Top: Photo by JERREY ROBERTS, Seiha Krouch and Thyda Ty, at home with their daughter Diamonique, 13, who attends Amherst Regional Middle School. She says having parents involved in the schools makes her feel proud.
Bottom: PHOTO COURTESY OF cROCKER FARM SCHOOL, A Cambodian open house in December drew parents and school leaders to Crocker Farm School in Amherst for small-group discussions. Next month, the school will host an all-elementary school celebration of Cambodian New Year.
Bottom: PHOTO COURTESY OF cROCKER FARM SCHOOL, A Cambodian open house in December drew parents and school leaders to Crocker Farm School in Amherst for small-group discussions. Next month, the school will host an all-elementary school celebration of Cambodian New Year.
By BARBARA SOLOW
Gazettenet.com
Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
When Easthampton resident Maggie Dietrich met with the head of her son's elementary school recently, it wasn't in the principal's office.
She joined a small gathering in the home of another school family. With parents seated in comfortable chairs in the living room, Robert Orlando, principal of Center/Pepin School, answered questions about "everything from scheduling recess to testing and teacher conferences," Dietrich said.
Dietrich has a 40-mile commute to her public relations job in Connecticut and her husband also works, so it's difficult for them to attend events and meetings during school hours. Still, she wants to be part of her son's first-grade experience.
The evening gathering in her neighborhood offered another way for her to connect with the school. "It made me feel more engaged," Dietrich said.
Engagement is also the aim of an outreach effort in Amherst focused on Cambodian families at Crocker Farm School. Redistricting in 2010 meant a cluster of about 50 Cambodian children at one school was dispersed among several schools, and parents say the change was hard on many families. A new affinity group is helping ease the transition.
With "family engagement" now identified as an explicit goal of school improvement plans and state evaluation systems, schools throughout the region are making new efforts, and sprucing up old ones, to connect with families. The experiments include family math nights in Northampton, community literacy events in the Hampshire Regional district and the affinity group for Cambodian families in Amherst.
Few school leaders need to be convinced of the benefits of such outreach. Decades of research has shown family engagement can help reduce drop-out rates, improve graduation rates and boost student grades and test scores.
Involving families in education can also help close achievement gaps, studies show. "The most accurate predictor of a student's achievement in school is not income or social status," a 2001 study of students in Larchmont, N.Y., found, but "the extent to which that student's family is able to become more involved in their children's education at school and in the community."
Two years ago, Georgia's Board of Education became the first in the nation to adopt a "parent engagement resolution" urging schools statewide to develop guidelines for creating school/home partnerships.
In Massachusetts, family engagement is one of 11 "essential conditions" the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has identified for schools. An advisory council is currently working on guidelines to help more schools achieve "family, school and community partnership."
In Easthampton, Dietrich feels the recent neighborhood meeting did just that.
"It opened the door for me to feel comfortable talking to the principal," she said. "He gave a couple of examples of how the school has made changes based on parent feedback. I think I have a better sense of the openness of the school."
Principal Orlando said the session gave him a window on what parents view as strengths and weaknesses of school programs. "It was only supposed to go for an hour and it went for a much longer time," he added. "The dialogue was very rich."
State requirements
Center/Pepin is among many area schools that have made involving families a key goal of official improvement plans. New state standards also require schools to reach out to parents.
"The state's new teacher evaluation standards have a community engagement piece," noted Ted McCarthy, assistant principal of South Hadley High School, who has led a push for more community service activities at his school. "Administrators and teachers are interacting more with the community."
Still, meaningful parent engagement isn't happening at all schools or for all families.
"In many families, the parents have not had great experiences in school," said Gwen Agna, principal of Jackson Street School in Northampton, which has a long tradition of reaching out to the surrounding neighborhood. "We have to start with a clear message of respect for parents."
In Amherst, Crocker Farm's principal, Michael Morris, formed the affinity group for Cambodian families after parents who felt adrift following redistricting contacted him last year.
"There's an after-school program at Fort River and the children used to do their homework together," said Julie Ek, a member of the new group at Crocker Farm. "The redistricting really split people up."
Members have discussed how families can be supported through language clubs, homework help and translating school news into the Khmer language. The highlight of the group's work so far, members say, was a Cambodian open house in December where parents - and grandparents - chatted with school officials over Cambodian food. A slide show traced the history of the community in Amherst and celebrated past organizing in the schools.
The group is now planning an all-elementary school celebration of Cambodian New Year at Crocker Farm in April.
Seiha Krouch, who attended the school after his family arrived in the U.S. from Cambodia in 1985, said the affinity group helps preserve his community's culture. But he believes such efforts benefit more than just Cambodian families.
"I've had a family from Cape Verde and some white families ask me about the after-school program," said Krouch, a paraprofessional at Fort River.
