School-Community Partnerships Week 2

Current Reality: Identify a current student issue or need that interferes with academic achievement at your school. Cite data that supports the need. This could be data that relates to academic achievement, student attendance, discipline, or other sources. Look at trends of data and disaggregated data, where available.

Student interest, engagement and academic achievement in math are a concern in our school.  Teachers continue to struggle with how to increase student’s interest in math and their ability to demonstrate mastery on the recently implemented rigorous state math assessments. Our campus did not meet AYP goals during the first year implementation of the new state standardized math test, STAAR.  AYP goals had been met in the previous twelve years with previous state assessments.  This demonstrates a need to reevaluate how math skills are being taught to our students to meet the more rigorous requirements and the activities we offer to stimulate student interest in math.  More teachers have expressed concerns of an increased level of apathy and lack of student engagement in math class due to lack of achievement on math assessments.  Student scores on district and local assessments decreased by an average of 9% and 11%, respectively from last year to this current school year. Students are not making the connection between math ability and the effect on their future careers.  Despite incorporating multi-step word problems into daily instruction, student scores on both campus and district common assessments reflect that students are still struggling.  The frustration and lack of success is causing increased apathy and lack of interest in math class and of math in general.  The emphasis on careers that utilize math skills is minimally advertised on our campus.

Vision: How will the family-school-community partnership that you are proposing resolve the issue by meeting the demonstrated need, and how will it support student achievement?

Our goal is stimulating a student’s interest in math by helping students understand the relationship between math and a future career, their focus and interest in learning math skills in school could increase; resulting in an improvement in math grades and academic growth on local assessments and growth on the new more rigorous state STAAR assessment.   Holding at least two Math Night functions throughout the year where parents and students are able to work together on math activities connected to the TEKS could improve parent knowledge of the higher academic expectations as well as lessen the feeling of inferiority for our parents with an aversion to math.   When parents begin to understand how to solve the problems themselves they’ll be more willing to encourage and assist their children.  Their perception of education could also become more positive.  The hope is the emphasis from parents on academic success and understanding will translate to better understanding, patience, interest, and dedication on the part of the student in the classroom and on the assessments.  It also could be beneficial during Math Night to have some high achieving students assisting with the activities with the parents.  This will bring the community of families within our school together in solidarity with a common goal of a successful school of learners. An additional focus of the Math Night would be to include business members of our community who work in fields that require math skills to discuss how math is used within their career.  Students and parents will apply math skills from the activities they participated in with the teachers and students to a real life work situation. The emphasis would be on careers that are not primarily math based like accountants and financial planners but other jobs students want and that are within their reach.  These are the types of jobs that the parents of our student population have. This would allow parents and community businesses to become more involved and allow them to build meaningful connections with the school.  Our school is in a lower income area and the prospect of becoming doctors and lawyers, while not out of reach for all, is unlikely for most.  By highlighting the professions that may not require a four year university degree as relevant and well respected career paths, we could build interest in some of the students who have not felt connected to any particular future career path while building the connection to math in the classroom.  For instance, police officers use geometry when analyzing a vehicle accident scene, landscapers and agriculturalists use math when they calculate the appropriate amount of soil, fertilizer and pesticides to use, and trade school professions such as carpenters, plumbers, electricians and mechanics all use math when calculating the costs to complete a job including determining the appropriate amount of labor to hire.

 Week 2 Assignment, Part 2: Initial Partnership Proposal

The first step in establishing either a new family-school-community partnership, or strengthening an existing one, is to clearly articulate your idea. While your idea will probably evolve as stakeholders contribute their perspectives, you will use this assignment to solidify your initial concept.

To complete this assignment, fill out the chart.

Describe the need for the new or improved school-community partnership. Summarize the strategies/ activities you are recommending.

As the expectations and the complexity of math problems increased with the new state math assessment, student achievement and grades have declined.  The decline in student grades is a cause of concern for teachers and parents, especially the parents of the students who have achieved academic success in the past with the lower expectations of the TAKS test.   There is a need to increase student interest, comfort level and achievement of math skills.  We need find a way to increase student’s interest in and the understanding and purpose of mathematics as well as creating a sense of awareness to the connection of math skills to everyday professions.

