Schools and Parents Work Together to Better Children’s Education

 

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As a second grade teacher at Mitchell Elementary School with 11 years of teaching experience, Aracely Medrano felt very familiar with the Arizona school system. But as the mother of two girls attending Mitchell, she felt responsible for learning even more about the resources that could help her children receive a better education.

 

So when her assistant principal told her Mitchell had partnered with ASU to offer the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE), a nine-week K-12 program that teaches parents how to navigate the U.S. school system, take an active role in their children’s education, and help their children get to college, Medrano immediately enrolled.

 

“I got involved in PIQE because I wanted to learn about other school programs for my girls,” says Medrano, who is currently getting one of her daughters tested for a gifted program she discovered through the program. “It was also very motivating for me to get to know other parents in the community and share how I disciplined my daughters, taught them to read, and helped them with their homework.”

 

Medrano’s experiences in PIQE proved so positive that after graduating, she underwent training at ASU’s Center for Community Development and Civil Rights to become a PIQE facilitator at various area schools. As facilitator, she makes sure to invite all parents with students at her schools to attend PIQE and connect with the school and community resources that can help fulfill their children’s K-12 educational needs.

 

Originally a California-based program founded in 1987, PIQE has proven very successful in increasing parent involvement in schools, raising high school graduation rates, and lowering dropout rates. Since being brought to Arizona by ASU’s Center for Community Development and Civil Rights in 2006, the program has partnered with 11 Arizona preschools, elementary, middle, and high schools, and has graduated over 1500 parents.

 

“School districts are very open to adding another program to reach out to parents,” states Leticia de la Vara, a program officer in ASU’s Center for Community Development and Civil Rights which oversees funding and technical assistance for PIQE. “We constantly get calls from schools that want PIQE, so we try to recruit as many facilitators as possible to meet the demand.”

 

De la Vara notes parents who attend PIQE often face similar challenges with the U.S. school system, including a lack of familiarity with GPAs, state and national tests, and tutoring programs. Some parents also feel uncomfortable participating in parent-teacher conferences or speaking with principals due to their limited English skills.     

 

To help parents develop their knowledge of the school system, PIQE facilitators spend an hour and a half each week with parents discussing school issues they would like to know more about and sharing strategies for creating a good learning environment at home. Parents also role play conversations with teachers and counselors to get over their fear of speaking to school officials.

 

“PIQE works with parents because it believes if parents are motivated and have the right tools, they will motivate their child to succeed in school,” says Jasmin de Leon, an Administrative Associate Assistant to the Director of ASU’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies and PIQE facilitator. “If parents see the home is conducive to learning, they will spend time reading instead of watching TV, take their kids to the library, and ask questions about school – so the child knows their parents care about their education.”

 

Recent PIQE graduate Teresa Jacobo uses the lessons she learned in PIQE to create an after school schedule for her three children.

 

“They get home, have dinner, rest, do their homework, and read. If they don’t finish their homework, they can’t use the computer or phone – it’s a good way to keep them focused,” states Jacobo. She adds her oldest daughter Myriam, a freshman in high school, has already received a college scholarship and dreams of attending ASU.

 

While some parents who attend PIQE are first generation immigrants, de la Vara emphasizes that language and cultural differences are not the only reasons for a parent’s lack of involvement in school. She notes many parents have two or more jobs, limiting their time, while other families may be dealing with domestic problems, such as divorce or depression, that can keep them from participating in their child’s schooling.

 

To address these issues, facilitators let parents know schools can reschedule appointments to accommodate busy schedules. Parents also share information about counseling programs and therapy groups that can help other parents deal with domestic problems.

 

Toward the end of the nine-week program, parents are given an opportunity to ask questions about their child’s school to the school principal. For many PIQE facilitators, this session truly reveals how much parents now know about the school system.

 

“At the beginning of the program, parents might ask, ‘Is my child behaving? Is he being quiet in class?’” says de la Vara. “But by the end, there’s a shift to questions like, ‘What is the school’s plan for meeting its Adequate Yearly Progress? What security measures are being enforced? What special education programs are being offered?’ So they really develop a more defined sense of the roles of the school and the roles of the parent within the school. And principals love their questions – they love to be involved and see the parents excited and interested in what’s going on at the school.”

 

Significantly, by learning more about the U.S. school system and discovering how education can better one’s life, several graduates of PIQE are taking steps to further their own education. Some parents have enrolled to get their GEDs while others are already taking university courses.

 

Such enthusiasm for higher learning is encouraging to PIQE facilitators, who emphasize it is never too early to prepare children for college. Throughout the program, facilitators teach parents about the high school courses students should take that will help them gain acceptance into colleges, as well as resources that will help students attain scholarships.

 

“We really stress that kids who have better experiences in elementary and junior high will have a better success rate in high school and be more likely to go to a university, and that it is a family decision, not a child’s decision, to attend college,” says de la Vara.

 

These lessons were reiterated by numerous parent speakers at a recent PIQE graduation, who encouraged their fellow graduates to constantly use the skills they gained from the program and positively impact their children’s education.

 

“We have to practice what we learned – our commitment, our example, our support, and our knowledge will help our kids in their future,” states Socorro Perez, a mother of two, who recently completed PIQE at Garfield Elementary School. “And we will see the outcomes of these efforts in our kids’ success.”

 

Through financial support provided by ASU and Arizona school districts, PIQE is offered free to parents at local preschools, elementary, middle, and high schools. Classes are taught in English and Spanish and held twice a day, in the morning and evening, to accommodate work schedules. Fall PIQE classes begin in August. Learn more by visiting PIQE’s web site and viewing this video provided by KNOW 99 Television.

 

PIQE will be holding summer facilitator training this August 4th and 5th for its program. Contact Leticia de la Vara at Leticia.Delavara@asu.edu for more information.

Michael Jung, ASU in the Community feature writer
Michael.Jung@asu.edu
480-727-8339

To learn more about how ASU is engaged with the community, please visit ASU in the Community’s Program Database which connects you to a wide variety of specific ASU outreach efforts.