East Coweta Middle School

Parent Involvement Policy

2011-2012 – Revised July 25, 2011

An important component of East Coweta Middle School’s

Targeted Assistance Title I Plan

In compliance with Title I NCLB, Section 1118

Research indicates that student achievement is enhanced when students receive consistent support from the adults in their home.  Parents feel more confident with their student’s instructional program when they are involved and informed.

In order to meet the needs of our parents, students, staff, and learning community, the following strategies have been planned:

Parents will receive a packet of East Coweta Middle School’s Parent Involvement Policy the first week of school.  These documents include the Title I Plan summary, Parent Involvement Policy and Action Plan, Teacher/Student/Parent Compact, Coweta’s Parent Information Center handout, and the school’s AYP letter for 2010-2011.  All information will be discussed at the Title I Parent Information meeting before the school-wide Open House August 23, and more copies will be available.  These documents and the Parent Resource Center will also be discussed at PTO meetings, School Council meetings, and in the school newsletter.  Parent Involvement Tips will be posted in each newsletter, and opportunities for parent involvement will be routinely posted on the school website.

Parents will receive a course syllabus from each teacher who teaches their child, and they can meet with the teachers to receive additional curriculum information and grade level expectations.  Students, parents, and teachers are asked to review, sign, and return East Coweta Middle School’s Teacher-Student-Parent Compact to form an alliance to support student success.

East Coweta Middle School will offer flexible scheduling in meeting with parents before and after school and will seek to support parental involvement needs as necessary (e.g. transportation, phone conferences, home visits) to eliminate parent involvement barriers.

The PTO, School Council, and School Building Leadership Team will seek input from parents in planning, reviewing, and organizing parent involvement activities.  Our goal is to provide parents with opportunities to share experiences and participate in decisions that impact the education of their children.  We will utilize an automated calling system to routinely remind parents about school activities and events and to encourage parents to participate.

East Coweta Middle School will provide assistance to help parents understand and build familiarity with:

• No Child Left Behind (NCLB) national education goals
• Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) listed at www.georgiastandards.org
• Common Core Georgia Performance Standards, also listed at the above site
• School improvement initiatives and the School Improvement Plan
• Components of our Title I Program
• Ways parents can monitor student progress to include Infinite Campus (on-line access to student progress data/grades)

School and system-level training opportunities will help parents learn to work with their children to improve achievement and to utilize tools and technology to access information.  School staff sessions will focus on the value of parental contributions to students’ learning and ideas for effective parent-teacher conferences to help teachers reach out to and communicate with parents as equal partners.

Our Title I program will seek to coordinate and integrate parent involvement programs across federal program lines to include Homeless, Migrant, ESOL, and nutrition programs, among others.

Parents will have an ongoing opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of parent involvement through an Annual Parent Involvement Survey.  Parent involvement initiatives will be realigned each year to meet the school improvement goals, to address current student performance assessments, and to reflect needs indicated in the Annual Parent Involvement Survey.

The Teacher-Student-Parent Compact was developed by school staff and parents to describe the school’s responsibility to provide a challenging, high-quality curriculum and a supportive learning environment.  Student and Parent supports are also outlined.  Our relationship is enhanced when we all clearly understand operational guidelines and expectations.

Clear and timely on-going communication between teachers and parents should be built upon mutual support and respect.  Students benefit most when teamwork is evident.   Parents and teachers must feel comfortable requesting parent-teacher-student conferences to assess student performance.

East Coweta Middle School will provide frequent reports to parents.  Progress reports and report cards will each be provided four times yearly.  Parents are also encouraged to use Infinite Campus, available on Coweta County School System’s website, to routinely review their student’s performance status.  The student agendas will be used to provide on-going two-way communication between the school and parents.