Welcome!

1. Welcome! Please take a few minutes before the session begins to fill out the school parent involvement questionnaire you picked up at the door. You will be using it later in the presentation.

2. Working with Native American and Other Multicultural Communities: Effective Strategies for Parental Engagement and Community Involvement NABE 2012: Dallas, Texas Dakota TESL 2012: Fargo, ND

3. Presented by Wendy Sanderson, MAESL Bismarck Public Schools, Bismarck, NDwendy_sanderson@bismarckschools.org

4. Agenda for Workshop Introduction and overview Research study on Native American parental involvement at the middle school level Description of study Findings and implications Multicultural student parental involvement – Research and best practices Summary of research Issues related to multicultural communities Discussion: Four Corners activity

5. Advocacy or Apathy? American Indian Parent Involvement in an Off-Reservation Middle School by Wendy Lee Sanderson

6. Background • I am in my eighth year of teaching ELL for the Bismarck Public Schools. Five of those years were spent at Wachter Middle School as an academic language coach serving those American Indian students who were identified as limited English proficient (LEP) under a federal discretionary grant awarded by the Title III Native American and Alaska Native Children in School program.

7. Background • Over the years, educators have voiced concerns to me that parents of American Indian students at Wachter were not as involved in their children’s education as their dominant-culture counterparts. • Parental involvement in the Sheltered Journey grant activities, including the Thunder Eagles after school program based at Wachter, varied greatly.

8. Guiding Questions 1. In what specific parent involvement activities do parents and guardians of American Indian middle school children at this site choose to participate? • Is the educational attainment level of these American Indian parents a factor in their choice of parent involvement activities? • Is an American Indian boarding school experience in these parents’ family history a factor in their choice of parent involvement activities?

9. Guiding Questions 2. To what degree do middle school educators perceive that specific types of parent involvement activities enhance student academic learning?

10. Guiding Questions 3. Are the specific involvement practices of the parents of American Indian students in this survey perceived by educators as valuable tools for enhancing middle school students’ academic learning?

11. Types of Parental Involvement • Pomerantz, Moorman, and Litwack (2007): 4 types • school-based • home-based • cognitive-intellectual (Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994) • governance and advocacy (Epstein, 1990)

12. Types of Parental Involvement • All four types can be effective. In the end, it may be the quality, and not the quantity of parent involvement, that determines its effectiveness (Pomerantz et al., 2007).

13. Benefits of Parent Involvement • Increased student achievement • Heightened self-esteem • Decreased behavior problems • Decreased substance abuse • Increased attendance rates • Increased graduation rates

14. Benefits of American Indian Parent Involvement • Narrowed achievement gap between Native American students and their White peers on high-stakes assessments • Improved student attitudes toward school • Improved grades • Increased student resilience/persistence

15. The Need for American Indian Parent Involvement in Middle Schools • As children grow older, it gets tougher for parents to stay in contact with all their teachers (Butterfield & Pepper, 1991). • Students might experience frustration during the transition from elementary school to middle school (Wilson, 1991). • American Indian student resilience decreases 10% every year between the ages of 10 and 15 (LaFromboise, Hoyt, Oliver, & Whitbeck, 2006).

16. The Need for American Indian Parent Involvement in Middle Schools • More parent involvement than ever is necessary during the adolescent years, when children begin to make potentially life-altering choices regarding behaviors, attendance, study habits, grades, and the inherent value of staying in school (Charleston & King, 1995).

17. Educator Perceptions of American Indian Parent Involvement • Dominant-culture teachers tend to consider culturally and ethnically diverse families as deficient (Epstein & Dauber, 2007). • Secondary school personnel are more likely to believe that parents are apathetic than their elementary school peers (Epstein, 2007).

18. American Indian Perceptions • American Indian parents usually consider educators to be professionals and expect them to handle student issues with a minimum of parent intervention (Butterfield & Pepper, 1991). • Minority parents are often more likely to insist on a college education for their children than their White peers (Public Agenda, 2002).

19. American Indian Perceptions • Most American Indian parents want to advocate for their children, but may not convey that attitude to educators through their actual participation practices at school (Butterfield & Pepper, 1991).

20. Boarding School Experiences • First experiences with U.S. education negative: government attempted to exclude American Indian parents entirely from their children’s education • Government intention to eradicate Native languages and culture, assimilate American Indians into mainstream White society

21. Boarding School Experiences • American Indian parents may not know how to effectively advocate for their children in public schools; past boarding school experiences may have rendered them untrained—and as a result, unable—to do so (Butterfield & Pepper, 1991).

