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A profile of Prince George's County Public Schools, Maryland

Story posted December 22, 2009

Results:
• Attendance at district welcoming events has increased from 500 parents to 20,000 parents in only three years
• In 2008-2009, the district logged over 70,000 instances of fathers' involvement in nonsports-related events 
• District staff have observed that schools with higher family participation rates show greater gains in AYP

There is widespread consensus that family engagement is a critical ingredient for children’s school success “from cradle to career.” Research suggests that family engagement promotes a range of benefits for students, including improved school readiness, higher student achievement, better social skills and behavior, and increased likelihood of high school graduation.

Even though it is clear that family participation in education matters, many schools and districts struggle to develop engagement strategies that work. There are, however, a number of districts across the country that are actively working to develop comprehensive, systemic family engagement approaches that stress shared responsibility, involve a full range of school and district personnel in designing and implementing strategies, and deliberately link family engagement to student learning. One such district is Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland.

Prince George’s County represents a diverse district, serving a student population that is 73% African-American and 18.5% Hispanic, and where more than 50% of elementary and middle school students receive free or reduced price lunch. The district is particularly strong at creating “demand parents” who can navigate the educational system and demand the best from the schools that serve their children.

How do they do it? Prince George’s County’s current family engagement efforts grew out the district’s adoption of the Comer School Development Program, which was offered as an option that individual schools could choose to help shape their school reform efforts. The district’s current system represents an outgrowth of the expansion of this model and the ways schools have tailored their family engagement strategies over the years. As it evolved, the district’s family engagement vision and strategy came to include what Harvard Family Research Project and the National Parent-Teacher Association have identified as the core district-level components necessary for systemic family engagement: fostering district-wide strategies, building school capacity, and reaching out to and engaging families.

Fostering district-wide strategies
Superintendent leadership. In 2000, the superintendent established the Department of Family and Community Outreach (DFCO) and charged its director with monitoring all of the family outreach activities in the district. The current superintendent has a history of making himself available to the DFCO and the parent liaisons it oversees, and has actively participated in meetings and discussions with DFCO staff.

Data tracking. The DFCO tracks the number of families that participate in district-wide events, as well as whether it is families’ first time participating, and has used these data to assess the effectiveness of its outreach. DFCO staff also study the relationship between Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) and family participation. To better ensure that its strategies are understood and adopted by school personnel, the DFCO surveys school staff members to find out what family engagement means to them, and uses these data to inform planning and improvement.

Performance management. Family engagement is a required element of each school’s improvement plan, and there are currently discussions about the possibility of including principals’ efforts in this area as part of their annual performance evaluations. The DFCO believes that this accountability, coupled with ongoing training, is critical to changing school culture.

Building school capacity
School-based parent liaisons. The DFCO indirectly supervises and provides training and technical assistance to parent liaisons through monthly meetings and professional development. These liaisons have a deep knowledge of the teachers, students, and community the school serves and help tailor the school’s efforts to meet the needs of those constituents. Their presence also keeps family engagement “on the radar” of principals and teachers and give manpower to data collection efforts for family engagement. Due to budget cuts this past academic year, over half of the parent liaison positions were eliminated, but the DFCO plans to work with the remaining 80 or so liaisons to restructure their work.

Professional development. Internal professional development plays a major role in the district’s family engagement plans. The DFCO created a professional development curriculum for new teachers that focuses on creating meaningful school–home communication. In addition, the DFCO conducts training with principals and teachers to drive home the importance of family engagement and demonstrate how schools can extend meaningful invitations to parents to participate in school-related activities.

Reaching out to and engaging families
Parent Academies. As part of its efforts to create demand parents, the district is currently partnering with various community organizations to develop a series of Parent Academies across the county. These academies will provide parent education on topics such as financial literacy and ESL classes, helping to strengthen parents’ overall functioning and give them the skills to advocate for their children’s needs. Course offerings will be developed based on the specific needs of, and input from, the communities in which the academies are located.

Father involvement. In 2007, the district launched a highly successful male role model initiative aimed at increasing the number of fathers and other male parent figures involved with the school. Starting at first as the “Men Make a Difference Day,” this initiative seeks to make fathers feel invited and needed in supporting their child’s learning. The initiative couples fathers’ classroom observations with additional tips and tools, such as checking their children’s backpacks for homework at home and providing suggested questions to ask their children about their peer group. In the 2008–2009 school year alone, the district logged over 70,000 instances of fathers’ involvement in nonsports-related events.

Communication and outreach. The DFCO does not assume that any one method of information dissemination will reach all, or even most, of its families. It therefore engages in a number of outreach efforts to share information. This includes grassroots efforts, such as making phone calls and visiting community gathering places, as well as using technology and mass media, such as creating radio messages and hosting a family engagement blog.

Results
Prince George’s County’s adoption of a more systemic approach to family engagement has helped to significantly increase families’ involvement with the educational system. The first time the district held a welcoming event for families several years ago, 500 parents attended. This number increased to 8,000 the following year and 20,000 this past year. In addition, during the 2009 academic year alone, the district logged over 70,000 instances of fathers’ involvement in nonsports-related events. And this engagement appears to be impacting achievement—schools with higher family participation rates have shown greater gains in Annual Yearly Progress, which is based on standardized assessments of what students know.

Lessons Learned
Prince George’s County has been effective at getting buy-in from, in their words, “everyone in the system.” Family engagement is not just the DFCO’s responsibility but is spread across all the work of the district. The superintendent has set priorities that include family engagement and has modeled an approach that considers parents as partners, not problems. Another important part of a family engagement strategy is connecting family members with one another. Through all of its events and communications to families, the district actively tries to connect family members, particularly fathers, with one another. This has helped create “repeat customers” and a sense of unity among parents who would otherwise be isolated or disconnected.

Adapted with permission from Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement, by Harvard Family Research Project and the National Parent-Teacher Association, July 2009.

Click here to download a full copy of the brief.