In this Issue:

·        How to Arrange a Leadership Development Conference in Your Area (p.1)

·        Register Now for June PARENT Center Conference (p.1)

·        Upcoming Conference Dates and Information (p.2)

·        Resources for Parents and Others (p.3)

·        Condition of Education 2006–Report from U.S. Dept. of Education  (p.3)

·        For Some, GED in Spanish or French is Best Alternative (p.3)

·        An Impact on Learning When Teachers Take Personal Responsibility (p.4)

·        Technology Counts 2006 (p. 4)

·        Indian Students Outperform Blacks on NAEP (p. 5)

 
How to Arrange a Leadership Training Conference for Your Area

The California PARENT Center staff is now planning and scheduling conferences for the period of July 2006 through October 2006. One of these conferences could be in your area. If you would like to partner with the California PARENT Center to bring a conference to your area, let us know of your interest. Call Jeana Preston or Beth Sondak to discuss possibilities. Phone: 619-594-4756 or 877-972-7368 (877-9-PARENT).

Register Now for PARENT Center Conferences

"Using Parent Involvement to Increase Student Success and Academic Achievement" is the theme for the upcoming training conference scheduled for June 22-23, 2006 in San Diego County.  Research confirms that when parents are engaged and involved, students’ academic performance increases. In collaboration with the California Department of Education, the California PARENT Center has developed a two-day Leadership Development Conference that addresses how to build and strengthen School, Family and Community Partnerships. The conferences are based on Dr. Joyce Epstein’s framework for family-school partnerships.  We always urge those interested in attending to register well before the posted deadlines. See below.
 

UPCOMING CONFERENCE DATES

June 22–23, 2006 –OPEN– San Diego, CA.  Using Parent Involvement to Increase Student Success and Academic Achievement - A Leadership Development Conference for School, Family and Community Partnerships.

Location:  San Diego State University Research Foundation–Extended Studies, 5250 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA 92182

Registration Deadline:  June 16, 2006

Click highlighted blue text to view: program description, workshop content, registration form (You can print a copy or save it as a Word document.)

To ensure your reservation, please immediately, fax your registration materials to the Center (accompanied by your Purchase Order # or your credit card number). This will allow us to reserve a space for you while the payment details are being handled.

October 5-6, 2006 –OPEN– Stanislaus/San Joaquin, CA area.  

Using Parent Involvement to Increase Student Success and Academic Achievement - A Leadership Development Conference for School, Family and Community Partnerships.

Location:  Stanislaus/San Joaquin, CA area (Exact conference location to be announced soon) 

For more information on any of our upcoming conferences, please call Beth Sondak, Yee Khun, or Barbara Withrow at 619-594-4756, or 877-972-7368 (877-9-PARENT) Fax: 619-287-6756 

California PARENT Center web site: http:/parent.sdsu.edu  

View Conferences and Training Opportunities page: http://parent.sdsu.edu/services/conferences/default.htm

CONFERENCE TOPICS

Conference Topics Include:  (1) Reaching out to under involved parents; (2) Setting up an effective action team to plan partnership activities that meet the NCLB Act parent involvement requirements; (3) Identifying strengths of culturally diverse school communities to build parent leadership; (4) Creating a welcoming school environment; (5) Building successful partnership strategies at elementary, middle and high school levels to increase student achievement; and (6) Finding funds to support partnership and literacy activities. Visit the Center’s web site Conferences and Training Opportunities page for program description, workshop content, and registration form.

PARENT LIAISON TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION UPDATE

We are anticipating to schedule our next Parent Involvement Liaison Certification Course in San Diego in late July or August 2006.   Please contact Jeana or Beth if you are interested in attending or you need more information. Phone:  619-594-4756

Resources for Parents and Others

CONDITION OF EDUCATION 2006 – REPORT FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

This annual report summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The 2006 report presents 50 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis on international assessments. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2006 print edition includes 50 indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education.  (Source:  US Department of Education). For more, visit USDE National Center for Education Statistics:  http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006071. 

