Schools, Parents and Communities
Working Together

These middle grades resources can help parents and communities work more effectively with schools that serve young adolescents. Principals, teachers and other school leaders will find resources that can help forge stronger community partnerships.

A CONVERSATION WITH A SCHOOL-FAMILIES RESEARCHER
In the late summer of 2003, about 50 members of the MiddleWeb Listserv joined school/family expert Anne Henderson for an important conversation about strengthening the linkages between middle schools and the families of the students they serve.

TWELVE THINGS PARENTS SHOULD KNOW
The complete title of this excellent handout from Parent Leadership Associates, Inc. is "As a Parent, Here are 12 Things You Should Know About and Expect From Your Schools and Yourself." It describes why parent involvement is important, what parents should expect from schools, and what schools hope for from parents. Poorly run schools will want to avoid this one! Here's a quote: "You're more likely to get what you want for your child if you work with other parents. If you are in a school that is not parent-friendly, administrators might perceive you as a fruitcake or a member of a powerful organization, depending on how many allies you have." To find out more about the PLA and parent advocacy training, read this story in "PTO Today."

A WONDERFUL TOOL TO CONNECT WITH PARENTS
"This is the most valuable thing I've ever done with my students," one middle school teacher wrote about the "Million Words" assignment. "I've built an instant bond with parents," said another. Here's how it works: The teacher sends a note home with students asking parents to "tell us about your child in a million words or less." Just about every teacher on the MiddleWeb Listserv who tried this idea was amazed by the breadth and depth of the response and the valuable insights they gained into their students' lives. Read this archived conversation, which includes a link to one teacher's actual letter to parents.

WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MIDDLE SCHOOL REFORM
"The challenge of the middle grades is to devote equal attention both to students' affective needs and to their academic needs," school reform advocate Hayes Mizell says in this public lecture sponsored by the Nyack NY Partners in Education. "Achieving these results is not easy," Mizell admits, "but schools are more likely to achieve them if they partner with parents." What are parents' appropriate roles in middle school reform? Mizell offers some answers, drawing on many web-based resources which are linked to this important article.

ONE COMMUNITY'S PLAN TO CLOSE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
For more than a year, the Durham (NC) Public Education Network and numerous community partners spent "countless hours and resources" to focus the attention of the community on the existence of the gap that separates academic achievement of African-American and Hispanic students from the achievement of the city's White and Asian students. The resulting report, "Closing the Achievement Gap through Community Action," recommends community actions that can help schools close the gap. Download the complete report at the DPEN website and read this news story about the effort.

TIME2ACT
Described as "tthe Place Where Parents, Students, Schools and Communities Come Together," the Time2Act website features original news stories and other resources that its sponsor hopes will be a part of the solution to today's problems in education, social development and youth violence. "It is intended to encourage discussion among professionals in education, the justice system, parents, students and the community to stimulate new approaches to these issues nationwide and initiate reform." An award-winning website that's well worth a visit and a bookmark.

LOUISVILLE CITIZENS TACKLE M.S. ACHIEVEMENT GAP (PDF File)
Three years ago, community activists decided to use tools available under the Kentucky school reform law to tackle the achievement gap in Louisville. Working with the statewide Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, some concerned residents of Jefferson County set up a Community Accountability Team to start a sustained dialogue with local school officials about the county's lowest-performing middle schools. This article in Middle Ground (NMSA), "Every Child Counts: Citizens Tackle School District's Achievement Gap," describes the process and a resulting report to the community. (Small PDF file that downloads easily. The full CAT report "Every Child Counts" is also available as a PDF download.)

EDUCATING PARENTS ABOUT MIDDLE-LEVEL PRACTICES (PDF File)
Parents are generally not aware of middle level practices, and educators should play a bigger role in educating parents and the community about the qualities and expectations of a high-performing middle level school. That's the conclusion of researchers at the Center for Prevention Research and Development at the University of Illinois, Champaign. Part of the series "Research on Middle School Renewal" appearing in NMSA's Middle School Journal (November 2001). Clicking on the link above will begin a PDF download.

