Annual Evaluation of the Content and Effectiveness

of the LEA Parental Involvement Plan 2009

(Required for LEAs with Title I Schools)

School System:    Pell City

What the law requires:

The LEA must (1) conduct with Title I parents an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parental involvement plan in improving the academic quality of Title I schools, including identifying barriers to greater participation by parents in authorized activities; and (2) use the findings to design more effective strategies and revise the plan.

Evaluating your plan should be done with LEA and school staff as well as parents.  All Title I parents should be aware that the plan is being evaluated and understand the procedure that is in place allowing them the opportunity for input.  Input may be from serving as a member of the committee conducting the evaluation; completing a parental involvement survey; participating in parent focus groups; etc. The input, including the results of the parental involvement survey, should be used to assist in addressing the following evaluation components.

1.  What were our student achievement goals this year?

            Student achievement goals this year include increasing student performance above the state average of performance on state assessments, decreasing the number of student retentions, and increasing the percentage of students benchmarking on DIBELS.

2.  How did we work as partners with parents in meeting those goals?

            Parents became partners in setting goals, monitoring goals, and supporting all school and home efforts in meeting goals.  Parents participated in meetings that provided student data, funding data, and guidelines for planning.  Parents also were provided program evaluation opportunities in survey form.

3.  How can we improve with actively involving parents in the activities of our schools?

            Parents have shared through online surveys, paper surveys, parent meetings, and Board Work Sessions that they feel informed and valued by the school system.  Parents expressed a desire for the continuation of the Teleparent Program, technology opportunities such as STI home, and flexible meeting times be expanded.

4.  Do we have any barriers to parent involvement that need to be addressed?

            Foreign Language interpreters have been made available contractually.  Times of meetings have been adjusted to accommodate parent work schedules.

5.  How are we doing with distributing our LEA and school parental involvement plans to all Title I parents?

            Parental information has been distributed via hard copy to parents and is available to parents on local school and system websites.

6.  How can we improve on training that is offered to parents: To help them work with their child at home?  To help them to be active partners in LEA and school decision-making?

            Continued efforts in the areas of scheduling flexible meeting times, increasing meeting opportunities, and early partnerships with Head Start are a few avenues to increase training opportunities and attendance.  Continued promotion of online surveys for parental input.

7.  How can we improve on training that we offer school staff/teachers to help them to work more effectively with parents?

            Each Title I school faculty and staff member is involved with evaluating the Title I program.  During the evaluation process, it was shared with the LEA that after school tutoring programs that involve not only students but parents are needed. Teachers felt that if the LEA moved forward with such opportunities, training would need to be provided to teachers in the area of working with parents on parenting skills, understanding their child's needs, and school academic expectations.  Teachers also shared a desire for more transitional training for parents of Pre-K students entering Title I schools.  The areas of school readiness, school expectations, and school anxiety were a few of the topics listed for training.

8.  Based on these evaluation findings, what changes do we want to make to our parental involvement plan for next year?  (Reference Results of Parent Surveys)

• Expand Teleparent offerings
• Continue flexibility of scheduling parent-teacher meetings
• Expand Pre-K transitional opportunities
• Explore extended-hour opportunities to include parents
• Educate parents in the area of technology provided opportunities such as homework helps, lesson plans, and online texts