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Make a gift to Project Appleseed! Become
an advocate for parents and
families engaged in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness in
America’s public schools.
Click here!  Federal & STATE
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Capacity Building
Partnerships
 Does
Your District Have Systemic Parent Engagement?
Introduction Project Appleseed stands poised on the brink of launching an unprecedented initiative, to turn around so called “failing” schools, by mobilizing large numbers of Title I parents. The plan rests on two truths: First, we know that when parents and caring adults volunteer in schools and commit themselves to supporting children, educational outcomes skyrocket. And second, while recruiting such school volunteers is not always easy, aggressively recruiting community members by going door to door—in other words, community organizing—does work. Our plan puts the two together. Project Appleseed will organize family and community involvement, door-to-door, in the lowest performing schools & districts. There, we will:
Project Appleseed's Capacity Building Partnerships has two priorities:
 click image to enlarge  According
to
the study, Organized
Communities, Strong Schools.pdf,
conducted
by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown
University, organizing:
Project Appleseed is pleased to announce the 2010-2011 Capacity Building Partnership program designed to support the development of family engagement throughout multiple schools, multiple school districts and across entire states. The individual components – parental engagement and community organizing - will be delivered in a researched-based and integrated manner, to increase student achievement. Project Appleseed will select partners for grants that will be sought, in the third round of funding in the 2011 fiscal year, from the Race to the Top Fund and the Investing In Innovation Fund of the United States Department of Education. Completion of this RFP- Request for Partnerships is required by December 30, 2010. President Obama has announced an additional $1.3 billion investment in the Race to the Top Fund and $500 million for the Investing In Innovation Fund for 2011. The third round - which still needs congressional approval - is worth $1.35 billion. (Picture above: Muskogee, Oklahoma - Peggy Willard signs the Muskogee Parental Involvement Pledge at Jobe Elementary. Ms. Willard is an old pro when it comes to volunteering at her grandkids’ school. Read more...)  click image to enlarge  Project
Appleseed actively looks for schools, districts and states,
that share our set of standards for effective parental
involvement. We seek to form partnerships that will organize
parental involvement around these beliefs:
We invite your
schools to consider joining Project Appleseed in a U.S. Department of
Education grant request as a Capacity Building Partner. We
provide those details here.
How
Its
Made  click image to enlarge
Engaging
Family
Involvement
in
Schools
Students are more successful at school when learning is encouraged at home. However, parents are often overextended, trying to juggle more than one job or coping with the difficulties of being unemployed, and/or do not feel comfortable going into their children's schools. Aligned with the Six Slices of Parental Involvement, our Title I learning compact is called the Parental Involvement Pledge. By signing the Pledge, parents agree to "take personal responsibility" for their children's education. We ask you, as parents, grandparents or as caring adults, to pledge to spend at least five hours each semester assisting at school, and fifteen minutes reading with your child each evening. And then we tell you about some of the most effective ways you can help schools to improve, during those five hours. Action
District & Statewide Parental Involvement Pledge Seed-by-seed and parent-by-parent, we can mobilze thousands and thousands of families to participate in systemic engagement across school districts and entire states. Using the Parental Involvement Pledge is the critical step that moves the concept of family involvement from planning to action, from paper to partnership with parents and adult learners.
What
Is It? How
Do
You Use It?
Why
Do You Use It? Many
schools fail to develop effective learning
compacts. Some compacts are as long as 4-6 pages, are laden with
educational jargon and read like a bad 30 year mortgage. The simple one
page two-sided Parental Involvement Pledge gathers social capital and
captures how parents, grandparents and caring adults will share
the responsibility for improved student achievement and the means by
which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to
help children achieve the State's high standards. When parents are involved, their children do better in school, and they go to better schools. Why is this true? Because when parents are welcome in the school and are consulted about decisions affecting their children, an atmosphere of trust and collaboration develops between school and home. When this happens, our children will perform at a higher level, and the school will become more effective. The school is a critically important community institution, since the quality of education shapes not only our children's individual future, but also the future of your community and society. Your support of public schools is important; involvement and action by several parents in a group can influence school policy-makers and result in decisions and choices than can benefit many children. Use the Pledge with parents, parent groups, and staff as a tool and encouragement for parental involvement.  click image to enlarge
 The
Parental
Involvement Pledge enhances and helps organize programs for families
and
communities that include:
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 Parents Plan To Door Knock On 73,000 Homes “Door-knocking is a lost art,” said Kevin Walker, whose organization, Project Appleseed, has embarked on a national campaign to rouse involvement in public schools. “People need to be asked face to face to get involved. People need to be invited in.” Jamekia Kendrix imagines a fervor
the same as those days as a teenager when her evangelical church set
loose vanloads of believers into neighborhoods to knock door by door.
