School & Community Relations

Brown Middle School

Michelle Kravetz & Schuyler Kasee

Data - Teacher survey

When students come from homes where educational achievement is not a high priority,
they often dont do their homework and their parents dont come to school events. This
lack of parental support undermines my efforts to teach these students.

*Data collected from Vision Project completed by Lauren Love

Data - Teacher Interviews

To what extent are families given the opportunity to express their thoughts
regarding how schools might work better?
I think that we are trying to find ways to do that, but I dont think we have done a very good job of
making that happen or making them feel like they are part of the decision making process. I think
that even when we do open it up, most of the time we do not get a lot of participation. I think we
need to find ways to encourage them to participate so there is more of an input from the
community.
Teacher 1
Maybe, one or two parents who are horrible at complaining might have a little bit of an effect, it is
not always the best effect.
Teacher 2

*Data collected from Vision Project completed by Lauren Love

Data - Teacher survey

*Data collected from School Culture Project completed by Schuyler Kasee & Lauren Love

Data - Student survey

*Data collected from School Culture Project completed by Schuyler Kasee & Lauren Love

Data - Family survey

*Data collected from School Culture Project completed by Schuyler Kasee & Lauren Love

Involvement type #5
Decision-making

Strength
Brown Middle School has structures in place for
decision-making, such as the Building Leadership Team
Parent and family organizations could be included in
such decision-making structures

Challenge
Families are not or do not feel included in decisionmaking at the schools

Solution #1
Learn about families of children in the schools by
making positive contact and building relationships
staff initiating contact with families
Conduct home visits in the community

Research for Solution #1

A demographic analysis helps to suggest or provide
reasons why home-school collaboration works or does
not work. For example, a demographic analysis may
identify cultural difference between home and school
that help to explain why some of the parents are
uncomfortable with the schools environment or specific
staff. (Raffaele, p. 453)

Research for Solution #1

Getting to know parents by cultivating meaningful
relationships may be even more important than
programming and may enhance parents desire to be
involved in their childrens education (Velsor, p. 19)
Schools are seeing huge improvements for students and
families when a home-school relationship is established
starting with a home visit (Baeder, 2010, p. 58)

Action Plan for Solution #1

Strategy

Time

Who?

Cost

Evaluation

Create a survey of family

demographic information and
cultural differences

August 2016

Principal,
teachers

Time to
create
survey

Survey created

Send out survey to all families

digitally (website, email), on paper
sent home with students, mailed
home

September
2016

Principal,
teachers, tech
support

Cost of
printing,
postage

Survey sent out

Analyze results of the survey

October 2016

Principal,
teachers (BLT?)

Time

Results presented
to staff

Educate staff about home visits

November
2016

Principal, BLT

Time, PD

Staff
survey/feedback
about home visits

Staff pilot home visits and report

back to rest of staff

January 2016

Volunteer
teachers

Time

Teachers report out

to staff

Solution #2
Create or increase support of a PTA/PTO in order to
form parental support networks and increase
involvement in school decision-making

Research for Solution #2

These efforts are developed in recognition that lowincome parents and families may already be doing as
much as they canas individuals to support the
social, educational, and developmental needs of their
children (Lawson & Alameda-Lawson, 2012).
Consequently, to improve their childrens outcomes,
opportunities to work with other parents are needed.
(Alameda-Lawson, p. 200)

Research for Solution #2

Implications of the influence of parents social networks
extend well beyond the importance of cultivating
relationships with parent groups. As PTG and the
informal parent group show, different parent networks
are, quite simply, different. School leaders may be most
successful working with parent groups by recognizing
their unique qualities and responding accordingly.
(Wanat & Zieglowksy, p. 158)

Action Plan for Solution #2

Strategy

Time

Who?

Cost

Evaluation

Meet with other schools to

determine strengths of existing PTO

January 2016

School leaders,
BLT

Time

List of existing
strengths and
networks

Bring together a lead group of

parents/family from the community

February 2016

Principal,
teachers,
families

Time

PTO network and

leadership
established

Hold first building PTO meeting for

families of Brown Middle School
students

April 2016

Families

Time,
meeting
place

Meeting notes
distributed

PTO leader meet with BLT to share

progress

August 2016

BLT, parent,

Time

BLT notes with

information from
PTO

References
Alameda-Lawson, T. (2014). A pilot study of collective parent engagement and
childrens academic achievement. Children and Schools, 36(4), 199-209.
Baeder, A. (2010). Stepping into students worlds. Educational Leadership,
February, 56-60.
Raffaele, L., & Knoff, H. (1999). Improving home-school collaboration with
disadvantaged families: Organizational principles, perspectives, and
approaches. School Psychology Review, 28(3), 448-466.

