Adam Kent

EDL 274
Parent Engagement Plan

Current Reality

Currently my school does not utilize any formal instrument to measure parent

engagement nor perceptions, because parent engagement is not a formal building goal.

Instead all parent feedback is taken via individual conversations between parents and the

principal. In my opinion this method does not yield an accurate representation of school-wide

parental feelings as the principal will only ever hear from a limited, self-selected group of the

most vocal and already engaged set of parents. I understand why this is easy to do as a school

administrator. However I feel a formal survey is required to collect truly representative feedback

from all building parents.

The District currently employs two full time Learning Supports and Family Engagement

Coordinators, and increasing parental engagement is listed as a priority on the Boards five-year

strategic plan. However, the district has not used a formal survey for measuring parent

engagement either. The family engagement coordinator I spoke with described feeling

frustrated with the slow implementation of an engagement survey. Part of the problem is the

bureaucracy of my district. In order for the survey to be sent out to all parents in the district,

each new draft of the survey must be approved sequentially by five separate committees, and

this causes long delays with each survey revision. The second issue slowing down the use of a

survey is the Iowa School Report Card. The state is supposed to provide districts with a

mandatory parental engagement survey sometime in 2017. Because of this, some District

administrators do not want to issue a parent survey until we know what survey we must use in

the future. This approach seems short sighted to me - I would rather have some data now and

have to change the survey later rather than acting blindly for another year. Any foolishness

earned by switching surveys would easily trumped by the goodwill the District would earn by

incorporating parental feedback.

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Parent Engagement Plan

The only data of parental engagement for my building is an inventory teachers

completed about their teaching practices. This survey was sent to all teachers by the state via

email. The full set of questions and responses are found within Appendix A. Due to the survey

administration and communication there is only a 35% response rate from my building, which is

the lowest response rate of any of the schools I compared. The low response rate and the

opt-in survey methodology means the data is not going to be fully representative of the attitudes

within the building. Instead I believe the data within Appendix A is strongly skewed towards the

socially appropriate response of including parents.

Yet even with that bias, there are some notable data points within the results. For

example, 70% of respondents said they do not ask parents how they would like to be involved

within the classroom (Question #16). I believe this is indicative of the overall district culture;

neither the teachers nor the administration appear to value parental feedback since we do not

solicit it. The other noteworthy data point from this survey is question number 22. 82% of

building teachers never provide training for parents on how they can help support their students

learning. I am not surprised by this number as I would have never thought of providing such

training to parents prior to taking this course. Instead I feel the data point is noteworthy

because it highlights a point of leverage. Staff showed a relatively positive response to question

five on the survey on parents ability to help students learn if instructed how to do so. Since

teachers believe parents can help but teachers and the school are currently not providing the

necessary training, this appears to be a starting point for improvement.

Steps for improvement

1. Issue a parent survey - Gathering data on the current reality is the starting point of all

improvement efforts. The data is needed both as a baseline comparison point and to
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Parent Engagement Plan

help make informed decisions on what improvement needs made. If the results are

effectively communicated and used to inform decision-making, the survey itself can be

an effective means of building collaboration between parents and the school. There are

many example surveys available online that I believe would all be useful. In addition to a

space for open-ended feedback, I believe the focus of a parent engagement survey

should be to ask parents to rate the effectiveness of current school-parent programs and

communication methods. Since my district is already utilizing the CAYCI School

Experience Survey with the student population, I believe implementing the parent of the

CAYCI-SES seems like a logical choice if we do not want to create our own tool.

I recognize I do not have the individual authority to issue such a survey to all

parents within my district or building. However I do know I as an individual teacher

within a larger system I can apply gentle pressure and be a reminder to the people who

have greater leverage. My plan is to gently remind my principal and the district family

engagement coordinators of the importance of asking parents for their feedback using a

formal method such as a survey. I know the survey is not a pressing priority within the

day-to-day tasks of either individual person, so I hope repeater reminders will help bring

the need for a survey to the forefront.

I do have the direct access to survey the parents of students within my classes

next year, so I am planning on sending some type of feedback survey to my classroom

parents in October next school year. This is a critical year to gather feedback for me as

a teacher since I will be teaching two brand new courses using two different online

learning management systems. I do not believe parents or other staff members would

be surprised or resistant to me gathering parental feedback because of the changes

changes. By sharing my methods and results with other staff members, I should be able
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Parent Engagement Plan

to lead by example. Hopefully this could cause other people to want to issue a similar

survey to all parents - or at the very least be less resistant to the idea.

2. Analyze the parent data with staff - After issuing a survey, the data needs to discussed

internally with the district or building staff to help create common goals and actions

based on the data. Team data analysis brings about an authentic opportunity to discuss

the larger goals and values when it comes to parental engagement. This type of

conversation about strategic values are critical to continual improvement, but do not

often present themselves in day-to-day operations of a school. In my opinion any

chance to create, modify, or reaffirm the shared vision with a staff should not be

overlooked. Not involving staff members in this process is also detrimental and could

undermine future actions as staff members are more resistant to changes they did not

help to bring about themselves. Additional actions may be revealed during this analysis.

