Alcoa City Schools - Title One Parent Involvement Policy 2006-2007

The Alcoa City Schools Board endorses the concept that parental involvement in the affairs of schools is essential if the school system and parents are to maintain mutual confidence and respect and work together to improve the quality of education for all students. It, therefore, will exert efforts to identify the desires of parents and to be responsible, through its actions, to those desires. The Alcoa City School Board encourages the involvement of parents, both as individuals and as groups, to act as advisors and resource people in the following ways:

With specific talents to complement and extend the instructional services of the classroom teacher;
To serve as advisory people to curriculum development projects;
To express ideas and concerns by responding to surveys and other information gathering devices;
To be actively involved in parent-teacher groups; and
To serve on citizens' advisory committees.

Title I Involvement:

Under the Federal Projects Director, the school system shall plan, design, and implement the Title I program which includes the following:

Parent input into the planning, design, and implementation of the Title I program through the use of printed surveys and annual meetings.
Meaningful consultation of parents of participating children in the planning, design and implementation of the Title I program;
Organized, systematic, ongoing, informed, and timely consultation in relation to decisions about the program; and
Activities and procedures for the involvement of parents that are sufficient size, scope, and quality to give reasonable promise of substantial progress toward achieving the required goals.

To ensure that parents of children being served have an adequate opportunity to participate in the planning, designing, and implementing of the Title I program, the school system shall:

Convene an annual meeting at each school, to which all parents of participating children must be invited to explain the programs and activities available under Title I.
Provide parents of participating children with reports on their child's progress every nine weeks.
To the extent practical, conduct a parent/teacher conference with the parents of each participating child to discuss the child's progress, placement, and methods that parents can use to complement the child's instruction. As a result of monitoring student grades, any student failing to make progress for two (2) consecutive grading periods will require a mandatory parent/teacher conference.
Make educational personnel under the Title I Progam, including pupil services personnel, eadily accessible to parents.
Permit parents of participating children to observe Title I Program activities. Parents will receive written notice of the opportunity annually.
Provide opportunities for regular meetings (Minimum of 3) of parents to formulate parental input into the program, at the building level.
Provide school performances profile that show school progress toward meeting the State's challenging performance standards and provide individual student results and interpretation of results to parents.
Provide description and explanation of curriculum assessment, and expected proficiency levels.
Provide parents of participating children with timely information about the program.
Make parents aware of parental involvement requirements and other relevant provisions of the program in written form annually.
Provide reasonable support for parental involvement activities as parents may request. A parent involvement program will be developed and implemented within each Title I school annually.
Coordinate, to the extent possible, parental involvement activities with programs funded under the Adult Education Act.
To the extent practicable, provide information, programs, and activities for parents in a language and form that parents understand.
Annually assess, through consultation with parents, the effectiveness of the parental involvement program and determine what action needs to be taken, if any, to increase parental participation.

Shared Responsibility for High Student Performance

As a component of the parent involvement plan, each school within the school system shall jointly develop with parents a school-parent compact that will describe:

the school's responsibility to provide high quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables children to meet Satte's student performance standards.
ways in which each parent will be responsible for supporting his/her child's learning, such as monitoring attendance, TV, homework completion, etc.
the ongoing communication that will occur around children achieving high standards through such means as:
parent-teacher conferences at least annually at which the compact will be discussed.
frequent reports to parents on children's progress.
reasonable access to staff and observation of classroom activities, and opportunities to volunteer and participate in thier child's class.

Building Capacity for Involvement:

Both the school and LEA must build the capacity of parents and schools for strong parent involvement by:

providing assistance to participating parents in such areas as the national Education Goals, state content and performance standards, state and local assessments, Title I Part A requirements, and how to monitor their child's progress and work with educators toward the child's improved performance as well as information on how parents can participate in the education of their child.
providing materials and training, such as needed literacy training not otherwise available to help parents with their child's achievement.
educating teachers, pupil services personnel, principals and staff with assistance of parents on how to reach out to, communicate with , and work with parents as equal partners.
other activities for parents to become full partners in the education of their children such as parent resource centers.
coordinate and integrate parent involvement programs/activities with Head Start, Even Start, Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters, Parents as teachers Program, and Public Preschool Programs to extent feasible and appropriate.
ensure, to extene possible, information sent home is in language and form parents can understand.may involve parents in development of taining for teachers and other staff that improve instruction.
shall conduct other activities, as appropriate and feasible, such as parent resource centers and opportunities for parents to learn about child development and rearing from birth of child, designed to help parents become full partners in education of child.
shall develop appropriate roles for community-based organizations and businesses and encouraging partnerships between elementary, middle, and secondary schools.
may train and support parents to enhance involvement of other parents.
may arrange for teachers or other educators to conduct in-home conferences.
adopt and implement model approaches to improving parental involvement, such as Even Start

A structured Parent Training and Involvement Program developed and implemented within each Title I school will include the above aspects of building capacity for parent involvement. Also, activities and programs developed and implemented by the Alcoa City Schools will help develop skills for parents to become more involved in their child's education.