Oregon Parent Training and Information Center Mission

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Oregon Parent Training and Information Center
Mission

• Our goal is to educate and support parents,
  families and professionals in building
  partnerships that meet the needs of children and
  youth with the full range of disabilities ages
  birth to twenty-six.

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Oregon Parent Training and Information Center
Parent Participation
Coming together is a beginning, Keeping
together is progress, Working together is
success.
Henry Ford
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What we have in common

• Big expectations, little recognition or monetary
  reward
• We work long hard hours
• We care about our children

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Parent Involvement

• Includes several different forms of participation
  in education and with the schools. Parents can
• Attend school functions
• Respond to school obligations (parent-teacher
  conferences, for example).
• Volunteer at school
• Help their children improve their schoolwork

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Research Shows

• Parent involvement in children's learning is
  positively related to achievement.
• The more intensively parents are involved in
  their children's learning, the more beneficial
  are the achievement effects.
• The most effective forms of parent involvement
  are those which engage parents in working
  directly with their children on learning
  activities in the home.
• The more active forms of parent involvement
  produce greater achievement benefits than the
  more passive ones.
• Considerably greater achievement benefits are
  noted when parent involvement is active--when
  parents work with their children at home,
  certainly, but also when they attend and actively
  support school activities and when they help out
  in classrooms or on field trips, and so on.
• The earlier in a child's education that parent
  involvement begins, the more powerful the effects
  will be.

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• Research has established that the most successful
  parent participation efforts are those which
  offer parents a variety of roles in the context
  of a well-organized and long-lasting program.
  Parents will need to be able to choose from a
  range of activities which accommodate different
  schedules, preferences, and capabilities. As part
  of the planning process, teachers and
  administrators will need to assess their own
  readiness for involving parents and determine how
  they wish to engage and utilize them.

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Barriers to Collaboration

• Lack of Time
• High Caseloads
• Prior negative experiences
• Belief that families cause disorders
• High expectations
• Inadequate Knowledge

• Isolated Families
• Power imbalance
• Lack of support for staff
• Lack of Trust
• Miscommunication

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More Barriers

• Times of meetings
• Teachers hard to contact/ busy
• Language
• Unsure how to support students

• Lack of Support staff
• Little return for effort
• Dwindling support over time
• As students get older parents less involved
• Competing demands

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• Investigators have identified lack of planning
  and lack of mutual understanding as the two
  greatest barriers to effective parent
  involvement. School staff wishing to institute
  effective programs will need to be both
  openminded and well-organized in their approach
  to engaging parent participation.

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Five guiding principles for involving parents in
schools

• A no-fault approach, focusing not on who is to
  blame but on what can be done.
• Coordination and cooperation among all adults
  concerned with the child's best educational
  interests.
• Decision by consensus whenever possible.
• Regular meetings representing the entire school
  community.
• Active involvement of parents.
• Comer and Haynes (1992)

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Other guidelines include

• Communicate to parents that their involvement and
  support makes a great deal of difference in their
  children's school performance, and that they need
  not be highly educated or have large amounts of
  free time for their involvement to be beneficial.
  Make this point repeatedly.
• Encourage parent involvement from the time
  children first enter school (or preschool, if
  they attend).
• Teach parents that activities such as modeling
  reading behavior and reading to their children
  increase children's interest in learning.
• Develop parent involvement programs that include
  a focus on parent involvement in
  instruction--conducting learning activities with
  children in the home, assisting with homework,
  and monitoring and encouraging the learning
  activities of older students.
• Provide orientation and training for parents, but
  remember that intensive, long-lasting training is
  neither necessary nor feasible.
• Make a special effort to engage the involvement
  of parents of disadvantaged students, who stand
  to benefit the most from parent participation in
  their learning, but whose parents are often
  initially reluctant to become involved.
• Continue to emphasize that parents are partners
  of the school and that their involvement is
  needed and valued.

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ACTION OPTIONS Educators

• Seek out opportunities for professional
  development and training in parent involvement.
• Make parents feel welcome in the school.
• Provide a parent center for parents to use while
  at school.
• Reach out to parents whose first language is not
  English.
• Learn about the various ethnic, cultural, and
  socioeconomic backgrounds of the students and
  know how to communicate with diverse families.
• Accommodate parents' work schedules when creating
  parent-involvement opportunities.
• Assign homework projects that engage each child's
  parents and family and make learning more
  meaningful for the student, such as a family
  history, interviews with grandparents, or
  descriptions of parents' daily work.
• Keep parents informed of their children's
  performance and school activities by means of
  notes, telephone calls, newsletters, conferences,
  and meetings.
• Provide clear, practical information on
  home-teaching techniques for parents of children
  who need extra help at home.
• Provide opportunities for parents to visit the
  school, observe classes, and provide feedback.
• Start the school year with an opening conference.
  
• Develop a plan to promote teacher-parent
  partnerships at school.
• Invite parents to serve on school or district
  committees.

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Professional development and training in parent
involvement.

• Ballen and Moles (1994) describe basic components
  that could be included in such training
• "Schools and school systems seldom offer staff
  any formal training in collaborating with parents
  or in understanding the varieties of modern
  family life. However, both the National Education
  Association and the American Federation of
  Teachers are working to make such information and
  skills widely available....There are myriad ways
  for families to become more involved in schools,
  and training can help teachers and other school
  staff change the traditional images of contacting
  parents only when a student is in trouble or when
  the school needs help with a bake sale. Teacher
  training programs can include general information
  on the benefits of and barriers to parental
  involvement, information on awareness of
  different family backgrounds and lifestyles,
  techniques for improving two-way communication
  between home and school, information on ways to
  involve parents in helping their children learn
  in school and outside, and ways that schools can
  help meet families' social, educational, and
  social service needs."

