District wants to improve parental engagement
ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The USD 480 school board heard from administrators about needed improvements throughout the district at its most recent meeting Monday evening.
Superintendent Dane Richardson started those discussions during his report early in the meeting.
“We’ve had some professional development days recently, and part of the purpose of all of that was to go over the USD 480 school survey,” Richardson said. “Some of the subject areas covered was safety, having input on school initiatives to help with the physical operations of the school and what resources are there to help the students and teachers. We talked to teachers, administrators, students and parents. One of the things we really looked at was parent engagement – parent engagement is way, way down, and we found on average, 152 parents regularly engage with their students’ schools. Parent engagement is a very important part of any program, and it’s a requirement to seek parent input for decisions so we can be compatible with certain aspects of Title 1. Parent and family engagement is also important because studies show it leads to higher student achievement, better social-emotional development, improved behavior and increased graduation rates. We know more needs to be done to help increase that parent/family involvement, and those discussions with principals are continuing.”
