Row 1: Ellen Yaffa, Jeana Preston (NNPS Key Contact), and Bea Fernandez. Row 2: Yee Khun, Beth Sondak, John Wedemeyer (Executive Director/NNPS Key Contact), Maria Moore-Flagg, and Tony Herrera. Not Pictured: Barbara Withrow.
The ambitious agenda and consistent work of the California PARENT Center (CPC) of the June Burnett Institute, earned these leaders a second NNPS Partnership Organization Award in 2006. CPC works with the California Department of Education’s Title I Policy and Partnership Office to provide technical assistance to schools, districts, and county offices of education on school, family, and community partnerships. (Also see the CDE summary in the section on Partnership State Awards.)
With remarkable energy and commitment, CPC conducted about one training conference a month in the state's eleven regions in 2006. The training sessions, called Using Parent Involvement to Increase Student Success and Academic Achievement, reached over 2500 school, district, and county administrators, teachers, support staff, and parent leaders during the past two years. Focused training also was provided to all of Los Angeles Unified School District's schools identified by NCLB for Program Improvement. The training workshops and information provide schools and other education leaders with greater understanding of how to connect plans and activities for school, family, and community partnerships with school improvement goals such as increasing achievement in specific subjects, attendance, good discipline, character education, and anti-bullying.
CPC has a useful website and frequent news bulletins about parent involvement activities. This year CPC again partnered with the College of Extended Studies to offer a Parent Liaison Certificate Program at San Diego State University.
In continuing its transformation from a federally-funded Parent Information Resource Center (PIRC) to a self-supporting statewide organization, CPC explained: We implemented a strategy to partner with county offices of education to provide the venues and equipment for training to cut expenses. We also “nipped and tucked” other expenses to move toward financial stability as a self-supporting organization. Its efforts are succeeding. CPC evaluates every training activity and uses the responses to adjust or improve the presentations and materials on partnership program development and special topics.
The creative and effective leadership of CPC is recognized by other state leaders. For example, CDE’s State Title I Director and Administrator, Dr. Anne E. Just, wrote, "[This office] is pleased with the high quality training and technical assistance provided by the of the California PARENT Center using the research-based NNPS model. We also value CPC’s leadership and continued participation in the CD Family Area Network (FAN) Board … working to finalize California’s parent involvement standards and a rubric to measure progress over time."
Based on our many years of experience as practitioners and trainers on partnerships in districts and schools, we would recommend any organization that aims to help districts and schools develop effective partnership programs to join NNPS. The CPC Leadership Development Trainings and the state’s policy and standards for parental involvement are based, in large part, on the work of NNPS. And, the NNPS research briefs and practical tools help with organized planning. [These approaches] also could help other organizations that are working on partnerships.
For more information, visit the California PARENT Center website at http://parent.sdsu.edu. See the summary of CPC's Partnership Organization Award in 2005 on the website, www.partnershipschools.org in the section Success Stories.