Wake County Families and Schools Support Student Success
 Wake County PTA Council President Sarah Martin talks with Apex High Principal Matt Wight about promoting academic excellence. |
This is the third in a series of reports on the six standards of family involvement in Wake Board Policy 2541
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Listen to Apex High School's Matt Wight and Sarah Martin talk about supporting student success 35 minute mp3 file Share your school's best practices for communicating with families |
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5-page Acrobat file |
February 24, 2009 – Families and schools are working in partnership to support success for students and for their schools.
To further foster this partnership, the Wake County School Board is embracing standards of the National PTA. The PTA’s six standards for judging effective family-school partnerships are now included in Board Policy 2541.
Sarah Martin, the Wake County PTA Council President, is visiting schools to talk with principals about the standards. Martin visited with Principal Matt Wight of Apex High to talk about Standard 3: Supporting student success - Families and school staff continuously collaborate to support students’ learning and healthy development both at home and at school, and have regular opportunities to strengthen their knowledge and skills to do so effectively.
Build a partnership
“Families and schools can work together to support students,” said Martin. “They can work together in the home and at the school to strengthen the knowledge and the skills that students have so they can succeed, so they can follow through and learn the things they are supposed to learn and pass the tests that they need to pass in order to move through the system on time.”
Matt Wight, Wake County’s Principal of the Year, says a parent’s role changes as students move from elementary to high school. You don’t see grade mothers in high school.
“You come to a high school football game and you see hundreds of parents,” said Wight. “You come to a chorus concert and you see hundreds of parents. Parents value the achievement of students and they support them.”
Martin says parent involvement varies from family to family.
“Sometimes it means being present at the school, coming in for conferences with teachers, having phone conferences with teachers, exchanging e-mail with teachers. Sometimes it means sitting down with the child at the end of the day and talking about school,” said Martin. “The more a parent can be involved, the easier it is for the child to succeed.”
Wight says students moving into high school are building the resume that will affect their choices for higher education and employment.
“Our philosophy is that we want to be as transparent as possible and we want to communicate with parents early and often to keep them apprised of what’s going on in the classroom,” said Wight. “Certainly, the importance and gravity of what the kids do in high school as they’re looking toward college is really, really important. So parents are very interested in grades.”
Apex High encourages parents to keep up with student’s academic work by using the online Student Parent Access Network which teachers keep up-to-date. Grades are sent out every three weeks in report cards or interim progress reports. Teachers, parents and students can communicate through a teacher’s online Blackboard website and by using e-mail. School news is sent out twice a week through the PTSA list serve called CougarNotes.
Learn school practices and policies
Apex High PTSA has a parent Coalition for Excellence. It is a PTSA subcommittee.
“They work to provide opportunities for students and their parents to receive information and in some cases to receive training,” said Wight. “We can’t assume that all parents are familiar with the school and are familiar with the practices and processes of the school. We have speakers who come in to give them insight into that.”
The Coalition for Excellence provides tutors twice a week after school in the media center. It’s for every subject and for every grade level. It’s open to every student.
With the growth in southwest Wake County, Apex High school counselors developed a group to help new students.
“Our Student Services Department came up with a newcomers club where kids moving in new to our school are given the opportunity to get together about once every nine weeks and get to know other kids who’ve moved and are in the same situation,” said Wight. “It’s an opportunity for those parents new to the area to network with other parents. It’s been very helpful.”
Understand the school experience
Wight says one of the most difficult parts of being a high school parent is learning that the rules have changed from their school experience.
“It’s very, very involved and it is extremely competitive,” said Wight. “It’s very important that we give parents as much information as possible before their children enter as ninth graders.”
Parents, students and schools need to understand the state high school graduation requirements and the University of North Carolina system requirements for admission. These guidelines help students make decisions about the types of courses to take. Students can also make decisions about the benefits of taking honors or Advanced Placement courses.
Apex High provides Cougar Camp for entering freshmen to help students and families in making the transition from middle school to high school. The Dean of Students and school counselors meet with families to discuss course selections and the annual progress towards graduation.
Teachers have an important role in the school’s partnership with the student and parents. They provide quality instruction, regularly assess student progress and provide the student with feedback about their performance.
“Based on that feedback and communications with parents, sometimes extra resources may be required,” said Wight. “It may be extra study time with the teacher. It may be a tutor. It may be peer tutoring. There are lots of different interventions. If extra intervention is required, we expect the parent will be a partner with us to try to find out what will be effective.”
School is a priority
Wight says it’s important for parents to set a clear expectation about school for their children and he does that in his own home for his middle school aged children.
“School has to be a priority,” said Wight. “As a parent sometimes it comes down to deciding what’s important and modeling what’s important.”
When it comes to her elementary school aged children, Martin agrees with Wight.
“School has to come first,” said Martin. “As a parent, I think it’s important for our children to see that we are not only pushing for higher standards, but that we’re also involved with the school and that we’re trying to help the school and the greater community. My kids see the importance I have placed on the school improvement team, being involved in things that are happing within the school, in addition to looking at their own individual success.”
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