ANNOUNCEMENT:
RESOURCE TO ENGAGE PARENTS OF ENGLISH LEARNERS
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Why is this important now? The COVID-19 pandemic affected student academic learning and outcomes, with one of the most impacted subgroups being English learners. One way to help students recover, especially those from historically under-served communities, is to engage their parents in closely monitoring student progress and program outcomes.
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Background
In 2020-2021, PON developed its English learner (EL) Campaign with members and parents in three school districts. The campaign influenced goals, actions, and budget allocations related to ELs, their teachers, and families in these districts' Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs).
Some of our wins included allocating funds to improve language-interpretation access in meetings and establish a Multilingual Office; a commitment to co-develop Individualized Reclassification Plans with parents of students identified as Long-Term English Learners or at risk of becoming LTELs; updating an EL Master Plan; and prioritizing family engagement.
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As a result of its EL Campaign, PON developed a playbook to share practices that empowers parents to be more effective advocates for their EL children. It outlines a six-step process we used for the campaign, and describes our best practices for effective parent outreach, capacity building, and advocacy. In addition, we begin the story by highlighting our greatest asset and the “secret sauce” of PON's success: parents, and how their experience and skills are essential to achieving campaign results and student success.
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Learn About PON Parents
Through interviews with 18 experienced parent leaders, we identified five common themes often experienced by parents of ELs in their journey to becoming powerful advocates for their children.
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La experiencia (Experiences with schools and motivation for getting involved): This typically begins with a parent recognizing that their child needs help, and then communicating with school officials, but without agreeing on the problem or possible solutions.
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El proceso de involucramiento (The process of becoming engaged): For most parents, the journey of learning about the public education system spanned many years.
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Las emociones (Emotions): A wide range of emotions were expressed by parents, including feelings of anger (coraje), frustration, and being belittled or ignored at meetings and other interactions that let them labeled as “problem parents” or as deficits instead of assets. These parents eventually experienced feelings of satisfaction and pride when their child received the supports needed.
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Recompensas (Rewards): The rewards were not tangible, but rather knowing their work made a difference in enhancing the practice of parent and family engagement at their schools.
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Consejos (Advice): Parents recommend prioritizing children, asking questions, staying united with others, becoming life-long learners, and staying persistent and uncompromising in advocating to improve their children’s education as well as the education of other children.
To download the playbook, click the here.
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"Be very engaged in your kids' education and advocate for them . You really need to be the voice of your kids; nobody is going to do it for you." - Martina Rodriguez
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"... Take advantage of what is offered in help and training - they are free... You want better for your children. Our goal is college." - Camerina Perez
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"...Do not stop, do not remain silent, and much less allow to be discriminated against under any circumstances."
- Susana Zamorano
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PON is grateful to staff, parent leaders, and our collaborators in producing this playbook. Special thanks to those parents who participated in the Ad Hoc Committee on Parent Stories: María Daisy Ortiz, Karina López Zuñiga, María E. Rosales, Olga González, and Paul Robak; and Dr. Corina Espinoza for co-designing the survey, interview questions, and then providing and collecting all the information used to identify common themes in the journeys of parents to becoming powerful advocates for children.
This playbook was funded with support from The Sobrato Family Foundation and the California Community Foundation.
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