BRINGING PARENTS INTO EDUCATION REFORM
Kentucky's Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership (an initiative of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence) provides parents with training and ongoing support that enables them to work with teachers and other parents to raise student achievement in their home communities. This report from the Pew Charitable Trusts shares findings about CIPL's structure and impact and offers guidance to other organizations promoting parent involvement.

MIDDLE SCHOOL PARENT INVOLVEMENT PAYS OFF
"Parents can help schools enhance their programs and services, but where can parent leaders be found?" asks the lead-in to this article in Principal Leadership (September 2001). Authors Anne Henderson and Beverly Raimondo use the impressive accomplishments of Conway Middle School in Louisville KY to demonstrate how schools are taking advantage of parent leadership institutes to support and train parents to become effective partners in improving schools. At Conway, PTA membership has doubled, test scores are rising, and the school has received a cash award from the state for its gains.

"WE CAN'T DO WHAT WE NEED TO DO WITHOUT PARENTS"
This story by the MiddleWeb staff describes how Conway Middle School's staff came to embrace parent and community engagement as part of their school reform strategy. "Perhaps it was out of sheer desperation," says one teacher leader, "but we started looking at parents and thinking 'maybe they can give us some help.' Once we got past our own anger and quit trying to place the blame, we began to unlock our doors. And we found out something important - it's nobody's fault and it's everybody's job."

MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT-LED PARENT CONFERENCE GUIDE (PDF File)
Kentucky's Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence has posted a guide to student-led conferences developed by Louisville's Conway Middle School and the Jefferson County Public Schools. This compact PDF version includes all the text and forms in the original but eliminates photos and other items that make for lengthy download times. Includes sections about goals; what parents, teachers and students need to know; typical questions and answers about the process; and forms, including a teacher evaluation checklist, a student self-evaluation, and much more.

HOW DOES YOUR MIDDLE SCHOOL MATCH UP?
We frequently reference the Schools To Watch program of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform. The criteria developed by the Forum to define high-quality middle schools are challenging and worth striving toward. A user-friendly tool at the STW website lets school staffs, parent-teacher groups and university classes assess the extent to which schools are implementing the STW criteria. The "School Assessment Activity" offers directions for facilitators and a worksheet that includes a plain-language description of the criteria, written with non-educators in mind. The criteria cover strong academics; respect for students' needs and interests; equal access to a high-quality education; and support for school improvement.

TRAINING PARENTS TO BE "STANDARDS-BEARERS"
The Education Trust's Parents as Standards Bearers training "grew out of the belief that schools will not change unless there is a demand for change from the community," says this article from FINE Forum, the on-line publication of the Harvard Family Research Project. Adapted from the Trust's "Standards in Practice" staff development process, the training helps parents become "standards bearers" as they learn "to talk more knowledgeably and be on equal footing with teachers."

MIDDLE SCHOOL VOLUNTEERS - A FRESH LOOK
The level of parent involvement in middle and high schools typically declines as students obtain greater autonomy and more responsibilities. This article from the NASSP Bulletin (10/01) offers ideas about how principals can recruit and actively involve parent and community volunteers to support the academic success of diverse students.

BUILDING A SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS
The sense of community shared by teachers and parents who are active at a school is affected by systematic efforts by the school to involve parents in their child's education and by the principal's leadership style. Based on a survey of nine middle schools, this article from the NASSP Bulletin (10/01) discusses what it means to have a "sense of school community" and which aspects of family involvement programs and principal leadership are most important.

ANNENBERG'S ACCOUNTABILITY TOOLKIT FOR PARENTS
The "Toolbox for Accountability" at the Annenberg Institute website offers practical approaches for parents who want to gauge their schools' progress in improving student achievement. Ultimately the Toolbox will have eight "drawers," three of which are available now -- planning an accountability event, conducting surveys to sample school performance, and using the examination of student work as a core accountability strategy. Upcoming "drawers" will cover school visits and self-study; using standardized test data; developing school report cards; analyzing teacher assignments, and monitoring equity and access. Proactive educators will also find plenty to interest them at this excellent site.

MIDDLE SCHOOL DATA PORTFOLIO
The ideal school portfolio "includes data on demographics, student learning, school processes, and parent and student perceptions of school climate and academics," says expert Victoria Bernhardt, the author of several books about improving schools through the use of data. The article "Learning by the Numbers" describes how San Jose's Bret Harte Middle School uses a variety of data to design its achievement-raising strategies. Part of a package on assessment at the George Lucas Educational Foundation website.

