My Parent Involvement Action Research Project
I had to change my action research project to fit the new campus I moved to (only two weeks before school started). Currently, changes are still being made and only a few pieces have been implemented thus far. It has been hard getting things started since I am at a new campus, in a new position and having a new principal.

 

I will be posting my revised research plan in the coming week.

 

Portions of my project that I have documented and implemented:

• I have joined the Parent Involvement Committee at my campus so that I can facilitate portions of my action research project with their support.
• I observed the parent attendance at the first PTA meeting that was held prior to the grade level orientation activities. The PTA meetings had less than 20 parents and the grade level orientation brought in 3 or less parents for each teacher. I also observed that most parents were Spanish speaking and we did not provide a translator or Spanish PTA newsletter.
• I met with the principal and discussed my childcare/snack idea as well as the need for a Spanish translator for all PTA meetings and other parent attended activities. She suggested I talk to the PTA president about the idea and ask a PreK teacher for usage of their classroom. She agreed that we needed a translator and would look into getting volunteers for that need.
• I was able to gain usage of one of the PreK classrooms and I advertised the need for volunteers to assist with the childcare for parents so that they can more readily attend the PTA meetings. I was able to gain 1 staff volunteer and 2 high school student volunteers, as well as myself to provide the childcare.
• I created a flyer to advertise the childcare available to parents for the PTA meeting, had a staff member translate the materials and had them copy and distribute the materials to all classrooms prior to the PTA meeting.
• I implemented the childcare with snacks during the second PTA meeting and documented 8 parents brought 18 children to the childcare room.
• I spoke with the PTA president and she was elated with the large turn-out of parents and community partners that attended the PTA meeting. Over 25 adults were in attendance for this 2^nd PTA meeting. Previous years had less than 5 parents attend. One teacher who attended the PTA meeting realized that parents needed to have a Spanish translator and volunteered her services at the time of the meeting.
• I met with the PTA president and suggested that I work on recruiting more community partners to attend and set up information booths at our coming fall festival. The partners I looked for are non-profits that have services that would benefit the families at our school.
• I sought out and contacted 5 community non-profits and have requested their attendance at our fall festival to share information about their services. At this time, one partner has committed and I am continuing to contact others to gain their attendance.
• In planning for the coming Literacy Night, the Parent Involvement Committee met to discuss ways we can increase parent involvement and help publicize the night. As a committee we decided that the newsletter about the night needed to be translated into Spanish and that we needed build excitement by putting the event on the announcements. We also decided that reminder labels for students should be printed and put on students at dismissal that day, as well as have staff members personally hand out flyers and invite parents to attend the event during morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up. I brought up that we needed to get it on the kiosk as soon as possible for parents to see. I also suggested that we publicize joining the PTA that night and they can enter a drawing to receive free books.
• In planning for the coming fall festival, the Parent Involvement Committee met to discuss ways we could increase parent involvement because of the low PTA enrollment there are not many volunteers to run the activities. We decided to have teachers email contact information for parents that might volunteer so that staff could personally call them and ask for their help. I suggested that we make families feel more comfortable by providing entertainment that fits their culture such as a Folkloric dance group performance. A staff member suggested we contact UT’s dance group and invite them to perform for the school.I will also contact another group to see if they can attend. I also suggested that we publicize joining the PTA or volunteering to help at the fall festival and then families would receive a set number of fall festival tickets as an incentive.

At this point I feel like I have not had many opportunities to implement due to having to make so many changes. I would like to facilitate a meeting with the whole staff in regards to increasing parent involvement at the classroom level and looking at research with staff. I hope to sit down with my princpal and the new AP that will be starting this next week once things settle down to discuss implementing more portions of my project.