Little Rock, AR

Telling Our Stories of Promising Practices

Little Rock School District continues to strengthen family and community engagement at the district level and in its schools. LRSD Leaders for Partnerships guide three Cluster Leaders who facilitate three groups of schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships (ATPs) in the Central-East, Southwest, and West sections of the district.

When COVID-19 closed schools, the Leaders for Partnerships met with Cluster Leaders and schools’ ATPs via Zoom to hear how they were connecting with families and community partners during the lockdown. For example, among many activities:

• ATPs in all three clusters used online media (e.g., Zoom, ClassDojo, itsLearning, Edmentum) to communicate with parents about how to assist their children with learning at home, and for parents to connect to teachers to ask questions and make requests.
• LRSD sent families letters in English and Spanish about how to obtain Chromebooks and free internet services for online learning if they had not computers at home.
• The district organized locations and, with schools, communicated with families about where to pick up free breakfasts, lunches, and weekend meals at schools, libraries, and community centers, and provided free bus transportation to these sites.

LRSD and NNPS conducted an online session to encourage schools’ ATPs to select, write, and submit a best practice for the NNPS book of Promising Partnership Practices 2020. This session helped ATPs realize that the engagement activities they implemented before and after COVID-19 closures would be of interest to other schools in NNPS. In response, LRSD schools submitted strong activities to “tell their stories” of how they are working to maintain connections with families in ways that increase student success in school. The result? See LRSD schools’ activities in Promising Partnership Practices 2020.

See more about Telling Our Stories of Promising Practices in Promising Partnership Practices 2020.

Summer Learning During COVID-19

Summer School was cancelled due to COVID-19, but summer learning still was important for students to limit the “summer slide” in reading and other school skills. LRSD’s Parent and Family Engagement (PFE) Specialist and others noted that the district’s Parent Center had resources that could be used and enjoyed by students during the summer.

The partnership office conducted a Google Survey of parents whose children were scheduled for summer school. Results indicated that parents were eager for resources to assist their children during the summer. Parents provided the names and grade levels of their children so that the resources provided to them could be customized.

Working together, the PFE, Title I, Translations Office, and two teachers created Summer Resource Kits for students K-8. The teachers hosted six Zoom sessions in morning and evening hours to introduce the Summer Resource Kits to parents and students. They also conducted three morning and afternoon sessions in English and in Spanish for two weeks to address students’ and parents’ questions.

The summer learning kits included 1 or 2 books at each student’s reading level with specific discussion questions, a journal for student writing, and other materials and activities. Kits for secondary students contained a book for reading for pleasure, journal, To-Do Calendar for Planning for College or Career, college and career pamphlets for parents, and a list of websites for additional learning activities. Parents and students could pick up the kits at the Parent Center or request them to be sent by mail.

District leaders will evaluate the COVID-19 summer learning program by examining students’ online activities and journals. A survey will be sent to parents at the end of the summer to learn their reactions to the program.

See more about Summer Learning During COVID-19 in Promising Partnership Practices 2020.