Week 3 Pre-Thesis

Chapter 1: Background

A. Introduction:  

Schools today face an ever increasing pressure on test scores.  Without the complete dedication of the students, teachers, administration, and the parents, our schools will continue to fail.  We all know how hard we, as teachers, work for our students.  We all know the frustrations we go through when students show up late, leave school for a week trip to Mexico, return no homework, reach disconnected home phone numbers,  and have trouble getting parents to come to parent conferences.  Is it because the parents don't care?  Not at all.  Many of our parents are uneducated about the American school system and are intimidated about coming to the school.   Most show he desire to help, but don't know how. As a school, making the parents feel comfortable and informed about their child's education is a must if we are going to continue to meet the demands and expectations of society.  Finding effective ways to communicate with parents is an increasing challenge for my schools staff.  With the high mobility rate and high Hispanic population, and high unconventional family structures, my school faces the challenge of meeting all the family's needs.  I hope to create a DVD for parents.  Our expectations are expressed every year at the beginning of school in written form and in presentations.  The problem, only 10% of our parents attend open house, and many do not even read the parent compact sent home.  I'm going to present the important information about our school in a way that will be a little more relaxed, understandable, and enjoyable for our parents to view.

B. Statement of the Problem:  Our school's parents lack the information, knowledge, and urgency to help their children become successful learners.

C. Purpose of the Project:  To encourage parent participation through a video introducing their child's school, explaining school programs, parent training's, and ways to improve their children's  overall education experience.

Chapter 2: Review of the Literature

A.  Davies, Leah (2002, May 5).   Increasing Parent Involvement in Schools. Kellybear.com

1.  Article summarizes the reasons for lack of parent involvement.  These include too little time/ single parenthood, lack of resources, cultural isolation/ language barrier, low educational level, and feeling unwelcome. 

2.  Discusses ways to increase parent involvement.  These include staff training, volunteers, and the one I focused on: information.

3.  The article suggests providing parents a clear and practical form of information stating the rules, procedures, and specific ways parents can be involved in school.  

B.   Kaplan, Nochum (2004).   School-Parent Communications. Educational Pathways, Issue 5.

1.  Talks about the schools obligations and parents obligations.  

2.  Schools must explain its philosophies and policies and not talk down to parents.

3.  Schools will clearly communicate its policies and curriculum to parents.

      i.  This is where I feel the need for an improvement in how we communicate the schools policies and rules.  I don't think parents have a clear idea of what is expected of their children.   It needs to be explained in a way where everyone understands, whether they are literate or not.

C.  Etheridge, George W. (1979).  Home School relations: Together We Stand or Divided We Fail.

1.  Gives findings on the attitudes of 104 inner city parents toward their child's school and how the parents saw themselves as being involved.

2.  Parents expressed their desire to stay informed of school business and to work in a supportive, facilitative role rather than a decision making role.

D.  Kervin, Lisa (2005, June 1).  Students talking about home-school communication: can technology support this process?.  Australian Journal of Language and Literacy

1.  Talks about the traditional ways of communication, such as parent-teacher conferences, do not adequately work.

2.  Talks about communication being fundamental to establishing successful home-school partnerships.

E.  Walker, Thomas (1993).  Increasing the Participation of Parents of Elementary School Students in Parent Education Activities through Development and Implementation of an Alternative Delivery System

1.  Describes a program intended to increase parent participation by improved information delivery.

2.  Mentions high turnover rate amongst students, low attendance at school orientation, and parent workshops.

3.  A school orientation video was created.

Chapter 3: Project Design

A.  Analysis

1.  Needs Assessment

a. Parents- 

i.  Survey- I would like to pass out an initial survey with a written copy of the parent compact at the beginning of the year.  I would like to know if they read the entire compact, understood it,  what information was helpful, and what questions do they still have.

ii.   Focus Group- I would like to sit down with the parents who serve on our School Site Council and find out what information they would like to have included in the presentation.

b. Teachers/ Administration- 

i. Survey - General survey asking teachers and administrators important points they would like the parents to be able to learn about the school, staff, and programs offered.

ii. Focus Group - Once the survey results have been studies, I would like to sit down with the school's MODEL team, administrators, and teachers in three separate focus group meetings.

2.  Specific Problems to Riley Elementary School-

a.  Parent Involvement

b.  Parent's understanding of expectations

c.  Low performance on CST tests.

3.  Characteristics of Population-

a.  83% Hispanic, 12% African American, 3% Samoan, 2% other

b.  99% free and reduced lunch

c.  Large percentage of multi family homes, single parents, and unconventional family structures

4.  Assessment of Presentation

a.  attendance at Back to School Night, parent conferences, and school functions

b.  survey

c.  parent feedback

d. teacher feedback

e.  test scores

B.  Design

1.  Finding the solution

a.  view other company and school informational videos

b. Find subject matter experts

c.  storyboard complete video, asking specific committees and staff for direct input in respective sections.

d.  Movie in English, Spanish, and Samoan

e.  imovie - using imovie to make DVD as platform for presentation, easier for parents to view than printed copy or internet video.

C.  Development

1. Alpha Test 

a.  staff - get feedback from staff for improvements

b.  subject-matter experts

2.  Revise based on feedback from first alpha test

3.  Alpha Test 

a.  parents - Student Site Council Meeting

4.  Beta Test

a. Back to School Night

b.  feedback survey 

5.  Corrections

D.  Implementation

1.  Burn DVD's for distribution to parents at the beginning of each school year

2. DVD's available year long for every new student at Riley

E.  Evaluation

1.  Determine effectiveness

2.  Reflection