin and Brenda G. Thomas, conducted the workshops and presentations in Hawaii, with support and assistance from Ms. Hayashida and from the NNPS Technical Assistance component of the Military Child Initiative (MCI) at Johns Hopkins University. Teachers, administrators, and families from military- and non-military-impacted schools came from the 15 complex areas to learn how to apply NNPS’s research-based approaches to improve their programs of family and community involvement.
Hawaii’s state leaders for partnerships organized their work in three steps.
STEP 1. Increase state and area leaders’ knowledge and competencies on partnerships.
One goal in Hawaii was to increase the knowledge and skills of complex areas’ leaders for partnerships so they could assist and support their schools in increasing outreach to and involvement of all families. NNPS assisted by conducting a two-day District Leadership Institute for these area leaders. With the train-the-trainer approach, area leaders for partnerships gained a strong foundation of the NNPS model and framework of six types of involvement. They aligned actions to facilitate their schools with the state policy on parental involvement. At the end of the intensive “boot camp” training, these leaders felt more confident about guiding and supporting their schools in strengthening goal-oriented partnership programs.
Leaders for partnerships from Hawaii’s 15 complex areas attended
a District Leadership Institute conducted by NNPS
STEP 2. Strengthen school leaders’ knowledge and skills to improve school-based partnership programs.
A second goal in Hawaii was to give school leaders and support staff an opportunity to increase or refresh their understanding of strategies to involve families and the community in ways that help improve student achievement and success in school. NNPS assisted by conducting a One-Day Workshop for schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships and advanced workshops on important topics to school teams. Advanced topics included improving the success of transitions to new schools for military families, improving the welcoming climate in schools, middle and high school partnerships, including single parents in partnership activities, making better community connections, and more. The special topics help schools meet important challenges to reach parents who are often "hard to reach." By applying new ideas, school-level leaders can be more purposeful about their work on family and community involvement. This also will help the complex area leaders for partnerships create a "network" of their area schools dedicated to implementing activities that will involve all families and benefit students.
STEP 3. Establish a support structure linking state leaders, complex area leaders for partnerships, and school teams, with other organizations to facilitate and encourage all schools to develop and maintain goal-oriented partnership programs.
A third goal in Hawaii was to clarify and emphasize the flow of positive support and assistance available to schools from multiple sources. A strong facilitative structure is ideal for helping schools see that they are being encouraged to sustain comprehensive programs of school, family, and community partnerships. This is in contrast to the common top-down monitoring of schools for compliance on requirements for parental involvement, which often damages or diminishes relationships between state, district, and school leaders.
In Hawaii, state leaders are collaborating with many key stakeholders, including the state’s Parent Information Resource Center (PIRC), Parents and Children Together, on ways to increase parental involvement and improve student achievement and success. The Hawaii PIRC will support the schools’ efforts by offering resources, information, and other services to increase the involvement of Hawaii’s diverse families in their children’s education.
The steps taken in Hawaii may be useful in other states and districts for strengthening leadership and programs of partnerships. Preparing district leaders for partnerships to guide their schools in positive ways, providing basic and advanced training to schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships, and creating connections with other organizations build a strong infrastructure at the district and school levels for sustaining effective partnership programs.
Cecelia S. Martin
cmartin@csos.jhu.edu