Type 2
Issue No. 20
Spring 2006

Workshop to Increase Partnerships with Families in the Military

NNPS conducted a new workshop, "Ensuring Successful Transitions for Highly Mobile Students and Families," with district leaders and school teams in the Davis County School District in Utah (which serves families from the Hillside Air Force Base) and the Virginia Beach City Public Schools (which serves families from the Navy's Oceana, Norfolk, and other bases). The workshop, part of the Technical Assistance component of the Military Child Initiative (MCI) project at NNPS, is designed to help schools' Action Teams for Partnerships (ATPs) welcome highly mobile families and involve them in ways that contribute to student success.

Developed by Cecelia Martin and presented by Darcy Hutchins, the 2½ hour workshop aimed to help ATPs understand the challenges of military and mobile families and students, and use the framework of Six Types of Involvement to include all families in their children's education. The ATPs that already had One-Year Action Plans for Partnerships were guided to add activities to ease the transitions of mobile students and families. In Utah, new ATPs that just joined NNPS received a full-day team training workshop, with attention to welcoming mobile families as part of their partnership programs.

Other districts in NNPS that have schools serving large numbers of children from military families or other mobile populations may request full team training or advanced workshops on improving family involvement at times of transitions. For more information, contact NNPS facilitators at (410) 516-8800 or cmartin@csos.jhu.edu.