Parent Involvement Portfolio

Table of Contents

Partnership Letter -------------------------------Pg 2

School Personnel interviews ----------------- Pg 3
Support Interview ---------------------------------Pg 5
Article Summaries ------------------------------- Pg 7

Dear Parents and/or Guardians,

Welcome to 6th grade! My name is Ms. Heard and I will be your childs 6th grade math
teacher. This is my fifth year here at this school and I am very excited to be here. I am
looking forward to meeting you and can't wait to share what learning will be in store for
your child this year.
I think it is very important to build a strong teacher/parent relationship with one another
and that starts with effective communication. It is important that you share with me
anything that you feel is important for me to know about your child. I believe that as
parents, you are sometimes the voice of your child and I want your concerns to be
addressed. There are many benefits in building this relationship. For your child, it
stresses the importance of what they are doing in school if they know that both the
teacher and parent are on the same page and have the same expectations. Students
have better performance and are more motivated. As a parent you will see and have a
better understanding of what is going on in the classroom and know that the teacher
has your child's best interest in mind.
Please feel free to contact me any anytime. My phone number is (615) 543-9876. You
can also email me at Briana.heard@schools.org. Join our class communication tool,
Remind at MS.Heard@remind.com or (615)657-8765 .I hope to have a wonderful year
and can't wait to meet you and your child.

Sincerely,
Ms. Heard

School Personnel Interview summary

Briana Heard
March 29, 2016

I had the opportunity to talk with a few of my colleagues and discuss parental
involvement in the classroom and in the school. The teachers I spoke with had between
ten to thirty years experience. All three of them have taught in the elementary and
middle school levels.
Defining parental involvement was about the same between teachers. They all
said that parental involvement was about the parents being in contact with the teacher
and or school in a regular manner, being day to day or month to month in the following
ways such as phone calls, email, conferences, and newsletters.
Different strategies that were used in parental involvement in elementary school
to middle school. At the elementary level, teachers said parents came into the
classroom more often to play games, read stories, go on field trips, bring snacks, and
come on holiday parties or to give an award. At the middle school level, the type of
involvement changes to phone calls, conferences, notes home, and remind messages.
When the question was asked of how much time a week a teacher spent on
working with parents, the time was around thirty minutes to an hour. More time is spent
when individual conferences are needed with students.
The teachers value parental involvement, but say that sometimes it does not
always a positive experience. On the positive side, teachers said that student's behavior
is better when parents are involved and their academics are better as well. Another
teacher said that students have a greater respect for the teacher, when parents are
involved. One of the challenges is not to let the parents try to run things over you and
tell you what to do.

All teachers agreed on similar benefits of parental involvement discussed. They

all agreed that students do better in school and their behavior is better as well. They
showed a positive attitude towards working with parents and talked about the
importance that students see the parent - teacher relationship in action, noting that it's
good for students to see both the parents and teachers working together for the
betterment of the child's education. It shows that both parties truly do care about their
progress.
Summarizing everything up, I found that most teachers has a positive view of
parental involvement, with the understanding that it was not always an easy thing to
have. Some teachers mentioned that Especially at the middle school level that it was
more difficult to get parents involved. I can agree with that statement. In my own
observations as a 6th grade teacher, it seems that parents aren't sure of where to draw
the line between helping their child take on more responsibilities and still letting them be
children. I have some parents that will call or email me daily about what and when what
homework is due instead of letting the child be responsible and keep up with an
assignment book. I think at this age it is very important that students start taking on this
responsibility of keeping up with assignments and work.
It is exciting to know that teachers do see value in parental involvement. Like I
mentioned in other instances, my school does not have a lot of parent involvement other
than emails, phone calls, and conferences. It will be nice to see what improvements we
can make in the future.

Parent Support interview

Briana Heard
March 30, 2016

Background: The parent that I interviewed has three children, all of which are
girls and their ages range from 6 to 13. The children attend a Magnet school in a
downtown district. The parent is divorced so the children stay between both homes
within the same city so that they can attend the same schools. Even though the parents
are divorced they have shared vision for their children to receive the best education they
can and share that responsibility as parents. Both parents are involved with the schools
and classrooms, both attend parent conferences and receive notification from school
personnel if any issues arise.
There are not many challenges that this parent had. He said that since both
parents are actively involved with the school and classrooms and they share the same
vision of their children education that there are not any challenges he could name at this
time.
The parent is very pleased with the school and the activities that they have to
offer to their children. Since it is smaller school, they do not have any sports teams, but
the school has partnered with other programs and schools so that the students have
access to sports. The school also offers after school programs, art, drama, and dance
programs as well.
One concern that the parent brought to my attention was that he thought
teachers could be a little more upfront when discussing matters with children. He said
that many times he would feel like the teacher would down play an action by the child or
not be upfront about an issue that may in actuality be small, but the teacher not say
much about it because of how the parent will react.