22. Parent/Guardian Survey

23. Parent/Guardian Survey

24. Parent/Guardian Survey

25. Parent/Guardian Survey

26. Parent/Guardian Survey

27. Educator Survey

28. Educator Survey

29. Educator Survey

30. Parent/Guardian Survey Summary • The parents/guardians who responded to this survey practiced these home-based parent involvement activities most: asking their child regularly how his or her school day went; providing for the child’s basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, and rest; helping the child with homework; providing a quiet place to study; giving feedback or rewards for assignments and tests completed; emphasizing to child the value of doing well and staying in school

31. Educator Survey Summary • The teachers who responded to the survey considered these home-based activities as most likely to enhance student academic learning: providing the child’s basic needs; practicing skills (reading, math facts) with the child; reading to or with the child; emphasizing to the child the value of doing well and staying in school

32. Discussion • All American Indian parents surveyed said they asked their children regularly how their day went at school. A more important conversation to implement, according to the educators surveyed, is the value of the child’s doing well and staying in school, an activity less engaged in by parents in this study.

33. Discussion • Educators surveyed indicated that practicing basic skills like reading and math facts with a child is a more effective academic learning-enhancing parent involvement activity than helping a child with homework. American Indian parents in this survey tended to help more with homework and practice less basic skills.

34. Parent/Guardian Survey Summary • The parents/guardians who responded to this survey practiced these school-based parent involvement activities most: providing the child’s transportation to and from school; attending the child’s extracurricular activities; attending student-led parent/teacher conferences, open houses, and orientations

35. Educator Survey Summary • The teachers who responded to the survey considered these school-based activities as most likely to enhance student academic learning: attending problem-solving meetings to help the child academically or behaviorally; visiting with the parent/family liaison; attending student-led parent/teacher conferences

36. Discussion • Educators did not consider transporting children to and from school to be a particularly learning-enhancing practice, although it was one of the most frequently practiced parent involvement activities among American Indian parents and guardians surveyed, and one that has been proven crucial to creating persistence in students (Brandt, 1992).

37. Discussion • The most-practiced forms of American Indian parent involvement appear to be of the home-based variety (7 of the top 10 practiced parent involvement activities were home-based). • American Indian parents with a boarding school experience in the family history appear to be less likely to participate in activities that are held in the school than their non-boarding school experienced counterparts.

38. Parent/Guardian Survey Summary • American Indian parents with a boarding school experience in their family history tended to feel more comfortable communicating with educators over the phone or through technology rather than talking face to face at school. • These parents were also less likely to attend involvement activities that required them to visit the school grounds than their non-boarding school experienced counterparts.

39. Parent/Guardian Survey Summary • American Indian parents without a boarding school experience in the family history preferred to communicate with teachers in person at school.

40. Implications for Educators • Getting to know American Indian families, including being aware of whether or not they had an off-reservation boarding school experience in the family history, can help educators determine how to best meet the unique needs of these students and their parents and guardians.

41. Conclusion • It is imperative that teachers and administrators understand the factors, such as an American Indian boarding school experience in the family history, that might determine the types of parent involvement in which American Indian parents ultimately choose to participate, and how (and from where) they prefer to communicate with school personnel.

42. Conclusion • If educators are to meet the academic needs of these students, close the achievement gap between them and their dominant-culture peers, and ultimately exit them from the school system with diploma in hand, they MUST enlist the help of parents.

43. Conclusion • They must not write American Indian parents off as apathetic; they must acknowledge the learning-enhancement value of the activities the parent may already be practicing while they work to create an environment where all American Indian parents and guardians feel comfortable taking on the role of advocate.

44. Multicultural Student Parental Involvement – Research and Best Practices • What are the issues? • What do educators want? • What do parents want?

45. “The goal for America’s educational system is clear: Every student should graduate from high school ready for college or a career. Every student should have meaningful opportunities to choose from upon graduation from high school”. (United States Department of Education, Blueprint for Reform, available at http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/publication_pg4.html)

46. What do parents want? In a survey conducted by Public Agenda, parents of color not only valued K – 12 education, but they actually placed a greater priority on higher education than their white counterparts. (2000,available at http://www.highereducation.org/reports/expectations/expectations.shtml).

47. Parents… …want to feel they have something to offer the school, and that they would be welcome if they came. …have had their own unique experiences, either good or bad, with schools.

48. Four Corners Activity:How Well Is Your SchoolBridging Racial, Class, and Cultural Differences? • Corner #1: This will be hard. • Corner #2: This will take time. • Corner #3: We could do this easily. • Corner #4: We are already doing this.

49. Four Corners Activity: Promoting Understanding of Different Cultures • Activities and events honor all the cultures in the school.

50. Four Corners Activity:Recognizing and Addressing Class and Language Differences • English-speaking staff and families make an effort to mix with families who speak other languages.