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Formative Evaluation of the Community Liaison Program

Formative Evaluation of the Community Liaison Program. Phase One Evaluation Report March 17, 2005. Overview.

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Formative Evaluation of the Community Liaison Program

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  1. Formative Evaluation of the Community Liaison Program Phase One Evaluation Report March 17, 2005

  2. Overview • For approximately ten years, SMMUSD’s Community Liaison Program has engaged parents with the intent of building their capacity to support their children throughout their schooling experience. The theory of action is that through this engagement with parents, “we are establishing the conditions that will promote and support student achievement.” SMMUSD -- The Community Liaison Program, 9/10/02

  3. Why evaluate? • The Board of Education requested an evaluation that focused on this program and answered four concerns – • Is the program cost-effective? • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current program(s)? • Does the community liaison program positively impact student achievement? • What concrete steps can be put into place to strengthen the program?

  4. Literature Review – Excerpts from National PTA’s Research Summary • When parents are involved, students achieve more, regardless of socio-economic status, ethnic/racial background, or parents’ educational level. The more extensive the parent involvement, the higher the student achievement. • Children from diverse cultural backgrounds tend to do better when parents and professionals collaborate to bridge the gap between the culture at home and the learning institution.

  5. Literature Review (Continued) • The benefits of involving parents are not confined to the early years; there are significant gains at all ages and grade levels. • The school’s practices to inform and involve parents are stronger determinants of whether . . . parents will be involved with their children’s education than are parent education, family size, marital status, and even student grade level. • The more the relationship between parents and educators approaches a comprehensive, well-planned partnership, the higher the student achievement.

  6. Research Design • Two-phase research design • Phase One: The Shape of the Program (Formative Evaluation) • Collect information about the overall program • Collect information from the community liaisons about the way they do their work • Phase Two: Impact of the Program on Stakeholders (Summative Evaluation) • Interviews, surveys • Analysis of data to assess what we can say about impact on student achievement

  7. Research Tasks in Phase One • Collect demographic, fiscal and other information about the community liaison program. • Work with the community liaisons to shape the design and creation of individual portfolios of their site-based work.

  8. Overview of the Program • 13 community liaisons serve 12 school sites and Child Development Services. • 11 are Bilingual community liaisons. • 2 are African American community/pathway liaisons. • Their hours per week at different sites range from 5 to 40. • Funding comes from several sources.

  9. Allocation of Community Liaison Staff to Sites in Adams Pathway

  10. Allocation of Community Liaison Staff to Sites in Lincoln Pathway and CDS

  11. Allocation of Community Liaison Staff to Sites in Malibu Pathway

  12. Bilingual Community Liaisons • Community liaison program began with the creation of positions to meet state and federal requirements to have someone on site to assist non-English speaking parents. • Began at Title I sites. • Focused on language issues, but also other barriers and issues that impede full participation of English Learner students and their parents.

  13. Number and percent of Spanish-speaking students at each site served by a bi-lingual community liaison -- Elementary

  14. Number and percent of Spanish-speaking students at each site served by a bi-lingual community liaison –Secondary

  15. African American Community Liaisons • The Bilingual Community Liaisons served one important need in our school communities. • The Minority Student Study and Intercultural Advisory Council advocated to expand the Bilingual Community Liaison Program and develop a program to provide liaison support to African American families with children attending SMMUSD schools. • Funding from the City of Santa Monica enabled the expansion of the Bilingual, and the creation of the African American, community liaison positions.

  16. Portfolio Development and Review Process • Standards-Based Portfolio • Review of the Portfolio • Thematic analysis • Common and unique tasks • Relationship of the portfolios as a group to the standards

  17. SMMUSD Job Description Parent Outreach and Engagement Parent Leadership Development Cultural Interpretation Increasing Student Achievement National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs Communicating Parenting Student Learning Volunteering School Decision Making and Advocacy Collaborating with the Community Frameworks for Organizing the Community Liaison Portfolio

  18. Standard 1: Communicating • Communication between home and school is regular, two-way, and meaningful. • Working with parents to set up meetings, I.E.P.s, conferences, relay community information. • Simultaneous translation of meetings • Translation of school newsletters, forms, etc. • Parent to parent networking.

  19. Standard 2: Parenting • Parenting skills are promoted and supported. • BAC/ELAC meetings (translation by liaison) • Hispanic/African American Support Groups • Parent Advocates/Mentors • Parent Expectations Support Achievement (PESA) and parenting lectures • Parents are aware of AP, AVID and other advanced and learning support activities • Help parents understand parent and teacher collaboration for student success

  20. Standard 3: Student Learning • Parents play an integral role in assisting student learning. • Helping parents understand how some learning experiences in the U.S. might differ from learning experiences in home country • Pinnacle training for parents • Overviews of the SBRC • Homework assistance training • Tips for parents to help students with math, reading, verbal comprehension, and oral expression

  21. Standard 4: Volunteering • Parents are welcome in the school, and their support and assistance are sought. • African American Museum during Black History Month • Weekly parent meeting to help prepare materials for classes • Parental assistance for field trips and school yard supervision

  22. Standard 5: School Decision Making and Advocacy • Parents are full partners in the decisions that affect children and families. • Governance Council Meetings • ELAC/BAC • PTA

  23. Standard 6: Collaborating with the Community • Community resources are used to strengthen schools, families, and student learning. • Project LEAD • Liaisons organize tutoring by members of the community • Community referrals for health, housing, parenting, counseling, etc. • Translation – simultaneous translation and written translation of key documents • Works with Tech4All to provide students and families with computers

  24. Finding #1 • Overall, the work of the community liaisons is addressing the six national standards for effective parent and family involvement in education and the five research findings cited earlier in the literature review.

