Janice Brody, Pasadena ISD Ace Conference 2013 Austin, Texas

1. Janice Brody
Sycreeda Bryant
Texas ACE/21st CCLC
Pasadena I.S.D.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0sfCHhitqc

2. What is Commitment?
 The act of committing, pledging or engaging
oneself
 A pledge or promise; obligation
 Engagement, involvement

3. Family
Community
School

4.  Increase communication between school staff
and families
 Greater job satisfaction for school staff because
of the team effort
 Increase family support
 Develop a family friendly environment

5.  Achieve higher test scores and grades
 Increase attendance
 Improve behavior and student motivation
 Increase school bonding
Families develop increased awareness of
school support offered to students

6.  Provide families with community resources that
support their needs
 Help match community resources to school
goals and needs assessments
 Community organizations can promote and
provide trainings for parents and school staff
 Provide facilities and opportunities for additional
learning

7. These are the pieces needed to create better
educational programs and opportunities for our
students
Family
Community
School
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj9Um8T88KM&list=PL1916BB
FFF565B963

8.  Epstein (1995) notes that the school, the family,
and the community are "three major contexts in
which students live and grow"; these
"overlapping spheres of influence" are extremely
important because they "directly affect children's
learning and development"

9. What do schools, families and communities
pledge to provide in order to build comprehensive
and effective programs?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPbZV9gqG1U

10.  Develop a commitment plan with your adult
family members so that they feel validated
 Develop vows for your afterschool program
orientation/registration
 Afterschool program staff and adult family
members should recite vows of commitment that
provide all parties with clear program
expectations

11.  Hold mandatory orientations to set the stage
(Do not have registration forms readily available before orientation)
 Ask current and former participants to help with
recruitment
(Positive word of mouth brings results)
 Extend invitation to other family members that live with
students

12.  Hold meetings for families at various times
(Ask parents what time and day of week works best – majority rules!)
 Provide child care, food and possibly offer
transportation to programs
 Offer a variety of family engagement programs
(utilize needs assessments and surveys – continually reassess.)

13.  Encourage parents/guardians to become leaders
(Parent Ambassadors)
 Families participate in implementation and
planning of family engagement activities and
school-wide celebrations
 Helps schools develop a family friendly
atmosphere
 Work with school staff and organizations
(Counselors, Parent Liaisons, PTA, Nurses, etc.)

14.  Provide periodic orientations to ensure that at
least one adult family member per student can
attend before student participates in program
(at least 2 per semester and 1 for summer)
 Educate family on program expectations
 Survey parents to see what programs they desire
and their time preferences (1 survey per semester)
Have a commitment service where parents
vow to commit!

15. “To parents, we can't tell our kids to do well in
school and then fail to support them when they
get home. For our kids to excel, we must
accept our responsibility to help them learn.
That means putting away the Xbox and putting
our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means
attending those parent-teacher conferences
and reading to our children, and helping them
with their homework.””
-President Barack Obama, July 17, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiIC3A0ROM

16.  Janice Brody
Family Engagement Specialist
Pasadena ISD
Jbrody@pasadenaisd.org
713-740-5318 (ofc)
713-898-9624 (cell)
 Sycreeda Bryant
Site Coordinator
Matthys Elementary / Pasadena ISD
SBryant@pasadenaisd.org
713-740-0632
Copyright (c) 2013 by Janice Brody and Sycreeda Bryant. This work is made
available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/