Type 2
Issue No. 27
Fall 2009

Issues and Insights:
NNPS and NCLB: What IS the Connection?

Joyce L. Epstein, Director

The goal of NCLB, Section 1118, Parental Involvement, is very clear: Schools must have programs that engage all families in ways that support children’s achievement and success in school. The law also directs districts (LEAs) to guide schools in building school and family capacities to implement these programs.

The law, now seven years old, tells educators to develop these programs. NNPS guides educators in how to use research-based approaches to design, conduct, evaluate, and sustain goal-linked partnership programs. With over 70% of schools and just about all districts in NNPS receiving Title I funds, we want to clarify confusing sections of the law and help members meet NCLB requirements. Here are three issues that have been raised.

  1. How is Monitoring for Compliance Different from Developing a Partnership Program? NCLB, like all federally funded programs, must be monitored to ensure that funds are appropriately allocated. However, monitoring for compliance requires different skills, time, and talents from guiding programs to improve. A compliance review is like a snapshot – a rating made at a particular point in time. Facilitating a program is like a moving picture – it takes time for district and school leaders to write plans, implement activities, and evaluate practices to learn what worked or needs to improve. Both tasks are important. Federal, state, and district leaders will conduct compliance reviews. NNPS focuses on helping all members improve programs to involve more families and produce positive results for more students every year.
  2. Understanding Confusing Terms: What is a Policy, Plan, and Compact in NCLB? Some problems arise because these three terms are used inconsistently in Section 1118. Of course, states, districts, and schools must define NCLB terms in their own ways, but this is how NNPS views these documents.

    Policy. NNPS believes that the district should write a short, clear policy on school, family, and community partnerships that is approved by the school board, reviewed and revised periodically, and adopted by all schools. This meets the NCLB rule that permits schools to adapt and adopt the district’s policy on parental involvement [b(3)].

    Plan or Compact. NCLB states that a school-parent compact outlines how educators, parents, and students will share responsibility for student success and “the means by which” they will work in partnership to help students achieve. NNPS recommends using the One-Year Action Plan for Partnerships as the school-parent compact because it provides details on the goals for partnerships and schedules the activities for the six types of involvement that are given as examples in the law [(d)(1)(2)].
    In addition, districts and schools also may collect parallel pledges from parents, teachers, and students (see samples in the NNPS Handbook) to express everyone’s good intentions to work as partners for students’ success.
  3. How Can Title I Schools in NNPS Connect their Action Plans for Partnerships to NCLB Requirements? Some NCLB monitors ask schools to write another, separate document to tell how they are addressing NCLB requirements. This should not be necessary. NNPS suggests that Title I schools adapt the One-Year Action Plan for Partnerships either by (a) adding one column on each page to tell how each activity fulfills an NCLB requirement or (b) adding a fifth page to the NNPS template with NCLB requirements on the left side and the activities in the plan that fulfill each requirement on the right side.

    [A template for (a) and (b) will be on the NNPS website in the NCLB section.] With either tool, a monitor could see a school’s complete goal-linked partnership plan and how activities address NCLB requirements.

There are other “language loopholes” in the law. NNPS will be happy to discuss your questions about NCLB to ensure that all states, districts, and schools are “in compliance” and are developing strong and sustainable partnership programs that meet the letter and spirit of the law.

1) Thanks to leaders in California, Connecticut, and several districts for ideas for this discussion.