CP Blog Entry #8: What feedback are you getting from your powerful team?

I have been in contact with my powerful team members several times over the past two months. I have coordinated meetings and trainings, created flyers and PowerPoints, given advice on parent meetings, and helped teachers prepare materials to send home to parents. However, the most helpful information I have received has come from the feedback given by the Power Team staff members and the parents who attended the meetings.

After our September 22nd and 24th parent meetings, I sent a survey to the classroom teachers and the parents who attended. The feedback has been very helpful in assisting me in preparing for the next parent meetings in mid-January.

 Overall, staff members felt the first parent meetings went well, but were disappointed in parent attendance. We had 28% of our parents attend from the 21 classrooms. 95/339 students were represented. Staff members also felt a little overwhelmed and rushed in preparing materials since I was unable to receive monetary assistance from my PIT Crew team (formerly PTO) until September 9th and then did not get orders delivered until September 18th. Also, most of the staff members want to have our first meeting EARLIER next year! So far, the current members are looking forward to the second meeting in mid-January and six other staff members say they would like to join next year!

Parents gave outstanding positive feedback overall, but a few wanted to be able to meet individually with the teacher after the meeting was over. They were glad there will be individual conferences in October and November. Many were glad for the chance to see where their child stands against other students and for the handouts and activities to use at home.

CP Blog Entry #7: What are the official goals and objectives of your change project?

My goals are as follows:

SPECIFIC:

1. Increase parent involvement at Meadow Park Elementary School through evening group parent 

    meetings.

2. Increase student i-Ready assessment scores in Reading and Mathematics by focusing on specific  

     skills.

3. Decrease teacher-time spent conferencing throughout the school year by meeting with parents 

    as a group and holding one individual parent-teacher conference for each child during the year.

 MEASURABLE:

 1. Teachers will have a sign-in sheet for the parent nights and the parents will fill out a recording 

      sheet to keep track of the time they spend practicing skills at home with their child.

2. I will produce an excel Spreadsheet for all Power Team teachers and their students to record BOY, 

    MOY, and EOY i-Ready scores in Reading and Mathematics.

3. Teachers will fill out a conference recording sheet to keep track of time spent conferencing during 

     the school year. 

ATTAINABLE and REALISTIC: 

1. We are able to hold evening Power Team meetings as approved by our administration.

2. We take i-Ready assessments three times a school year.

3. Teachers hold conferences during every school year.

TIMELY:

All three goals will follow the regular school year. Therefore, the time frame will be during the nine month school year and will be completed by June 30, 2016.

 

CP Blog Entry #6.5: What is your change project?

My change project is the use of Academic Parent-Teacher Teams, or APTT. 

         The APTT is a parent involvement program developed by Maria Paredes, the Director of Community Education at Creighton School District in Arizona, which increases the communication and interaction between parents and teachers to facilitate collaboration between school and family. This provides parent/teacher support for the academic success of the children.

 The Academic Parent–Teacher Teams (APTT) involve two main components. The first consists of three 75-minute classroom team meetings each year. These team meetings are initiated by a personal invitation to the parent by the teacher, and consist of the teacher, the entire class of parents, and a parent liaison. Each meeting includes a review of class and individual student academic performance data, parent–student academic goal-setting, teacher demonstration of skills to practice at home, parent practice, and networking opportunities with other parents.

Children in the district are tested informally on a weekly basis and then formally every quarter with a district-developed standards-based assessment in the areas of reading and math. The APTT meetings are timed to coincide with the release of the quarterly assessment scores. The second component consists of a 30-minute parent–teacher conference: Once a year, teachers meet individually with parents to review their child’s performance data and create action plans to optimize learning. Teachers schedule individual meetings to take place within the first four months of school, prior to the second APTT meeting, and hold additional meetings when parents request them.

Another benefit of APTT is to lessen the amount of time teachers spend conferencing with parents during the school year. Only low-achieving students will require individual parent-teacher conferences.



Paredes, Maria. "Academic Parent–Teacher Teams: Reorganizing Parent–Teacher Conferences Around Data." Harvard Family Research Project. Harvard Family Research Project, 1 Oct. 2010. Web. 30 July 2015. <http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/academic-parent-teacher-teams-reorganizing-parent-teacher-conferences-around-data>.

CP Blog Entry #6: Is your initial data supporting or not supporting your change project goal?

As stated in blog entry #2, my goal is that "within a few years, my entire school would be participating in the APTT and hopefully finding that our student assessment scores have increased as well. By using this model, it should be evident that time spent conferencing will decrease, while parent involvement and overall student assessment scores will increase."

I believe my initial data is supporting my Change Project goal.

At this time, I have 31 members of the APTT, which we are calling the Meadow Park Power Team. Twenty-five of those members are teachers just about split evenly from K-2 and 3-5. The initial comments I am hearing from teachers are that they are excited to try something new and meet with the parents as a group on a regular basis throughout the year. As far as assessment data is concerned, there will always be room for improvement. So far, i-Ready scores are showing at least one weak area in Reading and in Mathematics at this initial testing phase for most classes. A few of the honors classes are showing even scores, but the teachers know the areas where the scores will fall during the school year.

CP Blog Entry #5 Question: What compelling information have you found during your research?

The following articles gave me compelling information about the APTT model. This literature review supports my Change Project vision. However, my vision to have my entire school participating may be a little too ambitious.

