ELAD609_52 M7 Discussion
A strong School-Community Plan (SCP) is essential to enhance relations because as Pawlas (2005) explains, “it has a direct link to students. Its purpose is to directly improve and enhance learning for students,” (p. 23). After reading and reflecting, I believe creating goals for the school that develop two-way communication, proactive involvement, and opportunities for the community to become actively involved would be fundamental.
Many principals confuse public relations with a School-Community plan and the terms are not interchangeable. Public Relations relay information to the public, whereas, a SCR plan involves an exchange of dialogue. “Educators’ influence in improving education rests on their ability to guide public opinion and to be guided by it in meeting society’s need,” (Pawlas, 2005, p. 24). It is imperative that we listen, which is a key component of communication, as well as talk. To initiate better communication, surveys can be taken, but the principal should also meet with members of the community so there can be real dialogue. For instance, if the school is working on revising the dress code, a committee could be formed that included parents, teachers, students, and non-parent community members to reach out to other stakeholders, view data, and develop a general idea of multiple perspectives. Although the principal would lead the group, this would be an opportunity to practice listening. Moreover, it is necessary for principals to
Parent and Community involvement does not occur overnight. I feel that schools must make parent and community involvement a priority, valuing and accepting each other’s differences. Schools, families and communities must work together to support all students in a learning environment to ensure every student is a successful learner. Positive family and school involvement fosters a partnership among my school encouraging students to reach their highest potential academically and in life. Parent and community involvement does not mean stay-at-home mothers coming to school to help as needed, or a businessman stopping by to see events occurring on campus. The role of school, family and community involvement is a partnership incorporating goal-oriented activities for all grade levels linked to academic success and student growth.
The school is responsible for designing and implementing strategies to reach the educational goals of students. The particular high school beliefs that all kids can learn and that the mission of this school is to challenge each student to learn, achieve, and fulfill his /her potential. Principals should lead each school in implementing the policies. In addition, this high school’s improvement plan of the three legal issues: unsupervised students, hallways, and field
If I were principal, my plan to improve school community relations would begin with a whole school concerted to effort to learn about the new cultural groups in the community and provide opportunities for school community members to come together to build relationships with the new families. Secondly, I would make sure to introduce myself to the new community members and use my people skills to build relationships with new businesses and community
The plan outlines five goals that we have found for our school district. These goals show our commitment to provide the highest possible standards of education for all students in our district and to ensure the fair and equitable treatment of all members of our community. We consider understanding individual differences in each student and teacher so that we can adopt the appropriate programs of study for them of the utmost importance.
At Donna ISD our current Public Relations Professional is Sandra Quintanilla. Mrs. Quintanilla is responsible for school and community relations in my district. Upon analyzing the three different plans of organization, the researcher determines Donna ISD exhibits a coordinated model of school-community relations. Moore, Bagin, and Gallagher (2016) describe, “A coordinated plan is one in which community relations responsibilities of central administrative officers and building principal are fitted together into an articulated unit” (p. 61). The work begins at the top and trickles down to each campus principal and their staff who serve as reinforcements. Donna ISD is currently working on restoring our district’s image which requires Mrs. Quintanilla
Busch Middle School of Character had a wonderful sense of community, each student, instructor, and family, made sure they were doing their part. I believe it’s important for educators to understand the needs of the families and community of their students because the more resources the better. When schools actively involve parents
Understanding the importance of a family-school partnership is essential in order for school districts and families with children to grow and strive. If an imbalance occurs within any of the various parts that play a key role, difficulties will rise to the surface. Several of these roles include: communication, decision making, volunteering, and learning and parenting at home. All of these factors must work together in order to create a successful school environment in which children are able to learn and strive. When a school is successful in fulfilling each of these roles, there are several benefits. These benefits include: better positive attitudes toward school, higher achievements, better attendance, higher graduation rates, an increase in enrollment rates in post-secondary education, and overall better schools to attend (University of West Virginia).
W. Edwars Deming, American engineer and management consultant, wrote “a bad system will beat a good person every time.” This quote demonstrates the necessity for a school administrator to establish a school culture that is inviting and characterized by collaboration. In order to intentionally create a welcoming and collaborative school climate, clear, frequent, and inclusive communication is fundamental. Families, staff, and community members should be afforded the opportunity to become involved in enhancing student learning, the decision making processes of the school, and meaningful school-based activities. Opening the lines of communication about possible involvement at a school promotes a good system, in which good people can thrive.
Directions: Develop an educational series proposal for your community using one of the following four topics:
As an educational leader, I must have a vision and mission statement for the school that is known by the staff, students, and parents. The vision will address the needs of the students academically, emotionally, and socially. According to DuFour (1998), “ Those who seek to transform their school into a professional learning community as characterized by an environment fostering mutual cooperation, emotional support, personal growth, and a synergy of efforts.” The leader must implement a plan that will cultivate the success of all students. The mission will speak to the direction of the school community stating what the desire goals are. The building leader will lead by example. High expectations will be communicated and encourage by staff and students. The educational leader of a school must develop a culture of team work to create a climate that is student friendly. The vision mission and goals of the leader should be transparent. The establishment of common goals is the first step. Without common goals, sustainable progress will be impossible and thus everyone will have lower expectations. The students, parents, and staff should be commented to the goals of every child reaching their full academic potential. The school environment should speak to goal setting and high expectations for all students and staff.
Directions: Develop an educational series proposal for your community using one of the following four topics:
An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the
The vision of the school is to work collaboratively with parents to provide a safe learning environment that fosters academic achievement through intellectual, social, emotional growth and development to reach the highest potential for each student.
In order for the principal to develop positive relationships within the community the school needs to demonstrate, and promote the contributions provided. The school needs to adopt an “our children” attitude with the community to share in the benefits for students (Epstein, 2009).
The principal’s role in developing positive community relations sets the tone for communication patterns, partnership formation and/or alienation (Fiore, 2013). There are many tasks that the principal has that is important to school and community relations. Some of those are being a good listener, diplomatic and tactful and all situations. They also have to promote the open door policy to be free to communicate with students, parents, and their staff. They also have to inform the superintendent and community about good and bad things that are