USING COMMUNITY STUDY CIRCLES TO CLOSE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP (PDF File)
This free, online guide, "Dialogue and Action to Help Every Student Succeed," can be used to generate deep conversation among communities and schools about the meaning of "a good education" and ways to break through barriers that keep some students from succeeding. Developed by the Study Circles Resource Center.

GREAT IDEAS TO INVOLVE MIDDLE SCHOOL PARENTS
This conversation at the MiddleWeb Listserv started out on a bit of a sour note, as one teacher vented her frustrations about a cantankerous parent. But what emerged as other teachers and principals joined in were some great ideas about involving parents more fully in the life of middle schools -- ideas that are already in practice and may inspire other educators and parents.

REFORM REQUIRES PARENTS
Ron Brandt argues that "schools cannot meet the challenges of reform without first doing a better job of connecting with parents and the public," in this opinion column from the May 1998 issue of Educational Leadership magazine. Brandt, the magazine's editor emeritus, says that unless schools learn how to build parent buy-in for new ideas, support for public schools will continue to erode and unreasonable demands will continue to grow. See other articles on parent involvement in MiddleWeb's "Fall Sweep" collection.

REINVENTING THE MIDDLE SCHOOL (PDF File)
Thomas S. Dickinson and Deborah A. Butler stirred up the middle school community with their article "Reinventing the Middle School" (Middle School Journal, Fall 2001), suggesting that many buildings were "middle schools" in name only. "At least six factors have contributed to the arrested development of middle schools," reads the article's teaser. "To reinvent such schools will require an understanding of the ecological nature of the middle school concept, one that includes profound curricular change." This article provided the focus for a lively discussion on the MiddleWeb Listserv in the fall of 2001.

IMPORTANT BOOK ON URBAN PARENT INVOLVEMENT
Joyce Epstein, an educator and researcher at Johns Hopkins University, has been a leader in examining parent involvement in schools for over 25 years. School, Family, and Community Partnerships : Preparing Educators and Improving Schools (Boulder: Westview Press, 2001) distills (if a 620-page book can "distill"!) Epstein's understanding of parent/school relationships, drawing both on her research and her experience working with parents and schools in the field. Read this review in Teachers College Record (may require free registration) and see this ordering information.

MEETING PARENTS IN THE MIDDLE
Rick Wormeli is a National Board Certified Teacher at Rachel Carson Middle School in Herndon, Virginia, and a columnist for Middle Ground magazine. In this book, Wormeli draws on the wisdom of educators, researchers, and 20 years of experience in the middle school classroom to lay out "a clear vision of what responsive middle-level teaching can be." One section of the book explores "Parents as Partners in 21st Century Learning." Download a PDF version of this chapter here.

MIDDLE GRADES ADVISORY RESOURCES
The advisory period -- ideally, a time when teachers and students examine "real-life" issues -- is the linchpin in the middle-school movement, some experts say. but many middle-school programs suffer from poorly implemented advisories that have little impact on academic or personal growth. These articles can help schools (and parents) examine the advisory concept and the quality of their own programs.

A VIRTUAL BACKPACK FOR PARENTS
Parental involvement today means much more than just bake sales, classroom monitoring, and helping with homework. "In assuring a quality education and supporting the school, parents need to be informed and ask questions," says Christopher T. Cross, president of the Council for Basic Education. CBE has filled a virtual backpack with information that can help parents stay actively involved in their children's learning process.

TEENAGE LIFE ONLINE
The rise of the instant-message generation and the Internet's impact on friendships and family relationships are examined in this report from the Pew Internet Project, which zeroes in on teens aged 12-17. "Of particular interest to the authors," says a review in The Scout Report, "is how teens have embraced instant messaging technologies to a much larger degree than adults, thoroughly integrating it into their daily lives." Full text available in HTML and PDF formats at this page.

