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Bylaws, Policies & Administrative Guidelines |
Goals
REV. Background (8/26/06; 9/7/06) - On June 7, 2006 the Board met with the administrators from 8:00A.M. until 3:00P.M. in a public work session for the purpose of developing Board/Corporation Goals for the 2006-2007 school year. The principals presented a variety of information and data including programs being used, a curriculum review process, disciplinary data, and test results. A variety of ideas and topics were discussed. At the Board meeting on June 20, 2006 further discussion took place. Then at the Board meeting on August 15, 2006 Mr. Huffman, Superintendent, shared a presentation which he gave to the staff the previous day upon their return for the new school year. This presentation included "Caston Goal # 1" which is for Caston to become a Four Star School. This topic was also discussed at both June meetings. The Board unanimously approved the three "Board Goals" (see below) at its meeting on September 5, 2006. REV. Goal # 1 - Caston Elementary And Jr.-Sr. High Schools To Become Four Star Schools (8/26/06; 9/7/06) - The Indiana Four Star Awards program was established to recognize schools that have demonstrated academic excellence during the past year. Schools that place in the state upper quartile (25%) in (1) student attendance rates, (2) mathematics proficiency scores, (3) language arts proficiency scores, and the (4) Percent of Students passing both Language Arts and Mathematics are eligible to receive a Four Star Award. Schools must meet (5) all legal standards and also make (6) AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) under NCLB (No Child Left Behind Act) for the appropriate year. This award is a non-monetary award given on an annual basis. Receiving a Four Star Award is an honor which the state recognizes by issuing an award certificate suitable for framing and display in a school. (Source) Click here to see how well Caston Elementary and Caston Jr.-Sr. High have done in meeting the above six criteria. Goal #2: Raise The Bar To Improve (9/7/06)
We need to reinforce, encourage, talk about, insist upon, consistently demand, require, celebrate, promote for praise, those things that we want to be a priority. Missing
Ingredient In Some Schools: Parents (Ind'pls Star, 4/2/10) Stories
about children with troubled parents aren't hard to find at School 54. There
is the one about the first-grader whose mom is a prostitute. There's
the teacher who overheard one child tell another, "My dad will be getting
out of jail before your dad." Then
there are stories of kids whose parents send them to school routinely without
their hair combed, with the same food- and dirt-stained shirt, without their
homework done, without pencils and paper and apparently without a bedtime, as
evidenced by sleepy heads that gravitate to a pillow of arms folded on the
desktop. Then
there are stories such as the mother who told a teacher she saw no need to help
her child with school since the child has a mild mental disability. Or the
parent who told a school staffer: "I don't call you when they are bad at
home. Don't call me when they are bad at school." These
are the stories that fuel talk radio and blogosphere outrage. They make
stereotypes of city school parents. And they make it easy to question whether
real headway can be made in an educational system where children sometimes seem
doomed before they set foot in the school building. But
educators and scholars say they aren't the only stories, or even the majority. Many
parents are trying but simply lack the know-how to be an involved parent. And
the onus isn't entirely on parents. Schools, too, play an important role in
whether parents feel welcomed at school. So do teachers. At
most schools, PTA-type groups are as common as playgrounds. At School 54, on the
Near Eastside, there's no PTA. Monthly parent workshops may draw five moms --
this in a school of 510 students. The
school sends home fliers about coming events, but some parents can't read them.
It stages events at various times, but single parents with multiple children and
jobs at odd hours find it hard to show up. And, clearly, some don't try -- maybe
because school is a bad memory for them, maybe because they never saw their own
parents take an interest in school. "I
think they want to love their kids," said Marla Ryan, a sixth-grade teacher
at School 54. "For the ones that
are not involved, I think it is mostly that they don't know what to do." There's
a library of research that says the children of involved parents are more likely
to show up for school, behave well, earn better grades, score higher on tests
and try tougher classes. One study showed families that actively participated in
a child's learning for four to six years boosted that child's likelihood of
graduating from high school by 40 percent. "The
question is," said Anne T. Henderson, a consultant with the Annenberg
Institute for School Reform and author of much of that research, "how does
the school develop that kind of relationship with families?" At
School 54, also known as Brookside Elementary, it's a question they're still
trying to answer. Situated
in a rough neighborhood along 10th Street just east of Rural Street, School 54
has a tough task. The
most common kind of house on many streets is the abandoned. Prostitutes solicit
customers within sight of the school. Panhandlers harass school staffers on
winter days. Kids hear enough gunfire that counselors say some show signs of
post-traumatic stress. Few
school staffers stay after dark. Rare is the teacher who makes a home visit.
