EDLD 5326 / PEDG 5388 School Community Relations
Week 2 Assignment
Overview
You have described and analyzed two of your school’s community involvement programs, their
goals, their levels of participation and various aspects that prevent and promote their success.
In this week’s assignment, you will design a new, or strengthen an existing, community
partnership that integrates school, family, and/or community resources to more effectively
support student achievement.
As you brainstorm the development of your partnership, consider the following questions:

What will the partnership accomplish?

Who are the partnership’s stakeholders?
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What broad and specific goals do you hope the partnership will achieve?
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What community resources will contribute to this partnership?
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How will the partnership procure the required resources/approvals?
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Who should lead the program, and who should be involved?
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How will information be communicated to all stakeholders?
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What other people or organizations are already working on this issue/need?
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How much time will it take to establish the partnership?
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What steps must be taken to establish and launch the partnership?
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What research supports investing time, money, and personnel in these tasks?
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How will the proposed partnership be evaluated?
Rubric
Use the following Rubric to guide your work on the Week 2 Assignment.
EDLD 5326 / PEDG 5388 School Community Relations
Tasks
Accomplished
Proficient
Needs Improvement

15
12
9
The evidence suggests
that this work is a “Habit of
Mind.” The educator is
ready to mentor others in
this area.
The evidence suggests
that performance on this
work matches that of a
strong educator.
The evidence does not yet
make the case for the
educator being proficient at
this task.
Gathering Data
Student clearly identifies
data that supports the
need for the proposed
family-school-community
partnership.
Student cites school data,
some of which supports
the need for the proposed
family-school-community
partnership.
Student provides a minimal
description of student
need, the proposed
partnership, and /or
research supporting the
proposed partnership
activities.
Initial Partnership
Proposal
Student introduces and
provides a detailed scope
of the proposed familyschool-community
partnership, and provides
a compelling, evidencebased rationale for the
recommended partnership
activities.
Student identifies the
project and provides a
general scope of the
proposed partnership, and
provides some evidencebased resources in support
of the proposed
partnership activities.
Student does not identify
an appropriate project,
provide a scope of the
proposed partnership,
and/or provide any
evidence-based rationale
in support of activities.
Assignment Mechanics
Responses are relevant to
course content; no errors
in grammar, spelling, or
punctuation.
Responses are relevant to
course content; few errors
in grammar, spelling, or
punctuation.
Responses do not reflect
knowledge of course
content, lack clarity and
depth, and/or include
multiple errors in grammar,
spelling, and punctuation,
including APA errors.
Week 2 Blog Post
http://edtechlamarmasters.blogspot.com/2012/03/week-2-web-cast-edld-5326.html
EDLD 5326 / PEDG 5388 School Community Relations
Week 2 Assignment, Part 1: Gathering Data
To complete Part 1 of this assignment, answer the questions provided.
Current Reality: Identify a current student issue or need that interferes with academic
achievement at your school. Cite data that supports the need. This could be data that relates to
academic achievement, student attendance, discipline, or other sources. Look at trends of data
and disaggregated data, where available.
One issue that is currently affecting our schools and our students is the rising costs of materials
related to curriculum. Materials to enrich the classroom must be created by the teacher and
resources used creatively. Textbooks are often out-of-date or non-existent. As educators we are
tasked with preparing our students for the 21st century but all too often we have limited resources
to present real world information. One community resource that could be made available to
classroom teachers is speakers that can offer their knowledge, expertise and life experiences to
enrich classroom material. The initiation of a speaker’s bureau would offer teachers another
means to present information to their students that is real and relevant since it will be provided
by an expert who dedicated to a specific topic.
Vision: How will the family-school-community partnership that you are proposing resolve the
issue by meeting the demonstrated need, and how will it support student achievement?
Services from the community can be used to strengthen school programs, family practices, and
student learning and development. Speakers from the community would be solicited to offer their
services as volunteers to the classroom teacher. Student achievement can improve when they
have opportunities to learn real life skills and information from people that have experiences that
are related to classroom learning. Student achievement would be supported by:




