Alvord School District’s Parent Involvement Week spotlighted the district’s and schools’ commitment to partnerships during American Education Week in November. Alvord’s district Leaders for Partnerships are working to train and continually strengthen school ATPs to conduct goal-linked partnership programs by implementing the ATP Support Network.

Riverside, California

Standing left to right:    David Ferguson, Lisa Davis  Kathleen Kennedy (Coordinator), Angie Arzaga, Carrie Mondt, Dr. Sid Salazar (Superintendent)

Alvord Parent Involvement Week

During Parent Involvement Week, banners flew at all schools in the Alvord School District, proclaiming “Parent Involvement Matters: Forging Partnership with Parents, Students, and the Community for Better, Stronger Schools.”  School-based ATPs were new in Alvord two years ago.  The Leaders for Partnerships wanted to create awareness about the importance of ATPs for engaging all families in ways that increased students’ academic and behavioral success in school.   They also wanted to strengthen links between the District’s PTA, the District’s Leaders for Partnerships, and the ATPs in all schools.

In the first year, half of the schools agreed to establish ATPs to see whether and how teams increased positive and productive connections with parents and community partners.  By the second year, all schools had ATPs.  The Superintendent expressed the expectation that all principals understood that family and community engagement was a district priority.

Parent Involvement Week spotlighted the district’s and schools’ commitment to partnerships during American Education Week in November.   Each school selected one day during the week to welcome its families, conduct engaging activities, and encourage parents and community members to become school volunteers.  District Leaders for Partnerships provided a planning packet, including a selection of activities from NNPS books of Promising Partnership Practices that the ATPs could adopt or adapt.  The ATP chairpersons discussed their plans with each other in October, and used flyers, marquee messages, and other strategies to encourage parents to visit the school and their children’s classes.

Alvord Parent Involvement Week is featured in Promising Partnership Practices 2015.

Alvord Teams Flourish with Support Network

Alvord’s district Leaders for Partnerships are working to train and continually strengthen school ATPs to conduct goal-linked partnership programs.  At first, when some schools were struggling, the district leaders implemented the ATP Support Network with three meetings per year.  Each principal was asked to send one ATP parent and one staff member familiar with the team’s One-Year Action Plan for Partnerships and the school’s Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA/improvement plan).

The ATP Support Network addressed topics such as the NNPS Framework of the Six Types of Involvement, Ten Steps to Success, program evaluations including the Annual Review of ATP Progress, and time to share.  The meetings stressed school and family mutual respect and shared responsibilities for student success. Evaluations indicated that the number and abilities of parent leaders have grown.  The ATPs selected topics for next year’s meetings, including strategies for recruiting parents for the ATPs.

Although it is difficult to correlate work of ATPs with the district’s increased graduation rate, the Leaders for Partnerships believe that family engagement contributes to students’ staying in school.  Activities have included providing parents with information on setting college and career expectations in the elementary grades, orienting parents who are new immigrants to the school system, and helping all parents understand the importance of their children earning a high school diploma.