Sustaining SchoolFamilyCommunity Partnerships at all Levels

1
Sustaining School-Family-Community
Partnerships at all Levels

• Kimberli Breen, IL-PBIS Network
• Technical Assistance Director

2
Training Behavioral Expectations
3
Objectives of Presentation

• Provide opportunity to reflect on current status
  of school/family/community partnerships
• Discuss the larger systems context from the
  district and building levels
• Review of systems, data and practices which
  enhance sustain these valuable partnerships
  between school, family and community

4
Overlapping Spheres of Influence
OUTCOMES
5
Benefits of Family Involvement For Families
(PTA)

• Communication/relations with children and
  teachers improves
• Self-esteem goes up
• Education level/skills increase
• Decision-making skills become stronger
• Attitude toward school and school personnel
  improves

6
Benefits of Family Involvement For Students
(PTA)

• Higher grades, test scores, and graduation rates
  
• Better school attendance
• Increased motivation, better self-esteem
• Lower rates of suspension
• Decreased use of drugs and alcohol
• Fewer instances of violent behavior
• Greater enrollment in postsecondary education

7
Benefits of Family Involvement For Teachers
(PTA)

• Greater morale (and self-esteem)
• Teaching effectiveness (proficiency) increases
• Job satisfaction goes up
• Communication/relations with students, parents,
  families, and communities improves
• Community support of schools increases

8
Guiding Principles
1) Human Behavior is functional, understandable,
and predictable 2) Human Behavior is malleable
(can change) 3) Human behavior occurs within an
environmental context, not in a vacuum 4) Human
behavior is learned and can be taught/affected by
changing aspects of the environmental context
9
Reflect, Assess Plan

• How does your school/district clarify
  expectations of families
• for families?
• Were families involved in creating these
  expectations?
• Create an action plan item

10
Reflect, Assess Plan

• How does your school/district clarify
  expectations of staff
• for staff?
• Were staff involved in creating these
  expectations?
• Create an action plan item

11
Designing School-Wide Systems for Student Success
through Family InvolvementA Response to
Intervention Model
Academic Systems
Behavioral Systems
1-5
1-5
5-10
5-10
80-90
80-90
12
(No Transcript)
13
?
Social Competence Academic Achievement
Positive Behavior Support
OUTCOMES
Supporting Decision Making
DATA
Supporting Staff Behavior
SYSTEMS
PRACTICES
Supporting Student Behavior
14
Systems to Support School, Family, Community
PartnershipsState, District Building levels

• Training
• Who trains, whos invited to attend, when are
  trainings/meetings offered, are costs waived??
• Provision of Technical Assistance
• Who provides TA, whats the content/focus of TA,
  how often (dosage) ??
• Resource allocation
• How is money spent, how are people used, who has
  access to materials??
• Data Collection, Use, Priority?

15
Data to Support School, Family, Community
PartnershipsState, District Building levels

• Collection
• What is collected, when and why??
• Use
• Is this data useful, is it accurate, who sees it
  (when and how often)??
• Prioritization
• Is data on partnerships valued, is it collected
  and used in same way as other data??

16
Assess What does your data say about how well
you partner with families?

• Is the data useful/accurate?
• Do you review this data in PBIS team staff
  meetings?
• What are some other indicators?

17
Practices to Support School, Family, Community
PartnershipsState, District Building levels

• Creativity
• Use of community partners places in
  non-traditional ways, meeting at unique times of
  day/locations, providing tutoring as child care
• Perseverance
• Application of RtI model for family community
  involvement
• Flexibility
• Whos on teams, how are roadblocks addressed,
  when can families have contact with school staff

18
To Sustain

• 1. nourish somebody to provide somebody with
  nourishment or the necessities of life
• 2. support something from below to keep
  something in position by holding it from below
• 3. provide somebody with moral support to keep
  somebody going with emotional or moral support
• 4. withstand something to manage to withstand
  something and continue in spite of it
• 5. maintain something to make something continue
  to exist
• 6. confirm something to confirm that something
  is true or valid
• 7. law validate something to decide that a
  statement or objection is valid or justified

19
How to Sustain Anything

• Keep doing itand keep getting better
• Know what youre already doing (Reflect)
• Communicate Memos, minutes, staff mtgs.
• Use data to progress-monitor
• Fuel the effort (Motivate)
• Celebrate what already doing and whats working
• Action plan
• Focus on a steady pace of forward movement
• Create reasonable and measurable goals
• Continuously regenerate (Rob Horner)
• To sustain is to changebe creative expand