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Increased skills and talents through enriched curricular and curricular experiences.
Awareness of careers, and options for future education and work.
Introduction of local citizens that can become role models.
Pride in community, and in own service to the community.
Specific benefits linked to programs, services, resources, and opportunities that
connect students with the community.
Week 2 Assignment, Part 2: Initial Partnership Proposal
The first step in establishing either a new family-school-community partnership, or strengthening
an existing one, is to clearly articulate your idea. While your idea will probably evolve as
stakeholders contribute their perspectives, you will use this assignment to solidify your initial
concept.
To complete this assignment, fill out the chart.
EDLD 5326 / PEDG 5388 School Community Relations
Describe the need for the new or improved school-community partnership. Summarize the
strategies/ activities you are recommending.
Liberty Hill Junior High School, like many schools across the country, is struggling with ever
increasing budgetary constraints. We are also a district with a great diversity of students,
some who have the opportunity to travel and visit other parts of the country and world and
those that will struggle to leave our small community to see the rest of the word. I will
propose the initiation and development of a community speaker’s bureau to solicit the
expertise and knowledge of local citizens, including students and parents, who have special
talents, jobs in areas related to course curriculum, and life experiences that would teach our
students about the world they live in.
Reference the research that supports the strategies/ activities you are recommending.
A web search provided links to multiple references to community speaker’s bureaus. The
links provide information on how to form a speaker’s bureau, examples of successful
speaker’s bureaus and how suggestions on how and who to solicit in the community for
support of this type of initiative. Many of the sites also have resource people that I can contact
for information and ideas. This information will guide my process to plan, prepare and
present a proposal for the initiative.
Bibliography of Sources on Speaker’s Bureaus:
Burlingame Intermediate School. Burlingame Intermediate School. 2012. 8 March 2012
<http://bi-bsd-ca.schoolloop.com/pbldatabase>.
City of Kissimmee. Speaker's Bureau. 2012. 8 March 2012
<http://www.kissimmee.org/index.aspx?page=231>.
Community Matters. Youth Speaker's Bureau. 2006. 8 March 2012 <http://www.communitymatters.org/youth/speakbu.htm>.
Glencoe. Teaching Today Post Secondary. 2002. 8 March 2012
<http://www.glencoe.com/ps/teachingtoday/weeklytips.phtml/42>.
Mullins, Patricia. "Using outside speakers in the classroom." 2001. Observer. 9 March 2012
<http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/1001/tips.html>.
Smithson, Mike. "Building a speakers bureau the ReconsiDer way." 2011. Common Sense for
EDLD 5326 / PEDG 5388 School Community Relations
Drug Policy. 8 March 2012 <http://www.csdp.org/active/SPEAKERS.PDF>.
Streich, Micheal. Setting up a school speaker's bureau. 13 April 2009. 8 March 2012
<http://michael-streich.suite101.com/setting-up-a-school-speakers-bureau-a109410>.
Super Smyrna. Super Smyrna - Smyrna, Georgia. 2011. 8 March 2012
<http://www.supersmyrna.com/>.
The Texas Speaker's Bureau. The Texas Speaker's Bureau. 8 March 2012
<http://www.texasspeakersbureau.com/category/texas-banquet-speakers/>
Compose three or more measurable goals for the school-community partnership.
1. A Speakers Bureau will be established by the end of the school year to provide
speakers from the community, school and at-large, to classroom teachers to
supplement course materials and objectives.
2. A list of 20-30 available approved speakers will developed by the end of the school
year.
3. Speakers from the community will be invited to participate via various types of
communication.
4. The speaker’s bureau will be coordinated and facilitated by an individual that can
devote time and effort to the organization and maintenance of the speaker’s and topics
available to the classroom teachers.
5. The facilitator will review the progress and process of the speaker’s bureau initiative
on a routine basis to add, change and update the available resources. The review will
include comments from students and teachers on the impact of classroom speakers.
How will the school-community partnership increase student achievement?
Improvement of student achievement should be the goal of any educational initiative. A
speaker’s bureau is will provide students with access to individuals that have real life
experience in the topic they will speak about. Students will have the opportunity to hear,
learn and ask questions about the topic which provides them with the opportunity to construct
their own learning and knowledge of the topic.
 Increased skills and talents through enriched curricular and curricular experiences.
 Awareness of careers, and options for future education and work.
 Introduction of local citizens that can become role models.
 Pride in community, and in own service to the community.
 Specific benefits linked to programs, services, resources, and opportunities that
connect students with the community.
EDLD 5326 / PEDG 5388 School Community Relations
Identify the school-community partnership’s stakeholders.
The stakeholders for this initiative include the following:
Administration
Classroom Teachers
Students
Community (Source of speakers)
What are the steps to approval and implementation of the partnership? What are possible
sources of funding?
This initiative can only be successful with a clear vision. The vision would be established
through the collaborative effort of the school administration and individuals that have
accepted the challenge to foster the initiative. In addition to a vision will be the importance of
consistent feedback and reflective evaluation of the process, program and future of the
initiative.
1. Propose the initiative to the building administration
2. Convene a collaborative team to develop a vision and goals for the speaker’s bureau.
3. Present vision and process to administration
4. Solicit required approvals for the program
5. Determine the who the facilitator will be
6. Survey classroom teachers for topics of interest
7. Establish a process for approaching potential speakers
8. Solicit participants from the school community and local community organizations
that can provide information with speeches on focused topics.
9. Present the speaker’s bureau process and list of potential speakers to the staff
10. Coordinate with staff to access approved speakers for enrichment of classroom
activities.
11. Facilitator will maintain list of speaker’s, seek out new speaker’s and review speaker
evaluations
12. Reflective reports will be produced and made available to the administration.
At this time I don't anticipate any funding needs as the speakers who will be invited will be
expected to provide their services free. As the success of the initiative grows and data can be
gathered to show the affect of student achievement, a budget could be established to offer
compensation for the types of speakers that have a fee.
What resources are required for the partnership?
The resources required for a partnership with community speakers would be a facilitator that
is committed to seeking out responsible, informative speakers to supplement classroom
instruction. This could be accomplished through the establishment of a school committee that
EDLD 5326 / PEDG 5388 School Community Relations
is tasked with maintaining a list of approved speakers and acting as the liaison between the
classroom teacher, the school and the speaker.
How will you market your school-community partnership idea?
I would like to initially market the concept to the school staff. They are a wealth of
knowledge and have connections beyond the school that could provide the speaker’s bureau
with the first set of speakers. I would plan to work with a designated facilitator to approach
local community groups with the concept and solicit support. An article in the local
newspaper would also be helpful to generate possible speakers.
The growth and success of the initiative will be dependent on awareness and willingness to
participate by all stakeholders.
How will you evaluate your partnership’s outcomes?
The collaborative team will establish an evaluation survey that can be used by the audience
(students) and the speaker to gather information about the impact of the speech topic.
Anecdotal reflections can be provided by the teachers to provide impact of the speeches on
student achievement. Testing results can also be used to determine the impact and success of
the enrichment activity on student learning.