EDLD 5326 - Week 3 and 4 Reflection

I did not have the opportunity to particpate in the conference but I did have a chance to read the details of the conference and reflect.

Parental involvement has been deemed important to students’ academic achievement. Multiple researchers and institutions have proved this concept repeatedly. Almost any type of parental involvement will result in increased student achievement.

The parental involvement committee creates activities and events that will motivate and encourage students to stay in school. It was also to get parents to be involved in their students’ education. According to Davenport (2010), students who have parents that are involved in their students’ education are more likely to: 

·         Earn higher grades and test scores, and enroll in higher-level program

·         Be prompted, pass their classes and earn credits

·         Attend school regularly

·         Have better social skills, show improved behavior and adapt well to school

·         Graduate and go to post-secondary education (p.3).

Research also suggests that when parents are involved in their children’ education, students have higher grades and test scores which leads to higher graduation rates. It also shows that students are more motivated to attend school; thus increasing school attendance rate (Michigan Department of Education, 2001, p.1).

EDLD 5326: Week 3 Assignment, Part 2: Establishing an Evaluation Process

Establishing positive school-parent relationships and an improved school culture is very difficult to measure quantitatively.  Success of the parental involvement committee assistance with discipline will be determined by the results of parent surveys, the results of a faculty surveys, analyzing discipline reports, and examination of assessment data results.

All stakeholders will be invited to participate and join the parental involvement committee.  The goals of the partnership will include a 50 % Increase in parental involvement, a 50 % decrease in discipline referrals, and an increase will be seen in student achievement in the classroom and on assessments. 

The data will be used to determine the need of the parental involvement committee and its purpose to help control discipline.  The data reports such as the discipline reports will give details on what specific discipline issues are repetitious and still need to be address.  The results of the surveys will provide the level of effectiveness of the implementations brought about by parental involvement committee.  The assessment data with be compared to the discipline reports to assess provide feedback on whether the implementations of the committee are helpful.  The effectiveness displayed in the results will help determine the future direction of the parental involvement committee on addressing discipline concerns.   

EDLD 5326: Project Timeline

Task	Who?	What?	When?
Present proposal to create parental involvement committee to building principal	Administration, Team Leaders and Department Heads	Gather data and research as to projected results and benefits of committee;	May 2012
Creation of subcommittee (Ad -hoc) involving teachers and community members (i.e. core parents and business partners)	Administration, Team Leaders and Department Heads	Brainstorm ideas of how to get parents involved and address disciple;  Preview discipline programs (i.e. PBIS and Love and Logic)	August 2012
Invitations to join the parental involvement committee will be sent home with every student in a flyer	Subcommittee (Ad-hoc)	Create and send flyers home inviting parents to join parental involvement committee	August 2012
Call parents to invite them to the meetings and explain the goal of the parental involvement committee to decrease discipline issues.	Subcommittee (Ad-hoc)	Call parents to invite to join parental involvement committee that did not respond to flyers	September 2012
Needs assessment to operationalize Discipline concerns from each stakeholders per	Subcommittee (Ad-hoc)	Develop needs assessment instrument and distribute it to stakeholders	November 2012
Establish positive Parent, student, school relationships	Administration, Teachers, Subcommittee (Ad-hoc), and Parental Involvement Committee	Develop parent, student, teacher activities and protocol such as parent teacher communications, Open House, NCLB Parent Consultations, PTO meetings, Literacy Night, Math Night, Fall Festival, etc…	August 2012-May 2013

