CPPS’ Parent Involvement Assessment Project

The report from our Parent Involvement Assessment Project is now available:

Full Report – English. (PDF)

We also now have Executive Summaries in the following languages (all PDF):

Chinese | English | Russian | Somali | Spanish | Vietnamese

New: CPPS now seeking Project Manager to run Parent Involvement Curriculum Project.

The CPPS Parent Involvement Assessment Project was conducted during the winter and spring of 2006-07. The project had two main components: a district-wide survey taken by over 1,300 parents from 74 schools, and a deeper assessment of 11 elementary schools, selected to reflect current PPS demographics. Those deeper assessments included 11 principal and family coordinator interviews, 19 parent focus groups—including a number with English Language Learners (ELL), seven teacher surveys and two teacher focus groups.

Both the survey and the deeper assessments looked at five key areas needed to foster strong parent involvement: school climate, communication, learning collaboration, volunteering and parents as decision-makers. It is CPPS’ hope that the findings will inform a needed dialogue between all stakeholders—parents, teachers, school administrators, Blanchard Education Service Center central office staff (BESC), district-level leaders, and the community at large—and lead to tangible ways to strengthen parent involvement in every single school in the Portland Public School District.

Stay tuned as we provide more details in the coming weeks – about our findings, community feedback, and needed next steps. Look for email annnouncements, blog posts, and other initiatives – and do consider joining us in order to help bring about change!

Preliminary results from the Parent Involvement Assessment Project were presented at our Parent Leadership Conference in April of 2007 – download the PPT.

1. What is the Parent Involvement Project?

  • The project assessed parent involvement at the school level that helps students achieve academically. (And by parent involvement we really mean family involvement – when we use parent, we really mean any key adult in a child’s life.)
  • We developed two parent involvement assessment tools – a written survey (also online) that took about 15 minutes to complete and a 90 minute focus group. The tools assess parent involvement on multiple levels: school climate, communication, collaboration, volunteer participation, and decision making.
  • The written survey had wide-distribution to parents throughout the entire District
  • Eleven elementary schools were selected for a more in-depth assessment. The selected elementary schools represent the geographic, ethnic and economic diversity within our school district. At these schools we: 1) interviewed the principal, 2) conducted two focus groups with parents with childcare & a small stipend provided, and 3) conducted one staff focus group. Notes will be taken during all the focus groups & interviews, but the names of individuals will not be recorded.
  • CPPS received a small grant from the Portland Schools Foundation for this project.

2. What will be done with the information gathered?

  • A report will be written on what we found and distributed widely, to the District, principals & teachers, parent organizations, and the parents themselves.
  • The report will describe what we found — what parents experience in common in regards to parent involvement and their differences. Based on what we find, the report will propose a common definition of parent involvement and standards and benchmarks for parent involvement and communication. It will also feature best practices and make recommendations for action.
  • The focus of the information will be positive – what is currently working well and how can we build on it.

3. Who are our partners?

  • We are working closely with Portland Public Schools (PPS) on this project, especially with the Office of Student, Family and School Support and the Title One Office. Both are extremely interested in the results of this project.
  • Other partners are Portland PTA and the Portland Schools Alliance, who are helping us encourage parents to participate in the survey.

If you are not a CPPS member – please consider joining today!