His 13-year-old daughter, Diamonique, who now attends Amherst Regional Middle School, says having parents involved in the schools makes her feel proud.
"It's better to know about yourself," she said. "If you know more about where your family comes from and what they've been through, it makes you proud and thankful for what you have."
Parents as learners
At R.K. Finn Ryan Road School in Northampton, a series of family math nights last fall drew parents more directly into the learning process. During four hour-long evening sessions, teachers and parents talked and practiced the same math strategies students were learning in the classroom using tools like snap cubes, poster charts and number lines.
"The staff were not experts," said Principal Margaret Riddle. "They were puzzling things out just like the parents."
The sessions also gave teachers a chance to explain why and how math instruction is changing in the early grades, Riddle said. "Parents nowadays look at their children's work and wonder, 'How are they going to learn?' " she said. "Programs like this can help put parents' fears to rest."
Josh Thibedau said the family math nights taught him ways to help his second-grader at Ryan Road with homework.
"His math was nothing like what I learned," said Thibedau, who attended city schools. "He'd ask me to help him but I couldn't wrap my head around what he was showing me."
The workshops also shifted Thibedau's thinking about the instruction his son is getting in class. "Now I have ways, not to do his homework for him, but to give him hints of how to get the answer," he said. "I learned that the school system is willing to teach kids the way they are able to learn."
Supporting school identity
In the Hampshire Regional district, engaging school families is part of forging a stronger school identity, said parent Susan Froehlich.
"As a regional school we don't have one town identity," said Froehlich, a Williamsburg resident whose children attend Hampshire Regional High School. "So how do we bring kids coming in from different communities to have more of a focus?"
Froehlich is a member of a new transition team made up of parents and school staff that Kristen Bouley, the assistant principal for the middle school, created to support entering seventh-graders and give parents a forum for discussions.
"It's a culture shift," said Froehlich. "We have a lot of people involved in music, drama and sports. We need to let parents know there are other ways to contribute."
The team is sponsoring a "community read" and open house March 28 at the high school. All sixth- and seventh-graders in the district have been invited to read "Surviving the Applewhites," a Newbury Honor Book, and that evening they will be able to Skype with its author, Stephanie Tolan. Parents will have a chance to ask questions about team teaching, homework and special education.
Teachers at the William E. Norris School in Southampton have also used a community literacy night to connect with families.
Now in its fourth year, the literacy night offers parents pointers on how to read with their children through a storytelling performance and activities. Pati Mari, the school librarian, said the event gives parents another reason to visit the school - and another way for staff members to emphasize learning.
"The whole aim is to bring families in," she said. "What we're really trying to do is get parents motivated to sit down and read with their kids."
Kindergarten teacher Megan Johnson, co-founder of the Norris School literacy night, said it is now a highlight of the school calendar.
"It's become not just a celebration of literacy," she said, "but also of our school."
She joined a small gathering in the home of another school family. With parents seated in comfortable chairs in the living room, Robert Orlando, principal of Center/Pepin School, answered questions about "everything from scheduling recess to testing and teacher conferences," Dietrich said.
Dietrich has a 40-mile commute to her public relations job in Connecticut and her husband also works, so it's difficult for them to attend events and meetings during school hours. Still, she wants to be part of her son's first-grade experience.
The evening gathering in her neighborhood offered another way for her to connect with the school. "It made me feel more engaged," Dietrich said.
Engagement is also the aim of an outreach effort in Amherst focused on Cambodian families at Crocker Farm School. Redistricting in 2010 meant a cluster of about 50 Cambodian children at one school was dispersed among several schools, and parents say the change was hard on many families. A new affinity group is helping ease the transition.
With "family engagement" now identified as an explicit goal of school improvement plans and state evaluation systems, schools throughout the region are making new efforts, and sprucing up old ones, to connect with families. The experiments include family math nights in Northampton, community literacy events in the Hampshire Regional district and the affinity group for Cambodian families in Amherst.
Few school leaders need to be convinced of the benefits of such outreach. Decades of research has shown family engagement can help reduce drop-out rates, improve graduation rates and boost student grades and test scores.
Involving families in education can also help close achievement gaps, studies show. "The most accurate predictor of a student's achievement in school is not income or social status," a 2001 study of students in Larchmont, N.Y., found, but "the extent to which that student's family is able to become more involved in their children's education at school and in the community."
Two years ago, Georgia's Board of Education became the first in the nation to adopt a "parent engagement resolution" urging schools statewide to develop guidelines for creating school/home partnerships.
In Massachusetts, family engagement is one of 11 "essential conditions" the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has identified for schools. An advisory council is currently working on guidelines to help more schools achieve "family, school and community partnership."
In Easthampton, Dietrich feels the recent neighborhood meeting did just that.