Only this time, she’ll be spreading the gospel of the Kansas City School District. In a summer already laden in big plans, the district’s community is adding another whopper. Bands of volunteers believe they
can, over the course of four weekends, marshal enough people to knock
on every one of about 73,000 doors in the district. District & State Family Mobilization Strategy
Almost every day,
citizens are
urged to lend a hand at schools. Educators welcome volunteers, but we
all know that good volunteer programs don't happen by accident. Schools
that are most successful in engaging parents and other family members
in support of their children's learning look beyond traditional
definitions of parent involvement-participating in a parent teacher
organization or signing quarterly report cards-to a broader conception
of parents as full partners in the education of their children. Rather than simply asking and expecting parents to volunteer in schools, use the Parental Involvement Pledge to canvass the entire school-community, city, or state during the school year and into the next.
Key state, district and school level leaders to partner with: •
Governor Basic
Engagement
Below
are some action steps that Project Appleseed can use to make your
Parental
involvement Pledge effort a big success.
 2.
Parent/Teacher
Conferences
The
process can begin with the
distribution of the Parental Involvement Pledge -- with a cover letter
(download sample cover letter) -- at parent/teacher conferences.
(Required by Title I, Section 1118,
Elementary and Secondary Education
Act, No Child Left Behind. Pledge rate of return more than 35%).
3. Direct Mail Parental Involvement Pledge are sent to parents by U.S. Mail with with a self-addressed return envelope. Now only if someone would call these parents to remind them to return the Pledge!
4. Phone Canvasing Canvassing may also be performed by telephone, where it is referred to as telephone canvassing. While Parental Involvement Pledges are distributed by U.S. Mail, the school/district telephone auto-dialer, normally used for attendance calls, could be used to call parents to remind them to volunteer by completing the mailed Parental Involvement Pledge and returning them to school. Recorded message should be from the principal or superintendent. If the school has no auto-dialer, let your fingers do the walking! Call the parents using live people! (Pledge rate of return is expected to exceed 20%)  5. Internet & Database
Engagement Project
Appleseed is poised to launch
specific web sites for each partnership. The sites
will carry all the award winning
information that our national site carries--but with more specific
local and statewide news and information.
 6. Student Backpack
Distribution
Pledges
can be sent home with the
students. Compliance by students will be weak so incentives should be
considered for the teacher or staff member who returns the highest
number of Pledges (Rate of return is not expected to exceed 10%)  7.
Reprint the
Pledge In Newsletters A full-page or half-page reprint
of
the Parental Involvement Pledge in the schools newsletter will raise
awareness about your school's Parental Involvement Pledge drive (Rate
of return is expected to be 1% to 2%). 8.
Open
House
At
school
open houses parents can
take the Pledge on-line through any school computer connected to the
Internet.
9.
Training
Project Appleseed will contract and
partner with Parent Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs) to help
train parents and educators in the implementation of successful and
effective parental involvement policies, programs, and activities that
lead to improvements in student academic achievement and that
strengthen partnerships among parents, teachers, principals,
administrators, and other school personnel in meeting the education
needs of children.
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Copyright 2010 PACE /
Project Appleseed, the National Campaign for Public School Improvement,
a 501 (c) (3) Nonprofit All
Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2010 Project Appleseed - All Rights Reserved |
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Through
a
statewide or districtwide
Parental
Involvement Pledge, Project
Appleseed involves parents and other adults in existing programs and
activities
along with students. We want to make them partners in their
children's learning, especially ones that have significant poverty and
the
social and educational
issues that accompany low income families. 
When Do
You Use It?
Some steps may not apply to
all schools or districts.
