Engaging Families

Supporting Students from Cradle to Career

Volume VII, Issue 3 July/August 2014

FeaturesArne’s 50-State Adventures, from Anchorage to St. Augustine

Student explaining to the Secretary how taro is processed onto poi.

With the closing of the 2013-14 school year, the Secretary reached an important milestone. His stop in Hawaii at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam marked the 50th State Duncan has visited since becoming secretary. View the slideshow highlighting the Secretary’s 50-state tour over five years.

Detroit Dads Forum

The audience listening to the panel of Dads.

On June 7, the U.S. Department of Education’s regional office staff in Chicago, Shirley Jones, partnered with the Detroit Area Dad’s PTA and the Detroit Public School system to organize a “Dads to Dads” forum. The event was held at Detroit Collegiate Preparatory High School at Northwestern in Detroit, MI. Over 350 men, women, and young adults attended workshops that provided various ways for them to best support children educationally and socially. The important role of fathers in children’s physical, emotional, and social development was the emphasis for the day.

One of the speakers at the forum was National PTA President Otha Thornton, who challenged the parent participants to identify the barriers that prevent them from being more involved in their children’s education and lives. For more information about the event, please go to http://www.ed.gov/blog/2014/06/recognizing-the-importance-of-fathers/.

Community Engagement in School TurnaroundTo make school turnaround more effective, a webinar series has been developed so the audience can focus on one essential tactic during each webinar.

The School Turnaround Learning Community (STLC) in partnership with the Reform Support Network (RSN) hosted on June 26 the Community Engagement in Turnaround. The series was based on the idea that “To fully engage the community one must ensure that school improvement is done with the community, and not to the community.”  

The full series will explore what families and communities have to offer as partners for sustainable change to occur in their schools. To listen to the webinar, go to http://schoolturnaroundsupport.org/events/community-engagement-school-turnaround.

The School Turnaround Learning Community (STLC) is a key element in the U.S. Department of Education’s effort to provide support to state, district, and school leaders working to turn around the nation’s lowest-achieving schools. The site offers a wide range of resources and tools enabling users to share school turnaround practices and lessons learned to strengthen teaching and learning for all schools. The STLC is also designed to facilitate networking to support schools more effectively. To learn more, visit http://schoolturnaroundsupport.org/home.

Effective Practices

Title I iCommunity and Summer Slide of Prince George’s County Public SchoolsIn Prince George’s County Public Schools (MD), the Title I office has developed and implemented two programs, iCommunity and Summer Slide. iCommunity helps parents become tech savvy and Summer Slide prevents academic loss in children over summer months.

Title I iCommunity combines the annual Title I Parent Conference that instructs parents in areas that impact student achievement with the iCamp that educates the Title I parents and community representatives on the technology being integrated into the Title I schools. The ultimate goal is to assist in building parents' capacity for hands-on technology activities that will help their child achieve academic success.

Prior to summer dismissal, iCommunity focused on preventing the “summer slide”; which refers to the academic gains sometimes lost over the summer months. Parents participated in sessions such as Keep Reading Rolling in the Summer, Summer Math Resources and Preventing Summer Slide, where strategies and activities were shared that can be implemented at home and in the community to prevent the loss of academic skills and knowledge. To see a video of parents becoming tech savvy please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roybmWCFBmM&feature=em-share_video_user. For more information call Andrea Phillip Hughes at the Prince George’s County Public Schools Title I Office at 301-618-8390 or email aphughs@pgcps.org.

San Juan Unified Family and Community Engagement (FACE) DepartmentAt San Juan Unified, in California, the Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Department believes that learning starts at home and continues at school. The FACE Department was created in 2012 as a result of a community developed Strategic Plan. The FACE Department outreach efforts are an all inclusive program crossing economic and cultural barriers.

FACE staff encourage parents, guardians, extended family, and community members to be active partners in the education process. The department assists, oversees and provides a number of services that connects parents to district and community resources, as well as building district capacity with both educators and families. Parent and community volunteers are encouraged to be in roles of classroom assistants, art docents, campus volunteers and reading tutors. These also help mediate concerns between parents and school sites. For more information about the Family and Community Engagement Department, contact Kate Hazarian at kate.hazarian@sanjuan.edu or Lisa Borrego at lisa.borrego@sanjuan.edu or 916-971-7929. www.sanjuan.edu.

AnnouncementsCommunity Eligibility Provision Deadline ExtendedStarting this upcoming school year, the  Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, by which schools can agree to offer free breakfast and lunch for all of their students, and cover any costs that exceed the reimbursements from USDA, will be available to schools across the country .  

