Essential 6: Involve Parents and the Community       Essential 6: Involve Parents and the Community in the Citywide Learning Standards and Assessments The sixth essential element for Whole School Improvement is to involve parents and the community in the citywide learning standards and assessments and introduce ways parents and the community can support students.          Key Activities in accomplishing this task: coordinate work of school-based parent liasons strengthen relationships with external organizations through Fund for Nonprofits focus Boston Compact partnerships on student learning provide training for parents on looking at student work and other standards-based reform initiatives include parents on school teams disseminate pulications widely: Great Expectations, Focus, Connections, others explore successful models of parent and community involvement focus School-Site and School Parent councils on instruction       What should be seen in the school and classroom: family literacy, math and technology sessions parent and community volunteers in schools community participation that is focused and directly meets the needs of students and teachers. parents as children's first teachers and experts of student's social contexts, collaborating with school staff on instruction cluster leaders convening parent leaders from schools to organize family literacy programs parent-community centers in schools parents involved in looking at student work including portfolios and exhibitions. parents on school teams and school governance teams interactive homework       Agassiz Self Assessment Summary: How are we succeeding in implementing Essential 6: Involve Parents and the Community in the Citywide Learning Standards and Assessments ?   We assess our progress in implementation of the Sixth Essential: Involve Parents and the Community in the Citywide Learning Standards and Assessments as: Phase 2 - Implementation on the Whole School Improvement continuum. The following evidence was used to determine this marking: Parents are fully informed, throughout the school year, of students' academic and social expectations. Teachers regularly send home newsletters detailing the monthly activities in which the students will be engaged. The principal also communicates with parents letting them of upcoming events such as testing, assemblies, awarding of grants, changes in staff, etc. All communication from the office to parents is in both Spanish and English. Teachers made frequent telephone calls to their students' homes with both good and bad news. Success For All "star" post cards were sent to the homes of children twice during the school year. Literacy workshops were held three times during the year. Parents are encouraged to express their opinions of the educational programs at the school and to seek clarification of BPS policies that impact their children. The school has one parent liaison through Cohort I. A pair of teachers prepared a manual for incoming Spanish bilingual kindergarten children and their parents to address the need to develop language. Training dates for the use of the manual have been scheduled for early fall. Bilingual parents meet once a month in the school with the Bilingual coordinator. The School Site Council still suffers from not having the number of parents involved that it should have. There is a parent representative on the ILT.   Our goals for moving to the next phase are: Develop a Parent-School Compact by October 2000. Establish a standing committee during the 2000-2001 school year to oversee the parental/community involvement aspect of WSC by October 2000. Work with the Title 1 Parent Resource Center to implement outreach strategies that will give parents an opportunity to participate in an on-going dialogue and to receive training in literacy and math. Involve the CPC in supporting the reestablishment of an active SPC. Increase number of literacy workshops and implement math workshops. Make school information available, in both languages, via the Internet by October 2000. Establish a business partnership by November 2000