Under No Child Left Behind, parents have the right to more information and more
choices for their children's education. Career development professionals can
play a key role in helping parents make the most of these new rights and
responsibilities.
Presentations for Parents
These are presentations career development professionals can use when they hold
meetings or conferences for parents.
-
Help Your Child Identify Interests, Explore Careers and Develop Plans for
the Future
English PPT
/ English MS Word/
Spanish PPT.
Discusses why parents should be involved in their children's education, how
parents can nurture their children's interests and help them explore careers
that are tied to those interests, and how parents can ensure that their
children's education prepares them well for their chosen career. Includes
"parents need to know" facts about the new economy that show how more jobs in
the future will require at least some postsecondary education.
-
Help Your Child Prepare for Post-High School Education
English PPT /
English MS Word /Spanish
PPT
Discusses how parents can help their children with planning for further
education and training after high school. Includes a variety of post-high
school education and training options for parents and their children to
explore, and offers examples of careers for each option. Also offers facts to
consider for parents to help their children select post-high school education
and training options.
-
Help Your Child Succeed in School
English PPT /
EnglishMS Word/ Spanish
PPT
Provides parents with information on how to help their children succeed in
school by being involved at home and at school. Includes specific information
for parents who have children in elementary, middle or high school.
Getting the Word Out
There are numerous methods for getting the word out to parents on how they can
help their children succeed in school and explore careers.
-
Have a career fair on a Saturday and invite parents. Provide a workshop
for parents while their children attend the career fair. (see
Parent Brochures for possible workshop topics).
-
Add parent sessions to career guidance conferences.
-
Write a quarterly parent newsletter or one-page flyer and post it on your
website (see Parent
Brochures for possible themes).
-
Survey parents to determine the subjects in which they are interested, and the
best way to get information to them.
-
Organize meetings in places that are familiar to and comfortable for parents.
Meet parents at their apartment complex, church, park, library, community
center or a popular restaurant near their neighborhood. Consider asking high
school students or senior citizen volunteers to provide childcare onsite during
the meeting.
-
Hold meetings at various times of the day. Consider mornings, lunchtime,
evenings and weekends to accommodate many different schedules.
-
Sponsor monthly community family events. Use these events to provide
information to parents on how they can help their children succeed in school
and start exploring careers.
Finding Funding
You can fund parent outreach efforts in many ways:
-
Form partnerships. The following organizations and agencies may be able
to help you reach parents by volunteering staff time, sharing in the cost of a
parent workshop, printing the parent brochures or gathering donations:
United Way
YMCA and
YWCA
Neighborhood House
State Departments of Education
Local Education Service Agencies
(see your State Department of Education for information on LEAs)
Local School Districts
(see your State Department of Education)
Local Community Service Organizations
Faith-based Organizations
Family Service Organizations
Local Rotary Clubs
Local Chambers of Commerce
Housing Associations
Community Resource Centers
Communities in Schools
Boys and Girls Clubs
-
Consolidate brochure orders to reduce costs. You can combine orders
for parent brochures from several schools and organizations into one printing
run, saving money for the individual schools and groups.
Resources
Creating
Partnerships, Bridging Worlds: Family and Community Engagement (Turning
Points, 2004)
"Features practical, research-based strategies for developing strong school,
family and community partnerships that will result in more engaged students and
higher student achievement."
High School Outreach and Family Involvement (Social Psychology of
Education, 2004)
Researchers looked at whether the efforts of high schools to include parents
had an effect in levels of parent involvement. They found that "regardless of
students’ background and achievement, high schools’ outreach positively and
significantly predicted parents’ involvement in a range of parenting,
volunteering, and learning at home activities."
Parent
Involvement: Title I, Part A, Non-Regulatory Guidance (U.S.
Department of Education, 2004) Â
WORD
Gives guidance to state and local education agencies on how
to include parents in their children's education per the requirements
of No Child Left Behind.
Reaching
Out to Hispanic Populations (NTSC, 2006). Webinar
focused on reaching out to Hispanic populations to encourage
career development and the pursuit of postsecondary education
and training opportunities. Features techniques, resources
and tips. Available in both English and Spanish.
School-based
Workshops for Parents (Colorado Parent Information & Resource
Center, 2003)
Three Powerpoint presentations that show parents how to help children at home
and communicate with teachers more effectively. The three are titled "Making
Homework Manageable," "Loving to Read, Loving to Learn," and "Parent-Teacher
Meetings: Easy as A-B-C." They are available in English and Spanish.
It's
All in the Family: Planning High-Quality Family Literacy Events (NWREL,
2003)
Looks at family literacy research, profiles five national service projects
engaged in family literacy, sets out ideas for family literacy events
(including an event planning checklist), and provides additional print and
Internet resources "to fuel a wide range of family literacy efforts."
Partnerships
by Design: Cultivating Effective and Meaningful School-Family-Community
Partnerships (NWREL, 2002)
"[A] guide to help schools and programs assess their
current approaches to involving families and community members, and to assist
them in implementing more effective strategies."
Supporting
Parent, Family, and Community Involvement in Your School (NWREL, 2000)
Provides ideas and suggestions to school staff on how to involve family and
community members in school.
Parent
Partners: Using Parents to Enhance Education (NWREL, 1999)
Examines the status of parent involvement in schools, looks at ideas for
developing parent involvement programs (and explores the potential pitfalls of
such programs), and investigates what several schools in the Northwest are
doing to involve parents.
|