District Update SummaryHoward County Public School System Columbia, Maryland At the Howard County Network of Partnership Schools’ End-of-Year Celebration, Action Team for Partnerships (ATP) members received an enlightening surprise. Their individual schools’ responses to the NNPS 2003 UPDATE survey had been compiled into one comprehensive summary of their local network’s efforts to build partnership programs. District Facilitator Jean Lewis explained, “Instead of a notebook or file full of UPDATE archives, we decided to put the data in a format that would influence future planning and publicize the hard work of the member schools.” More... Jean West Lewis, Family & Community Outreach Specialist (410) 531-5443 jean_lewis@hcpss.org Type | District | District |
Families Building Better ReadersFlorida Department of Education Tallahassee, Florida Beginning with the last letter “d,” the presenter stacked five giant building blocks on the stage, hammering home the importance of family involvement in children’s reading, until a vertical tower of blocks spelled “BUILD.” The presenter stated, “The single most important activity related to eventual success in reading is time spent reading— practice, practice, practice! Increase your child’s time spent reading. We are here to support your efforts in helping your child.” And so, the Families Building Better Readers workshop began. More... Linda Thompson, Deputy Director, Office of Family and Community Outreach (850) 245-0850 Linda.Thompson@fldoe.org Type | State | State |
Families for R.E.A.L.Hawaii State Department of Education Honolulu, Hawaii Families for R.E.A.L. is an elementary school-based family education/early childhood program for parents with children ages birth through five. Parents participate in the age-appropriate courses once a week for 10 weeks to gain and share information and skills. Because Families for R.E.A.L. programs are offered at elementary schools, parents and their young children connect with the school and resources in the community. More... Vivian Ing, State Resource Teacher (808) 733-4476 Diane_Iwaoka/SSS/HIDOE@notes.k12.hi.us Type | State | State |
Grant Writing WorkshopNaperville Community Unit School District 203 Naperville, Illinois The School, Family, Community Partnership (SFCP) teams in Naperville, IL never lack creative ideas for partnership activities and programs to support their schools. At times, however, they have found themselves without sufficient funding to implement those ideas. The District 203 Core Team, the leadership for partnerships in the district, addressed this need by hosting a Grant Writing Workshop. More... Terri Stevens, Co-Chair District Core Team (630) 416-6199 tstevens1120@aol.com Type | District | District |
I’m ThumbodyWinnipeg School Division Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada “You’re thumbody!” parents in the Winnipeg School Division told their third graders. The program, designed to increase students’ self esteem, embraces the idea that people are as special and unique as their own, one-of-a-kind thumbprints. The program itself is unique in that parent volunteers receive training in order to present the lessons to third-grade students in their home school. More... Sandra McCaig, Director, Student Support Services (204) 788-0203 smccaig@wsd1.org Type | District | District |
Parent Engagement Mini-GrantsLos Angeles Unified School District—Local District F Los Angeles, California Los Angeles School District—Local District F backed its commitment to partnerships with money. The district offered its NNPS school members the opportunity to apply for small grants up to $2,500 to fund a parent engagement activity linked to an academic goal identified in their school improvement plan. The schools could expand a successful activity currently at their school or could adapt a best practice from another school. In order to apply for the mini-grant, the school needed to match the requested funds. More... Linda Ariyasu, Coordinator (323) 224-3178 linda.ariyasu@lausd.net Type | Elementary Grades | District |
Parent Group NewsAnoka-Hennepin ISD #11 Anoka, Minnesota The Parent Involvement Program of the Anoka-Hennepin Independent School District publishes a newsletter, Parent Group News, that is distributed to all identified parent group officers, school principals and volunteer services coordinators. Each month, the one-page, two-sided newsletter offers a few articles on topics relevant for parent groups, a calendar of upcoming district/parenting-related events, and a list of Parent Involvement Program contacts. More... Sandra Thomsen, Parent Involvement Specialist (763) 506-1216 Sandra.thomsen@anoka.k12.mn.us Type | District | District |
Parent UniversityLowndes County Schools Valdosta, Georgia Parent University, a half-day series of workshops on a variety of topics for parents, was a collaborative effort between the county school system, Moody Air Force Base’s Family Advocacy Center, and various community educators. The short seminars and extended sessions increased parents’ understanding of parent-child interaction skills, child rearing, and the No Child Left Behind Act requirements and responsibilities for parents. More... Ann Abel, Parent Involvement Team (229) 245-2250x134 aabel@lowndes.k12.ga.us Type | District | District |
Practice JournalsSouth Carolina School Improvement Council College of Education, University of South Carolina Columbia, South Carolina The South Carolina School Improvement Council (SC-SIC) assisted school Action Teams for Partnerships in Florence County School District #1 to build evaluation of their partnership practices into their continuous improvement process through the use of Practice Journals. After the ATPs completed each partnership practice from their One-Year Action Plans, they recorded in a Practice Journal the various components needed for successful implementation. They noted what worked well, what needed improvement, and what unanticipated surprises occurred that would direct future implementation. In addition to serving as a formative evaluation tool, the Practice Journal led to a compilation of 20 partnership practices that was bound and distributed to schools in the district. More... Dr. Jean M. Norman, Executive Director (803) 779-7658 jnorman@gwm.sc.edu Type | Organization | District |