|
Issue Date: August 15, 2004
3 great parent-school teams
Kids are smarter and happier when families, schools and communities work together. See how people like you volunteered to make big changes.
By Dennis McCafferty
In Connecticut, Sound School teens and their families regularly unite for volunteer projects.
|
This new academic year presents persistent, thorny challenges for schools. Motivating diverse students, squeezing the most from inadequate resources, keeping up with changing expectations -- these are all familiar dilemmas faced by schools from coast to coast.
What's new this year is that more and more schools are tapping a priceless -- actually, free -- resource for help. Teachers and administrators who once relegated moms and dads to bake sales and book drives are discovering that parents can support education in significant ways.
In fact, national studies have drawn a link between parental involvement in school and positive performance by students. Among other findings, the Austin-based Southwest Educational Development Laboratory reported last year -- in reviewing more than 50 recent research efforts -- that when families, schools and communities work together, children will perform better academically, stay in school longer and enjoy the process of learning more.
To find compelling stories about parents, USA WEEKEND Magazine worked with principals, administration staff, parental-involvement groups and PTA members. Our search unearthed three stories that stood out. These parents served as spark plugs when it came to bridging cultural differences among elementary school pupils, helping teens cultivate a sense of community and making technology more available to students as a learning tool.
To find out how they did it, read on.
1. Once a month, parents join students to plant flowers, feed the hungry -- whatever it takes to help their community.
Who: Dozens of students and parents
Where: Sound School, New Haven, Conn.
It was time for Marc Mrozek to water the marigold and petunia garden at the Sound School. But on an idyllic, sun-splashed day, 7-year-old Marc was getting more water on his University of Connecticut Huskies T-shirt than on the flowers.
"Keep soaking," encouraged his dad, Jerry. "They need a good, long drink. ... Water the flowers, Marc, not yourself. ... There you go! Perfect!"
With that, community cleanup day was underway at Sound, a public magnet high school on Long Island Sound that draws 350 students from throughout greater New Haven. Elsewhere on the grounds, parents and students packed industrial-sized bags of trash, painted the school sign, swept the street and planted more flowers. In doing so, they enhanced the visual appeal of the school's historically unique campus, which has five buildings converted from old, clapboard-fronted oyster houses.
The cleanup day was another community-minded project launched by the Sound School Parent Advisory Council. For the past two years, council leaders have gotten school parents and their children involved with the community, one day a month. It could be a book drive to benefit youth literacy, or a holiday food collection for soup kitchens. In December, families handed out candy canes and programs to raise money for Easter Seals during the city's Fantasy of Lights celebration.
"We're convincing high school students to give back," says Marcia Lahner-LaFemina, council president. "Then, by acting as mentors, they're demonstrating to the younger kids how to pass this sort of lesson on."
Says Marc's dad, Jerry: "You don't just wake up and suddenly it's -- boom! -- your kids want to do community service. You have to incorporate it early, like good table manners." Judging from the students' remarks, they're happy to take part. "I want to help out here," says John Harmuth, a 16-year-old junior. "This is my school. We should make it a better one."
2. A mom kicks into high gear to land big bucks and 300 computers, filling the tech gap of an entire school system.
Who: Sande Shepherd, 48, mother of two
Where: Adair County, Ky.
In 1997, a visit to a school in Adair County, population 17,348, seemed like a step back in time, a place where students had no place in the Digital Age. Yes, each classroom was home to three or four computers. But many were outdated, slow or broken. And students who wanted to use the Web for research were out of luck. There was no Internet access. At the time, Sande Shepherd, 48, had two kids at Col. William Casey Elementary in the county seat, Columbia. Her heart ached for the students, especially the older ones. "If they wanted to go to college," Shepherd says, "they were gaining no knowledge by using our computers other than learning how to type on a word processor."
Then she and other Adair County parents received stunning news: The county's school district was ranked at the bottom of the state's 176 districts when it came to computers for kids. "They were one of the few school districts that we had to label as a '911' district," says David Couch, who, as chief information officer for the Kentucky Department of Education, oversees technology resources for the state's schools. "There was a lack of technology progress in so many significant categories that it prompted our on-site investigation. When Sande heard about this, she wanted to help out schools throughout the entire county."
Shepherd started a non-profit group called ACCEPT (Adair County Communities Educational Partnerships for Technology). She attended sessions at Kentucky's Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership. The institute even contributed $500. But much more was needed. Shepherd educated herself on landing local, state and federal grants. The local board agreed to match funds she'd raise. She dispatched an army of parents to get donations from community businesses. A $150,000 contribution came from Oracle, the Redwood City, Calif.-based software giant. Shepherd and her volunteers were able to raise $2 million by 2002, enough for more than 300 computers and other tech needs for 2,500 students.
"Sande won't take no for an answer," says Alan Reed, then principal at William Casey. "If a door closes, she'll find an open one."
Shepherd now lives in Louisville, 100 miles north of Columbia, but remains in touch with the Columbia school community as it seeks more equipment and upgrades. "I just hope what we did will encourage other parents to stay involved," Shepherd says, "to keep assessing what's needed. And to keep pushing for it."
3. A parent breaks the language barrier between students at her children's school -- all by herself.
Who: Karen Smith, 39, mother of two
Where: Carver Elementary School, Georgetown, Texas
Every day would produce the same heartbreaking scenes: The Spanish-speaking children at Carver Elementary would kick their soccer balls on the playground, while the English-speaking children played on the swings. For classroom projects, English-speaking children paired up with each other, and the Hispanic kids -- many struggling with English to begin with -- were isolated again, falling behind. Even when the two sets of students bumped each other's backpacks in the hallways, there was rarely an attempt to say "Discúlpame," or "Excuse me."
By fall 2001, parent Karen Smith was thinking about how to bring the students together. The school was 44% Hispanic, after all. "It was like having two separate nations, right in our school," says Smith, 39. "The playground was two separate playing fields. The classroom was two separate classrooms." Other parents were concerned, too. Fluent in Spanish, Smith realized she had the answer. She could teach the English speakers to speak Spanish in a special weekly class.
The concept soared: No fewer than 300 of the 330 English-speaking children at Carver took Spanish lessons in 2001, the first year. Since then, 450 more students have taken the lessons, all taught by Smith. "The Spanish-speaking kids are learning English at the same time, so it has a nice reciprocal feeling," says Jennifer Mauldin, the school's principal last year.
Carver has only kindergartners through second-graders, so Smith hopes to expand the program to Pickett Elementary School, where her daughter, Madison, 8, is in the third grade. And the Carver program will continue, as she recruits volunteers to replace her.
"This is about teaching our children that this world isn't just about them," Smith says. "It's about everyone in it."
Coming up next week: Getting married and making a difference, as these newlyweds did.
Cover photograph by Tamara Reynolds for USA WEEKEND
|