References
Velsor, P., & Orozco, G. (2007). Involving low-income parents in the schools:
Community-centric strategies for school counselors. Professional School
Counseling, 11(1), 17-24.
Wanat, C. L., & Zieglowsky, L. T. (2010). Social networks and structural holes:
Parent-school relationships as loosely coupled systems. Leadership and Policy
in Schools, 9, 131-160.

Involvement Type #1
Communicating

Data - Parent Survey

*Data collected from School Culture Project completed by Schuyler Kasee & Lauren Love

Data - Parent Survey

*Data collected from School Culture Project completed by Schuyler Kasee & Lauren Love

Data - Parent Survey

*Data collected from School Culture Project completed by Schuyler Kasee & Lauren Love

Strength
Parents are willing to be involved with the school.
Parental involvement could help students achieve
more.

Challenge
The majority of parents do not feel listened to by all
stakeholders or feel able to be invested in the school
community.

Solution #1
Create avenues of communication between the school
and community through outreach at local businesses.

Research for Solution #1

Community assets, such as beauty salons, barbershops and churches, have
been portrayed as culturally appropriate venues for reaching African
Americans to overcome institutional and socio-cultural barriers (Luque, Ross,
& Gwede, p. 182).
If teachers are to wisely and creatively foster greater parental participation,
especially among parents of at-risk children, they should start by telling
parents what theyre doing right. Once you establish that relationship with
parents, they will be more likely to listen to your suggestions about what more
they can do (Jeynes, p. 39)

Action Plan for Solution #1

Strategy

Time

Who?

Cost

Evaluation

Create a list of barbershops, beauty

salons, laundromats, and other local
businesses where patrons congregate

August 2016

Principals, school
community leaders

Time

List created

Call businesses and ask for permission to

come speak

September 2016

Principals, school
community leaders

Time

List of businesses given

permission

Go to businesses with topics of

conversation and resources once every
two weeks

Oct. 2016 -May

2017

Principals, school
community leaders

Time

Report on experiences
to staff

Invite interested parties to periodic

meetings at school

November 2016onward

Principals, school
community leaders

Time

Attendance report and

minute analysis

Conduct survey on effectiveness of

outreach program

May 2017

Principals, school
community leaders

Time

Survey results

Solution #2
Create community mentoring program for students and parents to engage in
together.

Research for Solution #2

Setting up a mentoring program in schools expresses investment in the
students on the part of the school. Our school in the Bronx has 610 kids. You
could come to a meeting on a Saturday, and see 450 parents. It's standing
room only, says David Banks, the founder and chief executive officer of the
New York City-based Eagle Academy Foundation (Molnar, 2013).
Mentoring programs for at-risk youth are growing at a rapid pace across the
United States. Youth mentoring programs differ in their curricula, but most
emphasize the relationship between a disadvantaged or troubled youngster
and a caring adult. The relationship generally involves spending quality time
together and providing support and guidance, with the aim of helping the
young person better negotiate life's difficulties (Keating, Tomishima, Foster, &
Allesandri, p. 717).

Action Plan for Solution #2

Strategy

Time

Who?

Cost

Evaluation

Create a team of lead mentors

August 2016

Principals,
teachers

Time

Lead Mentor Team

Solicit local community for qualified

volunteer mentors; Identify students
to be mentored

September
2016

Principals,
teachers, BLT

Time

List of possible
mentors, list of
possible students

Train mentors and pair with groups

of students

October 2016

Principals,
teachers BLT

Time, PD

Paired Mentor with

groups of students

Ongoing mentor training and

updates

Nov 2016-May
2017

Principals,
teachers, BLT

Time, PD

End of the year

survey

Mentor/Mentee Survey on
effectiveness of program

May 2017

Principals

Time

Survey results

References
Jeynes, W. (2011). Helping families by fostering parental involvement. Phi Delta Kappan,
93(3), 38-39.
Keating, L. M., Tomishima, M. A., & Foster, S. (2002). The Effects of a Mentoring
Program on At-Risk Youth. Adolescence, 37(148), 717-734.

References
Luque, J. j., Ross, L., & Gwede, C. (2014). Qualitative Systematic Review of BarberAdministered Health Education, Promotion, Screening and Outreach Programs in AfricanAmerican Communities. Journal Of Community Health, 39(1), 181-190.
Molnar, M. (2013). Home and Community Involvement Can Play Key Part in School
Success. Education Week, 32(16), 28-31.