Discussions Community Involvement Epstein writes, “The way schools care about children is reflected in the way school’s care about the children’s families.” What do you think she means by this?  What do you see as the fundamental reason that schools, families and communities need to work together?  Also, Abravanel’s paper  Building Community Through Service-Learning: The Role of Community Partner , makes interesting points about community involvement.  Describe your vision of what this kind of engagement would look like in your community. Los Pen  Profile the kind of empirical evidence at Los Pen that supports the school’s transformation.  Focus on quantitative data. Based on the statistical data gleaned from the readings what qualitative conclusions would you draw about the efficacy of the many aspects of differentiated parent support? Journal Partnership Write a paragraph identifying a community organization or business that you could contact with which to build a partnership and why this might work. Carefully review the  Grading Rubric  for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your journal entries.  Final Project Parent Involvement for the 21st Century Effective parent and community involvement in a school setting does not just happen—it requires effort on the part of the school staff to first establish good relationships with parents and the community and then requires additional effort to maintain and improve these relationships. This is a necessary task for schools to attend to. Good parent and community relations make for a better school experience for everyone connected to the school. For your final assignment in this course, you will create a parent and community involvement plan. Your plan should be ten to twelve pages in length, not including the title page and reference page. Be sure to include a minimum of five scholarly sources (not including your textbook), cited and referenced in APA style, that support your ideas.  Your plan should address the following items: Describe a philosophy of the plan. Why you are creating this involvement plan? Describe aims of the plan. What you intend to do? Describe goals of the plan. What you intend to accomplish? Describe school resources to implement the plan. Include personnel, materials, and funding. Explain the student role in the plan. What will they be doing? Explain the parent role in the plan. What they will be doing? Explain the role of other community members/organizations in the plan. What will they be doing? Explain actions to gain support for the plan. How will you create and engage support? Explain events to gain support for the plan; include events to gain parent participation and community attendance. Explain how you will evaluate the plan and criteria for success. Carefully review the  Grading Rubric  for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment. Discussions To participate in the following discussions, go to this week's  Discussion  link in the lef.

1. Discussions
Community Involvement
Epstein writes, “The way schools care about children is
reflected in the way school’s care about the children’s
families.” What do you think she means by this? What do you
see as the fundamental reason that schools, families and
communities need to work together? Also, Abravanel’s paper
Building Community Through Service-Learning: The Role of
Community Partner
, makes interesting points about community involvement.
Describe your vision of what this kind of engagement would
look like in your community.
Los Pen
Profile the kind of empirical evidence at Los Pen that supports
the school’s transformation. Focus on quantitative data. Based
on the statistical data gleaned from the readings what
qualitative conclusions would you draw about the efficacy of
the many aspects of differentiated parent support?
Journal
Partnership
Write a paragraph identifying a community organization or
business that you could contact with which to build a
partnership and why this might work.
Carefully review the
Grading Rubric
for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your journal
entries.
Final Project
Parent Involvement for the 21st Century
Effective parent and community involvement in a school setting

2. does not just happen—it requires effort on the part of the school
staff to first establish good relationships with parents and the
community and then requires additional effort to maintain and
improve these relationships. This is a necessary task for schools
to attend to. Good parent and community relations make for a
better school experience for everyone connected to the school.
For your final assignment in this course, you will create a
parent and community involvement plan. Your plan should be
ten to twelve pages in length, not including the title page and
reference page. Be sure to include a minimum of five scholarly
sources (not including your textbook), cited and referenced in
APA style, that support your ideas.
Your plan should address the following items:
Describe a philosophy of the plan. Why you are creating this
involvement plan?
Describe aims of the plan. What you intend to do?
Describe goals of the plan. What you intend to accomplish?
Describe school resources to implement the plan. Include
personnel, materials, and funding.
Explain the student role in the plan. What will they be doing?
Explain the parent role in the plan. What they will be doing?
Explain the role of other community members/organizations in
the plan. What will they be doing?
Explain actions to gain support for the plan. How will you
create and engage support?
Explain events to gain support for the plan; include events to
gain parent participation and community attendance.
Explain how you will evaluate the plan and criteria for success.
Carefully review the
Grading Rubric
for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.
Discussions
To participate in the following discussions, go to this week's
Discussion
link in the left navigation.

3. Community Involvement
Epstein writes, “The way schools care about children is
reflected in the way school’s care about the children’s
families.” What do you think she means by this? What do you
see as the fundamental reason that schools, families and
communities need to work together? Also, Abravanel’s paper
Building Community Through Service-Learning: The Role of
Community Partner
, makes interesting points about community involvement.
Describe your vision of what this kind of engagement would
look like in your community.
Guided Response:
Shared interests between parents and schools make a
partnership work – focus on the common goals of both parents
and teachers and list how many different beneficiaries emanate
from these relationships. Respond to at least two of your
classmates’ posts.
Los Pen
Profile the kind of empirical evidence at Los Pen that supports
the school’s transformation. Focus on quantitative data. Based
on the statistical data gleaned from the readings what
qualitative conclusions would you draw about the efficacy of
the many aspects of differentiated parent support?
Guided Response:
Focus first on statistical data. One of the quickest ways to
garner support for an idea is to present quantitative data.
School, family and community partnerships only add up to
academic success when you disaggregate the data and make a
case for an improved learning environment. Given this seminal
idea, how would you make the case for the efficacy of school-
community partnerships?
Journal

