Stakeholder / Parent Resources

  • To parents, we can’t tell our kids to do well in school and then fail to support them when they get home. You can’t just contract out parenting. For our kids to excel, we have to accept our responsibility to help them learn. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent-teacher conferences and reading to our children and helping them with their homework.

    —President Barack Obama

    How can our business or faith-based stakeholder organizations get involved?

    • Sign up to volunteer in the schools.
    • Create a center for afternoon or evening tutoring for at-risk students.
    • Teach parents English or to read.
    • Help to support parents in your community, especially single parents and those in poverty.
    • “Buddy” with at-risk students through Big Brother and Big Sister Programs.
    • Attend school board meetings and local school events.
    • Collaborate with schools to provide non-education services, such as health care.
    • Share with schools any global or multicultural experiences or background your organization may have.
    • Donate a percentage of proceeds on set dates/times to a local school
    • Participate in school-sponsored career days and International Festivals
    • Help sponsor afterschool student clubs, such as dance, art, athletics, etc.
    • Facilitate actual or simulated real-world experiences with the stock market, banking, communications, etc. for students
    • Support educators by offering discounted products or services.
    • Sponsor a student, teacher, class, or school.
    • Offer to provide students with authentic learning experiences in your workplace.
    • Donate unneeded office supplies or furniture.
    • Reach out to schools to let them know what you believe they could provide your organization.

    To learn how your faith-based organization can help your local schools, go to: No Child Left Behind and Faith-Based Leaders

    UCPS - Parents and Community Resources https://www.ucps.k12.nc.us/forparents.php

    Goal four of NC’s Future-Ready Students for the 21st Century: Leadership will guide innovation in NC public schools.  Educational professionals will make decisions in collaboration with parents, students, businesses, education institutions, and faith-based and other community and civic organizations to impact student success. The public school professionals will collaborate with community colleges and public and private universities and colleges to provide enhanced educational opportunities for students. HELP US MAKE THIS GOAL A REALITY!

    Why is parent and family involvement important to educators? Thirty years of research and a long history of federal and state legislation demonstrate the importance of parent involvement in their children’s learning and development. In the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, the federal government for the first time offered a definition of parent involvement as a regular, two-way and meaningful communication about student learning and other school activities, including:

    • Assisting in their child’s learning;
    • Being actively involved in their child’s education at school;
    • Serving as full partners in their child’s education and being included, as appropriate, in decision-making and on advisory committees to assist in the education of their child; and
    • The carrying out of other activities such as those described in section 1118 of NCLB and Public Law 107-110, Title IX, Section 9109 (32).

    Research shows the way. Family and community involvement can have a powerful and positive impact on student outcomes. According to A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family and Community Connections on Student Achievement, a research review published by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory in 2002, students with involved parents, no matter what their income or background, are more likely to:

    • Earn higher grades and test scores, and enroll in higher-level programs;
    • Be promoted, pass their classes, and earn credits;
    • Attend school regularly;
    • Have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school; and
    • Graduate and go on to post secondary education.

    A solid body of research finds that families of all income and education levels, and from all ethnic and cultural groups, support their children’s learning at home. Families with more income and education, however, tend to be more engaged at school and have more resources to help their children at home. Supporting all families to be more involved at school and better informed about what children are learning in class must become a widely-used strategy for improving learning and addressing the achievement gap.

    Programs and special efforts to engage families make a difference. Teacher outreach to parents can result in strong, consistent gains in student performance in both reading and math. Effective outreach practices include meeting with families face to face, sending learning materials home, and keeping in touch about progress. Workshops for parents on helping their children are linked to higher reading and math scores. Schools with highly rated partnership programs make greater gains on state tests than schools with lower-rated programs.

    Higher performing schools effectively involve families and the community. Schools that succeed in engaging families from diverse backgrounds share three key practices:

    • Focus on building trusting, collaborative relationships and two-way communications among teachers, families, and community members;
    • Recognize, respect, and address families’ needs, as well as bridge class and cultural differences; and
    • Embrace a philosophy of partnership where power and responsibility are shared and where families are effective advocates for their children.