3. Stoplight report to parents and staff - This is a critical step with surveys that is

overlooked in my experience. After analyzing the data with the staff and deciding what

plan of action to take, I believe it is the responsibility of the leader to report the actions

and non-actions back to the staff and the parents who complete the survey. Reporting is

critical because it shows participants their feedback is valued and utilized. Reporting

helps build trust between parents and the school and encourages additional participation

and engagement by parents in the future. District-wide utilization of a common reporting

template, such as the Stoplight Report template found in Appendix B, would be helpful to

quickly disseminate information decisions from the survey to all stakeholders. When I

issue my parental survey in October, I will utilize a Stoplight report to share the results

and my intended changes back with parents. I will also share the report with my building
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Parent Engagement Plan

principal and family engagement coordinator to see if I can influence them to follow my

lead.

4. Professional development on engaging parents - From the data in Appendix A the staff

in my building indicated a disconnect between values and practice when it comes to

providing parents the support they need to help their students. I believe I can utilize this

discrepancy to help multiple teachers within my building do a better job of including

parents in the learning. I will utilize my position on my schools leadership team to set up

a professional development session on engaging parents during the upcoming school

year. I will work with my district family engagement coordinator to create a list of high

school appropriate strategies for teachers to pass along to their parents. As my building

currently uses a menu of options for teachers during professional development days,

only teachers who have an interest doing so will opt-in to the sessions. Hopefully this

small segment of innovators and early adopters will help other teachers recognize their

duty to teach and enable parents to help their students. Other professional development

needs could surface after analyzing the parent survey, however this was the only current

need I was able to identify from my limited available data.

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EDL 274
Parent Engagement Plan

Appendix A
Parent Involvement Teacher Survey Results
Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly
Core Beliefs Agree Disagree
# % # % # % # %
1) All parents have dreams for their children and want 4 23 11 64 2 11 0 0%
the best for them. % % %
2) Every parent has some strengths that can be tapped 7 41 9 52 1 5% 0 0%
to increase student success in the classroom. % %
3) The responsibility for building partnerships between 4 23 12 70 1 5% 0 0%
school and home rests primarily with school staff, % %
including school leaders.
4) Parents and school staff should be equal partners in 8 47 8 47 1 5% 0 0%
the learning of their children. % %
5) All parents could learn ways to help their children 9 52 8 47 0 0% 0 0%
with schoolwork, if shown. % %

Often Occasionally Rarely or Not

Modes of Communication with
Never Applicable
Families # % # % # % # %
6) How often do you contact every student's 7 41% 7 41% 3 17% 0 0%
parent by phone, mail, email, or other manner of
contact?
7) How often do you send a classroom newsletter 5 29% 7 41% 5 29% 0 0%
or bulletin to your student's parents?
8) How often do you post updated 15 88% 2 11% 0 0% 0 0%
grades/assignments on the online grading system
or parent portal?
9) How often do you update information about 10 58% 0 0% 3 17% 4 23%
your classroom on the school's website or your
own website?
10) How often do you attend parent meetings and 4 23% 10 58% 3 17% 0 0%
other family events at your school?
11) For parents who do not speak English, how 4 23% 4 23% 8 47% 1 5%
often are written materials translated into their
home language?
12) For parents who do not speak English, how 11 64% 3 17% 3 17% 0 0%
often are interpreters available for verbal
communication?
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Parent Engagement Plan

Yes No
Welcoming Family Input
# % # %
13) Do you elicit information from parents about their student's learning 10 58% 7 41%
style?
14) Do you elicit information from parents about their student's strengths, 12 70% 5 29%
talents, interests, and needs?
15) Do you ask parents what their talents are? 7 41% 10 58%
16) Do you ask parents how they would like to be involved in your 5 29% 12 70%
classroom?
17) Do you or your school offer opportunities (e.g. information sessions, 12 70% 5 29%
workshops, individual meetings) to help parents access your online grading
system/parent portal?
18) Do you or your school offer opportunities (e.g. information sessions, 8 47% 9 52%
workshops, individual meetings) to help parents use your online grading
system/parent portal to support their child's learning?

Often Occasionally Rarely/Never

Empowering Families to Support Their
# % # % # %
childs Learning
19) How often do you offer opportunities (e.g. information 2 11% 10 58% 5 29%
sessions, workshops, individual meetings) to help parents
understand what their student is learning?
20) How often do you invite parents to visit your classroom? 1 5% 7 41% 9 52%
21) How often do you invite parents to assist with learning 2 11% 2 11% 13 76%
projects in your classroom?
22) How often do you provide training for parents that allows 0 0% 3 17% 14 82%
them to practice skills they can use at home to support their
child's learning?
23) How often do you invite parents to ask questions and 11 64% 6 35% 0 0%
express concerns?
24) How often do you involve parents in decisions about 5 29% 9 52% 3 17%
their student's education?
Adam Kent
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Parent Engagement Plan

Often Occasionally Rarely/Never

Providing Information to Families
# % # % # %
25) How often do you provide parents with curriculum 12 70% 3 17% 2 11%
updates for your class that include student activities and
due dates?
26) How often do you provide parents with updates on 11 64% 5 29% 1 5%
academic standards their student should meet and how
well their student is doing in relation to academic
standards?
27) How often do you send home student work for parent 1 5% 8 47% 8 47%
review and comment?
28) How often do you keep parents informed about any 8 47% 9 52% 0 0%
problems their student is having in the classroom?
29) How often do you let parents know when their student 6 35% 9 52% 2 11%
shows improvement or does something well?
Adam Kent
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Parent Engagement Plan

Appendix B
Stoplight Report Template

Actions we will immediately Actions we will gather Actions we do not currently

start further information on plan on pursuing and why

Specific Comments & Feedback: