engaging families in pbis at the middle/high school level dan seaman, wisconsin rti center jennifer...
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Engaging Families in PBIS at the Middle/High School Level
Dan Seaman, Wisconsin RtI CenterJennifer Grenke, Wisconsin RtI
PBIS Network
Why should we Increase PBIS Family Engagement at the Middle/High School Level?
Required in IDEA and NCLB www.ed.gov/nclb
Builds positive relationships Encourages better behaviors Reinforces skills (maintenance) Increases self-satisfaction and optimism among youth,
parents, and teachers Programs and interventions that engage families
in supporting their children’s learning at home are linked to higher student achievement and success. U.S. Department of Education Parent Information Resource Center Program
Impact of Family Engagement Bill Jackson, entrepreneur, educator and technologist,
currently CEO of Great Schools a well known nonprofit organization advises educators “to improve family engagement, they need to make education personal and ‘expose’ parents to demonstrations of student and school excellence they’ve never seen before.”
“No matter what the demographics, students are more likely to earn higher grades and test scores, attend school regularly, have better social skills, graduate and go on to post-secondary education when schools and families partner”Karen Mapp, Family Involvement Equals…, 2006
Prepare staff to work with families Help those who work with families take different
perspectives on situations by discussing hypothetical cases from different family members’ points of view
Ask staff to evaluate their own assumptions and beliefs about the families with whom they work
Develop staff communication skills Provide staff time to process with others difficult
conversations or situations
Prepare staff to work with families….continued
Aid staff in understanding research on families and the theoretical rationale for the program.
Respect parents/guardians’ perspective on their child’s abilities and progress. They know their own child in a different setting than you do.
Expect to disagree once in a while and embrace the opportunity to see things from a new point of view. Based on a Best-Practice Model created by Dr. Joyce Epstein
Obstacles to Partnering with Families of Middle and High School Students
Middle and High School teachers typically have more students than elementary school teachers
Families may live further away and cannot come to school as easily
Families of middle and high school students have more difficulty helping their children with homework, BUT they can help with learning and practicing behavior expectations
Adolescent students are becoming more independent
These students are more involved in community activities
What Staff can do to recruit and organize family help and support
Arrange to use parent/guardian and community volunteers in classrooms. Recruit widely so that all families know their contributions are welcome. Provide trainings, and match time and talent with the work to be done.
Communicate with parents/guardians at the beginning of each year to identify talent, times and locations of volunteers.
Based on a Best-Practice Model Created by Dr. Joyce Epstein
What Staff can do to recruit and organize family help and support …continued Recruit families through face-to-face visits. Ask current and former participants to help with
recruitment Hold meetings for parents during nontraditional
hours, including weekends and evenings. Visit parents in community locations Ensure that staff are culturally sensitive. Understand the beliefs, values, and attitudes of
the community Help staff to think of recruitment and retention
as a routine and ongoing process.
Ways to support families and students with behavior expectations
If students have several teachers, coordinate classroom expectations, homework assignments, etc.
Provide calendars with behavior expectations activities for parents/ guardians and students at home.
Ask families to participate in setting goals each year and share progress monitoring data with them
Examples of How to Involve Families with PBIS At the time of registration and/or open house provide
families with information about PBIS and encourage families to consider signing up to be involved with PBIS activities/teams.
Families participate in the design and implementation of school-wide celebrations.
Families are awarded acknowledgements (gotchas) for their involvement at school
Special activities which increase family awareness of school support offered to the students
Families volunteer to participate, support, and develop PBIS Universal Store
Families are invited to be active on PBIS teams
Family members can volunteer at lunchtime to supervise and acknowledge expected behavior
Improve school climate and increase family friendly atmosphere through new routines and activities (meet at busses, offer coffee)
Families receive acknowledgment when their children act in appropriate and exceptional ways.
Family organization supports PBIS activities by designating a special line item in their annual budget.
Host a “Back to School Family Night” to share information:
-School-wide expectations-School “acknowledgements” described-School matrix sent home for posting on the
refrigerator-Tips for helping students with before and after school routines.
Examples of How to Involve Families…continued
Example Activities: Vocabulary building became a school and
community project in Idaho Falls, Idaho, this could be a PBIS expectation theme! (NEA Policy Brief, pg 2 HANDOUT)
R U Smarter Than a Middle Schooler? A game show modeled after a popular television program, brought students and parents together at Adams Friendship Middle School in Friendship. Give it a PBIS twist! (NEA Policy Brief, pg 2 HANDOUT)
Parent Matrix on www.wisconsinpbisnetwork.org
Tips/Materials for Families Provide families with a PBIS calendar and/or
expectation teaching timeline with cool tools to match at home
Families are informed about PBIS with specially designed handbooks, newsletters and school websites
Provide tools to parents to help them understand function of behavior and behavior modification
Families of new students can be given a welcome DVD upon enrollment in school. The results will be a visual, in addition to the written documents they receive.