20
Examples/Suggestions (not directly covered
during session)
21
IL Examples of How to Involve Families

• At the time of registration and /or open house
  provide families with information on PBIS and
  encourage families to consider signing up to be
  involved with PBIS activities/teams
• Families participate in the design and
  implementation of school-wide celebrations
• Families are awarded acknowledgements (gotchas)
  for their involvement at school

22
IL Examples of How to Involve Families

• Families volunteer to participate, support, and
  develop the PBIS Universal Store
• Families are invited to be active on PBIS teams
• Family members can volunteer at lunch or bus to
  supervise and acknowledge expected behavior

23
IL Examples of How to Involve Families

• Improve school climate and increase family
  friendly atmosphere through new routines and
  activities (meet at buses, offer coffee)
• Families receive acknowledgement when their
  children act in appropriate and exceptional ways
• Family organization supports PBIS activities by
  designating a special line item in their annual
  budget

24
IL Tips/Materials for Families

• Provide families with a PBIS calendar of when
  cool tools will be instructed at school and
  provide families with the cool tools for teaching
  at home
• Gotchas of a different color for home- students
  can bring them back to school or families can
  create their own system for home
• Families are informed about PBIS with specially
  designed handbooks, mini-binders, newsletters and
  school websites

25
IL Examples of How to Involve Families

• Host a Back to School Family Night to share
  information
• a. School-wide expectations
• b. School acknowledgements described
• c. School matrix sent home for posting on the
  refrigerator
• d. Tips for helping students with before and
  after school routines

26
IL Tips/Materials for Families

• PBIS family newsletter with cool tools for home.
• Provide tools to parents to help them to
  understand function of behavior and behavior
  modification.
• Families of new students can be presented a DVD
  upon enrollment in school

27
Suggestions for Implementers

• Find your local family/community agencies
• Focus on building S/F/C leaders/coaches
• Include info on S/F/C partnerships in all PBIS
  trainings/TA
• Make S/F/C partnering an expectation of all
  schools/agencies
• Invite all groups to all trainings (waive fees)
• Provide skill training incentives for
  partnering
• Arrange for joint action planning meetings

28
Prepare staff to work with families

• Help those who work with families take different
  perspectives on situations by discussing
  hypothetical cases from different family members
  points of view
• Ask staff to evaluate their own assumptions and
  beliefs about the families with whom they work.
• Develop staff communication skills
• Provide staff time to process with others
  difficult conversations or situations
• Harvard Family Research Project, October 2006

29
Help families create homes that get children
ready to learn

• Encourage families to share information with the
  school about culture, background, children's
  talents and needs
• Find out where to refer parents/guardians for
  family support programs that help with health,
  nutrition or other services
• Participate in neighborhood meetings to help
  families understand schools and to help schools
  understand families
• Based on a Best-Practice Model Created by Dr.
  Joyce Epstein and Adapted by Seattle Public
  Schools

30
Recruit and organize family help and support

• Arrange to use parent/guardian and community
  volunteers in your classroom (Recruit widely so
  that all families know their contributions are
  welcome)
• Communicate with parents/guardians at the
  beginning of each year to identify talents, times
  and locations of volunteers
• Based on a Best-Practice Model Created by Dr.
  Joyce Epstein and Adapted by Seattle Public
  Schools

31
Focus on recruitment and retention

• Recruit families through face-to-face visits
• Ask current and former program participants to
  help with recruitment
• Hold meetings for parents during nontraditional
  hours, including weekends and evenings
• Provide transportation, child care, and meals at
  meetings
• Harvard Family Research Project, October 2006

32
Let families know the best ways to help students
learn

• If students have several teachers, coordinate
  homework assignments
• Provide calendars with activities for
  parents/guardians and students at home
• Ask families to participate in setting student
  goals each year, and help them look ahead to
  college or work
• Based on a Best-Practice Model Created by Dr.
  Joyce Epstein and Adapted by Seattle Public
  Schools

33
Seek out and use community resources that can
strengthen school programs

• As a class or school, have students, families and
  staff provide service to the community
  (possibilities include recycling, art, music or
  drama performances for seniors)
• Bring alumni back to participate in school
  programs for students
• Based on a Best-Practice Model Created by Dr.
  Joyce Epstein and Adapted by Seattle Public
  Schools

34
Develop family leaders and include them in
school decisions

• Be sure school councils and other school
  governance committees include family
  representatives
• Nominate family members from your school for
  regional and district councils and committees
• Encourage parents/guardians from all segments of
  the school population to become leaders and to
  get leadership training
• Based on a Best-Practice Model Created by Dr.
  Joyce Epstein and Adapted by Seattle Public
  Schools

35
(No Transcript)