Just about every state has a policy or recommendations for improving programs of school, family, and community partnerships, but not every state has assigned a full-time (or equivalent) leader to become an expert, point-person, and resource for promoting the state’s agenda and goals for partnerships. What happens if state leaders become experts on partnerships and are supported by the state superintendent and other colleagues for many years?
I interviewed key contacts from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WI-DPI) and the Connecticut State Department of Education (CT-SDE)—two states that joined NNPS at its inception in 1996. Jane Grinde and Ruth Anne Landsverk, from WI-DPI, have worked together on partnerships since 1988 and guided NNPS on roles for state leaders as we developed the network. Judy Carson, from CT-SDE, is part of a long-standing leadership team that contributed its expertise to the NNPS Handbook and other NNPS activities. The leaders from both states raised issues and offered insights that should help other state leaders develop and improve their partnership programs.
NNPS: What has been most important in sustaining your office’s leadership and programs of school, family, and community partnerships for the past 10 years?
WI-DPI: We have been fortunate to have three state superintendents over the years who have made family and community involvement one of their priorities for school improvement. Currently, State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster includes partnerships in her plan, the New Wisconsin Promise, which aims to close the achievement gap between diverse groups of students. She strongly believes that family and community involvement is part of the solution.
Teamwork is another sustaining factor. We are the Community Learning and Partnership Team in the Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning, led by Assistant State Superintendent Richard Grobschmidt. We are supported, in part, by Title V of No Child Left Behind (Promoting Informed Parental Choice and Innovative Programs), but some programs, conferences, publications, and other initiatives are funded by and conducted with teams in other divisions (e.g., Title I). This kind of “collaborative budgeting” has been a challenge, but helped us expand our agenda and increase understanding of school, family, and community partnerships in other divisions in DPI.
CT-SDE: Two commissioners and many internal and external partners have helped us sustain our work. In 1999, the state created the Bureau of Health and Nutrition Services and Child/Family/School Partnerships, which includes our program – School, Family, and Community Partnerships (S/F/C/P). There were ups and downs that reorganized, removed, and reinstated the Bureau over the years. Our current leaders, Commissioner Betty Sternberg, Associate Commissioner George Coleman, and Bureau Chief Charlene Russell-Tucker, truly understand the importance of partnerships and want to see even more progress statewide.
Our state leadership team tries to model a partnership approach. SDE works closely with the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), the State Education Resource Center (SERC), and United Way-CT Parents Plus—the state’s Parent Information Resource Center (PIRC). Although finding time to meet is always a challenge, we manage to plan, provide awareness sessions on partnerships, and conduct training workshops for school teams and district leaders. As a team, we “retreat” at the end of the year to evaluate our work. We have worked together for so long that we have developed a shared expectation to maintain momentum and continually improve.
NNPS: What are some notable results of your work on partnerships?
WI-DPI: We have seen great changes in knowledge and attitudes about partnerships at the state, district, and school levels over the past ten years. Our state policy reflects the results of research and includes attention to the Six Types of Involvement. Our superintendent meets with the Parent Leadership Corps (PLC), guided by our office, for input on prospective policies and initiatives. The PLC developed an inservice workshop, “10 Things Parents Want School Staff to Know,” to help teachers and principals understand parents’ willingness to become involved in their children’s education. Nearly all state task forces and committees now include parent representatives so that parents’ voices are heard before decisions are made.
Many schools in Wisconsin have started to work on their partnership programs. One of the best indicators of change is when we run into principals implementing the NNPS model who tell us, “It works!” We are very proud, for example, of the two schools that won 2005 Partnership School Awards from NNPS for their own sustained partnership programs. Our office also produces publications, such as Parent Guide and New Teachers Guide, which reinforce NCLB requirements for family involvement at the school and district levels.
CT-SDE: Our state board’s commitment to S/F/C/P has helped us develop our program. During the past 10 years, we have conducted awareness sessions for thousands of educators on school, family, and community partnerships. Well over 100 schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships have attended training workshops to help them plan their programs. Our office has disseminated information on partnerships statewide. For example, Schools & Families newsletters are distributed to over 5000 educators across the state.
We are encouraged by the work we started last year, assisting a few pilot districts’ leaders to guide their schools in developing partnership programs. We learn from evaluations of our work. Outside evaluators helped us assess the effectiveness of schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships and are helping us monitor our current work with district leaders.
NNPS: Look ahead five years. What is your vision for your state’s work on school, family, and community partnerships?
WI-DPI: We would like to see all districts help all schools become family-friendly places and use the common-sense concepts in the framework of the Six Types of Involvement to organize ATPs, write and implement plans, and link partnership practices to school improvement goals. All schools in Wisconsin have School Improvement Plans.
NNPS: Is that a realistic dream?
WI-DPI: If we stay on track, we should be able to reach this goal. Our state is at a crossroads. We need to close the achievement gap between students who are native English speakers and those whose families speak other languages at home, and between those from families with high and low incomes. District and school administrators are looking for ways to make everyone feel welcome at their schools. They need to know that there are research-based approaches that will help them engage families in ways that support student attendance, behavior, learning, and achievement.
CT-SDE: We would like to continue strengthening the infrastructure for partnership programs across the state. For example, the Groton School District, which is part of NNPS, recently added family and community involvement to their assessment model to gauge how schools are improving. That is an important direction for other districts and schools.
Some new collaborations in SDE will strengthen our agenda. With the School Improvement Office, we are reviewing parental involvement requirements of district improvement plans. This has generated discussions in SDE about the role of partnership programs in closing the achievement gap. Also, we are collaborating on a project to tie family literacy activities with the curriculum in kindergarten through second grade. Eventually, we envision a “scope and sequence” of partnership activities linked to the curriculum across all grades.
We would like to strengthen our budget for school, family, and community partnerships to provide incentives for districts to allocate staff who help all schools develop partnership programs. This would create a broad-based, state-wide program of partnerships. We also plan to examine the role of parent liaisons and find ways to help them become more productive members of school teams that work on partnerships.
NOTE: You can meet these leaders and read about their award-winning programs here. Learn more about them on the websites for Wisconsin and Connecticut.