Minority and Low-Income Parents Want to Feel More Comfortable in Oregon Schools
Contact:
Chalkboard Project
(503) 542-4325
info@chalkboardproject.org
Sarah Stephan (503) 635-4577 x1
Chalkboard joins with Oregon Department of Education to lead first-ever statewide effort to bridge communication gap with 67,000 "hard-to-reach" families
PORTLAND, Ore. (Feb. 16, 2006) – When parents are involved, their children do better in school. Yet some parents aren’t getting enough information about what’s going on in their children’s classrooms, and often don’t have the time – or the facts – to volunteer. Nowhere is this shortfall more startling or disturbing than among Oregon’s 67,000 traditionally underrepresented families, many of whom do not feel welcome in school, don’t know how to help their children, or don’t speak English. Others are overwhelmed with attempting to survive with little or no money, or with adapting to life and jobs in a new country.
“I came to the United States when I was a young man, and I dropped out of high school,” said Eugene, Ore. parent Rafael Mora-Lopez. “In reality, I was pushed out. I felt totally alone and my self-esteem was gone. Today, I am the parent of two beautiful children. I believe strongly in parent involvement, and am grateful to my daughters’ school for opening their minds and reaching out to Latino parents like me who do not speak English very well. Latino children should not be pushed out of school like I was. The only way our children can succeed is with parent-school partnerships.”
The Chalkboard Project recently talked with a statewide collection of underrepresented parents like Mr. Rafael Mora-Lopez to learn more about their experiences with their public schools. As a result of these conversations, Chalkboard discovered these parents tend to spend more nights assisting their child with homework than their Caucasian, higher-income counterparts. Yet, they are less likely to volunteer time at their child’s school because of distinctive barriers that range from language to culture to economics.
Chalkboard is responding to this call for help with “Running Start,” a two-part tool kit aimed at improving student achievement among Oregon’s most at-risk youth.
“Involvement creates a bridge between the school and the home, allows parents to spot problems or opportunities early, and improves communication between the important adults in a child’s life. But minority and low-income families are telling us they often don’t feel welcome in school hallways and classrooms,” said Chalkboard president Sue Hildick.
“Parents don’t know where to begin, or how they can help their kids be more successful,” said Patricia Martinez-Orozco, director of parent & community outreach at Woodburn School District. “This is especially true for parents arriving to Oregon from other countries, who don’t understand how to navigate the public school system. In their respective cultures, teachers are often the experts, and parents don’t necessarily recognize the value of what they can contribute in terms of teaching and learning.”
The first phase of Running Start involves a staff training kit loaded with tools and resources to conduct an all-day workshop or smaller one-hour seminars with support staff, teachers, administrators, and parent leaders. The aim is to arm every adult in the school – from teachers and playground monitors to school crossing guards and custodial staff – with a deeper understanding of the barriers to parent engagement and how to overcome them, along with immediate, easy-to-implement strategies and tools for connecting with hard-to-reach families.
The second phase of Running Start is designed to help parents become full partners in the education of their children. Because of the prominence of language barriers, Chalkboard will pay for many of these materials to be translated into Spanish. The content is designed to be interactive, and will cover a variety of topics ranging from “How to navigate the U.S. education system” and “Reading report cards” to “Benefits of Parent Engagement” and “Sample Oregon Test Questions.”
In a separate effort to help schools jumpstart a family involvement policy with all parents – including those from traditionally underrepresented families – Chalkboard is joining forces with the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) to launch a first-ever policy template that ensures all schools are reaching out to parents in a unified, thoughtful way. To get things rolling immediately, Chalkboard will award $1000 stipends for up to 10 public schools willing to encourage early adoption of new policies and practices established by ODE that foster better communication between parents and schools. An advisory committee will review applications and winners will be announced at the end of March. Interested schools should visit www.chalkboardproject.org or contact Michelle Jensen, ODE Family and Community Involvement Specialist, at (503) 378-5156. The two groups hope the template will be approved by the Board of Education for statewide implementation in the 2006-07 school year.
“We know that we have more work to do if we are to help every parent feel welcome at their child’s school,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo said. “Working parents often have trouble meeting the time limitations of the school’s schedule, and parents who don’t speak English often have trouble communicating with teachers and administrators. These pilot projects will help us identify policies and practices that work for ALL parents. The result will be what we all want -- more parent involvement and greater student achievement.”
In a previous statewide survey conducted by Chalkboard last year among ALL Oregonians, 83% identified lack of parent involvement as the #1 obstacle to student achievement. When Chalkboard unveiled its comprehensive 15-point Action Plan last June to make Oregon’s K-12 schools among the nation’s best, the foundation-led group highlighted the need for dramatic improvement in the area of parental involvement and promised to roll out a series of initiatives aimed at addressing Oregonians’ leading concern. Running Start rounds out an initial arsenal of parent involvement tools announced by Chalkboard last fall.
About Chalkboard Project
Launched in early 2004, Chalkboard Project exists to inspire Oregonians to do what it takes to make the state’s K-12 public schools among the nation’s best, while strengthening our school system’s financial accountability to taxpayers. Chalkboard aims to help create a more informed and engaged public who understand and address the tough choices and trade-offs required to build strong schools, and to enable statewide programs that can be applied at the local level to improve school quality, accountability, and funding. To date, Chalkboard has connected with about 100,000 Oregonians, asking for their best ideas to strengthen the state’s K-12 public schools. It also has partnered with other education organizations to create the Open Book$ Web site www.openbooksproject.org to track school district spending.
Chalkboard – an initiative of Foundations For A Better Oregon – is sponsored by a growing list of independent foundations. The founding five foundations are: The Collins Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, Jeld-Wen Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, and The Oregon Community Foundation. For more information about Chalkboard and to learn how to get involved, call (877) YOUR-K12 or visit www.chalkboardproject.org.
