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Oregon Parent Training and Information Center Mission

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Respond to school obligations (parent-teacher conferences, for example). Volunteer at school ... Start the school year with an opening conference. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Oregon Parent Training and Information Center Mission


1
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.

2
Oregon Parent Training and Information Center
Parent Participation
Coming together is a beginning, Keeping
together is progress, Working together is
success.
Henry Ford
3
What we have in common
  • Big expectations, little recognition or monetary
    reward
  • We work long hard hours
  • We care about our children

4
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

5
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.

6
  • 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.

7
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

8
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

9
  • 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.

10
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)

11
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.

12
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.

13
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."

14
  • 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.

15
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.

16
Attributes of Successful Partnerships
  • Mutual respect
  • Trust
  • Shared problem solving
  • Common vision and goals
  • Conflicts, when present, are openly acknowledged
    and addressed
  • Focus

17
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

18
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

19
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)

20
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.

21
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.

22
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.

23
Top Ten Toolsfor Constructive Team Building
  • Creativity
  • Commitment
  • Honesty
  • Appreciation
  • Chocolate
  • Collaboration
  • Patience
  • Flexibility
  • Assertiveness
  • Endurance

24
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

25
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

26
  • 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

27
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

28
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
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