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| Judy Carson (NNPS Key Contact), Shelby Pons, Barbara Slone (NNPS Key Contact), Betsy LeBorious (NNPS Key Contact), Sally Young, Charlene Russell-Tucker, Sherbie Worthen, and Pam Langer. |
Connecticut's SDE, a long-standing member of NNPS and a Partnership State Award winner in 2000, has continued to grow its leadership on school, family, and community partnerships. The program is part of the Bureau of Health and Nutrition Services, Child/Family/School Partnerships, along with Safe and Drug Free Schools, after-school programs, Homeless Education, Family Resource Centers, school nurses, Coordinated School Health and other programs. The Bureau is recognized as the location for state leadership on school, family, and community partnerships.
Connecticut has advanced its leadership on partnerships despite changes of Commissioners, some key staff, and departmental reorganizations. With support from the new Commissioner of Education and Bureau Chief, the leaders for partnership programs have expanded their actions. The School, Family, and Community Partnerships (SFCP) Project has strong connections with the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), the professional development and educational resource center (SERC), and CT Parents Plus -- the state's Parent Information Resource Center (PIRC). Each year, the SFCP team of leaders conduct strategic planning sessions; overviews on parental involvement programs; workshops for schools and districts to develop partnership programs; topical workshops (e.g., how to involve families to solve challenges of bullying, homework, health and nutrition, parenting, and engaging community partners); and special projects, such developing a resource library and publishing the semi-annual newsletter, Schools & Families, which is distributed to over 5000 educators across the state.
Taking a new direction in 2005, SFCP began work with three pilot districts to help district leaders assist their own schools' Action Teams for Partnerships to develop partnership programs linked to school improvement goals. The project, Improving Student Achievement Through School-Family- Community Partnerships, includes Groton, Middletown and Windsor leaders for partnerships and their schools, linked to the state SFCP and NNPS. The state's leaders found that individual schools had a hard time sustaining partnership programs without support from their districts. SFCP provides professional development and funds for NNPS membership and for leaders to attend the NNPS conference. Some districts supplemented these funds to send others for orientation and training.
Other new initiatives in 2005 paired SFCP with projects on Safe and Drug Free Schools and HIV/STD prevention. Looking ahead, SFCP leaders for partnerships plan to train Action Teams for Partnerships in 32 schools that receive federal funds for 21st Century After School Programs to weave family and community involvement into the after school efforts to enrich student learning.
Connecticut's leaders for partnerships conduct serious evaluations of their work. The leaders explained one reflective strategy: "At the end of each school year, the core team spends one to two days in a retreat setting reviewing the data for the NNPS (UPDATE) and progress toward our goals for that year." SFCP engaged an outside evaluator to assess the pilot project with school districts. Initial data showed that the districts made "substantial progress" in establishing teams, communicating messages, and promoting parent involvement. The next step is to help district leaders help their schools improve their programs in the next year.
See the summary of Connecticut's Partnership State Awards in 2000 on the website, www.partnershipschools.org in the section In the Spotlight. For more on CT's work on partnerships, visit www.state.ct.us/sde/deps/Family/SFCP/index.htm.