Schools and Parents: A Collaborative Effort

Research confirms that with the involvement of parents and academic success is improved for all students. Knowing the importance, there are best practices that can be developed for parental engagement that other organizations are employing. Above all, the school must create a welcoming environment and along with that, supportive learning environments. Second only to that, the school should develop a system of home to school communication and a better system of school to home communication. Outreach efforts should also employ the inclusion of parents in school planning, and volunteer opportunities that are meaningful. 

It is undeniably essential to have a parent involvement plan integrated into the school processes. It is the responsibility of the leader to employ such a program. Planning on a school campus should involve not only staff, but parents along with the staff. This is not only professionally the correct thing to do, it is a requirement for many accreditation programs such as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) which is the accrediting body in California. It is also one of the requirements of the Federal Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). Though it is the obligation of the school leadership, school planning and development is the responsibility of all stakeholders. The research also reports schools are more successful when all stakeholders are involved. Additionally, culture shifts happen to the positive when people have ownership of their school. Everyone can be contributing members because it is not only the teachers that makes a difference. Before students even get to the classroom, they enter the school and should be met with a team of people that all have the same goal.

That goal should be focused on increasing student achievement at home and school.  With consistent communication, the home to school transition will not diminish the message. Parents as partners with the school, on the same page, pulling on the same side of the rope. Until next time...

A Compelling Case

With relationships at the core, schools should engage students and provide opportunities for students to be successful by increasing their abilities and stimulating their talents and personality (Wang et al., 2014). Bandura (1971) adds to this understanding by stating that learning is dependent on the interaction between the school environment and the student. The failure or success of the student will be determined by the quality of the interaction and the environment with which they are placed (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The research by Bandura (1971) plainly demonstrates the significance of the social learning context. Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) research adds to the significance of the learning environment and culture. Since the landmark research of Bandura and Bronfenbrenner, studies continue to show the impact a positive environment has on student achievement (Ali & Siddiqui, 2016). When a relationship of trust is present between a student and an adult, the student will rise to the expectations presented (Balkar, 2015). This response, known as the Pygmalion effect, where students will rise to the level of expectation that is placed upon them (Howard et al., 2015) is the practical application of the theories discussed.

A compelling case can be made for the relationship between a teacher and the student as the building blocks of academic achievement. A school culture of high expectation has a strong positive relationship to academic achievement. The school culture of high expectation is made up of the relationships that are built on the school campus. As studies report, relationships have to come before academic rigor. Students will work for their teacher when they know their teacher cares about them and has an authentic belief in them. In contrast, when students feel their teachers do not care, or believe their efforts are futile, their academic achievement is diminished.

Learning occurs more frequently when teachers make the authentic attempt to be actively engaged in the interaction with students and school culture is driven by the relationships that exist on a campus. The bottom line is that when high expectations for student achievement are present, high academic achievement will be the result.

Until next time...

Teacher/staff Collaboration

The process of education is a detailed method of teaching and learning with a variety of contributors. The walls and classrooms are just the shell to house the process that should be focused on collaboration to be successful (Sanders, 2016). According to Stevens (2014), collaboration by teachers and staff members is the most effective method of improving professional practice which will ultimately lead to improved student outcomes. Collaborative groups can be called by several names but they all share a common focus. They are all outcome based and promote professional dialog around student achievement (Stevens, 2014).

Collaboration is extremely important to a school as it is very clear that schools do not operate solely with one person in charge. It takes a team of people working together under the guidance of the governing board and through sound policy to meet defined goals (Guthrie & Schuermann, 2010). The use of this instrument can facilitate team building and communication throughout the process building professional relationships (Malakyan, 2013). Though it is the responsibility of the principal to listen to all stakeholders, the collaborative process can help by giving others an avenue to improvement (Stevens, 2014).

There are multitudes of ways that collaboration can become deep and meaningful in a school setting and every time collaboration takes place there is likelihood that student achievement will improve (O’Brien, 2015). Stevens (2014) also reports that not only student achievement will improve with collaboration, but teacher effectiveness will improve as a result. With the well documented success of collaborative groups, there are five elements that need attention during the implementation process: 1) Staying data centered; 2) Developing trust; 3) Time; 4) Engagement in the process; and 5) Alignment with the District (Stevens, 2014). When collaborative groups are implanted with fidelity, they force a change to standard practice. 

The bottom line that collaboration works and we are stronger together than alone. Until next time...

Importance of Curriculum Relevance

Today more than ever, it is important for teachers to present a curriculum that is relevant to the students. Not only is relevance vital, context also has to be taken into account during the development of a lesson. This coupled with the understanding of the knowledge, skills and competencies that students need to master in order to move to the next level in their studies make lesson planning more challenging every day. Toss into the mix the idea that students want contextually relevant curriculum, but they want it presented in an interesting and stimulating way. 

