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Memphis, TN In an effort to increase parental involvement and improve academic achievement, parents of Memphis City School students will soon receive report cards in a new program unveiled today that grades their child's school as part of "The Community Report Card to Parents." As part of the newly released report cards program, The Center for Parent Leadership and Stand for Children launched a "Parent-Leader Training Program" designed to teach parents how to use the information to get more involved in schools and set priorities for action. The first class of 60 parents began their training today. "The partnership between parents and their schools is one of the fundamental building blocks of quality education," said Dr. Carol Johnson, superintendent of Memphis City Schools. "We want to mobilize families to make more active and informed choices. With these report cards, we give parents the information they need to be learning partners with Memphis City Schools." The report card for each city school contains information on overall school performance, academic performance, teacher qualifications, dropout rates and safety. It also includes survey results from students, parents and teachers on each school's environment for learning and teaching. Traffic lights are used to indicate to parents how a school is performing. The report cards are the result of nearly three years of work, including 11 focus groups of Memphis City Schools' parents. The conclusions of those focus groups showed that: · Parents want more and better information communicated to them · Parents are strongly in favor of report cards for their children's schools · Parents who are involved in schools understand how much of a difference they can make in their children's education · Parents now involved in their children's schools show a high level of sophistication and knowledge about what is at stake The report cards were developed in keeping with the opinions of parents, said PIPE president Ethele Hilliard. "It was clear to all of us that parents are not merely interested in getting involved. They are, in fact, eager for information that allows them to have a meaningful, active role in their child's education. They spoke in one voice, we heard them and this report card program is our response." Additionally, parental involvement was set as a priority, because research consistently shows that "students with involved parents are more likely to make high grades and test scores, be promoted, attend school regularly, have better social skills and school behavior and graduate and go on to college," said Hilliard. There will be report cards available for parents at each school, and they will be posted online at www.yourschoolreportcard.com. Every school received report cards today. In support of the report card program, The Center for Parent Leadership and Stand for Children have begun to develop a corps of parent leaders who will recruit and train hundreds of parent leaders in the coming months. The goal is to help teach parents how to use the report cards' information to get actively involved in schools. The Center for Parent Leadership, a program of the Prichard Committee in Lexington, Ky., is developing training plans aimed at creating a cadre of 2,500 parents to become "leaders capable of pursuing opportunities and solving problems in their children's schools," said Nita Rudy of the Prichard Committee. "Once parents are given the information, it's important that we answer some critical questions: What does it mean to me? Where do I go from here? What specific actions will I take as a result of this?" Stand for Children, a national organization that works on programs that benefit children and address school funding, will lead long-term efforts to encourage parents to get the report cards and stay involved in school reform, said Memphis organizer Kenya Bradshaw. "This is a critical piece in our grassroots work to elevate the importance of education as a priority for our city and to inspire parents to lead the charge for improvement," she said. The report card program builds on the success of the past two years when Memphis won national competitions for prominent programs of school reform, New Leaders for New Schools and the New Teacher Project, said Joseph Evangelisti, senior vice-president of First Tennessee Bank, whose foundation funded the project. "This is another milestone in PIPE's work to make Memphis a leader in school reform," he said. "Parental involvement is a strong predictor of student achievement. It seems clear that if we are to be serious about school reform, we have to be serious about getting parents involved as a major force for change." Local organizations which developed the "Community Report Cards for Parents" and the "Parent-Leader Training Program" are the Hyde Family Foundations, the Assisi Foundation of Memphis, the First Tennessee Foundation, Conaway Brown, University of Memphis Center for Research and Educational Policy, Stand for Children, Memphis City Schools and PIPE. |
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