Rolanda Smith knows the secret behind student achievement.
“When you have parents holding their children accountable, and they feel like partners in the process, that’s when students achieve.” Smith, the executive director of
Cincinnati Parents of Public Schools (PPS), knew this years ago. Only now, the research is proving that when parents are involved, student achievement increases. PPS’s continued goal is to foster collaborative relationships not only between parents and their students, but between parents and schools and to sustain that involvement so that all students can achieve.
In the last 15 years, PPS has ignored the national finger-pointing over failed education systems and earned the trust of key Cincinnati community groups, teachers and administrators by engaging parents in collaborative and constructive roles with the schools.
PPS’s biggest initiative, its Parent Leadership Institute (PLI), is a three-month, intensive professional development program, supported in part by the
Mayerson Academy. Over several weekends, PLI trains parents to understand state data, translate that information to the district level, know how to read individual school report cards and how to partner with school professionals and other parents to identify issues and design action plans to increase student achievement. Graduates of this program have become community leaders in education, serving on state and local school committees and helping engage other parents in schools.
Gearing Up (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs), an initiative between PPS and the University of Cincinnati, reaches first-generation college hopefuls. While students are instructed in financial aid and application requirements, parents learn how to check homework, set expectations and create structured time at home, things that may have been lacking before. “And when a parent learns those new skills, it affects the rest of the children at home,” Smith says.
“I’ve never met a parent who didn’t care about a child’s education,” she adds. “We know there are many levels of parent involvement, and it is all helping to increase student achievement.”
Do Good:
Congratulate: PPS for receiving a best practice award for its Extra Mile Award program at the Parents For Public Schools national conference in October, 2011.
Apply: For PPS’s upcoming Parent Leadership Institute, help on the following days in 2012: Feb. 10-11, March 9-10 and April 20-21.
Sign: A petition championed by the national Parents for Public Schools organization to discourage elected officials from cutting any more funding to public schools.
By Becky Johnson