School, Family & Community Partnership efforts should help families…
Get a clear idea of what their children are learning and doing around PBIS
Promote high standards for student work
Gain skills to help their children in all situations (code switching)
Discuss how to improve student progress
Henderson, Mapp, et al. Beyond the Bake Sale, 2007
Benefits of Family Engagement
Higher test scores Better grades Better attendance Higher levels of homework completion More positive student motivation Improved attitudes about school workDarsch, Miao, & Shippen (2004). A Model for Involving Parents…
Demonstrated Benefits to Educators/Schools: Greater job satisfaction Higher ratings of teaching skills from
both parents and principals Higher ratings of school effectiveness Improved classroom behavior through
increased knowledge of children’s family, cultural, and community contexts.
(Adapted from Christenson, 1996)
Given the unique challenges and opportunities middle and
high schools face, creative strategies should be used to build effective partnerships
with families and communities.
- Harvard Family Research Project
Commitment to Family EngagementSchools that are committed to student success are created in accommodating student and family engagement: Replacing punitive process with ones that
seek to understand and improve a child’s situation
Creating schedules, polices, and programs that take into account students’ home-life challenges
Henderson and Berla, p. 168-171 Failure is Not an Option, Blankstein, Corwin and Hope, 2004
Reflection
What do you see as the benefits of School, Family & community Partnerships?
What do you see as the costs of schools not partnering with Family & community?
Appleton West High School
Kristin Ruhsam-Tegelman- PBIS Internal Coach at Appleton West
[email protected] Garvey-Coordinator of School
Improvement-PBIS and Family Partnerships Appleton Area School District
APPLETON WEST HIGH SCHOOL
Student Population: 1105 Students
Students of Minority: 30%
Students with a Disability: 19%
Students with Free or Reduced Lunch: 47%
PBIS Implementation at WestYear 1 (2010 – 2011)Freshman Homerooms Focus on Being on Time
Year 2 (2011 – 2012)All School Focus on Being on Time and Hallway Behavior
Year 3 (2012 – 2013 and 2013 – 2014)Being on TimeHallway BehaviorClassroom BehaviorCommon Area Behavior
2014 – 2015Same Target BehaviorsSpecific Focus on School Wide Respect and Parent Involvement
Barriers or Opportunities?Changing our thinking!
Parents Don’t Understand the Need for PBIS because their students show appropriate behaviors.
Parents will seek out opportunities to help and be involved.
Parents will help if they are asked and are available.
Parents want to be involved but are unavailable when needed.
Parents that are unavailable, uninvolved, and do not want much to do with school.
CURRENTLY UTILIZING PARENTS
ADVISORY ROLE School Wide Parent Advisory Committee Comprised of Parents Who Seek Out Involvement
PRACTICE ROLE Family Night
COMMUNITY ROLE Terrorbackers Donations
PARTNERSHIP ROLE Assist with Carrying Out Celebrations and Recognitions
UTILIZING PARENTS IN THE FUTURE
LEADERSHIP ROLE 2 Parents involved with Internal Site Coordinators on a monthly basis Assist in making connections with other parents
PLANNING ROLE Hand in Hand with Leadership and Advisory Roles Utilize Parents to Support Buy-In
KNOWLEDGE ROLE Providing Multiple Opportunities Throughout the Year to Meet with Parents Make More Connections with Parents Throughout the Year via Newsletters and
Website
PARTNERSHIP ROLE Working with parents to help make better transitions to high school Working with parents to help students transfer expectations to their first job.
HOW DO WE GET THERE?FAMILY BACK to SCHOOL NIGHT Setting a baseline expectation for parents to help support them
support their student at school.
PARENT SURVEYS Beginning of the school year Ongoing to see if information is valuable and/or implemented
UTILIZE ALREADY INVOLVED PARENTS Leadership Role Planning Role
ONGOING SUPPORT Provide opportunities throughout the school year to continually
reinforce and update parents of PBIS practices. Providing opportunities to support parents with students with
difficult behaviors.
Marinette Middle School
Contact Information Dan Seaman [email protected] 920.265.0696
Jennifer Grenke, [email protected] 920.604.4140