Closing the Achievement Gap - Washington State School Directors ...

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in more than one school during the year, scored on average 19 percentilepoints lower than students who did not experience those changes.Research shows that parent involvement is a complex activity, especiallyamong low-income families (Lewis, 2001). These parents often see a limitedrole for themselves in their child’s education and their involvement inthe school.The voices of disenfranchised parents and community members must beheard and they must be empowered as advocates for their children. Engagingfamilies in culturally appropriate ways is critical to establishing thesepartnerships.Community engagement is increasingly important as the general publicexpects more from their schools. The challenge is to engage the communityin ways that support student achievement and continuous improvement.Community engagement must occur at all levels, not just at the individualschool level. District-wide community engagement is necessary to securebroad-based support for district goals and initiatives, including districtdecisions about allocation of resources which may vary from school toschool based on need.School boards that engage the community in visioning, strategic planningand in other meaningful decision-making roles generally find greater communitysupport for the schools. As school boards work to eliminate theachievement gap, this partnership becomes even more important. There aremany examples of districts successfully inviting the community to participatein program planning and service delivery. Many districts successfullytap the resources of the community to provide extended learning opportunities,meet the needs of students who are not achieving and address culturaland language differences. The National School Boards Association(NSBA) has published a helpful guide to assist boards – The CommunityConnection: Case Studies in Public Engagement, available at www.nsba.org.Questions to Guide the Discussion1. How can community-based organizations, municipalities, social servicesand other agencies assist the school board in addressing theachievement gap?2. How is the board educating the community and parents about standardsand the WASL to gain community support for them as a validmeans to show real student achievement?3. To what degree are parents taught about how the school system worksand how to be an advocate for their children?4. How is the district addressing language differences in parent engagementpractices? Are the strategies effective?“Parents exposed tohomelessness and currentlyresiding in a shelter ortransitional housing aroundthe Jackson communitywere interviewed. Parentstold interviewers that (1)they see all too well what ishappening to their childrenthrough homelessness; (2)they were concerned abouthow poorly their childrenare doing in school; andmost important, (3) theywere desperate to see theirchildren be able to succeed.Parents greatly feared theirchildren using drugs,becoming gang involved orgetting pregnant, but theydid not know how toprevent it. Nor did parentsbelieve that they werecapable of helping theirchildren be successful inschool or in life. Parentshad a sense that it wasbetter to let other peoplecare for their children andthat it was best to stayaway, as if they were notgood enough to be involvedin their children’s care orschooling. They clearly didnot see themselves as aresource to their children.”— Kathy BurgoyneCommunity in SchoolsSnohomish CountyWASHINGTON STATE SCHOOL DIRECTORS’ ASSOCIATION39
5. To what degree are parents and community partners listened to forunderstanding how they experience the district and schools?Policy Recommendations1. Develop and adopt a board philosophy about family outreach and involvement,including respecting family cultural values and norms and usingfamily strengths as the focus of parent involvement practices.2. Consistently use a variety of forms and means of communication toparents and the community and ensure that communication is provided toreach parents who do not speak English.3. Measure the effectiveness of the district’s current outreach strategies andparent involvement programs. Develop methods to continuously evaluateand hold the district accountable for effective parent involvement andcommunity engagement. Be ready to make changes if strategies andprograms have not demonstrated themselves to be effective.4. Advocate and provide resources for home visits, especially to the homesof children entering kindergarten. Getting into their homes is a provenway to help families have a better understanding of the school’s expectationsand for staff to better understand families and cultures.5. Provide opportunities to enhance family-teacher relationships and to helpparents build a sense of community and partnership with other parents.6. Provide meaningful opportunities for parent and community participationin site teams, advisory committees and other decision-making groups.What School Districts Are DoingThe Finley School District (www.finleysd.org) adopted the GIMME FIVEprogram that asks every parent to provide a minimum of five volunteerhours within the school year. In the first seven months of the program,Finley had representation from 38 percent of its parents and 937 totalvolunteer hours. GIMME FIVE is a highly successful program that brings adiverse group of parents into the learning community.The Family Partnerships in the Seattle Public Schools(www.seattleschools.org) seeks to increase the ability of schools to formeffective partnerships with all families. Each Family Partnership schoolutilizes the family involvement framework from John Hopkins University(www.scov.csos.jhu.edu). The framework includes six types of involvementthat help educators develop comprehensive programs of school-familycommunitypartnerships. The framework can be used by schools as a guidebut each school should choose those practices within the framework that40CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP: A POLICY ACTION GUIDE
Page 4: Table of ContentsForeword .........
Page 7 and 8: My thanks to the members of the Ach
Page 9 and 10: Assess the achievement gap problem.
Page 12 and 13: Overview of the PolicyAction GuideT
Page 14 and 15: Understanding theAchievement GapWSS
Page 16 and 17: Data also show a clear pattern of a
Page 18 and 19: cient (LEP) students were dispropor
Page 20 and 21: All Students Can Learn:Evidence Tha
Page 22: The two building graphs are from Wa
Page 25 and 26: Allocation and Alignment of Fiscal
Page 27 and 28: What School Districts Are DoingIn t
Page 29 and 30: The No Child Left Behind Act (www.n
Page 31 and 32: What School Districts Are DoingThe
Page 33 and 34: Questions to Guide the Discussion1.
Page 35 and 36: economically disadvantaged families
Page 37 and 38: “We need to look inside ourdistri
Page 39 and 40: 5. To what degree have new ways to
Page 41 and 42: “Closing the achievementgap requi
Page 43 and 44: “Where there are differentlevels
Page 45: What School Districts Are DoingKenn
Page 49 and 50: the classroom, grade level, school
Page 51 and 52: technology and professional develop
Page 53 and 54: tion, learning environments, progra
Page 55 and 56: Statewide 6th Grade ITBS Results: 2
Page 57 and 58: Train teachers to meet the demands
Page 60 and 61: ReferencesBrumbaugh, S. (1997). “
Page 62: Waymack N. & Drury, D. (Summer/Fall
Page 65 and 66: Gary Wilson Principal and Linda Hah
Page 67: Notes

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