4. To complete the following journal, go to this week's
Journal
link in the left navigation.
Partnership
Write a paragraph identifying a community organization or
business that you could contact with which to build a
partnership and why this might work.
Carefully review the
Grading Rubric
for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your journal
entries.
Final Project
To complete the following assignment, go to this week's
Final Project
link in the left navigation.
Parent Involvement for the 21st Century
Effective parent and community involvement in a school setting
does not just happen—it requires effort on the part of the school
staff to first establish good relationships with parents and the
community and then requires additional effort to maintain and
improve these relationships. This is a necessary task for schools
to attend to. Good parent and community relations make for a
better school experience for everyone connected to the school.
For your final assignment in this course, you will create a
parent and community involvement plan. Your plan should be
ten to twelve pages in length, not including the title page and
reference page. Be sure to include a minimum of five scholarly
sources (not including your textbook), cited and referenced in
APA style, that support your ideas.
Your plan should address the following items:
Describe a philosophy of the plan. Why you are creating this
involvement plan?
Describe aims of the plan. What you intend to do?
Describe goals of the plan. What you intend to accomplish?
Describe school resources to implement the plan. Include
personnel, materials, and funding.

5. Explain the student role in the plan. What will they be doing?
Explain the parent role in the plan. What they will be doing?
Explain the role of other community members/organizations in
the plan. What will they be doing?
Explain actions to gain support for the plan. How will you
create and engage support?
Explain events to gain support for the plan; include events to
gain parent participation and community attendance.
Explain how you will evaluate the plan and criteria for success.
Carefully review the
Grading Rubric
for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.
Discussions
To participate in the following discussions, go to this week's
Discussion
link in the left navigation.
Community Involvement
Epstein writes, “The way schools care about children is
reflected in the way school’s care about the children’s
families.” What do you think she means by this? What do you
see as the fundamental reason that schools, families and
communities need to work together? Also, Abravanel’s paper
Building Community Through Service-Learning: The Role of
Community Partner
, makes interesting points about community involvement.
Describe your vision of what this kind of engagement would
look like in your community.
Guided Response:
Shared interests between parents and schools make a
partnership work – focus on the common goals of both parents
and teachers and list how many different beneficiaries emanate
from these relationships. Respond to at least two of your
classmates’ posts.

6. Los Pen
Profile the kind of empirical evidence at Los Pen that supports
the school’s transformation. Focus on quantitative data. Based
on the statistical data gleaned from the readings what
qualitative conclusions would you draw about the efficacy of
the many aspects of differentiated parent support?
Guided Response:
Focus first on statistical data. One of the quickest ways to
garner support for an idea is to present quantitative data.
School, family and community partnerships only add up to
academic success when you disaggregate the data and make a
case for an improved learning environment. Given this seminal
idea, how would you make the case for the efficacy of school-
community partnerships?
Journal
To complete the following journal, go to this week's
Journal
link in the left navigation.
Partnership
Write a paragraph identifying a community organization or
business that you could contact with which to build a
partnership and why this might work.
Carefully review the
Grading Rubric
for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your journal
entries.
Final Project
To complete the following assignment, go to this week's
Final Project
link in the left navigation.
Parent Involvement for the 21st Century
Effective parent and community involvement in a school setting
does not just happen—it requires effort on the part of the school
staff to first establish good relationships with parents and the

7. community and then requires additional effort to maintain and
improve these relationships. This is a necessary task for schools
to attend to. Good parent and community relations make for a
better school experience for everyone connected to the school.
For your final assignment in this course, you will create a
parent and community involvement plan. Your plan should be
ten to twelve pages in length, not including the title page and
reference page. Be sure to include a minimum of five scholarly
sources (not including your textbook), cited and referenced in
APA style, that support your ideas.
Your plan should address the following items:
Describe a philosophy of the plan. Why you are creating this
involvement plan?
Describe aims of the plan. What you intend to do?
Describe goals of the plan. What you intend to accomplish?
Describe school resources to implement the plan. Include
personnel, materials, and funding.
Explain the student role in the plan. What will they be doing?
Explain the parent role in the plan. What they will be doing?
Explain the role of other community members/organizations in
the plan. What will they be doing?
Explain actions to gain support for the plan. How will you
create and engage support?
Explain events to gain support for the plan; include events to
gain parent participation and community attendance.
Explain how you will evaluate the plan and criteria for success.
Carefully review the
Grading Rubric
for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.
Required Resources
Read from your text,
Differentiated Parent Support: Engaging Parents in Unique
Ways to Increase Their Involvement in School
:
Chapter Eleven – Home to School Connection

8. Chapter Twelve – Full Circle
Abravanel, S.A.(2003).
Building Community Through Service-Learning: The Role of
Community Partner
.
National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
. Retrieved from
http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/44/03/4403.pdf
With the community partner in mind, from the school
perspective, what can be done to encourage and support the
emergence of the agency or organization as a partner? From the
agency or organization perspective, what are the significant
considerations involved in establishing successful service-
learning partnerships?
Recommended Resources
Marshall, L. & Swan, P. (2010). Parents as Participating
Partners.
Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 15
(3), 25-32. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
This article highlights some key pedagogical strategies that
assisted classroom teachers to improve indigenous students’
understanding of mathematics, particularly in the area of
numbers.
School/ Family/ Community Partnerships: Caring for the
Children We Share. (2010).
Phi Delta Kappan, 92
(3), 81-96. Retrieved from EBSCO
host
.
Epstein discusses the need to develop partnerships between
schools, families, and communities to support student success.