Catalyst for Change: Cultivating Family Engagement
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1) One Green Apple has developed an online platform called OPUS to facilitate effective family engagement in schools at a dramatically lower cost. OPUS provides tools for communication between teachers and parents, quantifies interactions, and measures the impact of engagement strategies. 2) Current research shows that effective family engagement improves student outcomes, but most districts do not allocate enough funding to support engagement strategies. Implementing comprehensive strategies could cost over $1,200 per student annually, which is unaffordable for most districts. 3) As a cloud-based platform, OPUS aims to reduce the cost of supporting family engagement to between $50-90 per student by providing core engagement functions and tools through accessible technology. This could enable
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Catalyst for Change: Cultivating Family Engagement
- 1. Catalyst for Change: Cultivating Family Engagement in Education Joseph M. Fratoni President & CEO One Green Apple Academic Solutions 1060 First Avenue, King of Prussia, PA 19355 610-768-2890
- 2. Catalyst for Change: Cultivating Family Engagement in Education Family Engagement: An Opportunity for Positive Intervention Teachers and education administrators work every day to advance student achievement for the benefit of every child and, consequently, for our nation as a whole. Of the many factors that impact achievement, increasing effective family engagement is consistently cited as an important opportunity to provide positive intervention in improving schools. Teacher and school effectiveness is compromised without effective parental engagement and support. Research shows that improving family/school/teacher engagement is a crucial factor in improving student outcomes of all types (academic, social, etc.) Yet despite the strong body of current research, most districts have not made the investment in family engagement strategies that work. If you ask any teacher or administrator, they will tell you the value of positive parental interactions on student outcomes. These outcomes are contingent on addressing the needs of all parents, especially those of the at-risk child. A major challenge to strengthening the family- school partnership is the lack of funding for solutions, in part, because the effects of family engagement on student performance has not been quantifiable. Without that quantification, financially-funded support is limited in relationship to other funding priorities. As such, family engagement in American education has become a non-performing asset. * From the National Center for Education Statistics * From survey of school districts & Title 1 $8,118 $1,925 $1,076 $472 $433 $379 Instruction, Student Support, & Staff Services Administration, Operations, & Maintenance Capital Projects Transportation Food Services Debt Service Family Engagement Average School Funding per Student* $12,408
- 3. Of the approximately $12,400 annual cost spent in K-12 American public education, less than $10 is spent in support of family engagement. The consequence? Many schools and districts that want to build and nurture parent partnerships lack the appropriate funding to do so as well as the right tools to measure success. It is with this knowledge that One Green Apple set out to provide a technology platform that 1) supports research-based family engagement strategies, 2) easily enables communications between teachers and parents from all socio-economic groups, 3) quantifies those interactions 4) protects student data, and 5) provides an economically-viable solution for schools and districts. Re-engaging Families: Current Research and Recommendations Current research on effective family engagement strategies outlines recommendations for parents, teachers, and administrators at the school and district levels. Recommendations, including those described below, can positively affect student performance. Families Parents, and/or those in place of parents, provide the basic building block for family engagement. Activities that foster improved student performance include: Stressing and maintaining the importance of education. Having expectations that challenge a child. Setting goals. Monitoring progress and holding the student accountable. Supporting learning at home. Teachers Studies have shown that students made greater and more consistent gains when teachers were ‘especially active’ in outreach to parents. When teachers involved low-achieving students’ parents early on, students were able to resolve their learning difficulties before they multiplied. The responsibility for building these partnerships between school and home rests primarily with school staff, especially school leaders, i.e., the teachers. Activities that foster improved family engagement include: Initial home visits – meeting the parents on their turf, not waiting for them to come to the school. Inviting parents as partners in their child’s education – this starts the relationship on a positive, respectful note. Understanding parent expectations – learning what the parents expect of their child, and guiding the efforts to achieve these expectations.
