September/October 1997
A School Called Victory:
The Ongoing Pursuit of Parent Involvement
By Leon Lynn
When Estell
Sprewer first became principal of Milwaukee's Victory Elementary School
six years ago, the parent-involvement story was the same depressing one
that a lot of urban educators tell.
More than half of the school's parents never attended conferences with their
children's teachers. Among those who did, African Americans were underrepresented:
They comprised 49 percent of the student body during the fall of the 1992-93
school year, for example, but took part in only 17 percent of the conferences
that did occur.
When Sprewer asked for parents to serve on a school-based management council,
the same old faces from the closely knit, disproportionately white and middle-
class PTA stepped forward. "We were not hearing the voices of a large
part of our population," she says. "We needed to broaden that
scope."
Building parent
involvement means
more than just
hanging a friendly
sign.
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Victory is making progress. These days, visitors
are greeted by a cheery blue- and-white banner above the front door that
reads: "Welcome Students and Parents." And inside they will find
Sprewer, who knows that building parent involvement means more than just
hanging a friendly sign.
A new procedure for conducting parent conferences by telephone, for example,
has made it easier for parents who live far from the school to take part.
Last fall, 58 percent of all parents took part in conferences, 27 percent
of whom were African Americans.
The school has hired a parent coordinator, who has spearheaded efforts to
get parents into the building as volunteers and guest speakers. A corner
of the teacher's lounge has been designated as a "parent center," where parents can relax over coffee and check out books, videos, and other
educational materials. And Victory has joined several programs that have
brought new funding and expertise on parent involvement into the school,
including the National Network of Partnership-2000 Schools based at Johns
Hopkins.
There have been some setbacks, of course, including resistance from members
of the existing PTA to the potential shakeup of the school's status quo.
And despite Victory's efforts, many parents still are not being reached.
When the school sent a survey home with students this spring to determine
parents' level of involvement with the school, for example, fewer than a
third of the forms were returned.
"We're not where I'd like us to be, where I think we need to be in
terms of involving the parents," says Sprewer. "But we are definitely
moving."
Broader Parent Support
Victory is home to an unusual educational program. Its 460 K5 students do
not receive letter grades. Instead, teachers write narrative reports on
every child, assessing how well they are meeting the school's educational
goals. This makes parent involvement all thecritical, Sprewer says. "Parents
need to understand a system of assessment that is very different from the
one they remember from their own school days." And when students leave
Victory, the staff must "translate" those assessments into letter
grades in order to conform to Milwaukee school district standards. Sprewer
says, "That's a pro cess that requires a lot of communication with
the families."
The no-grades program draws students to Victory from all over the Milwaukee
Public Schools. About 335 students, 73 percent, were bused to the school
during the 1996-97 school year. "Some of them were on their corners
at 6:50 in the morning to make it here for the 8:05 starting time," Sprewer says. Thus, even though the neighborhood around Victory is mostly
white, only 38 percent of Victory's students last year were classified as
white. About 72 percent of students qualified for free or reduced-price
meals.
Historically, Victory has enjoyed good support from the families that live
nearby, Sprewer says. For example, the PTA "raises a lot of money for
us," she says. "I love those parents. They're terrific. I'm proud
of them for coming out for those meetings every month. But they only reflect
the population of children in the immediate neighborhood."
Two years ago Sprewer invited Regina Hull-Jackson, an African American parent
with two children enrolled in the school, to become Victory's parent coordinator.
Hull-Jackson agreed to take the job in exchange for a small stipend. "The
nucleus of the PTA was not happy about the decision to bring someone else
in," Sprewer recalls. "They asked me, `Why is she here? Aren't
we doing a good job?' I tried to explain to them that I needed to look at
the total school, that I saw a need for another means of reaching out."
New Directions
Hull-Jackson is an energetic woman with piercing eyes and a positively electric
smile. Since becoming parent coordinator she has begun attending PTA meetings
in hopes of building better relations with members. "There's still
some tension there, but I do believe things are coming along," she
says.
However, when Hull-Jackson suggested that the PTA hold some meetings in
neighborhoods far from the school so that parents who had transportation
problems would be able to attend more easily, the PTA flatly turned her
down. "They didn't think that was a very good idea," she says
diplomatically.
Some of Hull-Jackson's other initiatives have borne considerably more fruit.
She has organized "block parents," for example, who keep in touch
with families living far from the school. She helps parents obtain permission
to ride school buses to conferences and other on-campus activities, and
she has organized car pools for students who live too close to qualify for
busing but still find it difficult to walk every day. All of these activities
help make students and their families feel welcome at Victory, which is
the first step to getting them more involved, she says. "We're not
waiting for them to come to us. We're going to them. We're asking them to
come into the building, to meet with the teachers, to share their talents
and their interests."
More parents are indeed coming into the building, says Diane Edwards, a
teacher at Victory who has played a big role in the school's efforts to
boost parent involvement. She credits Hull-Jackson with helping them feel
welcome and respected. "Since Regina was hired, I think the biggest
difference is that parents feel comfortable in the school," she says.
"Now the parents feel this is their school, too, that they belong here.
As they get more accustomed to being here, they'll become ready to do more.
It's not an overnight process. But we're seeing some improvement."
Partnership-2000
Edwards and Hull-Jackson attended a statewide meeting of the National Network
of Partnership-2000 schools last year. Sprewer says she decided to send
a team to the meeting after reading about Joyce Epstein, the network's director,
and the six types of school, family, and community
involvement Epstein has identified. "I thought
her approach aligned itself well with our thinking," she says.
Getting involved with Partnership-2000 made one difference right away: Victory
received another $2,500 in federal funds. The school used $500 to buy materials
for workshops and other projects. The rest was added to Hull- Jackson's
salary.
While the money helps, Edwards says, the real benefit of joining the network
is the assistance it provides. Network staff offers advice via telephone,
e- mail, and training seminars. The network also supplies Victory with manuals
describing types of parent involvement and offering suggestions for communicating
with parents. "I think the network's philosophy puts things in a structure
to present to parents and teachers," Edwards says. "And it gives
us good ideas on how to proceed."
Sprewer agrees. "When we meet with staff to discuss how they are trying
to build parent involvement in the classroom, we are using Epstein's six
goals to frame the conversation," she says. "And we are trying
to make parent involvement the responsibility of everyone, not just the
team."
The Road Ahead
Clearly, Victory has a lot of challenges yet to meet. African American families
still take part in far fewer parent-teacher conferences than white parents
do, and more than 40 percent of all parents in the school still don't take
part at all. And a new program of sending students home with information
and a form for parents to sign has proven somewhat disappointing. "We're
getting a lot of forms back unsigned," Sprewer says. "It's clear
that a lot of parents aren't being reached that way. But we'll continue
to do it. We want a stable mechanism like that in place. And whatever reaches
even one parent is worth continuing."
For more information
Contact Regina Hull-Jackson, Parent Coordinator, Victory
Elementary School, 222 W. Henry Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53221; 414-282-9050.
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