Educators everywhere are grappling with the challenges of promoting parent involvement and winning public confidence. Presenters at two conference sessions described ways they have built public support by raising parents' awareness of what's happening at school.
Helping parents understand—and accept—performance assessment was the focus of a session presented by Kathryn Alvestad, supervisor of accountability and testing in Calvert County, Md. Maryland uses a statewide performance assessment known as the MSPAP, Alvestad said, and parent reaction to the test was initially negative—a response educators found "quite disconcerting."
Three years' experience with informing parents about the MSPAP has led Calvert County to take a three-stage approach, Alvestad said. During Stage 1, basic information about the test is posted on a simple display board, which is exhibited at school open houses, PTA meetings, and the county fair. The display board sets forth the rationale for the change, describes how the new test is different, and explains "what it gives us that we didn't have before." A staff member stands by the display board to answer questions.
In Stage 2, a handbook about the MSPAP is sent home for parents to study at their leisure. The handbook, which is organized in a question-and-answer format, presents details about the new test. It also offers suggestions for helping children do well on the test.
In Stage 3, parents are invited into the schools to practice sample performance tasks with their children. This stage is "the most exciting," Alvestad said. "More than anything, parents want to see what this test is like."
As children work through the sample tasks—which might require interpreting a map or making math calculations related to running a lemonade stand—parents act as facilitators, asking their children a series of prompt questions. (No prior knowledge is required.) This role is "very comfortable for parents," Alvestad noted. Attendance at the practice sessions has risen steadily over the past three years, she said, and, overall, the three-stage effort to familiarize parents with the MSPAP has increased public support for performance assessment.
A session presented by educators from Lake Agassiz Elementary School in Grand Forks, N.D., discussed using collaborative goal setting to make parents active partners in the teaching and learning process. "Parents as spectators wasn't working for us," said Barbara Olson, a teacher at the school.
Twice a year, teachers, parents, and students meet for goal-setting conferences, explained Sharon Gates, the school's principal. During the first "three-way" conference, a goal-setting form is filled out. The child identifies three learning goals, then the parent writes down what he or she can do to help the child reach the goals, and the teacher does the same. Everyone signs the form.
For example, a 1st grader might say, "I want to learn to read" and "I want to be a good listener." The parent might pledge to write letters with the child and to read to her at home. The teacher might pledge to encourage good listening skills. At a second goal-setting conference, held in February, the goals are revisited and revised as necessary. Because goal setting does not come naturally to young children, teachers explore the topic with them in advance, using books such as Dr. Seuss's Oh, The Places You'll Go!
Thanks to the conferences, teachers are much more aware of what support students need, Gates said, and surveys of parents show that a large majority find the conferences valuable.
Another way the school builds parent support is through a "portfolio follow-up" at the end of the year. On a certain day, parents and grandparents drop by the school so that their children can show them their portfolios. "It isn't really any work on our part; we just find space" for the family meetings, Gates said. "The kids love it; the parents love it."
Watching students share their portfolios with adult family members is "very touching," Olson said. And reviewing the portfolios with their children helps convince the adults that the school is doing a good job.