AIM at Middle Grades Results: About Aim

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About AIM > Research > Theory and Research Supporting AIM > Element 4

THEORY AND RESEARCH SUPPORTING
AIM AT MIDDLE-GRADES RESULTS
DESIGN ELEMENT FOUR

STRONG LINKS BETWEEN FAMILY, SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY

Parent Engagement

Mapping and Mobilizing Community Assets

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Parent Engagement
AIM teachers and staff recognize that all the adults in children's lives-not just primary caretakers-affect the development of the child. They take to heart Dr. James P. Comer's observation (2001) that "schools can succeed if they are prepared to embrace poor or marginalized families and to provide their children with conditions that promote mainstream skills. And when these conditions are continued throughout the school years, children from low-income backgrounds can do well in school; they will have better life chances" (p. 3).

In a survey of research on "Parent Engagement as a School Reform Strategy," Giles (1998) observes that many schools effecting systemic change "situate their reform efforts in the context of the surrounding community." They "draw upon the power of community institutions," such as churches and civic groups. Furthermore, "successful systemic initiatives usually result in an increase in the quantity and quality of various forms of parent involvement." Indeed, "many such initiatives have succeeded in improving student academic achievement and transforming the culture of schools." (p. 1) Giles cites James Comer's School Development Program as the best of these initiatives. AIM schools, as an extension of the ATLAS model, incorporate many of Comer's ideas and strategies.

Some of the parent engagement activities that ATLAS and others have found especially useful have been outlined by Nancy Ames (of EDC's Center for Family, Schools, and Community and the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform). These include:

Creating an in-school parent center-a friendly place at school designated for parents and staffed by parent volunteers at least some of the time. Parents need to feel welcome at school; nothing makes them feel more welcome than a small room with a couch, chair, and table specially set aside for their use.

Designating someone to serve as a parent liaison. While this option is more expensive, hiring a parent to develop the parent program is a powerful way to enlist other parent volunteers and engage parents in their children's schooling. Some schools may be able to attract volunteers, but hiring someone (even part-time or for a small stipend) is a good way to obtain a real time commitment and make another statement-parents are important here.

Student-led parent-teacher conferences, which are a very good way to get parents to school on parent night, to empower students, and to show parents what students are learning in AIM schools. Even just having students present on parent night can be a plus, and providing day care is another essential.

The AIM model also requires the creation of Leadership Teams (see Collaborative Leadership, below, for more detail) that include parents along with teachers, school administrators, and District or Central Office representatives. This structure helps AIM schools achieve many of the attributes of successful family, school, and community partnerships (Giles, 1998), which include the following:

Viewing the school and community as an ecology. Successful collaborative reform projects "work to make the values, cultures, and languages of the various components of a child's ecology-home, school, and neighborhood-more continuous" (p. 2).
Building relationships based on common concerns. Successful initiatives build relationships among all the people involved in transforming schools and "create resources such as trust, information channels, and shared norms" (p. 2).
Acknowledging the role of power in school-community relationships. Successful initiatives move from a "command and control" mode of power to one of "relational power" among educators, parents, and community members, which "grows out of collaboration and conversation" (p. 3).
Fostering the collaborative leadership of principals. As a principal moves away from unilateral control, both parents and teachers begin to feel safe enough "to take risks, and even to fail, in an effort to create positive change." The move to relational power is hard, but can provide the principal with "support and relief" (p. 4).
Monitoring and evaluating progress. "A cornerstone of the work of successful collaborative reform projects is to increase parents' and teachers' awareness and understanding of educational outcomes such as achievement scores, attendance, and dropout rates, and to allow them to monitor the impact of their reform efforts on these outcomes" (p. 5).

Mapping and Mobilizing Community Assets
In their book, Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets, John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight (1993) outline an effective strategy that can be used in any community to bring about improvements. Rather than starting with a traditional needs assessment, the authors argue that the best way to face challenges is for communities to have in-depth knowledge of the resources available to work on local issues. So, an important beginning point involves mapping the assets of the community-the skills and talents of local residents, as well as the capacities available through local organizations and institutions. AIM schools engage in assets mapping in order to identify community resources that can support student learning and healthy development.

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Read about the theory and research supporting Design Element 5.

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