Hapeville Elementary School Principal Juanita Nelson faced a dilemma four years ago: Her school had not met its federal testing goals, but consultants told her the school was a textbook model campus. What was she missing?
"Parents," Nelson said recently, recalling how that dilemma spurred an innovative program at the school, one that reaches out to families who face some of the biggest challenges and gets them involved in their children's education.
Hapeville's "A+ Parents" program, now in its third year, starts with a letter home to parents of students who struggle the most academically. Parents' participation is voluntary. Nelson asks them to sign an agreement in which they pledge to work with their children to better reading and vocabulary skills, while also banning video games Monday through Thursday. No television, either.
Parents also fill out a questionnaire. It asks basic questions, such as the time school starts and the name of their child's teacher.
"It's amazing how many of them don't know," Nelson said. "That's why their children are not getting to school on time."
Among the school's 740 students, more than half of them use or are learning English as a second language. The school also serves 142 homeless children, which school social worker Kedric Sledge said is one of the biggest such groups in the Fulton County school system.
In 2006, the year Nelson faced her dilemma, the scores of 20 students prevented their subgroup -- in Hapeville's case, these students were all English language learners -- from posting a high enough passing rate in reading comprehension. Because the subgroup missed its goal, the school as a whole did, too.
The program offers lessons to parents on how encourage reading and quiet time for doing homework. Parents receive materials to help with vocabulary work, which studies show is crucial to improving comprehension. Bi-lingual community liaison Nadia Moreno also organizes meetings for Spanish-speaking parents to help them understand their role and the importance of such things as end-of-year state tests. Those tests count toward a school meeting its goals.
It is not perfect. In the program's first year, only seven of 30 parents who participated could answer correctly those basic questions when they were asked again at the end of the year. Not one could do it last year, although participation was up to 45 parents. This year, the parents number about 40 out of about 100 who were encouraged to join.
But here's the good news: The school has met it testing goals every year since. Both students and their parents who are in the program say it has made a difference.
"Her attitude has changed," said Tammy Cook of her daughter, Taylor Singletary. "She does her homework. She'll ask a question."
Veronica Hernandez said she has found herself doing things she had not done before, like coming to parent meetings and using flash cards to help her daughter, Alexandra Julian, improve.
"No iPod, no TV's, no music, no nothing," Hernandez said of the new routine. Alexandra admitted it took some getting used to, but then acknowledged a result to make Nelson's heart sing.
"I'm getting the hang of getting all the words in my head -- and the multiplication," Alexandra said. "It's getting easier."
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