Colmesneil ISD has had difficulty communicating with parents of students. The principals have tried different ways to communicate with parents but have not agreed on the best way. There have even been times that the principals wanted to punish students because there was no response from parents. Discussions during faculty meetings have led to the following inquiry: What is the most effective way for Colmesneil ISD teachers and administrators to communicate with parents? Will the most effective method for grades K-6 be different from grades 7-12?
The second question guided me to separate the data for each set of grade levels. The following plan will take place on both the K-6 campus and the 7-12 campus. This is manageable because the two campuses are at the same physical location.
September 2010: Teachers will send a letter to the parents by passing it out to the students and instructing them to take it home. This letter will be created by the principal and will require a response from the parents. The letter for each campus will be sent during a different week. The principal will collect the responses from the teachers and will tally the number of responses using a spreadsheet.
October 2010: The principal will create an email message for the teachers to email to parents using school management software. This email will require a reply from the parents. The email for each campus will be sent during a different week. The principal will collect the responses from the teachers and will tally the number of replies.November 2010: The principal will post an announcement on the school site that will require a response from the parents. The form for the response will be an email link on the site. The principal will tally the number of responses.
December 2010: The principal will make a comparison based on the number of responses from the parents. The principal responsible for the research will take the time here to reflect on the results, meet with the other grade level principal and determine if there was a definitive answer to the inquiry. If not the principal will examine the data to find possible gaps and then determine if the plan should be revamped or maybe even be scrapped.
The results of this action research plan will be reported during January 2011 at our CISD In-Service day. Further communications with parents will take place in the way that was determined to be the most effective, and will be the means for evaluation. If there is a positive outcome from these later communications then the teachers will use that method as the first means of communicating with parents. If there is a negative outcome from these later communications then it will be back to the drawing board to brainstorm new ways to improve contacting parents.
Lynn,
ReplyDeleteYour action research plan is going to tackle something that plagues school everywhere. Parent involvement is at low levels or sometimes non-existent. Parent involvement is such a broad topic to try and cover. I think your plan is a great way to study a small, manageable area of parent involvement. If you can effectively communicate with parents, you can create an open atmosphere on campus. Without communication, parents have no way of knowing what is happening. Have you considered involving your PTA (Parent Teacher Association)? Traditionally, parents involved with PTA are leaders and are motivated to get other parents involved as well. I hope that your research leads to great successes for your school district! Good Luck!
Wow! You got this plan all thoughtout and parent involvement is important for the sucess of students. Also, at the high school I used to work at, we had a report card pick-up for 9th grader at 1st grading period where the parent came up to the school to pick-up the report card and meet the teachers. Finally, you forgot the one method we've always used, a phone call home.
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