1. Paredes, Maria. "Academic Parent–Teacher Teams: Reorganizing Parent–Teacher Conferences Around Data." Harvard Family Research Project. Harvard Family Research Project, 1 Oct. 2010. Web. 30 July 2015. <http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/academic-parent-teacher-teams-reorganizing-parent-teacher-conferences-around-data>.

This article was the catalyst for my choosing the APTT model of increasing parent involvement for my Change Project. It is has information about the entire APTT process. The most compelling information I learned are the benefits to using the APTT model. The article states the following benefits.

1. Improved social networks: Parents report expanded social networks as a result of getting to know other families at team meetings.
2. Increased teacher participation: APTTs are not a district mandate, but rather an optional grassroots project that teachers can adopt if they chose. In the 2009–2010 school year, 12 classrooms participated, while 79 classrooms have already signed on for the upcoming 2010–2011 school year. This increase speaks to the power and success of the program.
3. Increased father involvement: A surprising result has been the high numbers of fathers who have come to team meetings—more than in classrooms with conventional parent–teacher conferences. When fathers were asked what made them more interested in coming to team meetings, they said that they were specifically interested in academics and wanted to be involved in understanding their child’s progress.
4. High attendance: In the classrooms that had APTTs, attendance at meetings was 92% on average. That was much higher than participation in conventional parent–teacher conferences.
5. Improved efficiency and time use: With APTTs, teachers are more efficient and use their time in a more productive way. APTTs require a decreased number of hours then conventional conferences because the entire group of parents meets together at once, but instead of seeing parents only twice over the school year parents and teachers have four formal opportunities to meet.
6. Parents are empowered: Many of the parents who participated in last year’s APTTs asked to continue the program. They want their children to be in a classroom that will be participating in APTT this coming school year."    

 As a teacher, I don't know why I wouldn't want to have all the above benefits!

2. Article: New Ground: Data Systems Transform Family Engagement in Education; Heather B. Weiss, M. Elena Lopez, & Deborah R. Stark; Breaking Harvard Family Research Project; January 2011; Harvard Graduate School of Education, 3 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, 617-495-9108, www.hfrp.org.

 This article states how to help parents become more comfortable in their child's education. Using the APTT model shows parents that they hold the keys to the important factors impacting their children, like attendance, progressing in learning, and overall achievement. The APTT model also "opens the door to meaningful conversations" between parents, teachers, and students.

As a parent with a career in education, my child's education was always forefront in my thinking. I couldn't wait to go to parent-teacher conferences and was disappointed that I would not attend another one after my daughter went on to the secondary institutions. I did not realize that many parents are just uncomfortable discussing their child's school achievements and can be intimidated by a teacher's role in their child's life.

3.  "An Innovative Model for Parent-Teacher Partnerships." U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Education. Web. 30 July 2015. <http://www.ed.gov/oese-news/innovative-model-parent-teacher-partnerships>.

This article gives the reader an idea of how Maria Paredes was able to overcome the obstacle of  teacher buy-in. She states that she first started the APTT process with 12 teachers and now has 79 teachers in her school district who participate yearly. Her district has a 92% success rate with parent participation. She goes on to state, "If you have about 75 percent of your parents responding, you’re still going to see scores go through the roof!"

As the APTT Coordinator at my school, I will need to rely on the information from this article to assist me with teacher buy-in at MPES. I am also looking forward to comparing our participation rates with that of the Creighton School District!

CP Blog Entry #4 Question: After viewing your data from the SY14-15, has your Change Project's "sense of urgency" been validated? Why or why not?

I have reviewed the end-of-year iReady scores for Reading and Mathematics for all grades Kindergarten through Fifth Grade for the 2014-2015 school year. Our school ranked anywhere from third place in Fifth Grade Reading to eighth place in First Grade Math and Kindergarten Reading out of the ten elementary schools.

However, we were only on or above the end-of-year goals in Third Grade Reading and Kindergarten Math. All other grade levels and areas were below the expected goal for the end of the year.

Therefore, there is still a valid sense of urgency for my change project. Parents need to be aware of how their children are progressing in critical areas and the parents will need to be trained to better work with their children at home with those Reading and Mathematics skills.

CP Blog Entry #3 Question: Has the concept of your initial Change Project been altered? Please share your thoughts on why or why not?

My overall concept has not changed, but there are a few details that need attention. With the assistance of my Principal, Asena Mott, we have scheduled separate meeting nights for Primary and Intermediate grades to alleviate congestion and parking issues. The necessity of these separate meeting dates will be determined after the invitations are sent home with the students of the participating classrooms.

My principal is also requesting cost-free meals be available for the adults the nights of the APTT meetings. Depending on the number of participants, this may require two to four meals during the school year.  I will also need to acquire paper products, utensils, napkins, water bottles, and possible servers or supervisors for the meals and for the clean-up thereafter.

It has been decided that we will incorporate our third APTT meeting with our Student-led conferences in mid-May. The conferences will be approximately forty-five minutes, rather then the previous thirty minutes. The teacher will begin the first fifteen minutes by reviewing the classroom data with the participants and then turn over the rest of the conference time to the individual students.

In addition to the above mentioned alterations, I will be unable to use FSA scores for data purposes. I will instead be using iReady scores for Reading and Mathematics for all participating classrooms Kindergarten through Fifth Grade.