2006 PPP Pearl Award Winners
March 05, 2008
2006 Pearl Awards
DIMENSION I:
Providing Parenting Information
Doniphan R-I involves parents in a variety of ways. During
Parent/Teacher Conferences, an information table is set up to
provide information and let parents know about the Parent Center.
Parents and teachers are invited to work in the Parent Center with
their students on making academic improvements. The Parent
Involvement Coordinator, Sherrie Williams, makes contact with
parents by phone on a daily basis. She has also worked with reading
teachers in sending home folders with extra books for students and
their families to practice reading, spelling, and vocabulary
together at home. Doniphan uses PPP handouts, brochures, and
bulletin boards as well as community volunteers to post information
for parents, teachers, and students.
DIMENSION II:
Planning and Providing Parent Involvement Opportunities at School
Clearwater Elementary School is proud to have increased parental
involvement and attendance at school events by a remarkable amount
with implementation of PPP over the past ten years. Over the course
of a school year, every student has at least one parent or guardian
attend at least one school function or meeting in their building,
an increase of 50% from eight years ago. Clearwater’s staff members
have worked together on different ideas and strategies designed to
reach out to school families. These include home visits and
coordinating PPP efforts with other school groups, such as PAT and
PTO. They have put on Back-to-School Fairs and brought in health
representatives from the community to provide information and
services on a variety of topics. Open House Nights now boast
representatives from PAT to enroll new families, from PTO to sign
up new members, from the Health Committee to provide information
and review students’ medical data, and from the district’s
transportation department to assist families with questions about
bus routes and procedures. In addition, the School Resource Officer
is on-hand to provide information to families on drug awareness,
stranger danger, peer pressure, etc. Most widely attended are the
Parent Brunches and Lunches offered yearly. Parent Nights are also
offered at each grade level and include a student activity or
presentation, plus a presentation just for adults with child care
provided for younger siblings to encourage family attendance.
Clearwater also hosts a weekly Family Reading Night in the
elementary library. Families are encouraged to spend the evening
together reading books or checking out items to take home and
share. With the help of PPP, Parent Involvement in Clearwater
Elementary School is alive and strong!
DIMENSION III:
Building School-Community Partnerships
The Branson Kindergarten Center takes pride in the number of
community members, parents and staff that support children’s
learning through participation in a Character Education Program.
Taney County was the first county in Missouri to initiate a
countywide Character Education Program. At Branson Kindergarten
Center, they incorporate this program into the PPP Program. They
have weekly assemblies with community members, parents and staff
members volunteering to speak or help out with a short lesson on
the trait of the month. Branson Kindergarten Center is proud to
have over 250 community members and businesses signed up to partner
with the school to show their support. One local business awarded a
grant to the school toward the purchase of 20 read-along books with
CDs to add to their Parent Resource Room. Parents are able to check
out these books and spend time reading or listening to stories
supporting the character traits. The community has pulled together
to support the young people of the county.
DIMENSION IV:
Communicating to Parents about Content and Performance Standards
and Assessments
At Dogwood Elementary School in the Camdenton R-III School
District, they strive to involve parents in their child's education
using many different methods. Their goal for Parent/
Teacher Conferences is to attain 100% parent participation from
their approximately 860+ students, and each year they average
97-98%. Conferences are held during the day or in the
evening, and if the parents cannot come to the school, teachers can
conduct phone conferences or home visits. Another means of keeping
parents informed about school is through the district web site.
This extensive web site has pages for each building, which contain
the curriculum and state GLEs, special program information, a
calendar of events, contact information for staff members, and
breakfast and lunch menus. A new means used to communicate to
parents about the content of the curriculum involves posting
student work throughout the school, accompanied by the appropriate
state Grade Level Expectations (GLEs). All classrooms, including
art, music, and Title I reading, display student's work in the
hallways for other teachers, administrators and parents to see, and
not only admire the work but learn how the activity relates to the
state content and performance standards through the district
curriculum. By this easy and inexpensive method, Dogwood Elementary
is able to communicate to parents how the district implements
curriculum through various methods.
DIMENSION V: Helping
Parents Support Their Children’s Learning
Wilder Elementary involves parents in the learning process from the
beginning of school by sending home parent compacts. These compacts
are to be signed by the parents or caregivers and outline the
responsibilities of the student, parent, and teacher. They contain
information on the topics of core subject areas, homework helps,
organizational tips, and time management ideas. All teachers send
classroom information in weekly newsletters or website format.
During the first quarter, grade level events are planned to provide
parents a time to get to know their child’s teacher, class
schedule, materials and activities of the child’s new grade.
Conferences are held twice each year, and teachers keep parents in
the loop with informal meetings or phone conferences. Teachers and
families also participate in family activities held outside the
school day. Wilder’s Parent Resource Library is open daily for
parents to browse for free pamphlets and brochures or check out
books or videos relating to parental issues.
COMBINING STRENGTHS
ACROSS THE DIMENSIONS
Latham Elementary in Moniteau County R-V has been working for the
last few years in improving parent involvement with PPP. To provide
parenting information and communicate effectively, Latham invites
parents to all awards assemblies to celebrate student success. The
school sends out policy standards with a mission statement and
expectations for the students along with questionnaires for
parental input. They also send out monthly newsletters. Important
information is shared at Parent-Teacher conferences and by giving
out information sheets to explain standards and
assessments.
Several activities are planned to provide parent involvement opportunities at school. Latham Elementary invites parents and grandparents to have lunch with their students, with the students suggesting the menus. The school also puts on a preschool Easter egg hunt, a school and community Fall Festival, float-building for a Ham & Turkey Festival, a Winter Carnival, and sponsors a farm animal petting zoo in which students, families, teachers, and community members are involved. Family members volunteer for tutoring, helping in the library, and for class parties as well.
Latham builds school-community partnerships in many ways. Community members have donated items to help with the outdoor classroom and disaster relief efforts. They also serve on committees and volunteer their time to speak to students on Career Day. In turn, Latham students support the community by bringing “care” baskets to needy and shut-in community members. The school also sponsored a garage sale and pancake breakfast to raise funds for one of their patrons to help with hospital bills.
To involve parents in their children’s learning, Latham has parent-student activity nights, sometimes with guest readers from the state Dept. of Education. Everyone is given a book when they attend. Parents support the school during achievement testing by donating breakfast food for all students.
To keep the lines of communication open at Latham Elementary, they have an open-door policy about meeting with parents and answering questions, and are always willing to discuss policies and their ideas. Best of all, Latham has a happy, safe school where everyone’s input counts and the faculty greets the public with a warm and positive attitude.
