Teachers' Helpers

Parental involvement helps students make the grade

Parents at Dennis C. Wooton Elementary School in Hazard, Ky., (pop. 5,540) have a permanent hall pass. Indeed, youngsters here are apt to see Mom or Dad tutoring, filing paperwork, or keeping order in the classroom.

These dedicated parents appear to be making the grade: not only have they helped to create a safe, secure, educational environment, but student test scores are on the rise.

“This is a model school for parental involvement,” says Nancy Price, parent liaison for the Kentucky Department of Education. Price often refers other parents and educators to Dennis Wooton to observe the phenomenon firsthand. “I have not found another school that is so highly thought of by the community.”

Parental involvement equals student achievement, most educators agree, yet schools across the country struggle to lure parents. This, Price suggests, may be attributed to “invisible barriers.”

“Most of our parents aren’t four-year college educated,” she explains. “You get out of school, you get a job. So we look up to teachers as mentors. We think, ‘Who am I to go into her classroom?’ It’s very intimidating. On the other hand, teachers think, ‘You know more about your child than I do. Who am I to try to tell you?’ There’s fear on both sides.”

As the tone-setter, a principal can help alleviate those fears. Last November, Nadine Vannarsdall, Dennis C. Wooton’s principal, was wiping cafeteria tables when a parent approached her.

“She came up to me with this surprised look on her face and said, ‘This is why I bring my child to school here,’” Vannarsdall recalls. She admits keeping tables clean is not exactly radical—but when it’s the principal wielding the dishrag, it does become something of a novelty.

Vannarsdall doesn’t spend all her days on cleanup duty, but her zeal to get things done at the small school she shepherds has helped initiate a roll-up-your-sleeves attitude. As a former teacher and the mother of three, Vannarsdall was aware of invisible barriers between parents and teachers when she became principal four years ago. So she devised ways to make herself and her school more approachable.

“It wasn’t something we did by accident,” Vannarsdall says. “We set out to say, ‘Okay, how can we get the parents involved?’ We make a continuous effort to do it, and then at the end of the year we sit down and say, ‘Okay, what went well? Where did we get a lot of parents in?’”

Practical adjustments were made: “Parent volunteer meetings” became simply “parent meetings” and were held at a neutral location such as a local restaurant or library instead of at school; they color-coded send-home sheets, so parents quickly could distinguish teacher communication from student homework; and they began producing a monthly calendar of activities, events, and volunteer needs.

Her efforts are paying off. A recent Volunteer Day attracted more than 100; some 350 signed up for an informational seminar; and volunteer hours accumulated by the end of last school year totaled more than 2,000—unusually high for a school of 460.

“We try to do everything in a parent language,” says Vannarsdall, who invites mothers and fathers to call her by her first name. “Acronyms and jargon scare some people off.”

Vannarsdall also encouraged teachers to paper the walls with rotating displays of student work.

“That’s how you know parental involvement is going on in that school,” Price says. “If it’s stark, dark, and clean, parents don’t feel welcome. Here, every child is welcomed and every child is honored. It doesn’t matter who you are, you’re on the wall.”

The new principal also looked at new ways parents could help. She appreciated their hosting bake sales and coordinating field trips, but Vanarsdall also wants them to discuss curriculum issues with teachers. They also copy, file, help with administrative tasks, tutor children, and help teachers keep order in classrooms.

“The parents are as involved as the teachers and principal,” Price says. “It’s a very consensus-building school.”

A home away from home

Jimmy Caudill, who volunteers regularly in athletics and academics, appreciates such a formula. The “good environment, good surroundings, and good people” helped him feel welcome when his son, now in third grade, began school at Dennis Wooton, he says.

His wife, Lisa, also values the open-door policy.

“If my child’s sick, I don’t have to worry; I know they’ll call me,” she says. “And I can walk into this school at any time and check on him. You just go into the office and you’re never asked a question when it comes to your child. And if I call the school, they’ll connect me right straight to his room to his teacher to see how he’s doing.”

Charles Lee Colwell, the PTA president whose younger daughter is a student at the school, is just as enthusiastic. “This school has got the best name of being family oriented than any other in the county,” he says. “Our teachers really care and that makes a difference.”

So do the parents. The PTA recently raised $32,000 to buy safer, more accessible playground equipment. Last year, they responded to teacher requests and bought 44 classroom computers. The association even purchased math books for second-graders who otherwise would have had to work from copied pages.

“We try to work with the teachers in the classroom to ensure that they have all the extra stuff they might have to buy out of their own pockets if money was not available,” says Colwell, who lives two doors down from the school.

The on-site Family Resource Youth Service Center (FRYSC), established nine years ago through a state grant, also has helped stir parent involvement. Bea Madden, the center’s director, holds monthly workshops about issues such as drug addiction and parent-child communication. She even offers early morning, pre- and after-school childcare, and General Educational Development (GED) training for parents pursuing diplomas. This year, a full-time nurse also will be on staff to administer vaccinations, medical exams, and medication.

“They’ve created in a school setting a home away from home for children where they feel safe and secure,” Price says. “Their role is to contribute to student achievement; that’s why they’re here. The center brings together all the parties—parents, students, teachers—so that everyone’s focusing together.”

Madden uses periodic surveys to identify the most pressing family needs. Recent results led her to offer summer childcare and snow-day care for the children of working parents. She even arranged transportation and lodging for a homeless family found living in a van.

“There’s no way they could do all this without a FRYSC,” Price says. “That’s your glue in a school.”

‘He had done so much better’

If the resource center is the “glue,” then Anne Bolling is the honey. Bolling, who works with Madden as volunteer coordinator, became involved when her great-grandson entered kindergarten several years ago. Though he and his parents eventually left the area, Bolling remained. As she sees it, she’d acquired a whole new set of grandchildren to look after.

“I turned 67 in March, but I don’t feel 67 in here because being around children keeps you young at heart,” she says.

She also knows she’s doing some good. After praying for guidance, she singled out a struggling child for one-on-one tutoring. Soon, his once-failing scores had increased to 80; later, he made 100 on a test.

The two remained friends beyond the semester. “No matter where he’d see me, he’d come put his arms around me—’cause I’m a toucher, you know—and hug me and say, ‘How are you, Granny?’ I can truthfully say he had done so much better.”

This is, of course, the ultimate objective in all the warm-hearted interaction: to produce well-adjusted, better-educated students.

“It’s our job to help raise successful, independent, responsible adults,” Vannarsdall says.

Price adds: “We base everything on state assessment. That’s life; you have to be assessed. Parental involvement helps produce better test scores. And it’s made a difference at this school. Scores have gone up.”

To the children themselves, the bottom-line is a bit simpler. Jimmy Caudill Jr. loves that his father tutors another little boy. “It makes me happy that my friend gets to learn new stuff. And,” he adds, his grin widening, “I heard that Dad and him (have) fun.”

Kara Carden is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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