  25. Finding #2 • However, the community liaisons’ work looks quite different at different sites and emphasizes different components of the national standards at the different sites.

  26. Finding #3 • The work that most of the liaisons emphasized the most was serving as “cultural translators”. It is the role of the liaisons to clarify the expectations of the school system for the families. It is also their job to clarify for different parts of the school system the needs of the families in part by respecting the values and the differences that families bring to the table. The liaisons are both community insiders and school insiders.

  27. Finding #4 • Many of the community liaisons are doing significant amounts of work that relate to student achievement. This includes both working with parents to help them support their children’s academic learning, but also working with individuals or small groups of students on such tasks as organization, clarity of expectations, and asking for assistance.

  28. Finding #5 • One area where community liaisons’ work seems to differ significantly is in the ways that they are balancing the work they do to support individual students and families with the work they do to help those students and families become participating members of the school community. Most emphasize the individual work and outreach work that they do more than the participation in groups that are the decision-making entities at the school sites.

  29. Finding #6 • The amount of translation – both simultaneous oral translation and written translation -- that most of the bilingual community liaisons are doing is staggering. Many expressed concern that this aspect of their work was overwhelming them and interferes with their ability to complete other, needed work with students and families. • Translation appears as a task for many of the standards.

  30. Finding #7 • There appear to be inequities in the allocation of community liaison support to individual school sites.

  31. Recommendation #1 • Establish a “floor” for district fiscal support for the community liaison program at an individual site. • CDE has a guideline that when 15% of a school (or district’s population) speaks another language, all materials should be translated into that other language. • If 15% were the floor for district support for the bilingual community liaison program, some changes to the program might occur.

  32. Changes to Allocations of Community Liaisons Using the 15% Floor for District Support • Olympic (33%) would have a community liaison at least partially supported by the district. • District resources might be reallocated from four sites (Cabrillo, Webster, Lincoln, and Malibu) that are below the floor OR district resources might be allocated in parallel fashion to Grant which is below the floor as well but which currently self-funds its program.

  33. Recommendation #2 • Consider allocating bi-lingual community liaisons to sites based on the number of Spanish-speaking students at the site. For example, there might be a ratio of up to 175 Spanish-speaking students to 1 community liaison. (Edison would be an exception since the entire staff is also bi-lingual.) • This would reconfigure the existing secondary school bilingual community liaison staff.

  34. Secondary Bi-Lingual Community Liaisons – Current Allocations and with Proposed 175 Student Allocation

  35. Recommendation #3 • Seek alternative ways to support translation needs both for simultaneous translation and translation of written documents.

  36. Recommendation #4 • At all sites, continue to work on both elements of the necessary, but difficult, balance to be struck between: • Working with parents, family, and students to build their capacity to advocate for their children/themselves throughout their schooling. • Working to insure that school-wide venues -- committees and activities -- include the participation of the individuals and smaller groups with whom they work.

  37. Recommendation #5 • Expand the number of community liaisons and base them in the six houses at Samohi. The focus of student support and intervention at Samohi is shifting to the houses and both the recent WASC visit and the USDE independent evaluation applauded that effort. This fundamental aspect of student and family support should also be part of the house structure.

  38. Recommendation #6 • Portfolio development should become a regular part of the evaluation cycle of the community liaisons. • The evaluation process should include • Selecting 3 to 4 of the national standards as part of individual goal-setting, • Peer review of proposed entries, • Structured opportunities throughout the year to reflect on their work, and • An evaluation conference with the principal and a relevant district office administrator.

  39. Goals of the Portfolio Evaluation Process • The goals of this evaluation process should be to: • target areas for growth, • identify professional development needs, and • recognize the extraordinary contributions of the individual community liaisons.

  40. Recommendation #7 • Staff in Educational Services (including Student and Family Support Services), administrators in Title I schools, and community liaisons need to attend training about the changes in expectations for parent and community outreach included in the No Child Left Behind Act and begin addressing new requirements in their work.

  41. Recommendation #8 • The National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs from the National PTA should be the starting point for a school wide review of current practices at each site in SMMUSD. The community liaisons are one piece (albeit an important one) of our family and community outreach and involvement. We should take stock of how each school’s entire set of programs and practices meet these standards and use the community liaisons’ portfolios and this needs assessment to begin setting priorities – as individual sites and for the district as a whole. • Staff in Educational Services (including Student and Family Support Services), administrators in Title I schools, and community liaisons need to attend training about the changes in expectations for parent and community outreach included in the No Child Left Behind Act and begin addressing new requirements in their work.

  42. Recommendation #9 • Undertake phase two of the community liaison evaluation. Phase two is intended to focus on data about the program from key stakeholders – parents, students, administrators – and some exploration of data to determine what, if any, connections to student achievement can be made. This portion of the evaluation should be linked to recommendation #6 (the site based needs assessments/program reviews) based on the National PTA standards. • Timeline – 2005-2006 academic year

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