Improving Parent Engagement in the Nashville Promise Neighborhood

1. Improving Parent Engagement in the Nashville Promise Neighborhood Joanna Geller October 29, 2012

2. Rationale for improving parent engagement in the NPN • Neighborhood survey data: • Focus Group Data: Parents and school staff who participated in focus groups during Spring 2011 frequently cited parent engagement as a key challenge • School principals who belong to NPN Working Groups have identified improved parent engagement as one of their school’s most pressing needs

3. What are different types of parent engagement? • Parenting • Learning at Home • Communicating • Volunteering • Decision-Making • Collaborating with Community

4. How do we define parent engagement? • Parenting • Learning at Home • Communicating • Volunteering • Decision-Making • Collaborating with Community

5. Why does parent engagement matter? • Academic achievement • School attendance • Behavior • Positive perceptions of school • Higher educational aspirations Each of these outcomes makes it easier for teachers to teach and for parents to parent!

6. What are barriers to parent engagement? For Parents For Teachers Low levels of efficacy for teaching Negative past experiences with parents Inadequate school support for parent engagement Lack of time/energy • Low levels of efficacy for helping their children learn • Unwelcoming school environment and negative past experiences with school • Lack of different ways to be involved • Difficulties attending school events due to obstacles regarding transportation, childcare, and time

7. Teachers Involving Parents (TIPS) Program • Evidence-based, theory-driven in-service teacher professional development by Vanderbilt professor, Kathy Hoover-Dempsey, and colleagues • Creates a safe and trusting environment where teachers can engage in dialogue related to parent engagement and learn and share effective strategies • Goals are to improve teachers’: • Personal sense of teaching efficacy • Beliefs about parents’ efficacy for helping children learn • Attitudes toward parent engagement in general • Beliefs about the importance of specific involvement practices • Professional community

8. Components of TIPS program • 6 one-hour modules to be held after school, on the topics of: • Teachers’ experiences of parental involvement • Addressing and coping with obstacles • Perceptions of parents • Communicating with parents • Working with hard-to-reach parents • Enacting strategies beyond the program • Teachers will be invited to participate in NPN schools, and program will be implemented by Communities in Schools (CIS) coordinators and PhD student • Teachers will be valued as experts and encouraged to develop a professional community that will be sustained after the program

9. Evidence for program effectiveness • Program evaluation at two MNPS elementary schools revealed significant improvements in: • Teacher self-efficacy, teacher perceptions of parent efficacy, and teacher reports of personal practices for inviting involvement • Sense of professional community • Improvements in teachers who did not participate in the program as participants shared strategies they learned For more information, see Hoover-Dempsey, K.V., Walker, J.M., Jones, K.P., & Reed, R.P. Teachers Involving Parents (TIPS): An in-service teacher education program for enhancing parental involvement, http://www.transaction.publiceducation.org/pdf/Publications/Standards/TIP_paper.pdf

10. Potential next steps • Train parents to take on advocacy and leadership roles in their child’s school • Implement Touchpoints program • Create a whole-school culture that facilitates a welcoming environment for families

11. For further information or to get involved: Joanna Geller Joanna.d.geller@vanderbilt.edu