Title I Family Growth Program
Location
Great Falls Public Schools
Largent Literacy Center
915 1st Avenue South
Great Falls, MT 59404
Contact
Ann Bartell, Program Supervisor
Phone: 406/791-2276
Fax: 406/791-2277
Description
The primary goal of the Family Growth Program in the Great Falls School District is to promote the academic achievement
of all students. They believe the best predictor of success in school and life is a family’s ability to provide their children with the ways and means to learn and lead a successful life. By providing the family with parenting information, a resource room in the school, and referral assistance to needed community resources, the district feels that children will have more opportunities to get the support they need to succeed in school. The Family Growth Program serves families in Title I schoolwide programs in schools with a poverty rating of 50-85 percent based on the number of students qualified to receive free or reduced lunch.
The district holds the philosophy that they enroll entire families, not just individual students. To fully serve each family, they strive to avoid judging families, and instead work with them to make each child’s education the best it can be. With this in mind the Family Growth Program was started. The three components of the program are:
- Parenting Activities: Parenting activities consist of classes and workshops geared specifically toward parents. They include cooking classes taught by professionals from the county extension offices, crafts classes, child-care training, family fun nights, and lunch-bunch programs.
- Family Resource Center: The family resource center is designed to provide parents with resources that help them understand their children better, acquire new parenting skills, and connect them with community assistance. The resource center contains materials including a VCR, telephone, daily newspaper, parenting magazines, and resource books.
- Home and Family Visits: Home and family visits are scheduled with parents whose children are achieving below the 40th percentile on standardized tests and who are achieving below grade level. The goal is to schedule five or more visits with each family at the home, school, workplace, or other location most convenient for the parent(s). Parent involvement aides conduct the visits. They bring game-centered activities based on skills the children need to practice as determined by the classroom teacher, Title I literacy teacher, or math tutor.
The Family Growth Program could not succeed if were not for the parent aides who run it. They coordinate, and often teach the parenting classes, staff the family resource center; and conduct all of the home visits. The aides also coordinate much of their work with the classroom teachers. Some are individuals who have been in the same situations as the families they assist. Though they do not necessarily hold any advanced degrees, they are trained by district professionals and receive continual inservice training and development. The program also has a parent involvement coordinator and a supervisor who monitors it.
Support for the program comes mainly from Title I funds that are matched by the district.
Keys to Success
- Involved staff, whether paid or volunteer, must be qualified and dedicated to supporting and serving families
- Involved staff must be energetic, flexible, and able
to work with school personnel as well as families
- Collaboration with community services is
key to successfully serving family needs
- Family services are enhanced when coordinated
with schoolwide goals and processes
- A room should be provided for the family resource
center near the main office, in the main traffic path
- The resource center should be provided (through grants or other means) with a variety of materials that can empower parents to be more involved with their children’s lives in positive, caring ways
Observed Outcomes
- The number of parents using the center and attending parent/family activities increases yearly
- The number of referrals to community services
and agencies serving families has increased
- Parents positively evaluate provided activities and home visits
- Requests for services, materials, and activities
by parents have increased
- Principals and teachers positively evaluate the family
growth program and endorse it through increased
referrals for family visits
Open Doors, Open Classrooms, Open Minds
Location
Washington Elementary School
1044 Cook Avenue
Billings, MT 59102
Contact
Gail Surwill, Principal
Phone: 406/255-3885
Fax: 406/255-3629
Description
As a schoolwide Title I site, Washington Elementary School in Billings, Montana, serves a variety of students with a variety of needs. The philosophy at Washington Elementary is, "All children can learn to love to learn through open doors, open classrooms, and open minds." To ensure that this philosophy truly guides the work of everyone there, the school offers a host of extra educational programs that are intended to bolster learning-for-all students. In addition to regular daily education, 15 other educational programs and activities are available to students and their parents. At any one time, most students are involved in sev- eral of the school’s extra programs. Some programs enlist schoolwide participation, while others are targeted at a specific age group. Below is a listing of the programs and a brief description of each.
- D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read): Students and teachers begin each day by reading for 15 minutes. Students select their own reading materials. Teachers may also choose to read aloud to students.
- HOSTS (Help One Student To Succeed): Two or three community mentors work one-on-one with students for
30 minutes a day Tuesday through Thursday. Materials
are prepared for individual students by the Title I teacher.
- Literacy Center: Primary-aged students spend 30 minutes each week in the library with the librarian and teacher participating in flannel board stories, readers theater, or interactive stories on the computer.
- Reading Take-Home Activities: The school’s Family Center is open each day for parents to check out videos, books, and other materials that will help parents deal with issues that address their children. The Family Center is staffed by a trained parent.
- Buddy Room: Primary classrooms are paired with an inter- mediate classroom and the older students work as peer tutors for the year. They get together weekly or bimonthly for educational activities.
- Problem of the Day: This is a daily warm-up activity to stimulate the students’ problem-solving and computation skills. It can be a small-group or whole-class activity, and
is done during the first 15 minutes of every math lesson.
- Early-Morning Math Lab: Teachers select up to 12 students per grade who need additional help in math to attend Math Lab from 8:00-8:25 a.m. Each month a different grade level attends. Students use conceptual games, computer programs, and hands-on activities to enhance their math abilities. The lab is held four days per week and is staffed by a Title I teacher and an assistant.
- Classroom Impacting: Title I specialists are in each class- room for one hour per day to help assess students’ reading or math status, administer appropriate interventions, monitor students’ success in the classroom, and measure students’ outcomes during and after interventions.
- Option II: Students with special interests meet under the direction of a teacher and carry out independent projects.
- Computers for Families: After attending a family training, 15 families take home computers equipped with educational software to use as their own for a period of five weeks.
- Schoolwide Immersion: Schoolwide themes are determined by staff and implemented using multiple-intelligence activities. Schoolwide celebrations, presentations to parents, and culminating activities enable students to share their successes.
- High School Mentorship: High school students work with elementary students either one-on-one or in small groups under the direction of teachers for one hour per week.
- Preservice Teacher Opportunities: College students (about 50 per semester) practice their skills and new educational activities in real-life situations with students.
- Parental Component: Educational opportunities for parents enable them to enhance their children’s success and include MegaSkills training, active parenting, family fun night, and assorted materials that address parenting needs.
- Staff Development Component: Regular opportunities
are provided for staff to address the educational needs of students, to study current research and practices, and to facilitate reflective thinking.
Though the above list might seem to be overly ambitious in some schools, it is everyday business at Washington Elementary. The entire faculty is committed to the effort, and the parents and surrounding community have become involved in the school as well.
Keys to Success
- Make sure the schedule allows time
for teacher collaboration every week
- Celebrate successes frequently
- Make provisions for school staff to research,
discuss, debate, and work on change together
- Place students’ needs in at the forefront of school activities
- Seek staff members that have a sincere, true belief
that all students can and will succeed
Observed Outcomes
- School climate is warm and welcoming; students love
to be at school
- Parents visit and participate more
- Student achievement in skills is improving
- Collegiality is apparent—the staff is there for one another
for support, collaboration, and cooperation
