Creating a Solid Foundation

Have you heard of Solid Foundation? Solid Foundation is a comprehensive parent engagement program developed by Academic Development Institute. Solid Foundation is a Evidence based program that helps: strengthen family-school connections; engage parents in children's learning; and improve student academic and social learning.

AL PIRC provides the free Path 1 web based process that guides a team through 10 efficient & effective steps to: assess the school community's strengths and areas for improvement; develop a two-year plan; and implement the plan with abundant resources. Over a dozen schools statewide in Alabama have begun using the Solid Foundation model. Great revisions of policies have been created to specifically meet the needs of parents & schools. Effective educational activites have been implemented to increase students performance on tests and report card grades. In addition, schools have established first time or restored true collaborative partnerships with families to help Alabama students compete across the world. To get your school involved or to learn more about this wonderful program please contact William Jones at 334-567-2252. Let's "GET SOLID"!

Happy Holidays from the Alabama PIRC

As the holiday season approaches, this is the time of year when we like to take some time to spend with our own families. Each of the staff members of the Alabama PIRC is a parent (or about to be a parent early next year!)

William has a young son and a new puppy to play with. Marilyn will be spending time with her children and grandchildren. Katrina will be preparing for her first child early next year. I will be spending time with both of my adult children who are taking leave from the military to come home for the holidays. Our office will be closed for the last two weeks in December to give our staff time with their own families and to recharge and prepare for the year to come. As we finish 2009, I wish for all of you good health and good times in the coming year.

Family Friendly Walk Through

Last week, the staff of the Alabama PIRC were trained on how to conduct Family Friendly Walk Throughs. The project, developed originally by the Arizona PIRC has been used successfully to help schools identify ways they can work with families to create a stronger learning environment for students. The research on family engagement has found that schools need to be the first to reach out to families and invite them to participate in their children's education. However, often schools have unintentionally created barriers to effective family engagement. Having a Family Friendly Walk Through helps the school understand how inviting it appears to the local community.

As a part of the walk through, the PIRC staff assess the school: customer service, school environment, school website, community partnerships, documents, and school to home communication. The walk through consists of a physical tour of the campus, surveys of parents and teachers, an interview with the principal, document reviews and website reviews. Once the assessment is complete, PIRC staff convert the data collected to a report, which is provided to the school as a reference tool for the purpose of creating a stronger learning environment. The report contains areas that were identified as either strengths, emerging practices, or areas for improvement along with specific research based recommendations for improvement.

If you are in a Title I school and you are interested in having a Family Friendly Walk Through, contact the Alabama PIRC today!