The program is designed to ease the burden of administering a high volume of applications for free and reduced price meals. CEP is a powerful tool to both increase child nutrition and reduce paperwork at the district, school, and household levels saving staff time and

resources for cash-strapped school districts. The decision to participate in the CEP is a local one, and schools must decide for themselves whether this program is right for them. In order to give schools more time to make that decision, the deadline for participation in School Year 2014-2015 was recently extended, and schools now have until August 31 to enroll.

On July 15 Secretaries Duncan and Vilsack issued a joint blog, found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gov-tom-vilsack/bringing-the-promise-of-h_b_5587682.html, reiterating the important messages regarding the CEP, highlighting ED’s guidance on this issue, and two pilot sites where use of the CEP is working well.

Region 4 Expands Internationally

Jonava Johnson and Donna Sirmais discuss The U. S. Department of Education’s Family and Community Engagement Framework.

On July 8, Jonava Johnson, Parent Liaison in Region 4, Atlanta, GA, met with Donna Sirmais, who works for the Family-School and Community Partnerships Bureau and National Government in Australia. Her role within the organization is to review and revise the current National Parental Engagement Framework which has been in place since 2008 and assess its relevance in light of Education reforms occurring across Australia. Ms. Sirmais travelled to the U.S. to participate in a course at Harvard University and discover what states were doing to engage families. Ms. Johnson shared the U. S. Department of Education’s newly released Family and Community Engagement Framework. Donna and Jonava discussed the different approaches their nations use to engage families. For more information, please contact Jonava Johnson at jonava.johnson@ed.gov or call 404-974-9454.

Family Engagement Outreach TeamThe Office of Communications and Outreach contacts work with state and local education agencies to empower parents with the information to help them be full partners in the education and academic progress of their children.

Olga Pirela Region I (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT) POCH Building5 Post Office Square9th Floor, Room 24Boston, MA 02110617-289-0100Olga.Pirela@ed.gov

Jacquelyn PittaRegion II(NJ, NY, PR, VI)Financial Square32 Old Slip, 25th FloorNew York, NY 10005646-428-3906Jacquelyn.Pitta@ed.gov

Elizabeth WilliamsonRegion III(DC, DE, MD, PA, VA, WV)100 Penn Square EastSuite 513Philadelphia, PA 19107215-656-6015Elizabeth.williamson@ed.gov

Jonava Johnson Region IV (AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN) 61 Forsyth St. S.W., Suite 18T15 Atlanta, GA 30303 404-974-9450 Jonava.Johnson@ed.gov

Shirley JonesRegion V (IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI) 500 W. Madison St., Suite 1427 Chicago, IL 60661 312-730-1706 Shirley.Jones@ed.gov

Elaine VenardRegion VII(IA< KS< MO< NE)8930 Ward Parkway, Suite 2043Kansas City, MO 64114-3302816-268-0404Elaine.Venard@ed.gov

Diana Huffman Region VIII (CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY) 1244 Speer Blvd. Suite 615 Denver, CO 80204-3582 303-844-3544 Diana.Huffman@ed.gov

Helen LittlejohnRegion VIII (CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY) 1244 Speer Blvd. Suite 615 Denver, CO 80204-3582 303-844-3546 Helen.Littlejohn@ed.gov

Tayyaba Shafique, Region IX(AZ, CA, HI, NV, AS, GU, CNMI)50 Beale StreetRoom 9700San Francisco, CA 94105415-486-5376Tayyaba.Shafique@ed.gov

Linda Pauley Region X (WA, OR, ID, AK) 915 Second Ave., Room 3362 Seattle, WA 98174 206-607-1655 Linda.Pauley@ed.gov

Carrie JasperHeadquarters400 Maryland Avenue S.W.Room 5E310Washington D.C. 20202202-401-1524Carrie.jasper@ed.gov

Contributors: Jonava Johnson, Anna Leach, Tayyaba ShaFique, Kate Hazarian, Lisa Borrego and Andrea Phillips HughesEngaging Families is edited by Carrie Jasper and designed by Monique Toussaint of the U.S. Department of Education

Note: This document contains information about and from public and private entities and organizations for the reader’s information. Inclusion does not constitute an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any entity or organization or the products or services offered or views expressed. This publication also contains hyperlinks and URLs created and maintained by outside organizations. They are provided for the reader’s convenience; however, the Department is not responsible for the accuracy of this information.

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