    Parent leadership and community organizing efforts are improving schools. Parent leadership training and community organizing programs, which are growing across the country, expand families’ knowledge of how the system works and how to make it work for their children. Unlike school-based parent involvement, parent leadership and community organizing programs build partnerships to support schools and hold them accountable for results. These organizing efforts have led to upgraded school facilities, improved school leadership and staffing, higher quality learning programs, new resources to improve teaching and curricula, and new funding for after-school and family support programs.

    North Carolina is committed to supporting high-quality parent, family and community initiatives. The North Carolina State Board of Education (SBE) recognizes that effective parent involvement is necessary for schools to meet the SBE’s Guiding Mission and Goals for the state (Appendix A). In an acknowledgment of the current research and in alignment to state and federal law, the SBE adopted the Parent/Family Involvement Policy on June 30, 2005 (Appendix B). A report resulting from a needs assessment conducted by Edvantia’s Appalachia Regional

    Comprehensive Center (ARCC) was released October 2008. This report, Parent Involvement in the Appalachian Region: North Carolina, resulted in one primary recommendation for the state: “Develop and implement a statewide framework for parent involvement.” 3 This guide is a step toward detailing a framework that specifies procedures and activities aimed at building parent capacity and increasing parent involvement at all levels. State Superintendent June Atkinson’s Parent Advisory Committee has directed the development of this guide to help educators better leverage parent involvement as a tool for improving student achievement and learning.

    To read the entire Parent and Family Involvement: A Guide to Effective Parent, Family, and Community Involvement in North Carolina Schools

    http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/parents/home/2010/parent-involvement-guide.pdf

    Go to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/parents/resources/ for the following parent/stakeholder resources from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction:

    Making the Grade
    Making the Grade is a series of publications developed to provide timely information to help parents support and strengthen their child’s public education experience. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Press Association's Newspapers in Education project produce and distribute the publications through local newspapers.


    Acronyms
    This list of the more commonly used acronyms or abbreviations and their meanings has been developed to help everyone involved in public schools communicate better.


    Glossary of Words to Know
    This glossary has been developed to increase parent and community understanding of the legal and educational terminology used in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act.


    Typical Questions
    Common questions asked about public education here in North Carolina.


    Enrollment
    Answers to questions about enrollment and moving to North Carolina


    Graduation Requirements
    Graduation standards for achievement and courses are designed to prepare students for higher education and for work as adults.


    Promotion and Retention
    North Carolina public school students are required to meet statewide standards for promotion from grades 3, 5 and 8 and high school graduation.


    To learn how to help your child succeed, read Parent Power, published by the UC Department of Education   http://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/parentpower/booklet.pdf

    p.5 – preschool

    p.9 – elementary school

    For more tips and resources from the United States Department of Education go to http://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/partnership.html

    To learn about specific activities to do with your child that will lead toward success in school: http://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/succeed/index.html

    The North Carolina Parent Information and Resource Center (PIRC), Parent Partners, has provided services to families and educators in Title I schools, schools in urban areas and to NC’s lowest performing school since 1985. The PIRC is a multi-level training and information project designed with parents, parent groups, schools and community participants in mind. Each month PIRC offers, Parent Partners E-PIC, an electronic bulletin that features quick facts and information concerning parent and family involvement. Each month PIRC focuses on a topic and addresses parent involvement issues a one page, easy to read format to share information school staff, parents and other educators. All of PIRC’s resources and services are provided free of charge and are available to you by calling 704-892-1321 or our toll-free number 1-800-962-6817. You may also email at parentpartners@ecacmail.org. To access their website go to  http://www.ecac-parentcenter.org/education/pirc.htm.

    Communication is the Key to Strong Partnerships go to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/parents/resources/makingthegrade/

    If you would like to learn more about how to create a partnership between your organization and a local school district, go to: http://www.cisnc.org/.  You can encourage a new partnership between CIS and UCPS!