- 4. Preparing meaningful communication- making sure the dialogue is meaningful and more personal than announcements sent home with the student. Monitoring and analyzing family engagement levels- making sure the family does not drift into “auto-pilot”, and that a healthy and consistent level of their engagement is evident in the class. School and District Teachers and families need support and guidance from the school and district in order to be successful. Recommended activities and resources include: Focus on school improvement instead of procedural compliance – Family Engagement is more than filing the proper paperwork necessary for Title 1 funding. It involves measuring outcomes from focused activities and commitment. Make student and school data accessible and meaningful to families - Posting grades on a parent portal is only the first step. If parents cannot access or understand these systems, new user-friendly methods are needed to reach the parents of the at-risk child. Provide training and supports for both educators and families – Teachers need to learn family engagement techniques and protocols; families need support and positive reinforcement. Integrate family engagement standards and measures into educator evaluation systems – Examples include the Component 4c of the Danielson Framework: Communicating with Families. Create staff positions dedicated to family engagement – Family engagement involves an increased but worthwhile workload. Professional development, measurement, and analysis require additional resources. The Cost of a Family Engagement Strategy Currently most schools and districts do not provide this level of support for family engagement. Although a large body of research validates these strategies, there is little research correlating the cost of these additional resources with a definitive benefit in financial terms. Andrew J. Houtenville and Karen Smith Conway suggested that schools would have to spend over $1,000 more per pupil (in 2003 dollars) to achieve the same gains in student achievement that an involved parent brings. Without substantive proof, funding is lacking. A study estimating the resources and funds needed to implement the aforementioned strategies on a large scale found these costs to be unaffordable. Using conventional methods, these activities and required additional resources would increase district costs approximately $1,200 per student. In a 15,000 student district, these expenditures would approach $18,000,000 annually. The required funding cannot be easily found by reviewing budgets or state and federal programs; substantive support would no doubt require an increase in education taxes.
- 5. Over time, as teachers are trained on proper family engagement strategies and protocols, these costs would be reduced; however, they would still remain a significant budget item. There would also be a change in teacher responsibilities; increased family engagement would require either longer hours or more teachers and assistants. The prohibitive costs associated with these traditional methods created a need to facilitate family engagement in schools and districts throughout the country, of every size and in every locale. One Green Apple’s Solution Responding to this need, One Green Apple LLC envisioned a solution to provide educators and families with easy-to-use tools that exchange critical information and improve understanding in a single point of contact for parents – a solution that addresses the entire family engagement ecosystem, eases the burden of communication for educators and parents, and validates the importance of school-home partnerships. We developed this solution as a highly-visual, interactive platform that is scalable, works with existing modes of communication, and interfaces with student information systems. It also measures the interactions critical to engagement and provides new, insightful metrics accessed through easy-to-use dashboards for educators and administrators. The “paper trail” that is developed allows for professional development, protection, and research transparency. As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology solution, One Green Apple’s OPUSSM can dramatically reduce the cost of family engagement by providing the communications, management, and measurement tools that help to minimize the resources schools and districts need to provide in support of effective family engagement strategies. One Green Apple’s Online Parent Understanding System (OPUSSM ) is based on scalable, protected technology with proven results in challenging environments. OPUSSM patented features dramatically improve parent understanding and increases teacher effectiveness through the use of common sense visual metaphors. A full demonstration of the system is the best way to see and understand this clearly.
- 6. OPUSSM is based on sound family engagement research and strategies, and provides the majority of effective methods of family engagement outlined previously. Its simplicity makes it an ideal tool for both the busy parent and those who experience other social or economic barriers to engagement, including language differences. It incorporates many features that alleviate extra effort for teachers, while increasing their effectiveness. OPUSSM provides efficiency and transparency for administrators, providing new insights towards teacher performance. Initiatives in several states have provided favorable market feedback. OPUSSM provides new innovative metrics for analysis and action and is the basis for larger management systems providing transparency from the classroom through district and state levels. OPUSSM has received numerous accolades and strong support from all levels of the education ecosystem and across a range of stakeholders from the classroom to the state capital, as well as from major research organizations. Because of its collaborative nature, political leaders, teacher unions, and parent organizations are supporting its implementation. Due to the transformational potential of OPUSSM , numerous educational leaders have expressed strong interest in working with OGA to expand the use of OPUS in the education sector. Among its most important feature is the dramatic reduction in the cost for effective family engagement. Current pricing ranges from $50 - $90 per student, reducing the cost of family engagement management by over 90 percent. At these levels, funding family engagement becomes achievable, and sustainable change can be accomplished. Through highly visual classroom metaphors, OPUSSM enables easy- to-use dynamic analysis of class rank, grading, demographic information, and parent expectations. One-on-One Messaging initiates a continuous virtual parent- teacher conference that starts Day 1 of the school year, and is conducted in the family’s native language using dynamic translation.
