Are students achieving what is expected of them in school? You may be surprised how parents and teachers responded to this question in a recent survey. How Can Schools Improve Parent Involvement? Tell Us What You Think.

Parents Get Boost as "Learning Partners" PARENTAL PARTICIPATION IN EDUCATION got a big shot in the arm last week with the announcement of a new $4.8 million dollar grant project aimed at improving the abilities of parents and schools to work together to improve student achievement. Funded by the Weingart Foundation "Parents As Learning Partners " will engage educators and parents in Los Angeles and Long Beach in efforts to increase opportunities for effective parental participation and to create a contemporary model for parental involvement in school communities. The project is a collaborative effort of the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP), and Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN), with the Los Angeles and Long Beach Unified School Districts. Both needs assessment and program design assistance were provided by the Los Angeles Educational Partnership. Goals for "Parents as Learning Partners" include: Create effective collaborations of parents, teachers and administrators Establish school communities where parents participate as partners Engage parents as well as parents with their children, in learning activities by using instructional capacity and school facilities more fully Improve home/school communications through new communication technologies Support smooth grade and school transitions Improve academic achievement through concurrent teacher training Establish an effective model of parent involvement to be shared with others. "Parents as Learning Partners" will be modeled in the Francis Polytechnic and Lincoln school families in the Los Angeles Unified School District and in the Polytechnic School Family in the Long Beach Unified School District. The project will engage 29 schools reaching across grades K-12 to benefit more than 31,000 students.