Reference the research that supports the strategies/ activities you are recommending.

In Rutherford, B., & Billig, S. H., Eight lessons of parent, family and community involvement in the middle grades, they discuss how in Fort Worth ISD they had a program called Vital Link where sixth grade students were placed in businesses for a one-week internship.  During this internship students worked in the businesses to get an idea of the career opportunities within the fields.  By having our community businesses come to our school and offer hands-on business related activities that link to actual required math skills we are meeting the Vital Link goal which states “the goal of the program is to understand career opportunities in a variety of fields through hands-on experience.” (Rutherford & Billig).  By arranging for the activities to be available for both parents and students to explore together we are not only cultivating the relationship between school, family and community but also improving the connection between parents to students. The math activities in our Math Night will be designed to increase student interest in math. “Inspiring children’s interest in math and science at a young age is critical to nurturing a lifelong interest.”  Retrieved from http://www.maconferenceforwomen.org/raytheon-inspiring-enthusiasm-for-math-and-science/

Compose three or more measurable goals for the school-community partnership.

Participation levels (total participants, parents or students, grade level, specific student names, math teacher of students attending ) Attributes of activities (type of activity, length of activity, end of activity short survey results)  Participation of community businesses (total participants, types of businesses, other interested participants who could not commit to function date, repeat participants) Documented change in students mathematics grades both in class assignments and local and state assessments Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) results

How will the school-community partnership increase student achievement?

The Math Night function will increase student achievement by increasing the students’ sense of confidence and self-worth regarding math. As students interest and confidence in math increases so will the engagement level in the math classroom.  Scores on math assignments and on local and state assessments should increase as a result of this increased student engagement.  Math Night will also increase parent awareness of student’s math responsibilities and the parent’s knowledge of the skills students are required to master.   This increased awareness should help foster a better parent-student schoolwork relationship at home which should result in more completed homework assignments and better understanding of math concepts taught in class.

Identify the school-community partnership’s stakeholders.

Teachers Students Community business representatives who use math in their jobs (Math Night participants) Parents

What are the steps to approval and implementation of the partnership? What are possible sources of funding?

Initial approval to explore the partnership from campus administration Organize a planning committee consisting of teachers, student representatives, parents, community business partner and an administrator to explore process and brainstorm ideas Commitment from teachers, select students, and selected community businesses to participate Consensus on date of function Determine the math activities and related math concepts Organize a set-up committee to organize the set-up/tear-down processes for the function Advertise the function to students and parents. Conduct a call out session; calling parents to inform them of the function Hold Math Night Teacher survey of change in level of student engagement, suggestions, comments, concerns to address at future Math Night events Parent and Math Night business speaker survey requesting suggestions, comments, concerns Analyze change in student achievement on math assignments and assessments There will not be a large expense for this function.  The school provides the location so there are no facility fees.  The community businesses provide their own supplies and materials relevant to their activity.  The Math Department budget will incur the costs of the math activity packets, paper, pencils and other basic materials for the school activities and the flyers.

What resources are required for the partnership?

The majority of the resources are in the form of human labor, i.e. teachers, parents, students and community business working after hours.  There are little financial resources required. Participation from teachers, parents, students and community businesses. Access to the school building after school hours. Tables, chairs, other materials for business speakers teaching areas. Advertisement flyers, school website presence.

How will you market your school-community partnership idea?

Flyers will go home with students, be posted throughout the school and be advertised on the school website.  Students will continue to be reminded throughout the school by classroom teachers and on morning announcements.  Parents will receive a call from the school informing them off the Math Night function.

How will you evaluate your partnership’s outcomes?

The outcomes of the Math Night school, family and community partnership will be evaluated by the evidence in the level of student’s math interest and engagement in the classroom, math assignment and report card grades and growth on the local and state math common assessments. By holding Math Night more than once a year, level of participation by parents, students and community businesses will also be a sound evaluation element.   Teachers will be surveyed on levels of student engagement and academic progress on class assignments and assessments.   State assessment scores will be evaluated for individual student growth for students who attended the Math Night functions. Evaluation of AYP results.