Community Partnerships that Support Schools by Joseph Ramirez https://padlet.com/jpramirez/jf7hc2ztdgam Joseph Ramirez ED610-W720 en-us 2017-07-14 20:44:17 UTC 2026-03-03 21:05:01 UTC hello@padlet.com References jpramirez https://padlet.com/jpramirez/jf7hc2ztdgam/wish/178735006 ACPS. (2016). School board policy manual. Goals for school-community-parent relations.  Retrieved from https://www.acps.k12.va.us/cms/lib/VA01918616/Centricity/Shared/documents/school-board-policies/ka.pdf

ACPS. (2016). School board policy manual. Media and public relations.  Retrieved fromhttps://www.acps.k12.va.us/cms/lib/VA01918616/Centricity/Shared/documents/school-board-policies/kbc.pdf

Gross, J. S., Haines, S. J., Hill, C., Francis, G. L., Blue-Banning, M., & Turnbull, A. P. (2015). Strong school-community partnerships in inclusive schools are "Part of the Fabric of the School....We Count on Them". School Community Journal, 25(2), 9-34.

McCroskey, V., Picus, L. O., Yoo, J., Marsenich, L., & Robillard, E. (2004). Show me the money. Children & Schools, 26(3), 165-173.

Mestry, R., & Govindasamy, V. (2013). Collaboration for the effective and efficient management of school financial resources. Africa Education Review, 10(3), 431-452. doi:10.1080/18146627.2013.853539

Pierce, D. (2016). All in this together. Community College Journal, 86(5), 32-36. 
]]> 2017-07-14 20:46:05 UTC https://padlet.com/jpramirez/jf7hc2ztdgam/wish/178735006 L.I.F.T. Ourselves Up jpramirez https://padlet.com/jpramirez/jf7hc2ztdgam/wish/178737165 In order to raise our low student engagement, we asked staff and students to lift themselves up.  The program we followed, L.I.F.T., was based on research-based methods for dealing with low student engagement issues including boredom, lack of community support, and the need to include all of the components of the school from students to teachers to parents, as well as ideas to assist teachers with developing partnerships across grade levels in pairs.

                                                                                                                                  Learning through project-based approach
                                                                                                                                  Integrated framework for transformation
                                                                                                                                  Finding friends in the community
                                                                                                                                  Two heads are better than one
]]> 2017-07-14 21:43:06 UTC https://padlet.com/jpramirez/jf7hc2ztdgam/wish/178737165 Getting the Word Out jpramirez https://padlet.com/jpramirez/jf7hc2ztdgam/wish/178737735 As per our division policies to contact the Communications office, Policy KBC, the school focused on ensuring that every success, however small, was relayed to that department for use in the ACPS Express, an e-newsletter designed to be distributed to audiences outside of the ACPS internal community.  Parents and community members were encouraged to read and then share this news with at least one other business or parent.  It was important to follow our division policies so that we were assured our school goals were communicated appropriately and accurately.  Also, we wanted our communications department to use their contacts so that the school community was aware of the changes that were taking place. For ongoing updates, we relied heavily on the school's twitter and Facebook accounts.]]> 2017-07-14 22:07:54 UTC https://padlet.com/jpramirez/jf7hc2ztdgam/wish/178737735 How did we get here? What goals helped us meet our needs? jpramirez https://padlet.com/jpramirez/jf7hc2ztdgam/wish/178737873 1.  Learning through project-based approach: Teachers worked in pairs of homeroom teachers to design at least one project-based component of the curriculum which had to have students in both homerooms work together and teachers plan for an event where students showcased their completed projects.
2. Integrated framework for transformation:  In addition to working in homeroom pairs, the entire staff participated in training using videos and discussion guides from SWIFT Schools.  According to Gross, Haines, Francis, Blue-Banning, & Turnbull (2015), the framework "is especially beneficial for transforming schools that struggle with low achievement, high rates of problem behavior, and segregated delivery of specialized services" (p. 11)
3. Finding friends in the community:  One school goal was to design a team of collaborators that had members of the local community including: parents, a student representative, the administrative team, a teacher representative, one member of a non-profit in our area, two local business owners, a professor from a local university, and a librarian from our public library.  This team was to meet monthly for the first three months of school, then decide on how often they could meet later to develop ideas for enhancing student engagement.  This allowed the team to communicate the needs of the school to the outside community, including volunteers, as well as to get their perspective and ideas for improvement. In addition, if the needs of the school included financial needs, the team was able to communicate these needs to community members who had connections and/or the means to provide the financing.
4. Two heads are better than one:  Teachers have largely worked autonomously at this school and, therefore, there were many different takes on the curriculum.  All teachers were paired with a grade-level partner in order to promote more collaboration for planning.  This is the first step leading to the use of PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) to include planning and data collection.]]> 2017-07-14 22:15:57 UTC https://padlet.com/jpramirez/jf7hc2ztdgam/wish/178737873