Lights, camera, action teams

Schools with strong parental involvement often have high-achieving students. This isn’t a groundbreaking concept in education. But now Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is attempting to involve parents in its schools in new ways.

New this academic year, MPS is facilitating Action Teams for Partnerships (ATPs) in every district school to connect all parents with their child’s school and the larger community.

Organizationally, the action teams are similar to school governance councils (also a district-mandated entity) in that they include the school principal, staff, and parents. Community representatives may also join ATPs.

But instead of just organizing the proverbial bake sale, ATP members are tasked with trying their hands at cooking up learning goals, and figuring out how the yeast of family and community involvement can best help student achievement rise. 

ATP members write one-year action plans with goals that correlate to each school’s formal improvement plan. Team plans should include activities to increase the quantity and quality of family and community involvement, while measurably improving student achievement in two academic subjects-usually math and reading. For example, to meet a goal of improving reading scores by 2 percent on standardized tests, the ATP could host a literacy night. The ATP can provide donated food and the night can focus on how parents can incorporate reading into everyday activities like cooking, computer use, and driving around in the car reading street signs.

“In order for us to really help the students, you have to look at all the different avenues that affect their lives,” said Miy Xiong, a social worker who works with the 20 schools in the Bay View “cluster,” one of eight defined by location by MPS.

Bay View-with its small, large, charter, magnet, and traditional schools-should provide a wide lens with which to view how these ATPs will look and if they can enact meaningful change throughout the district.

Specific Goals, Specific Plans

One behavioral goal all action teams must set is improving attendance, which is also a part of the district’s corrective action plan.

Throughout the district, many teachers display attendance percentages outside their doors, creating a competitive spirit among classrooms. To take this one step further, ATPs can collaborate with businesses where older students loiter during school hours. In return for businesses not allowing students in during school hours, the school can provide advertising or purchase goods exclusively from these stores.

While poor attendance is an issue plaguing the entire district, Xiong sees an opportunity for leadership within Bay View. “The Bay View schools have great attendance, really low suspension rates, [and] really strong leadership in their parents. So to help share ideas…and model those will help the district as a whole,” Xiong said.

Bay View schools may also provide a model for how to develop curricula that utilize city resources.

For example, Thomas Matthews, principal of Bay View’s Trowbridge School of Great Lakes Studies, has already forged community connections that provide his students with services they wouldn’t otherwise receive. It took him over two years to develop a partnership with the Milwaukee Children’s Choir, and without it, his students wouldn’t receive choral instruction. Currently, he is working to build a relationship with the U.S. Coast Guard, which ties into the school culture as Trowbridge is the closest MPS school to Lake Michigan.

“This is the kind of thing that a building administrator should be doing,” Matthews said. “The day-to-day running of the building can often prevent you from making the connections you need to make, but you have to be persistent.”

Although now a de-facto member of the Trowbridge ATP, Matthews had taken the initiative to reach outside the school walls prior to the implementation of the new policy. “Regardless of mandates, I’m proud of the ability to bring the school into the community,” Matthews said.

Implementing the ATP at Trowbridge should be an easy transition, Matthews said, allowing him to focus on other struggles common to the district. Matthews said Trowbridge already collaborates well with the community, but could work on being a “magnet” to get parents into the building.

A Coalition of the Willing

Equipped with a functional ATP, activist principals like Matthews are theoretically not alone in advocating for their students.

Previously, it was assumed that parents who didn’t make it physically inside school walls were not involved in their children’s education. The assumption has changed, with “learning at home” emerging as a critical component of a student’s development.

But many Milwaukee parents have more pressing concerns.

Jenny Stonemeier, parent and ATP member at Humboldt Park K-8 Charter School, worries that parents struggling to meet basic needs won’t be able to prioritize “learning” at home. “[If I'm impoverished] It doesn’t matter if I’m at home helping my kid with [his or her] math if I can’t pay the heating bill.”

Like Matthews, Stonemeier views the relationship between school, family, and community as a shared responsibility.

“The school is charged with educating future and current community members,” she said. “And the community has a responsibility to the school because…if you look at it from a customer service standpoint, the community is a stakeholder in the education of kids.”

The community can also help support parents and the barriers they face. Matthews wants to alleviate some barriers parents might face with their own education through ATPs. “Beginning these discussions is a good start,” he said, “but it’s necessary for our school to offer more to parents.” Matthews is looking to partner with Milwaukee Area Technical College to help parents who don’t have a GED.

Consciously including all parents in a variety of ways illustrates another way how ATPs are different than parent teacher associations or organizations. Traditionally, PTAs and PTOs aren’t involved in decision making or advocacy. They may not seek out to involve different voices within the school, but rather those who have the time and ability to volunteer within the school.

Matthews realizes that not everyone has time to be on the PTA or ATP, but said parents and community members can still be involved. He suggests that parents can be involved in decision making by staying informed on school initiatives.

Stonemeier views the ATPs as an opportunity for advocacy-to begin giving parents who may not always be involved in the school a voice, which helps level the playing field and build a culture of inclusiveness. “It always helps everybody kind of think about their decision making if they have to answer a basic question: Why are we doing this?” she said. “We’re not doing this because we have to, but because we’ve identified that it’s beneficial to the school, staff, and community.”

Parent advocacy and ATP implementation provide support for schools with different needs. For Humboldt Park, one of these needs is reaching students and parents when 14 different languages are represented. District-wide ATPs can address this diversity. “Without the district being on board, it’s hard for schools to do this in isolation,” Stonemeier said.

Stonemeier said that only together can the community, parents, and schools address the question still dangling unanswered before Bay View’s schools: “How do we as schools attract neighborhood kids?”

Cara Slingerland is an AmeriCorps*VISTA member with the Department of Public Instruction VISTA project. She is placed at the School of Urban Planning and Architecture and Urban Day Head Start to create and strengthen school, family, and community partnerships.

Action Teams for Partnerships in MPS

The idea of action teams came from Joyce Epstein, director of the National Network of Partnership Schools at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. Based on her 30 years of research, Epstein recommends the multidirectional ATP approach because it operates on several “spheres of influence,” with students’ learning reinforced not just in school but also at home and in the community.

In October 2009, Epstein came to Milwaukee to train leaders in MPS Department of Parent and Student Services. These leaders then trained principals, parents, and other school representatives from each MPS school.

According to Epstein, “When partnership practices are tightly linked to school goals, families become involved in ways that directly assist students’ learning and success.” She asserts that these findings hold true across every school, regardless of the school’s socioeconomic status, racial makeup, or type.

Epstein recommends six ways to involve parents: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community. She found that when schools use these six strategies, they are more effective in reaching all the parents and giving them a voice.

Connecting resources to recognize diversity within the district is especially important in MPS’ racially divided system, since every student stands to gain from meaningful parent involvement. Epstein’s studies found that regardless of background, “students with involved parents … are more likely to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more.” -CS

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