“Community Involvement” has always been the elusive component missing from Casa Grande UHSD success. That is not to say we have not been successful on many fronts but I have often wondered how much more successful we could be with total buy-in and support from parents and community.
We educators are often guilty of behaving like “know it alls.” We grow to believe and sometimes behave as though we know your child better than you do. We do have much knowledge and skill. We do have a great deal of training and experience to guide our behaviors but………we do not know it all. We do need you and what you know and what you can do brought to the table.
It is my hope that along with many other initiatives we have put in place, this “blog” will be another tool to help bridge school to home.
In schools across this country where there is tremendous parental support and engagement……student achievement is generally higher than schools where parents are not engaged. And while this is true for schools as a whole, it also tends to manifest itself in any school where we see gaps between learners. More directly, where there are large numbers of young people struggling with school – we don’t have engaged parents or guardians. Certainly there are exceptions to every rule – and in some schools individual parents or guardians of struggling students are moving heaven and earth to change the course of events.
I would like to ask for your thoughts and suggestions as to how do we, as a system in this District, promote greater involvement from parents and guardians who, for whatever reason, are not supportive or engaged in our efforts.
Congratulations on launching your new blog, Superintendent Pifer.
ReplyDeleteHello Superintendent Pifer,
ReplyDeleteI believe the time is critical for getting parents involved. We live in a great community where I believe that our parents want their children to be successful and well-educated. I think we can start in small pockets of parents and allow them the opportunity to communicate to their neighbors, friends and family. We also need to promote all the wonderful things our students and staff are doing for student achievement. let's take the mantra our new president challenged us to: Hope and Virtue. I think CGUHSD is ready and prepared to move forward and upward!
Now it is time for you to respect your residential neighbors.
ReplyDeleteIt is a violation of city code and state statutes to leave ballfield lights on past midnight. It is also a waste of energy in times that energy savings is on the political forefront.
I don't care if it is graduation week, get the lights off at by midnight.
I intend to campaign vigorously against a budget override when your waste of money and energy is so blatant.
Your waste of millions without reguard to neighbors with a transportation facility in residential zoning has alienated many.
If we really want parent participation we must first ask parents how they want to be involved, then when they tell us, create ways to espouse their participation. Many schools are not really ready for true parent-teacher collaborations. Many teachers still report that if 10 parents showed in their class, by appointment, it would be a struggle to engage them as there are no systems in place. Many parents report that at the start of each year they volunteer their services and are never called upon. Parents try to give teachers their space and often give up being involved on school campuses. By the time the child is in the six grade, when those teachers really want parent participation, the parents have fully digested the message that their opinions and skills do not really matter.
ReplyDeleteSchools fail to realize that by failing to address barriers such as unskilled off staff, PTA, and school site councils that stay based among the representative of the families represented at the schools, there parent participation will continue to lag. If we desegregate the data, most decision making bodies in schools do not represent the diversity of the schools. Those bodies also meet at times they do not work for most working families. Most families want to be involved. When parents do get involved some of the practices such as: rushed meetings, relying on formal communication, lack of evaluation of goals and objetcives, cause diverse groups to become quickly un-interested.
Parents are a strategic asset. Schools still tend to use parents for bake sales and not to share decision-making and accountability. If we do the same things, we get the same results.
Hello Mrs. Pifer,
ReplyDeleteAs the geographic area the district serves is so large, and sometimes it is hard to find time to travel into CG from the outlying areas, I would suggest trying to schedule "town hall" type sessions (in conjunction with the elementary administrations) in some more distant locations where parents of students of all ages can learn more about the District and the ways in which they can participate in the education of their students as they progress through school.
Barbara Trager