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• As the student populations of American schools
  continue to become increasingly diverse, teachers
  and administrators may benefit from learning
  about their students' various ethnic, cultural,
  and socioeconomic backgrounds. Such knowledge is
  beneficial in helping educators reach out to
  families and encouraging parents to become
  involved in the school.

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Parents

• Identify some ways to answer the question "How
  can I be involved in my child's education?" and
  select from among 50 ways parents can help
  schools, especially those that help promote
  meaningful, engaged learning.
• Read to younger children.
• Provide a variety of reading materials in the
  home and frequently take children to the library.
  
• Promote school attendance and discourage
  absenteeism.
• Monitor children's television viewing.
• Provide a quiet place for children to do
  homework help with or check homework every
  night.
• Encourage children to participate in learning
  activities when school is not in session.
  (Activities that include parents are found in
  Summer Home Learning Recipes.)
• Encourage children's efforts in school.
• Help children choose appropriate preparatory
  courses in middle, junior high, and high school.
• Remain aware of the importance of parent
  involvement at the secondary school level and
  continue to stay involved.
• Keep in touch with children's teachers.
• Volunteer to participate in school activities.
• Participate in school-improvement efforts and
  join advisory or decision-making committees.
• Look for innovative ways to improve schools, such
  as helping to organize public schools called
  charter schools.

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Attributes of Successful Partnerships

• Mutual respect
• Trust
• Shared problem solving
• Common vision and goals
• Conflicts, when present, are openly acknowledged
  and addressed
• Focus

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Elements of Collaboration

• Inclusive decision making
• Caring attitudes
• Sharing information
• Consideration of cultural factors
• Trust

• Considering the whole child
• Responsive services
• Families as a resource

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Atmosphere The Climate in Schools for Families
and Educators

• What is consistently advocated is that schools
  must be welcoming, family friendly communities.
• True collaboration occurs with CORE - when these
  ingredients are present
• Connection
• Optimism
• Respect
• Empowerment

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CORE

• Connection
• Trust building
• Shared goals
• Common vision
• Conflict resolution
• Optimism
• Problems are systems, not individual, problems.
  (interface)
• No one person is to blame. (nonblaming,
  solution-oriented)
• All concerned parties are doing the best they
  can. (nonjugmental, perspective taking)

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CORE

• Respect
• Each person brings different, but equally valid
  expertise to the problem-solving process.
• Respect requires acceptance of differences,
  especially perceptions about childs performance.
  
• Empowerment
• Both parties have strengths and competencies.
• Parents believe they can help.
• Parents know a role for which they feel
  comfortable.
• Parents see that their efforts make a difference
  in achievement.

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Involving the Uninvolved

• Newer school practices include
• Identifying families who are not responding to
  current outreach and making a personal contact.
• Keeping interaction focused on genuine interest
  in improving the childs school success.
• Understanding parents goals for their childrens
  education.
• Being persistent about the importance of a family
  learning environment.

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Invitations and information, but also

• If the parent chooses not to participate, school
  personnel explain that they will do their part at
  school however, they make it clear that this is
  only part of the equation for school success. We
  know children perform better if the school and
  home work together to achieve a shared goal for
  the childs learning. Without in- and
  out-of-school time devoted to reading, the
  probability the child will perform less well on
  school tasks is increased.

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Top Ten Toolsfor Constructive Team Building

• Creativity
• Commitment
• Honesty
• Appreciation
• Chocolate

• Collaboration
• Patience
• Flexibility
• Assertiveness
• Endurance

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Tips for Parents

• Equal Partner
• Express needs
• Participate
• Be Prepared
• Develop Mutual Goals
• Put Away Negative Experiences

• Follow through
• Involvement with other Parents
• Consider Time
• No Bashing
• Support the Team

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Tips for Professionals

• Value parent input
• Respect involvement
• Avoid Jargon
• Solicit involvement
• Schedule at convenient times

• Commit to the Plan
• Connect Families
• Convey interest
• Be honest

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• Remember, there is no "one size fits all" answer
• Set clear and measurable goals
• Develop a variety of outreach mechanisms
• Provide a varied opportunities for participation
• Give families and students complete information
  expectations
• Recognize a community's historic, ethnic,
  linguistic, and cultural resources
• Hire and train a family coordinator
• Use creative forms of communication between
  educators and families
• Find positive messages to send to all families
• Offer regular opportunities for families to
  discuss their children's progress
• Make sure that family members acting as
  volunteers in the school have opportunities to
  help teachers
• Provide professional development opportunities
• Involve families in evaluating the effectiveness
  of family involvement programs
• NCPIE

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Diversity

• Each person's map of the world is as unique as
  the person's thumbprint. There are no two people
  alike. No two people who understand the same
  sentence the same way .  .  . So in dealing with
  people, you try not to fit them to your concept
  of what they should be. -- MILTON ERICKSON

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Contact Information

• Call us at 503-581-8156 or 888-505-2673
  (toll-free in state only)
• Help-line 888-891-6784
• Fax us at 503-391-0429
• E-mail us at info_at_orpti.org
• Website - http//www.orpti.org