ACCR Standards Raising the Bar for Alabama Students
Parent Advocacy 101 How do parents begin to engage? What is the process from parent to parent advocate?
Starting Point Parents begin volunteering in PTA to help their own children, their child’s teacher, and their child’s school.
The Metamorphasis Parents continue volunteering because of all ll of the children.
PTA’s Six National Standards #5 – Sharing Power – Bring Parents onto your committees. Seek out their voice on decisions.
Relationships are Key Establish a good relationship with parents before there is a crisis. “Don’t complain about the pothole, acknowledge it during a board tour of your school and you will see faster results.”
School System Executives Should Maintain Meaningful and Frequent Contact with Parent Leaders Parents are far more likely to engage for you when you have been taking the time to engage with us.
Facts, Facts, Facts “If you don’t give people the facts, they make up their own.”
Communicating ACCR to Busy Parents
Overbooked Schedules Church, Music Lessons, Practice, Tutoring, Scouts, Sports, Dance, Academic Team, Robotics, Science Olympiad, ACT Prep, College Visits and Scholarship Applications, Health Issues, Blended Families, Sandwich Families
Common Core Information Overload “There are mountains of documents, articles and studies out there…
Where do they start? What is the first step?
1. Bullet Points Give us bullet points highlighting the issues.
www dot Give us links that support the bullet points so we can investigate further when we have downtime.
Empower Parents to Find Out for Themselves Give us sources that are factual and not reactionary. Provide a place on your website for us to go for references.
Encourage Them To Deep Dive Give them tools they need to get to the bottom of the issue, and not be swayed by false information.
Break Down the Issues and How They Impact Our State. Financial - How will lower standards impact our economy, job availability, poverty, and our image in our country?
Break Down the Issues and How They Impact Your System. Financial – You already invested in Core aligned texts? What will the financial impact be to your system if the standards are reversed? How will that impact your capital plans, course selection and classroom size?
Break Down the Issues And How They Impact Teachers Financial impact to Teachers - Replacing new curriculum will take money away from the general fund, causing hiring freezes and layoffs?
Break Down the Issues And How They Impact Parents Financial – The ACT and SAT are being aligned to core standards. If we rescind, our students will not be prepared for college entrance exams. These exams are used for scholarship determinations. Parents will pick up the tab.
Legislative Advocacy Are parents staying in touch with their legislators? Do they know who they are? Is your school board a visible, active presence in the schools in their district?
Road Trip Are your parent organizations a visible presence in Montgomery? Have you encouraged them to engage, and move from the sleeping giant in Alabama, to the influencers they should be?
To Do For Common Core: • If you are not collaborating with your parents, begin now. • Use various social media sites to reach all ages. • Give us weekly updates. • Participate in Lunch and Learn meetings. • Attend Parent Meetings. • Host Education 101classes.
PTA Sites www.pta.org www.alabamapta.com www.huntsvillepta.org
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