Military Child Initiative

Technical Assistance for Districts and Schools on Partnership Program Development

The Military Child Initiative (MCI) aims to improve educational environments for highly mobile and vulnerable young people, with a special focus on children and families in the military. MCI was initially funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Military Child in Transition and Deployment State Liaison Office as a collaborative project of the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University.

Although the original contract ended, the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) continues to offer Technical Assistance on partnership program development to districts and schools that serve children from military families.

Technical Assistance to Districts and Schools on School, Family, and Community Partnerships

The Technical Assistance (TA) component of MCI uses the research-based approaches of the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) at Johns Hopkins University to help schools and districts with large numbers of students from military families improve and sustain their programs of family and community involvement.

In NNPS, district leaders for partnerships are guided to assist all of their schools in developing excellent programs of family and community involvement. Each “Partnership School” organizes an Action Team for Partnerships (ATP), writes an annual plan, selects practices for the framework of six types of involvement linked to school improvement goals, and evaluates its work to continually improve its program.

Technical Assistance from NNPS helps district leaders and their schools:

Create a welcoming environment and sense of community for all students and families
Plan and implement effective strategies for integrating military children and families into new schools and communities
Develop involvement activities that engage one parent at home and deployed parents
Conduct involvement activities that promote successful student and family transitions to new schools
Develop partnerships to increase student achievement and other indicators of success
Collaborate with military bases to use available resources to strengthen school programs
Meet requirements for parental involvement in the No Child Left Behind Act, Section 1118.

NNPS helps members organize their leadership and programs of partnerships. Among its services, NNPS:

Provides on-site presentations, planning meetings, or training workshops for NNPS district members.
Offers customized technical assistance and on-going, on-call consultations with NNPS facilitators.
Prepares district leaders for partnerships to develop district-level and school-based programs of family and community involvement, with special attention to the needs of highly mobile students and to other issues that affect students from military families.
Works with district leaders for partnerships to conduct a one-day professional development workshop for schools' Action Teams for Partnerships.
Guides districts and schools to involve families and community partners to improve student achievement, attendance, behavior, homework completion, and attitudes about school.

Technical Assistance from NNPS. These include:

Identify a district-level leader for school, family, and community partnerships.
Join NNPS as a district member.
Assist all schools or an initial cohort of schools to join NNPS and to prepare for team training.
Schedule a planning session with an NNPS facilitator by phone, on site, or at an NNPS conference.
Provide a venue for a One-Day Team Training workshop for school-based Action Teams for Partnerships for “basic training” in planning a partnership program.
Work with an NNPS Facilitator to organize half day “advanced training” workshops for well-functioning Action Teams for Partnerships on topics of importance to schools serving students from military families:

Involving Single Parents in Partnership Activities
Ensuring Successful Transitions for Highly Mobile Students and Families

Provide on-going support for district-level and school-based programs of family and community involvement linked to school improvement goals.

Other MCI products

See other MCI projects and products developed by colleagues at the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, including:

Reports and Resources. Effective programs and best practices are described to improve school climate, family and community partnerships, students' "connectedness," transitions to new schools, and the academic, social, emotional, and health of students from military families. Click on www.jhsph.edu/mci.

Best Practices Library. For examples and ideas of effective programs and practices, click on http://www.jhsph.edu/mci/Library/index.html.

Building Resilient Kids. This distance learning course was developed by Dr. Michael Blum for the Military Child Initiative at Johns Hopkins University. Among many topics, the course includes 2 modules on School, Family, and Community Partnerships and on School-Community Partnerships, designed with Dr. Joyce Epstein and Dr. Mavis Sanders at NNPS.

Online course:	www.jhsph.edu/mci Click on Building Resilient Kids
To register for course credit:	Field Studies in Educational Foundations (EDEF 469) University of Hawaii - Manoa Outreach College 10 weeks - 3 credits Click on University of Hawaii credit

For more information on NNPS benefits and services, visit these sections of this website:

NNPS Model	See the major components of district and school programs.
Research and Evaluation	Learn about the research that underlies the NNPS model, tools, and materials for program development.
Success Stories	Read about effective practices from districts and schools across the country. See over 600 Promising Partnership Practices In the annual collections from members of NNPS.
Professional Development	Review NNPS conference agendas and workshop series. See costs for training.
Join NNPS	Download a letter of invitation, list of benefits and services, and membership forms.

For more information on Technical Assistance to improve programs of family and community involvement in schools that serve children from military families, contact:

Darcy Hutchins, Senior Program Facilitator
National Network of Partnership Schools
dhutchins@csos.jhu.edu
410-516-8893