He also said he would like a little more consideration from teachers about
homework and how they can assist their child with homework. Knowing upfront if an
assignment will be difficult and may need some re-teaching would be nice to know, or
having some resources available for the parent so they can assist. He mentioned that
not all parents are able to help with homework so a homework hotline, or resources sent
home would be a big help.
I really enjoyed doing this interview. It gives me a fresh look at some things that other
teachers are doing and I can also see areas of improvement. The person I interviewed
is someone that I have known for a long time, but the information was very insightful. I
hope if I do this again soon with a parent of a student that I teach that I would have a
positive feeling about it.

Article Summary
Briana Heard
March 29, 2016
In the article titled, Exploring Parental Involvement Strategies Utilized by Middle
School Interdisciplinary Teams, by Chris Robbins and Linda Searby, the authors
discuss different strategies that schools can use to get parents more involved at the
middle school level. At the end of the study, the researchers found four themes to
summarize strategies with parents.
The first theme was a belief that parental involvement is essential to student
success. Strategies for this theme included persistence of teachers making contact with
parents through email, newsletters, conferences, phone calls, and even meeting the
parent at their job if necessary. They also require troubled students to use
communication through signed planners and agendas.
The second theme was that the schools are open and approachable to parents.
Strategies for this theme include friendliness in all actions and words, and to establish
an open door policy through technology, team availability, and a team spirit.
The third theme is that the middle school interdisciplinary team serve as a
resource to the parents of adolescents. In order to do this, some strategies are to
suggest strategies to parents to implement at home, and clarify the role of the parent in
facilitating middle school success.
The final theme was that middle school interdisciplinary teams approach problem
solving opportunities with parents as a team instead of as individuals. Strategies for this
include meeting regularly as a team, and conducting all conferences as a team. Many
times teams may all have the same planning/conference period during the day in which
they can meet with one another or conference with parents as needed.

Some findings in the study in defining a middle school interdisciplinary team, the
author noticed first off the bat that parents did not have an idea of why this the common
setup of middle schools and what the purpose of the team is. An example of the
interdisciplinary team is a group of teachers such as a math, science, social studies,
and language art teachers that work together to teach the same group of students. The
purpose of this is to meet the needs of students socially and emotionally and it can be
handled better as a group of teachers rather than just one.
Another thing that was noticed in the study is that parents really have a hard time
finding balance between student responsibility and independence verses forces
accountability. With the middle school interdisciplinary teams, teachers can help parents
by giving them strategies to help their child with their responsibilities and teach them
independence as well. It was found that some parents are afraid to step in and want
their child to make their own decisions, but we know that at this age they still need
guidance. Research has also shown that positive parental involvement is tied to
increased academic achievement.

Article Summary
Briana Heard
March 29, 2016

In the article, Home and Community Involvement can play Key Part in School
Success, the author, Michele Molnar gives descriptions of how and with whose help
students are seeing much success with. This article was published in January of 2013.
She stresses the importance of meeting students emotional, physical, and social needs
before you are able to educate. According to the author, educators and policy makers
are aware of the impact that home and community factors can have and are turning to
parents and the community to help.
The author also lists a few barriers to learning and how behavior can be a large
barrier. She also points out the importance of flagging these barriers so that they can be
addressed as soon as possible.
One example is an inner city school, where parents and students did not feel
safe in the community or the school. The school made it a priority to set a goal of 90%
of the students to feel safe by the end of the school year. To accomplish this goal, they
set up an after school program that was six weeks long and 2 hrs a session. This
program was conducted by the local police department. Parents, faculty, staff, and
students were all invited for a dinner before each presentation and had the opportunity
to connect with each other. By the end of the program, more parents and students
became more comfortable in the school and started to participate in more school
functions and programs.
Another school that was looked at was the Eagle Academy, founded in 2004 by
educators, parents, community leaders, and corporate partners. The Academy starts
with its focus on students and their families needs first. With this focus, school leaders
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said that with over 650 students enrolled in the school, which they will have about 450
parents show up on a Saturday. This shows the dedication that the school has is also
reciprocated with the parents.
Another program focused on support for girls, this program was at a school in
San Diego California. The project specialist for the program stresses the importance of
young mothers to be a role model to their daughters. They also teach parents that many
behavior issues with girls are likely do to self esteem issues. Sadly after three years the
program ended due to lack of funding.
The last section of the article discussed funding issues. Maintaining funds is a
continuous issue for many schools. Many schools have to look for private support to
keep programs running and this is starting to look like a trend according to Sakamoto,
the director of school safety in a California district. Asking and getting support takes a lot
of hard work and dedication. Finding ways to get parents involved plays a key role.

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