EDLD 5326: SWOT Analysis of Parental Involvement Committee

Aspect	Parent Program	Community Program
Strengths: Positive features of the partnership. What are its resources and capabilities on which to potentially build?	The Reed Academy Parental Involvement Committee meet to plan fundraisers, involve parents, discuss concerns, plan upcoming events, and solicit community involvement.	Brings businesses and community leaders into schools to develop awareness and understanding about the challenges facing public schools. It also gives the schools an opportunity to spotlight achievements and create ongoing partnerships.
Weaknesses: Sometimes a weakness is the absence of a strength, such as high cost. Other times, a weakness could be the flip side of a strength. Huge involvement can be a strength, but it might be a weakness if you are trying to gain consensus around a change.	One weakness is that a small number of parents are members of the committee with little to no teacher representation.  Another weakness is the lack of communication to get more people involved.	Reed Academy being a school that is mostly Hispanic has limited resources in providing students with bilingual communication, cultural understanding and career exploration locally.
Opportunities: Potential opportunities for growth or becoming stronger. Examples include the involvement of new people, unexpected funding, and new possibilities within an existing partnership.	Potential growth is found in continuing outreach efforts to parents through personal invitations.  Invitations to participate in activities such as Open House and Parent/Teacher/Student conferences scheduled at least once a year are opportunities for growth in parent involvement and to communicate needs for help with school events and projects.	Reaching out to more parents and stakeholders that are not involved.
Threats: People or factors that threaten the program. Examples include anticipated downsizing in a partner and the “graduation” of a strong, informal community leader.	Lack of funding due to the budget cuts in education that all school districts are facing can be considered a threat.  In addition, the lack of parents involved causes some concern because the lack of parental support has proven to hurt student achievement.  So therefore, more parents need to get involved to keep the parent involvement committee active and effective.	The biggest threats to the Parental Involvement Committee are the follow through of those community members, businesses, parents, and teachers who sign up to participate and the possibility of low attendance at planned events.  All of the planned events depend on the participation as well as the dependability of others.  This is always a concern when dealing with people.  Also, if community businesses and members invest their time in planned events and programs that have little turnout they are less likely to participate again.  So, measures should be taken to ensure adequate advertisement of events and the attendance of families.

EDLD 5345 :Reflection - Administrator Interview-strategies for recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers and administrators

Recruiting and retaning high qualified staff is very difficult in a rural area with high minority and low income households.  My district has put into place a stipend for teachers that are certified in areas such as bilingual, math, and science.  It is very difficult to keep these high qualified teachers when competing districts are promising more money and better conditions.  My district currently has hire freeze but usually organizes job fairs at regional colleges and Education centers to obtain teachers.  We also recruit a lot of teachers from the North and Midwest to come to our district because our state pays more to teachers.  My district also participates in the alternative certification program in order to obtain highly qualified individuals with college degrees from the business world.  In hopes of retaining teachers, my district has in place a loyalty stipend where you are paid more for every year that you stay with the district.  At this time the loyalty pay is on hold due to the lack of funds.  Due to the current economic conditions it is difficult for any district to hold on to qualified teachers because many are running back into the business world. Many teachers are feeling underappreciated and underpaid. 

I found that recruiting and retaining teachers is very difficult for many districts.  I would try to recruit former students of the district.  I say this because I am a former student of the district and I was recruited by an old principal.  The idea that I would be helping the students that were just like me actually was a deciding factor for me to choose my current district.  The grow your own method may be helpful.  Since salaries and location is not really optional, we must be creative and assertive with our goal of recruiting and retaining the best.  I think showing appreciation to your current teachers for their hardwork is essential to retaining teachers.  Ensuring that your teachers knowing that you value their efforts and commitment could retain the best teachers who just wanted some acknowledgment for their hardwork and dedication. 

EDLD 5345: Reflection on Mentoring Programs at My School

Teachers that are new to the district but not to teaching are usually assigned a buddy to help them better understand the district policies and procedures.  All teachers new to teaching and to the district are assigned a mentor teacher for two years usually a teacher in the same grade and subject area.  Mentor teachers help guide the new teachers with various issues through out the school year from lesson plans, daily activities, rules and procedures of the campus.  Mentor teachers are the “go –to” people when the new teacher has a need.  Often new teachers become overwhelmed with the day to day expectations of a teacher and the mentor is there to help with stress and time management.  My district works with several alternative certification programs who also provide mentors so often times new teachers will have more than one mentor, one on campus and one off campus.  These efforts are put into place to help new teachers have a successful school year and a career as a teacher.