School 54 parent liaison Sharon Harris is required to make them as part of her
job, but Principal Julie Bakehorn prefers she make them before 11 a.m. --
thinking that people who might cause them trouble are still in bed. In
a school where 93 percent of the kids are poor enough to qualify for free or
reduced-price lunches, the most appealing event for many parents is one in which
a free evening meal is served. But Harris can't do that all the time. Truth
is, she's at a loss about how to inspire parents to show up on a regular basis. "I
think that's what we're all searching for," she said. Bakehorn
seems resigned to the fact that many parents can't play an active role. When
parents aren't providing help, Bakehorn said, "well, we provide a lot of
it." Teachers,
tutors and mentors can fill some gaps, but Henderson, the Annenberg scholar,
said there's no substitute for
engaged parents. Thinking otherwise, she said, isn't realistic. "What
they are saying is that 'We don't know how to do that, so we are just going to
do other stuff instead.' " Henderson said. "But
kids spend 70 percent of their waking hours outside school." No
one, however, is suggesting that to be an engaged parent requires joining the
PTA or volunteering in a classroom or attending every after-school activity. School
54 second-grade teacher Teresa Dragstrem said parental
involvement, at one level, can cover just the basics: Feed your kids, put them
to bed on time, send them to school clean and neat. From
there, it means being reachable if the teacher needs you and calling in to check
on your child. Then
there is the schoolwork -- reading to your children, letting them read to you,
helping with math. If the work is beyond you -- and even college graduates
forget the Pythagorean theorem -- it is seeing that your child gets some help. Finally,
there is the parent as motivator. Being interested signals to children that
education is important. And
parents who are able to visit the classroom -- as an observer, as a helper --
can earn giant gold stars with their kids. "They
all sit up straighter, whether it is their parent or not," Dragstrem said.
"And it is the strangest thing. When we were all young, if your parent came
to school, you were really nervous. These kids are so proud if their parent
comes in. If a camera is handy, we take a picture." At
School 54, parental involvement takes different forms. Deirdre
Pinkston, 33, camps out in the school five days a week as a volunteer. She is
constantly peeking in on her autistic son and monitoring his progress. Chelisa
Grimes, a 34-year-old single mother of six, works 12-hour shifts overnight and
sleeps days. In the few hours she has with her daughter Bryona each afternoon,
she helps with homework. Above all, she gives Bryona blue-collar pep talks on
school. "She will tell you that's her job," Grimes said. "I have
to go to work, and she has to go to work." DeAnna
DeJesus dropped out of school when she became pregnant at 15. Now 25, she's
expecting her fourth child. But each afternoon, she walks a block and a half to
the school to pick up her two school-age daughters, Alejandra and Adrianna, and
their cousin, Jasmine. Back at home, she watches as they do homework. She gives
them extra math problems and spelling words. When her husband, Mauricio, who
speaks and reads little English, gets home, he checks his daughters' papers. He
can't read the words, but he makes sure their work is neat. "I'm
hoping that they get to the point where they know that school is
important," DeAnna said, "and that we would both like them to finish
school at least and get a good education." Teachers
are crucial to cultivating parental interest. Where
School 54 has had real success, teachers have been willing to go beyond the
basics of classroom instructor and use what scholars such as Henderson calls
"high-yield strategies": personal contact with parents, over the phone
or in person, and direct verbal invitations to visit the school. Dragstrem
is one of a few teachers who venture out into the neighborhoods and knock on
doors to visit with parents. Her principal would prefer to know in advance, just
for safety. But often Dragstrem just dives in and makes the visits without
advance notice. She sits on the family couch, or the porch -- whatever they're
comfortable with -- and talks about grades, about homework, about behavior. If
the family is starving, she helps them get food. If they're cold, she helps them
get blankets. "I
would say that most people who are here," she said of IPS teachers,
"are here because they feel this is so important." Dragstrem
has 23 students in her class. She makes as many as 10 phone calls home per week.
She calls before school, after school, in the middle of class. She gives some
parents her cell phone number so they can call her. She calls when a child is absent, when homework is missing or when behavior is an issue. But she also does something her principal encourages and researchers say is critical: She calls parents when their child earns the top score in math, when they ace a spelling test, or patch together a week of sterling behavior. Sometimes she grabs the phone in her classroom and calls them, within minutes of the child's latest triumph. Dragstrem's results speak for themselves. She says probably 80 percent of her parents have made at least one classroom visit this year. She's in contact with all of them by phone. "It
doesn't happen overnight. But it is an active process," she said. "The
teacher is instrumental in making it a positive relationship." Still,
some parents across the city say their child's school is not a place where they
feel comfortable -- or even welcome. Instead of being viewed as an
asset, they feel like a nuisance. Teachers may be reluctant to have parents in
for visits -- seeing it as a disruption or spying. But Henderson said teachers
and parents could work out some guidelines acceptable to both. The
Indiana Partnerships Center, which helps schools become better partners with
families, has developed a 15-point checklist for that purpose. To
have a real chance at success, schools must create a "culture of
welcoming" toward parents, said Jackie Garvey, executive director of the
center. And that may take some effort. School
56, another school in a high-poverty neighborhood, has taken its parent resource
room, which every school must have, and given it the feel of a coffee house --
comfy furniture and hot coffee ready to pour, even food in the fridge. It's an
atmosphere that encourages meaningful conversations between parents and
teachers. In
the days leading up to parent workshops, School 56 parent liaison Maria Wright
goes room to room asking each teacher for five parents they'd like to see there.
She takes the list and calls every parent, issuing a personal invitation. It
speaks louder than a note in a newsletter. "It's
a respect thing," Wright said. Above
all, schools must know their families -- which parents can't read a note sent
home, which can't speak English. School 57, in Irvington, makes sure
there are interpreters in the crowd at events to make Spanish-speaking parents
feel at home. Some
go an extra mile, putting a washer and dryer in the school for families that
need to wash school uniforms. They host GED classes for parents or offer
Internet access for parents searching for a job. These
are the sorts of tactics that no doubt redefine the traditional role a school
plays in a community. But they also are effective strategies for breaking down
walls between schools and parents -- and inspiring more of what most educators
think is perhaps the most essential factor in a child's academic success:
parental involvement. "I
think if we don't figure this piece out," said Garvey, with the
partnerships center, "we are never going to have this kind of equity in
education that we want."
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