Riceville Elementary School
Family Engagement
Parent Involvement Plan
2010-2011
Riceville Elementary School (RES) is taking part in the county wide Family Friendly
Program, which is designed to make our schools more inviting to parents and guardians.
It is our hope that student success will increase as parents become more involved in their
child’s school, life, and academics.
We have jointly developed with parents a written involvement plan. We established
SMART goals for our school that were derived from the “Focus Group Data Collection”
and from our school Parent Survey. These goals include the following areas: Welcome
Environment, Involvement, Home Learning and Communication. Our goals are as
follows:
1. Translation will be given to parents who have a need for translation (m).
2. Riceville will continue to provide more workshops and parent training along
with educational materials, in the language they understand, in order to help
their child/children at home (j).
3. Riceville encourages opportunities for our parents to be involved with various
activities throughout the year. We are working on ways to provide increased
opportunities for our upper grade parents to get more involved as well as
provide activities for parents with limited English (o, f, l, i).
In an ongoing effort to increase communication and parent involvement, the Family
Engagement Team will plan to initiate the following procedures:

RES Family Friendly meetings will be held periodically at different times (for
example in the mornings and evenings). We will discuss ways we can involve
more parents in their child’s education (b).

RES has developed a School Parent Compact written by parents and teachers that
outlines how parents, students, and staff share the responsibility for improving
student academic achievement and how parents will develop a partnership to help
children achieve the State’s high standards (o, e).

RES will plan and set up meetings requested by parents to give suggestions and
be part of the decision making about their child relating to the education of their
child, and respond to the suggestions as soon as possible. RES will provide for
other reasonable support for parental involvement activities as parents may
request. The following activities for parent involvement will be implemented:
PTO, Back to School Facts Meeting, RIF, Grandparent’s Day, Open House, Chili
Supper, Pizza and Points Night, Multi-cultural Fair, and Parent Early Literacy
Training Nights (Fall and Spring), K-2 report card meetings, and State standards
informational meetings. Note: meetings will be held at flexible times (mornings
and evenings) for parent conferences (i, c, n, f).

RES will provide parents timely information about parent involvement programs,
school curriculum, and academic assessments to improve student progress. We
provide this information through communication tools such as: school
newsletters, website, progress reports, report cards, curriculum mapping, emails,
school cast, Response to Intervention (RTI) process, and Channel 95 text
information. Note: translation and materials in each family’s native language is
provided as needed (d, g).

RES will have an annual Open House at the beginning of the year so parents and
families can visit the school, meet the teachers and staff, and be informed of
relevant information about the school and its mission to help students be
successful. The Open House will be held at flexible times (b).

RES will hold Parent-Teacher Conferences twice a year with flexible scheduling
to allow family members to attend. We will also provide a translator, if needed,
for non-English speaking parents. Parents will be informed on how to encourage
academic improvement, promote attendance, encourage good behavior, and what
strategies to be used in helping their student with homework. Progress reports
will be sent home every three weeks to give parents frequent review of their
child’s academic progress. Students receiving interventions through the RTI
process will receive weekly progress monitoring reports and meetings with
parents will be scheduled every 30 days. Parents will have access with faculty
through emails, Engrade, student planners, phone calls, and notes sent from the
parent’s emails. A parent volunteer meeting will be held at the beginning of the
school year to give parents opportunities to learn the process by which they can
participate as a volunteer in their child’s classroom. Communication records of
contacts will be kept through parent sign in sheets, phone logs, planners,
conference notes, communication logs, emails and notes sent from the parent’s
emails (b).

RES will discuss the school-parent compact that outlines how parents, the entire
school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student
academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build
and develop a partnership to help children achieve the State’s high standards. We
will provide assistance to parents in understanding the State standards, local
assessments, TCAP scores, and how to work with them to improve the
achievement of their child in a language they understand. This will be done by
informing parents of various curriculum instruments, instructional strategies, and
assessments that are utilized at RES. Scantron reports, Plato reports, STAR
reports, Think Link reports, Accelerated Reading reports, curriculum mapping on
line, discussing TCAP proficiency levels, weekly progress monitoring tests
through RTI process, baseline tests, chapter/unit tests, and report card information
will be disseminated at both Parent/Teacher Conferences or called parent
meetings conducted throughout the school year. Through Open House, the Back
to School Facts Meeting, the school website and newsletter, and parent literacy
training/meetings, literature such as: parent TCAP booklets and other relevant,
academic booklets/brochures will be made available (d, g, e).

RES provides materials and training to help parents work with their child/children
to improve their academic achievement through training in the area of early
literacy and through providing materials that foster parent involvement. Math
CD’s are sent home to help the parent and student with class assignments;
worksheets from Scantron are sent home to help improve students’ non-mastery
areas after testing; there are various books, materials, videos and games that can
be checked out through the school, if a parent request extra materials, and helpful
educational websites are listed in the monthly school newsletter (j, d).

RES will educate teachers, pupil services personnel, principals, and other staff,
with the assistance of parents: in the value and utility of contributions of parents;
how to reach out, communicate, and work with parents as equal partners;
implement and coordinate parent programs; and build ties between parents and
the school. Through examining student and parent demographics at RES, the
faculty and administration will access and identify needs and/or barriers to design
strategies for more effective parent involvement. Parent surveys of their skills
will be assessed so the parent can impart their knowledge and abilities in order to
share with their child/children either at school or at home. Administration will
emphasize to both teachers and parents the importance of parents being their
child’s “first teacher” and establishing a home and school connection (k).

RES will coordinate parent involvement programs and activities with public
preschool. RES will provide transitional programs such as library and physical
education. The following will be implemented; summer reading program, Camp
Read A-lot, early literacy training for Pre-K parents, home visits by Pre-K
teachers, and collaboration of preschool teachers and elementary teachers on
skills needed by incoming students (l).

RES will provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited
English proficiency, parents with disabilities, and parents of migratory children.
We will convene an Open House and Back to School Facts annual meeting to
inform the parents of school information. If needed, an interpreter will be
provided and pertinent information will be translated in the language they
understand. Transact or other language resources will be utilized by school
personnel to help communicate with parents who have limited English
proficiency. Information such as: school newsletters, state reports, school reports
and school notes (i.e. field trip notes) will be made available in the language
preferred. We will make available educational personnel, including student
services personnel such as: ELL, Speech, etc. (o).
Our Parent Involvement Plan will be reviewed and changes made to promote more parent
involvement as the Family Friendly Team deems necessary.
Any disagreement regarding the Parent Involvement Plan should be directed first to the
principal, next to the School Board and then the comment is submitted to the State
Department.