- 7. Sustainable Change Through Market-driven Initiatives As competition for national, state, and local funding increases, philanthropic organizations are exploring and supporting creative solutions that achieve results in education. The vision behind One Green Apple’s products is to meet market needs effectively, efficiently, and completely. With that in mind, we intentionally designed our solutions to have broad appeal to our nation’s diverse socio-economic groups, providing a channel for all schools and all families (including those that were previously silent) – to be actively engaged in meaningful conversations. Our scalable solution will reduce the per-student basis cost to enable true systemic change that benefits all students while at the same time supporting educators. We view OPUSSM as the mechanism that will help to fortify family engagement, and with effective family engagement, we will be helping to advance other initiatives critical to student success such as closing the achievement gap, increasing graduation rates, and readying students for college and career, to name a few. One Green Apple is a market-driven organization that balances social impact with fiscal responsibility. It is our desire to create an inclusive, collaborative environment with forward- thinking philanthropic organizations, because it is our belief that together we can make a greater impact on developing effective school-family partnerships. Transforming Family Engagement in Education . . . Together There are several ways that a philanthropic organization can consider partnering with One Green Apple in delivering a cost-effective approach to family engagement. This commitment could include several of the following concepts, and we are open to other opportunities that might best support or be aligned to strategic funding initiatives. Funding Pilot Programs Help schools experience OPUSSM by funding them directly or through OGA. The investment for a 500-student school for a full year would be under $25,000. Administrators can utilize results from the pilots to help secure district budget allocations for the following year. Funding multiple schools within a district would further substantiate the program’s value and help to garner additional financial support from the district. Funding its Use with Existing Initiatives OPUSSM provides the ability to develop key metrics validating ongoing initiatives and efforts currently sponsored by the foundation. Metrics are key for sustainability and data-driven decision making, and One Green Apple offers flexible solutions to help philanthropic organizations measure and quantify impact.
- 8. Funding a Study Subsidizing the cost of an independent study by either a research group or local university is a vital way for a philanthropic organization to help One Green Apple provide evidence of the program’s impact. Results from the study would not only yield insights to help further develop OPUSSM but would also reinforce the promise and potential of large-scale implementations. Research and Investment A foundation could consider funding further research conducted by One Green Apple; it may invest in the company, potentially increasing its impact through a more integrated market- driven initiative. Next Steps Today there is a new opportunity surrounding family engagement. From the smallest towns to the largest urban areas and everywhere in between, activities to seed family engagement are taking place. In order to implement those strategies and quantify what works best, stakeholders needed a connector that did not exist… until now. One Green Apple’s OPUS℠ technology platform offers a unique engine to help educators build meaningful relationships with parents; to provide parents with easy-to-use and easy-to- understand tools for supporting their children’s academic progress, and to assist administrators, advocates, and the philanthropic organizations that support them, in their ability to enhance school effectiveness. OPUS℠ Educators Administrators and Advocates Philanthropic Organizations Parents
- 9. Along with forward-thinking individuals and organizations, One Green Apple seeks to ensure that the family engagement strategies that make a positive difference in the lives of students are able to be brought to scale. A demonstrated need, research-based strategies, and desire for effective change is a well-established beginning, and OPUS can help schools and districts achieve more. But to go far, as an ancient proverb suggests, we must “go together.” If you would like to bring OPUS to your school or schools or if you would like to see OPUS utilized in schools you support, contact us today. Let’s work together to bring OPUS to schools and families and cultivate change. References: Dixon-Mokeba, Victoria (2012). Effective Schooling: Improving Student Performance through Family Engagement. Presentation at South Carolina Association of School Administrators annual conference. Fratoni, Joseph & Fratoni, Robert (2015). Implementation of Family Engagement Practices: A Cost Estimate. Harvard Family Research Project (2014). Redefining Family Engagement for Student Success, retrieved from http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/redefining-family- engagement-for-student-success Houtenville, A.J. & Conway, K.S. (2008). Parental effort, school resources, and student achievement. Journal of Human Resources, 43 (2), 437-453. Mapp, Karen L. & Kuttner, Paul J. (2014). Partners in Education, A Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships. A publication of SEDL, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics, Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Schools in the United States, http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66 Wood, L., Shankland, L., Jordan, C., & Pollard, J. (2014). How Districts Can Lay the Groundwork for Lasting Family Engagement, SEDL Insights, Vol. 2, No. 2