Though we can blame social media for this challenge, I believe the challenge has always been there. As society has developed, lesson design has had to evolve. The teacher that is still presenting a lesson with which they used 25 years ago when they started teaching, is not being effective. The content, the delivery, and the method probably is all wrong. That would signify to a supervising administrator or mentor teacher that lessons need to be reworked.

The process for doing this is to begin with a learning goal. Clearly, an outcome must be determined. Once developed, relevant and appropriate learning activities can be added that are based on the skills, knowledge, and competencies that are outlined in the goal. As planning continues, the end result should be a formative assessment that will enable the student and teacher to reflect meaningfully on whether or not the learning goal was achieved. This becomes the ongoing process of developing curriculum that is contextually relevant. 

Until next time...

Carrot or the Stick

Reciprocal interaction is the basis for Bandura's social learning theory and an important component in building a culture of high expectation on a high school campus. Learning occurs from the active interchange between the school environment and the student, not just in responding to a stimulus provided by the teacher (Bandura, 1971). Bandura discovered that past consequences are important motivators for future behavior. Students that have received positive reinforcement will produce behaviors that are more desirable. The motivating positive reinforcement becomes the reason for the learned behavior. This leads to the idea that schools with a positive culture will provide more quality reinforcement for reaching goals (Bandura, 1971). As students reach goals, they feel better about themselves which increases their desire to achieve even higher goals. On the other hand, students attending a school that has a negative school culture will not receive the reinforcement necessary to fulfill their feedback needs.

Continuing with Bandura’s social learning (1971), there is a connection with regulated consequences and behavior. People generally will not participate in behavior that is not rewarding or that is met with punishment. Rewarded behavior however, has a higher retention level. When rewards and punishments are anticipated, it has strong effects on behavior. Social rewards and behavior incentives have a positive result on learning and social interaction (Bandura, 1971). Applying this concept to schools, students will work hard to earn positive reinforcement from the teacher or their peers and work harder to avoid the negative aspect. This can also help to build a positive culture, as well as a culture of high expectations.

Bottom line is the carrot is much more powerful than the stick.

Until next time...

Social Learning Theory

According to Albert Bandura and his Social Learning Theory, as social creatures, human beings rely on emotional nourishment. Social interaction is a human need and schools provide the setting that can be most influential for teaching social interaction and nourishing the needs of emotional attachment. Teachers help develop interpersonal communication skills with students at a very young age. Additionally, many teachers model behaviors that are positive. Students also witness around the school yard many demonstrations that are not considered appropriate social behavior. In both cases, students are learning how to socially interact with their world. 

Social interactions between teacher and student is, in effect, the fundamental basis for teaching. In order to provide a strong foundation for students it becomes essential to foster the development of strong authentic teacher-student relationships through trust and caring. With that, the connection needs to be perceived as caring by both the student and teacher. As is accepted, what is perceived is reality when relationships are concerned. Though the perception may not be the truth, it is real to the perceiving individual. 

The concept of building robust teacher-student relationship connections is not secluded to the classroom setting. It is equally significant in all teaching, counseling, and administrative situations. In one relationship study of teachers and students it was found that a positive school experience is a contributing factor to student academic success. Moreover, a positive relationship can overcome negativity brought about by a poor environment at home, basically reversing the impact. That should be enough alone for every educator to focus on building authentic relationships. Then impact will make a difference.

Until next time...

Increased Rigor equals Improved Student Achievement

Schools face great needs and challenges on a daily basis. The problems our schools are met with are complex and warrant the attention of all stakeholders to find the answers. It takes all stakeholders to build a school that values the collaborative nature needed to involve parents, students, and employees equally. Relationship building is no longer just the responsibility of the teacher, but now the school administrators have to be equally responsible for establishing, facilitating, and maintaining relationships with parents. Part of this process begins at the top tier of the education personnel operating structure. School boards of education must outline a vision and mission that drives the organization by setting the climate and culture of inclusion. Once set in motion the philosophy of inclusion will be developed and a plan for involvement will follow suit.

The California public school system has gone through an enormous amount of change in recent years and due to this, has been collecting a huge amount of data. This provides an opportunity to utilize the public access database to investigate how certain points correlate with others. As for the State standardized test, the aggregate school scores were released for the first time in 2015. This fact alone stands to reason why empirical research utilizing this data is very rare or simply difficult to find. Additionally, with the importance of multiple measures for schools and high expectations for students, the measure A-G completion percentage is the only data point that is tracked by the State that can be used in empirical studies.

According to the literature reviewed, a school culture is reflective of the community with which they serve. Any issue that impacts the community at large will impact the school. Research states that school culture when placed in context, is related to everything that happens at a school. Relationships, connectedness, expectations, teaching practices, behavior interventions, and external affects such as education policy, technology, and globalization, are all impactful to students and the culture of a school. Though this is the case, studies have found that negative interactions can be moderated with the positive. Therefore, a positive teacher-student relationship can promote an increase in student achievement. When increased rigor is the expectation, student achievement will improve as well.