FOR SOME, GED TEST IN SPANISH OR FRENCH IS BEST ALTERNATIVE

Earning a high school diploma is one of the milestones for students who come to the United States from other countries. But for those who arrive in their middle to late teens, learning enough English to earn a diploma can seem all but impossible. Some students from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, however, are discovering an option that has received little public attention, even among educators: the Spanish-language version of the General Educational Development test. The GED certificate, which is recognized by all states as the equivalent of a high school diploma, can be earned by taking the GED test in Spanish or French, as well as English. As debate over immigration simmers in Congress and among the public, the foreign-language GED could get more scrutiny. Though the debate has centered on border security and the status of illegal immigrants, the issue of language—especially as it relates to the large proportion of newcomers who speak Spanish—is closely intertwined. About 4 percent of the nation’s 666,000 GED test-takers take the Spanish version. A smaller proportion take it in French. Some states, such as California, don’t distinguish on GED certificates or high-school-equivalency diplomas what language the GED test was taken in. Debate over what language should be used in GED preparation classes and testing has mostly been confined to those who work in adult literacy.  For more, see article by Mary Ann Zehr, reported in EdWeek, 06-07-06 Web address: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/06/07/39ged.h25.html 

IMPACT ON LEARNING WHEN TEACHERS TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSBILITY

Teachers who take personal responsibility for student learning can improve student achievement, according to Laura LoGerfo, an education researcher at the Urban Institute. Her peer-reviewed study of first-grade teachers reveals that students with a highly responsible teacher can see a 3 percent increase in their yearly achievement gain. LoGerfo found that teachers who believe that children should know basic reading skills before reaching first grade are less likely to hold themselves accountable for student learning. And she found that the less financially well-off a teacher’s students are, the less responsibility the teacher takes for their learning. Teacher certification and experience, two of the cornerstones of NCLB’s "highly qualified" teacher requirement, were not determiners of committed teachers. In fact, teachers who have completed more coursework in education showed a slightly weaker sense of responsibility than those with less coursework. Supportive administrative leadership made a substantial difference as to whether teachers held themselves accountable for student learning. Teachers in small schools with less than a 50 percent minority enrollment had a greater sense of responsibility for student learning; teachers in Catholic schools showed a higher commitment than their public school counterparts. LoGerfo defined teacher responsibility as a willingness by the teacher to accept blame for students’ negative outcomes as well as credit for positive outcomes. "Rather than attribute poor grades or low test scores to faults within students or deficits in their backgrounds, responsible teachers attribute much of the cause to their own efforts and behavior," explains LoGerfo. See Full article at Hoover Institution web site at: http://www.educationnext.org/20063/68.html;  Source:  Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast 06-02-06

TECHNOLOGY COUNTS 2006

EDWEEK.ORG has a fine web site aimed at fostering the use of data to accelerate student achievement. A special state-focused online supplement to Technology Counts 2006. This new State Technology Report assembles key findings in an accessible format that allows readers to examine a particular state’s performance on this year’s indicators.  Because EdWeek is a subscriber site, it will be necessary for you to register and/or subscribe to EDWEEK in order to benefit from the full site. For more information, go to the EdWeek site at: http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2006/05/04/index.html (Source: EdWeek 5-31-06)

INDIAN STUDENTS OUTPERFORM BLACKS ON NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS

American Indian students tend to lag behind their white and Asian-American peers on National Assessment of Educational Progress reading and mathematics tests in 4th and 8th grade, but they score higher on average than African-American students, according to a first-of-its-kind federal analysis. The U.S. Department of Education says the May 23 report from its National Center for Education Statistics is the first to analyze NAEP data specifically for the performance of American Indian and Alaska Native students. The study examined 2005 scores for students attending public and private schools, as well as those operated by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Defense. It was spurred by a 2004 executive order signed by President Bush that was intended to help Indian and Alaska Native students meet the academic standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act, in part by calling for a report on their academic progress. The report will serve as a baseline for measuring such students’ gains in reading and math, said Cathie Carothers, the acting director of the Education Department’s office of Indian education. She said the results show that Indian and Alaska Native students are performing “as well as or better than other minority groups.”  (Source: Alyson Klein, EdWeek 6-7-06) For more, see http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/06/07/39indian.h25.html 

The California PARENT Center always welcomes the exchange of information and input from the community. We invite you to visit our web site at: http://parent.sdsu.edu/. If you would like to sign up to receive the California PARENT Center E-News Monthly, please send a request with your name, mailing address, and zip code to cpclist@projects.sdsu.edu. If you know anyone who might be interested in receiving the E-News Monthly, please send this issue to them – or send their email address to us. Read previous issues of the California PARENT Center E-News, located on our web site at http://parent.sdsu.edu/e-news. Also, please remember to update the Center if you change your email address.  The California PARENT Center does not rent, exchange, or give away contact information from its email or mailing lists. We keep this information confidential.  If you do not wish to participate in this network, please send e-mail with "Remove" in the subject heading of the email to cpclist@projects.sdsu.edu. We will promptly remove your address from our lists.