Attributes of a School Home Partnership (SHP) on Academic, Social and Emotional Growth of Students
Purpose:
The purpose of this research was to explore the impact of a multi-tiered, school-
home partnership program on academic, social, and emotional growth of students within one school in the DoDEA system.
Main Partners:
The participants in this study were the parents and community members who created an organization designed to augment and enrich the existing curriculum in music at David Glasgow Farragut High School in Rota, Spain. The school and private organization partnered with other local organizations (American, Spanish, Portuguese, and French) in order to accomplish its shared-vision and reach mutually agreed upon goals.
Beneficiaries:
The students, parents, and community members who participated reached their five goals: To increase student achievement in music classes, to provide cultural experiences, to increase parental involvement in music activities, to increase community involvement in classroom and non-classroom activities, and to increase pride among music students.
Contributors:
The Rota Music Club contributed over $15,000.00 to the success of this project. Other private organizations contributed money and in-kind resources to help meet the organizational goals.
Essential elements:
This study incorporated the Five Tiered Conceptual Framework of Janet Chrispeels in order to build meaningful partnerships between family and community members and the local school. A consultant from the University of Buffalo helped the organization develop a shared vision and set the goals for the group. A formal structure was created, monthly meetings were held which monitored the progress of the group and provided guidance when necessary. Students and parents participated equally in the meetings, and parents were involved in all activities of the students.
Main Factors of its Success:
The conceptual framework of Janet Chrispeels provided the foundation for each school to build upon when developing their partnership efforts. Careful monitoring of progress ensured that progress on goals was steady; outside experts were used when help was needed. Connections between the organization and the members of the community were carefully nurtured.
Assessment/Evaluation:
Survey data retrieved via the Internet were triangulated with focus group data. Two focus groups were convened in order to extract the perceptions of involved parents and students about the effect of the school-home partnership on the musical achievement of the students. The focus group sessions were recorded in digital video-audio for retrieval. Following the taping, the researcher made notes of the session in order to capture insights and overt behavior of the respondents, and to be able to record his ongoing thoughts and reflections of the sessions. The researcher listened to and transcribed the two focus group sessions. The researcher took the transcriptions to focus group participants and asked them to review the comments. The reviews were used as a member check on the transcription. The transcription was refined with the use of a log. The researcher placed statements into categories according to the five tiers of the Chrispeels model. In the log, the details of the sessions were written at the top of each page. The tape was played and the researcher wrote down key notes and phases important to the study. These notes were also coded to the counter on the digital audio recorder in order to provide access to the exact place of reference for review. To the right of the paper, the researcher wrote comments about the session as it progressed. Responses that were similar were grouped and tallied. All notes and codes were organized according to themes and categories of the sessions (the five tiers and "other"). Two surveys were developed by the researcher, one for parents, one for students, and posted on the Internet. Volunteers were asked to complete the survey on their own time. The participants submitted the surveys anonymously. Follow-up messages were sent out after two and four days in order to obtain maximum participation. One hundred and eighteen student surveys were retrieved out of a possible enrollment of 149 students; forty-nine parent surveys were received of 110 possible families. Responses that were similar were grouped and tallied. The findings were interpreted and conclusions were drawn that supported the strong impact of the partnership effort on student achievement, social, and emotional growth of students.
Number of Years in Existence:
The formal organization of the Rota Music Club has been in existence for five years.
Impact:
The impact that this program has had on individual learning, social, and emotional growth has been documented in the findings.
Replication:
This program can be replicated in any school system.
Name of Sponsor:
Dr. Iris M. Yob, Ed.D.
Walden University
812 3312120 or 812 855 4579
Author: Mark Bignell
Address: 11470 Rothbury Square, Fairfax, VA. 22030
Phone: 703-981-9379
Email: mbignell@waldenu.edu
FAX: 7036968921