The summer months are an ideal time for reflection and planning. It’s a strategic time to prepare for your next year’s parent involvement. Parent involvement plans are needed from the classroom all the way to the governmental policy creation level, including the school district, local schools and all personnel.
Reflection, and at times redirection, are key elements to this process. This is always an excellent time to review the previous year’s successes and challenges as it relates to parent involvement. The willingness to value parent involvement and explore its depths is perhaps the main key to developing a successful plan. With that said, it is time to celebrate the fact that you are interested in planning and that you view parent involvement as critical to education.
Honesty and the ability to analyze observed trends and practices is also crucial to your success. If there are characteristics and patterns that you have observed and you don’t like, this if fine and the purpose of the process. We can never be successful with parent involvement until we deal with the obstacles to our success. This process can be done individually or with a team, but it should be done. All classroom teachers and building administrators should spend time reviewing their parent involvement practices and deciding on what next steps are needed to advance parent involvement.
The next step after your analysis is completed is to develop intentional goal oriented, but doable actions. It is possible that you may identify many areas that you want to address, but you will need to prioritize and create action steps that you can easily manage. For example, if you are the school clerk, the communications domain of parent involvement could be an ideal area of focus and emphasis for you. Perhaps you decide to create opportunities for more two-way communication within your organization. The final steps in this process include the outcomes and actions. Always keep the end goal in mind.
I am able to provide for your school/district the in-depth training required toward developing a custom effective parent involvement plan.
