Corporate sponsorship of public education has become an incredible boost for districts trying to meet stricter federal and state mandates on tight budgets. Organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Ford Foundation have invested billions of dollars in the nation’s public schools. While this is essential, the Sacramento Schools are focusing on an even more important partner in public education. The Parents.
Importance of Parent Involvement in Sacramento Schools
Sacramento Public Schools are under the usual pressure to raise test scores, meet budget requirements, and improve graduation rates of its students. And there are many methods that they are using to do it. But a look at the parent education program of the Sacramento Schools highlights an awareness of the importance of the home environment that often gets lost amidst the frenzy for higher test scores. Numerous studies have proven the correlation between parent education, involvement, and socio-economic status to student academic success. And recent attention on the alarming achievement gap between minority and white students is warranted. But where does the solution begin?
For the Sacramento Schools- it begins at home. Teachers in the Sacramento Schools are quick to point out that, as early as the pre-school years, an involved parent has a direct impact on a child’s success in school. Parents who don’t speak English, are high school drop-outs, or have financial problems are less able to support their children.
Programs for Parents at the Sacramento Schools
The Parent Support Services of the Sacramento Schools offers a variety of programs to improve parenting skills, help parents understand the educational system, teach English skills to speakers of foreign languages, and assist parents with skills needed to create a stronger family unit.
The first way of connecting parents with the Sacramento Schools is Parenthaven, an educational television show that parents can access without even stepping foot outside of their home. However, the goal of Sacramento Schools is to attract parents to the schools. The Parent Project Jr.® and the Parent Project Sr.® are classes offered to teach parents methods for improving family communications, and working with “strong-willed or out of control children.” The junior class is for parents of 5-10 year olds, and focuses on choosing appropriate friends, family communication, and improving school performance, among other topics. Some of the issues addressed in the senior classes are dealing with children who hit or use drugs, gang involvement, and truancy.
Another outreach program is the Parent Teacher Home Visit Project. This is a joint effort of the local teacher’s union, a faith based community group, and the Sacramento Schools. The goal is to get past the blame and distrust that often exists between faculty and low-income families. Another community-based program for parents in the Sacramento Schools is Parent University. Over 70 different classes on topics from money management to family arts appreciation are offered throughout the year.
While high socio-economic status has always been associated with student achievement in the Sacramento Schools, administrators acknowledge that the education and involvement that comes with that status is more important that the actual income of a family. The Sacramento Schools is making a wise, long-term investment into the success of its students, by putting a focus on their most important partners- the parents.
By: Patricia Hawke
Posts Tagged ‘Achievement Gap’
Sacramento Schools Find the Perfect Partner
Sunday, December 27th, 2009Employers High Demand for Students and Workers With an Informational and Technical Education in the Emerging 21st Century
Saturday, November 21st, 2009Years ago people could live a productive life, save for retirement and build a nest egg without a high school diploma or little to none formal education.
See, when I was a youngster, my mother worked 2 to 3 jobs to provide for our family. The challenges of her younger life and family prevented her from obtaining her high school diploma because she had to help take care of her siblings. Yet, in her late thirties and early forties, my mother studied for the GED, passed the Board and later received technical and occupational training as a medical transcriptionist and tax-preparer. Due to economic demands and financial shifts, my mother again in her late forties, early fifties received training as a nurse practitioner. However, today just to stay afloat in her industry, she is developing herself to receive her RNA license at sixty years of age. See, my mother is a prime example and parody of the educational and employment changes facing students and workers in today’s developing 21st Century Economy and Workforce.
Nowadays, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a governmental framework that addresses the achievement gap. The achievement gap is the educational inequalities and the low academic performance between students in urban districts and suburban districts, as well as students with disabilities such as me. The NCLB focusing on standardizing education to insure every child has an accessible and appropriate education to support the notion that the every child must have the fundamental skills to succeed. But, in the next years, the American schools’ initiatives are changing. The Government/State is investing billions of dollars in the DOL, NIST, DoE SC, DOE, and NSF to provide specialized training and programs for students and workers who must develop and refine their skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences to handle the new demands of technology and product innovations, global business, and the emerging marketplace. As a result of the growing frustrations and needs for technical and informational workers, the high school diploma is shifting to certify that students are qualified to perform advance ‘applied’ skills, as well as be prepared for successful employment and constant career growth. Now, here’s the prevailing dilemma.
Employers complain that many college graduates are not prepared for the marketplace and lack the new set of skills necessary for successful employment and continuous career growth. Only 6 percent of todays jobs do not require at least completion of high school, which means for a student without the adequate skills, he/she will not be eligible to even apply for 94 percent of job openings. The U.S. Department of Labor forecasts that by 2012 the U.S. economy will have the largest workforce in the nation’s history culminating to more than 162 million people. However, it will not be enough to fill the 2 million job openings projected to be available. In order words, millions of jobs are expected to go unfilled because workers lack the specialized skills required to fill them. Alarming, the U.S. government predictions show a shortage of more than 10 million skilled workers by 2012.
So, how can we get geared up to handle this pandemic? I believe the greatest strategy is to address these challenges from a 360 feedback/survey strategy. This strategy is used in business to track and evaluate the total quality management (TQM) of the organization’s performance, company health and managerial leadership. In order words, parents, teachers, administrators, business leaders, professionals, legislators, policy-makers and governmental figures must collectively and collaboratively retool and refine students and workers. We must create support systems, supplemental statewide and schoolwide programs; use flexible, individualized educational planning strategies; enhance parental training, awareness and advocacy; work with career and counseling centers, as well as form strategic partnership with youth service organizations; merge youth/personal and professional development systems in the educational curriculum; implement and increase community-based vocational training (CBVT), job-shadowing, mentorships/apprenticeships, on-the-job training (OJT), and realistic job preview (RJP) and job rotation programs; teach students early about effective career planning, development and management, life skills development, professional learning and integrative life planning (ILP), and expose students and workers to talent management, performance management and succession planning tools and resources . In fact, observations show many high-schoolers, college graduates; adults and professionals lack the critical knowledge of the workings and usefulness of the available resources and tools to help them be equipped and competitive in the 21st Century Economy and Workforce.
If America is going to remain a Super Power and a Global Competitor in the developing 21st Century, then we must invest in the interpersonal skills development and intrapreneurial spirit and welfare of our students and workers.
By: Rashid Brown