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Education Videos

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Obama on Parental Involvement
“In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a parent -- responsibility for our children's education must begin at home. That is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. That's an American issue."
 


Obama on Outsourcing Parenting
President Obama addressing the NAACP on its 100th anniversary, stressing the importance of parenting and responsibility. "That means putting away the X-Box."




Standardized Testing
The No Child Left Behind Act is up for renewal this year, so Katie Couric wonders whether standardized tests truly measure how kids do in school and life. (CBSNews.com)



New Rule: Don't Blame Teachers
When there are no books in the house, and there are no parents in the house, you know who raises the kids? That's right, the television. Kids aren't keeping up with their studies; they're keeping up with the Kardashians. We're allowing the television, as babysitter, to turn us into a nation of idiots.
 


Teacher of the Year 2010
President Obama thanked and honored the 2010 National Teacher of the Year.
 


College Bound
A series of programs designed to aid parents in preparing their Middle School and High School children for college entry.



Fitness: Childhood Obesity!
First Lady Michelle Obama kicks off “Let’s Move”, a program designed to tackle childhood obesity by encouraging exercise and healthy eating.



Family Time During School
It can be difficult for parents to keep on top of what their children are doing, especially when those parents work at night. a Clovis Elementary school is trying to help those families by encouraging family time during the school day.



Intro to Special Education
Aimed at parents of students with disabilities, this video covers the special education process, including Evaluation, Referral, Creation of the Individualized Education Plan, Placement, and Annual Review.


Low Student Achievement
A national report found that an alarming number of high school seniors lack proficiency in reading and math. Katie Couric says we must do a better job of educating our kids. (CBSNews.com)


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:

  • Recruit parents, grandparents and caring adults to volunteer to take our learning compact, the Parental Involvement Pledge. With the Pledge, we ask these volunteers to spend at least five hours each semester assisting with school and fifteen minutes reading with a child each evening.
  • Conduct Teacher House Calls with teams of educators and parents visiting students and their families at home, build trusting relationships, and share instructional tools. Participation in home visits is voluntary for everyone and teachers are paid for their  time.
Our plan is called Capacity Building Partnerships.pdf. It puts the two together. In partnership with a consortium of local school districts or as part of a state education agency  alliance, Project Appleseed will organize family and community involvement, door-to-door, in the low performing Title I schools & districts in selected states.  The focus is to improve achievement for high-need students through organizing and increasing parental involvement. 

Project Appleseed's
Capacity Building Partnerships has two priorities:
  • Turn around persistently low-performing schools - By employing the Parental Involvement Pledge to recruit large numbers of school volunteers as prescribed under section 1118 of Title I.
  • Improve the use data - By implementing a accountability system which measures parent participation in relationship to student performance.


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According to the study, Organized Communities, Strong Schools.pdf, conducted by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, organizing:
  • Involves youth, public school parents, and community residents and/or institutions
  • Builds power by mobilizing large numbers of people
  • Focuses on accountability, equity, and quality
  • Recruits and develops leadership as a core activity
  • Uses direct action tactics to apply pressure on decision-makers
  • Aims to transform power relations that produce failing schools in low- and moderate- income neighborhoods and communities of color

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...)




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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:
  • The belief that mobilizing large numbers of parents & family members are key to increased achievement.
  • Effective outreach includes systematically welcoming parents into the school building by giving parents and families the Red Carpet Treatment.
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

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Engaging Family Involvement in Schools

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.

Issue
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
  • The Pledge is distributed to families in individual schools and school districts, to connect them with volunteer opportunities programs for adults, focusing on school improvement and building social capital for the school community.
  • The Pledge entices parents to come to school for volunteering, parenting, academics, communication, safety, decision making, performances and more.
  • By coming to school often, parents communicate more with teachers on their children's progress and learn how to support learning at home.
  • Excited by new ways to participate in school programs, and once comfortable, parents get involved and volunteer to help.
  • Parents of students and other adults participate in programs to further their own interests and education. They experience workshops to improve their speaking and writing skills, attend GED and ESL classes, learn more about computers and the Internet and find comfortable ways of talking to their children about difficult issues such as drugs, AIDS, and sexuality.
  • By demonstrating an interest in education, many parents become role models stimulating their children's improved performance.
  • Students, families, and community residents cooperate in community service and service-learning programs, and local and national days of service. 


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.

First, people need to know about the Parental Involvement Pledge — what it is and how they can get involved. Launching the Parental Involvement Pledge is a great opportunity to create new partnerships and to reach out to families and community members who have not been involved in learning at their neighborhood school before.

What Is It?
The Parental Involvement Pledge has two components.
It provides an opportunity for parents to formalize their commitment to working with their child's school through a written agreement they can complete and take to their parent leader, school secretary, teacher, or principal. The Pledge also provides a survey of parent volunteer interests. The survey identifies 37 areas in which parents can volunteer in school, outside the classroom and at home. The Pledge is based on the Six Types of Parental Involvement developed by Dr. Joyce Epstein at John's Hopkins University.

How Do You Use It?
The Pledge is a tool to share with staff and parent organizations as a way of recruiting volunteers and appropriately connecting them with specific needs and activities.

When Do You Use It?
Title I of No Child Left Behind requires that a Pledge or other learning compact be used during parent-teacher conferences. Use it also when you want to encourage parents to volunteer or when you want teachers to invite and encourage parental involvement on National Parental Involvement Day, the third Thursday in November or Public School Volunteer Week which is the third week of April.

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Why Do You Use It?
U.S. Department of Education research (Prospects Study 1993) demonstrates that schools that use learning compacts like the Parental Involvement Pledge have higher student achievement than those that don't use them. The Pledge provides a concrete way to help parents volunteer because it allows them to choose very specific activities. It is easier to get a commitment and follow-through if it is clear exactly what is being asked and what is expected.  Findings from the Prospects Study reveal that students in schools with compacts or pledges in place perform better than children in similar schools without them because of greater reinforcement of learning at home. Furthermore, effects of the pledge on student learning were stronger than effects from other forms of school-home interactions.

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.

Who Do You Involve?
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.


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The Parental Involvement Pledge enhances and helps organize programs for families and communities that include:
  • Family night
  • Programs to encourage parent participation in school activities and support of children's academic achievements
  • Movie nights
  • Saturday family fun
  • Family literacy programs
  • GED, literacy, and ESL programs
  • Community service projects involving school children, parents, and community residents
  • Newsletters
  • Parenting classes
  • Visual and performing arts
  • Conflict resolution and violence reduction
  • Workshops on such topics job seeking, stress management, drug/alcohol abuse, home safety, child abuse, and positive discipline.