EFFECTIVE PARENT COMMUNICATION
After three years of trial-and-error with methods such as newsletters, phone logs, and e-mail, this intermediate school teacher discovered the power of a classroom website as a tool to communicate effectively with parents. (Classroom Leadership Online, August 2001)

MENTORING AND TUTORING STUDENTS
This "Issues" site from the Education Commission of the States offers an overview of the one-on-one relationship between an adult and a student who needs personal and academic support. Includes selected research and readings, state policy trends, a look at several promising programs, and links to other resources.

BACK-TO-SCHOOL PARENT COMMUNICATION
In this Education World article, a seventh grade team leader in Ohio describes beginning-of-the-year letters that serve as "our...initial step in reaching out to parents." The letters stress the importance of maintaining communication about all aspects of a student's life. One of several good ideas in the article "Back-to-School Letters and Survival Kits Build Communication."

EASING THE MIDDLE SCHOOL TRANSITION
Among the many passages students experience during their school years, few are more difficult than their transitions from elementary to middle level to high school, says Maurice J. Elias in his article "Easing Transitions With Social-Emotional Learning" (Principal Leadership, March 2001).

INVOLVING MIDDLE GRADES PARENTS IN HOMEWORK
Families of middle-grades students can be involved in learning activities at home, says this PDK research bulletin, based on research by Joyce Epstein and others at Johns Hopkins' Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk. "With interactive homework designed by teachers and conducted by students, most families in inner-city middle schools were informed about and involved in their children's education on a regular schedule, including many who would not have become involved otherwise."

REPORTS ON COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Here's a great "web package" from the George Lucas Education Foundation, summarizing several recent reports on school-community involvement, with links to the reports and also to expert interviews and sidebar stories. (See especially the story and videoclip about the West Des Moines Community Education program which coordinates more than 400 before- and after-school programs and classes.)

TERRIFIC ON-LINE MIDDLE GRADES ENGAGEMENT TOOLKIT
Collaborative Communications Group has greatly expanded their "Engagement Toolkit" for the middle grades, adding 10 new tools to help educators and parents understand standards-based learning and raise student achievement. The toolkit contains agendas, handouts, and samples of district products that help build understanding and support for changes in educator practice and parent involvement. Developed with support from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and Education Development Center, Inc.

WEB RESOURCES ABOUT ADOLESCENCE
Background about adolescent development, with a collection of useful weblinks, published in ASCD's monthly e-newsletter "Education Bulletin."

SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
During the past five months, the local education funds in the Public Education Network Standards Initiative have launched successful community engagement efforts to develop an action plan to close the achievement gap, build community readiness to implement reforms, change school funding through ballot initiatives, and more.

PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN EMOTIONAL LEARNING
When a crisis counselor at Palm Springs Middle School began designing a middle school course in social and emotional learning, she knew it wasn't enough to provide students with strategies for dealing with the difficult and complex issues. That's why she added an unusual requirement for students interested in the year-long course -- parent participation. Read about the results in this article at the George Lucas Educational Foundation website.

INVOLVING PARENTS IN THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY
Many parents face a digital divide right in their own home, as they try to guide their children's navigation of the Internet. Schools, libraries, parent programs and community technology centers are offering parents ways to become better computer consumers. This Children's Partnership report profiles twelve promising programs that engage parents in technology training in California, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Virginia and Texas.

HOW IS YOUR SCHOOL RATED?
GreatSchools is an independent nonprofit organization with a free online guide to public K-12 schools. The stated goal is to provide parents "with the information they need to choose schools for their children, track their school's performance, support their children's education and solve school-related problems." Currently, GreatSchools offers in-depth information about Arizona and California and basic information about most other schools in the US, drawn from various state sources.

Help for Middle School Parents
"Caught in the Middle" is a 28-minute video project and comprehensive web site that encourages parents to stay involved in their children's lives during the middle school years. Includes interviews with parents, students, and educators and many tips. Funded by the USED's Star Schools program and produced by the University of Alabama Center for Public Television & Radio. Good stuff!

FROM COLLABORATIVE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP
This video and an online engagement toolkit can help schools, parents and communities support high standards for all. And see CCG's other family/school resources.

See our page of resources about after-school programs.

Here's a page of resources that can help ensure successful parent conferences.

Here's a resource for parents of struggling middle school readers.