Spring, 2000 No. 8 National Network of Partnership Schools
NOTICES:
Spotlight Your Best Partnership Practices
Spotlight Your Best Partnership Practices
One of the Network’s goals is to help schools, districts, and states learn from one another about particularly effective and creative approaches to partnerships. One way this is accomplished is in the annual collection, Promising Partnership Practices. Members of the Network are invited to submit a detailed description of a successful activity by June 30, 2000 for inclusion in this year’s publication.
Promising partnership practices may focus on the six types of involvement and specific school improvement goals at the school level, and on district and state leadership activities. The Network hopes to learn more about school-level activities that are successful in Title I schools, middle and high schools, schools working on Type 5–Decision Making, and about linking partnerships to specific school improvement goals. States and districts are encouraged to share activities that improve policies and that facilitate the work of all schools.
Promising Partnership Practices–2000 will be mailed to all members in August as a benefit of membership. The 1998 and 1999 collections are available on the Network’s web site (www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000, click on "In the Spotlight"). This year, some of the most promising activities also will be posted on Disney Learning Partnership’s web site, www.disneylearning.org.
Members Invited to Link to NNPS Web Site
Does your school, district, state department of education, organization, or university have a web site? Would you like to create a reciprocal link with the National Network of Partnership Schools web site? If you answered "YES!" to these questions, contact Beth Simon (nnps@csos.jhu.edu) or visit www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000. Click on "Links" and follow the directions listed.
Raise Your Hand If You Know a Great Teacher!
Disney Learning Partnership seeks nominations of creative teachers for its American Teacher Awards (ATA) program. Each year 36 teachers are honored who inspire creativity and the joy of learning in their students. The awards demonstrate the respect that is due to excellent teachers in different subject specialties at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
You may nominate a great teacher by calling, toll free, 1-877-ATA-TEACH, or submit your nomination online at disneylearning.org. Nominations are due March 31. All nominees will receive the American Teacher Awards application by mid-April for submission by June 2. Applications will be reviewed by a team of experts and past award winners. The 36 honorees will be recognized in a ceremony televised in December, 2000 on the Disney Channel.
Invite YOUR State and School District to Join the National Network
The National Network of Partnership Schools invites state departments of education and school
districts (LEAs, and areas or clusters in larger districts) to join the agenda of helping schools to improve school, family, and community partnerships. Thirteen states presently are working with the Network: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. Over 130 school systems located in about 30 states are members of the National Network. Now is the time to invite YOUR state and district to join.Districts in states that also are members of the National Network report on UPDATE that their states offer stronger support, more grants, and more technical assistance for partnerships. When states stand behind their policies on partnerships with supportive actions such as grants, conferences, dissemination of ideas, and recognition of good work, districts and schools do better in developing their programs of partnership. States, districts, and schools in the Network are demonstrating that they can use a research-based framework, implement essential structures and processes to organize partnership programs, and tailor their plans for partnerships to address their own goals for student success.
If YOUR state or school district is not yet a member of the National Network of Partnership Schools, contact the Network with the name and contact information of the appropriate leader, and the Network will send an invitation, information, and membership form.
New Measure of Quality and Progress
Network members may request a free copy of Measure of School, Family, and Community Partnerships, developed by researchers from the National Network and the Northwest Regional Education Lab (NWREL). The new measure enables schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships to rate the frequency and quality of activities that they implement for the six types of involvement. It also assesses how well schools are meeting important challenges to develop excellent partnership programs. The new measure may be used annually to chart progress, and is a good alternative to the popular Starting Points inventory in the Handbook that Action Teams use to help plan their initial programs.
Salinas, K. C., Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G., Davis, D., & Douglas, I. (1999). Measure of School, Family, and Community Partnerships. Baltimore: Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships, Johns Hopkins University and Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.
It's a MUST! UPDATE due May 31st from ALL Members*
All states, districts, and schools in the National Network of Partnership Schools MUST renew their membership each year by returning the UPDATE survey. UPDATE asks for current names of key contacts, addresses, phone and fax numbers, and other information for on-going communications with the Network. UPDATE also documents progress made, challenges faced, and questions that need to be addressed. Here's how it works:
WE mail UPDATE in April, and include a National Network pen and a stamped envelope for EASY mailing.
MEMBERS return UPDATE promptly, by May 31, 2000.
WE continue to provide Type 2, Promising Partnership Practices, information on research, invitations to leadership development meetings, and other guidelines, tools, and benefits AT NO COST to members.
It's a great deal all around! Return UPDATE by May 31 to continue your partnership with the National Network.
*All schools, districts, and states who joined the National Network before December 31, 1999 must RENEW membership by returning UPDATE 2000. Members joining after December 31, 1999 will receive UPDATE in April, 2001.
National Network of Partnership Schools Calendar for 2000
April 3: NNPS will mail UPDATE 2000 to members who joined the Network by 12/99. Due May 31 to RENEW Network membership for the 2000-01 school year.
April 6-7: Leadership Training Workshop in Baltimore for new members who registered for initial training to prepare for the 2000-01 school year.
April 8: TIPS Interactive Homework Workshop at Johns Hopkins University for members who registered to develop and implement Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS) for the 2000-01 school year.
May 31: UPDATE 2000 must be returned to the National Network to renew membership for the 2000-01 school year.
June 30: Promising partnership practices from members due for the Network’s annual collection.
June 30: Applications due for Partnership School Awards, Partnership District Awards, and Partnership State Awards for the 1999-2000 school year.
August: Promising Partnership Practices–2000 mailed to all members.
September: Final data collection for Focus on Results 1999-2000: Reading Achievement.
October: Fall issue of Type 2.
October 25-26: State and District Leadership Meeting in Baltimore. Information will be sent July, 2000.
December: Invitation to members to join the cross-site study, Focus on Results 2000-01: School, Family, and Community Partnerships to Improve Attendance. Initial data collection.
