Preparing for Parental Involvement

Action Planning
Goal: To increase student achievement through increased parental involvement
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Increase the amount of information going home (email sign up lists, posting on the web, letters home through students and through the postal system, and utilizing the automated phone caller)	Administration, office staff, campus technology staff	Start: 2 weeks after school begins (Sept. 6th) End: two weeks after the last day of school (June 16th)	Materials: Paper, envelopes and stamps Server space for parent email sign up Webmaster to post information Automated phone service	Pose questions on teacher, parent and student surveys regarding information sent home.
Set up a parent night to ask them for suggestions on how they can increase their involvement and discuss different options they may not realize are considered parental involvement.	Administration, PBIS team	This should be done during the first full week of September (6th-10th) This is a one-time only event.	Lecture Hall Snacks and drinks (cups and plates) Administrator PBIS Team members Power Point Presentation to show different types of parent involvement Sign-up sheet	Immediate feedback from attendees through question and answer session and a confidential survey at the end of the presentation Collect data on parent participation
Set up a monthly calendar for teachers to post important dates and assignments that parents can sign up to receive information about.	PBIS team Campus technology staff Freshman teachers	This should be implemented by the third week of school and should continue throughout the school year.	Server space Google or yahoo group that will be shared with freshmen parents	Pose questions on teacher, parent and student surveys regarding the shared calendar. Collect data on parent participation.
Depending on areas of need, offer parenting classes such as how to deal with teenagers, getting your student ready for college, etc.	PBIS Team Administration	Start: First week of October (4th-8th) and continue once every six weeks until the end of the year	This will depend on the session type but there will always be refreshments available	There will a confidential evaluation survey at the end of each session and questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey Collect data regarding parent participation.
Set up specific times parents may come to the campus and make use of our library and all of its resources.	PBIS Team Librarian Administration	This will begin right after the first meeting with parents in September and will continue throughout the school year	Stipend for the librarian and the extra hours that she may incur	Questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey. Collect data regarding parent participation over time.
Change Open House night to more of a parent social event where there would be food and drinks for the parents and they would have the opportunity to meet their child's teacher in a more relaxed setting.	PBIS Team Freshmen Teachers Administration	This will occur September 20th and is a one-time event	Refreshments Posters Mailers Automated phone calls	Questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey There will also be a sign up at the end of the night for parents to sign up for an automated survey to be either done over the phone or through email Collect data on parent participation
Set up ride service for parents to come to the school for events such as open house, parent classes and the library times.	PBIS Team Administration Durham Transportation Central Administration	This will begin with the first parent information night and will continue throughout the year as needed	Depending on how many people need the service, we would need either a bus from Durham transportation or use of the two Suburbans from central administration Liability waivers would also be necessary	Collect data on parent participation and add questions to the end of the year surveys
Offer crash course nights for parents to learn what their kids are doing in class so that they may assist their kids at home.	Freshmen teachers	Offer once a month at the beginning of the school year and continue throughout the school year	Take home materials for parents Refreshments	Informal evaluations done through questioning from the teacher Surveys at the end of the year from teachers, parents and students Collect data on parent participation and student achievement
Offer childcare during parent events	PBIS team Student clubs/organizations	This will be offered at all parent events starting with the parent information meeting in September and continuing throughout the school year	Each club will provide their own activities for the children	None required

Further along the exploration

     This week I was required to identify the 9 common topics for action research in school settings, reflect on video interviews discussing action research and come up with three topics of my own for action research and discuss with my site supervisr which topic would be the most beneficial and feasable for my campus. 
     Identifying the 9 common topics was very informative and helped me start to think about how to break down ideas into categories so they are easier to interpret.  The interviews were also quite helpful because I could literaly see action reasearch in action.  They discussed how effective the action research was and how it had helped each of their situations.  The most interesting to me though (and ironic because it is supposed to be more interesting; that's the whole point!) was develping my own topics for action research and conducting an email dialog with my principal about those topics.  I found her insight to be quite helpful and an interesting perspective because she has primarily worked in a reform type setting.  She made some interesting points that I had not considered and I look forward to talking with her again about my plan.  Which, by the way, is In what ways can I contribute to increasing parent involvement on my high school campus?

Blogs and Educational Leadership

Part of being an effective administrator is being able to communicate with their stakeholders.  Blogs can be a powerful onine communication tool when used to its full advantage.  Not only can you share information about what is happening on campus and around the community but you can also use them for collaborating on ideas, creating an online book study, host question and answer sessions for parents and students and setting up individual blogs for student organizations such as student council or art club so that they can communicate with their members.

What is Action Research?

To simply put it, action research is self-evaluation. It is when a principal, committee, or teacher studies their own practices and takes steps to change based on the results of their research. It differs from traditional research because the inquiry is done as more of a self-analysis rather than from the outside-looking-in approach. The practice of action research can be a valuable tool that allows for in-depth self-inquiry. One example would be a professional learning community doing a self-inquiry about how effectively they are improving their math TAKS scores by evaluating their data, analyzing the effectiveness of their current program and taking steps to improve their process. Benefits of conducting action research include increased collaboration through in-depth inquiry of their own problems. This increases a sense of ownership and willingness to make changes based on their research. It also allows for theories to be made that are derived from real-world practices. The process can be extensive and many administrators do not feel they have time to perform such a task. But, if you are willing to put in the work the rewards can be great.

I am currently the chair of our Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies (PBIS) team and one of our goals is to decrease the amount of referrals written by teachers. We could use an action research plan to evaluate our current referral data, analyze the types of referrals being written, and create a discipline action plan that addresses our needs. After the first semester, we could use the action research inquiry to evaluate the effectiveness of the discipline action plan we developed.