"It opened the door for me to feel comfortable talking to the principal," she said. "He gave a couple of examples of how the school has made changes based on parent feedback. I think I have a better sense of the openness of the school."
Principal Orlando said the session gave him a window on what parents view as strengths and weaknesses of school programs. "It was only supposed to go for an hour and it went for a much longer time," he added. "The dialogue was very rich."
State requirements
Center/Pepin is among many area schools that have made involving families a key goal of official improvement plans. New state standards also require schools to reach out to parents.
"The state's new teacher evaluation standards have a community engagement piece," noted Ted McCarthy, assistant principal of South Hadley High School, who has led a push for more community service activities at his school. "Administrators and teachers are interacting more with the community."
Still, meaningful parent engagement isn't happening at all schools or for all families.
"In many families, the parents have not had great experiences in school," said Gwen Agna, principal of Jackson Street School in Northampton, which has a long tradition of reaching out to the surrounding neighborhood. "We have to start with a clear message of respect for parents."
In Amherst, Crocker Farm's principal, Michael Morris, formed the affinity group for Cambodian families after parents who felt adrift following redistricting contacted him last year.
"There's an after-school program at Fort River and the children used to do their homework together," said Julie Ek, a member of the new group at Crocker Farm. "The redistricting really split people up."
Members have discussed how families can be supported through language clubs, homework help and translating school news into the Khmer language. The highlight of the group's work so far, members say, was a Cambodian open house in December where parents - and grandparents - chatted with school officials over Cambodian food. A slide show traced the history of the community in Amherst and celebrated past organizing in the schools.
The group is now planning an all-elementary school celebration of Cambodian New Year at Crocker Farm in April.
Seiha Krouch, who attended the school after his family arrived in the U.S. from Cambodia in 1985, said the affinity group helps preserve his community's culture. But he believes such efforts benefit more than just Cambodian families.
"I've had a family from Cape Verde and some white families ask me about the after-school program," said Krouch, a paraprofessional at Fort River.
His 13-year-old daughter, Diamonique, who now attends Amherst Regional Middle School, says having parents involved in the schools makes her feel proud.
"It's better to know about yourself," she said. "If you know more about where your family comes from and what they've been through, it makes you proud and thankful for what you have."
Parents as learners
At R.K. Finn Ryan Road School in Northampton, a series of family math nights last fall drew parents more directly into the learning process. During four hour-long evening sessions, teachers and parents talked and practiced the same math strategies students were learning in the classroom using tools like snap cubes, poster charts and number lines.
"The staff were not experts," said Principal Margaret Riddle. "They were puzzling things out just like the parents."
The sessions also gave teachers a chance to explain why and how math instruction is changing in the early grades, Riddle said. "Parents nowadays look at their children's work and wonder, 'How are they going to learn?' " she said. "Programs like this can help put parents' fears to rest."
Josh Thibedau said the family math nights taught him ways to help his second-grader at Ryan Road with homework.
"His math was nothing like what I learned," said Thibedau, who attended city schools. "He'd ask me to help him but I couldn't wrap my head around what he was showing me."
The workshops also shifted Thibedau's thinking about the instruction his son is getting in class. "Now I have ways, not to do his homework for him, but to give him hints of how to get the answer," he said. "I learned that the school system is willing to teach kids the way they are able to learn."
Supporting school identity
In the Hampshire Regional district, engaging school families is part of forging a stronger school identity, said parent Susan Froehlich.
"As a regional school we don't have one town identity," said Froehlich, a Williamsburg resident whose children attend Hampshire Regional High School. "So how do we bring kids coming in from different communities to have more of a focus?"
Froehlich is a member of a new transition team made up of parents and school staff that Kristen Bouley, the assistant principal for the middle school, created to support entering seventh-graders and give parents a forum for discussions.
"It's a culture shift," said Froehlich. "We have a lot of people involved in music, drama and sports. We need to let parents know there are other ways to contribute."
The team is sponsoring a "community read" and open house March 28 at the high school. All sixth- and seventh-graders in the district have been invited to read "Surviving the Applewhites," a Newbury Honor Book, and that evening they will be able to Skype with its author, Stephanie Tolan. Parents will have a chance to ask questions about team teaching, homework and special education.
Teachers at the William E. Norris School in Southampton have also used a community literacy night to connect with families.
Now in its fourth year, the literacy night offers parents pointers on how to read with their children through a storytelling performance and activities. Pati Mari, the school librarian, said the event gives parents another reason to visit the school - and another way for staff members to emphasize learning.
"The whole aim is to bring families in," she said. "What we're really trying to do is get parents motivated to sit down and read with their kids."
Kindergarten teacher Megan Johnson, co-founder of the Norris School literacy night, said it is now a highlight of the school calendar.
"It's become not just a celebration of literacy," she said, "but also of our school."
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