Legislature(2011 - 2012)BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
03/23/2011 08:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation: Parent Teacher Association (pta) | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
March 23, 2011
8:02 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Kevin Meyer, Co-Chair
Senator Joe Thomas, Co-Chair
Senator Bettye Davis, Vice Chair
Senator Hollis French
Senator Gary Stevens
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION: PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION (PTA)
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
AL TAMAGNI JR., Vice President
Parent Engagement Program
Alaska Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave an overview of the Alaska PTA's Parent
Engagement Program and answered questions of the committee.
PAULA PAWLOWSKI, Director
Parent Engagement Program
Alaska Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave an overview of the Alaska Parent
Engagement Program 2009/2010 Annual Report and answered
questions of the committee.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:02:20 AM
CO-CHAIR JOE THOMAS called the Senate Education Standing
Committee meeting to order at 8:02 a.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Davis, French, Co-Chair Meyer and Co-Chair
Thomas. Senator Stevens arrived shortly thereafter.
He noted that he would be leaving at 8:30 a.m. due to a Senate
Finance Committee meeting and Co-Chair Meyer would take over the
meeting at that time.
^Presentation: Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
PRESENTATION: PARENT TEACHER ASSOCATION (PTA)
8:03:24 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS announced the business before the committee is
to hear a presentation on the Alaska PTA, specifically about the
Parent Engagement Program.
8:03:43 AM
AL TAMAGNI JR., Vice President, Parent Engagement, Alaska Parent
Teacher Association (PTA), gave a history of parent engagement
in the state of Alaska. He noted that in 2009 the Alaska PTA
received $238,000 for the Parent Engagement Program from the FIE
(Federal Innovation of Education Funds), to be used over a
course of three years. He explained that part of the Parent
Engagement Program includes an advisory committee which is made
up of 14 member leaders who help design and develop the goals
for the program.
8:06:17 AM
PAULA PAWLOWSKI, Director, Parent Engagement Program, Alaska
Parent Teacher Association (PTA), explained that a core team of
experienced individuals, who are past Alaska PTA leaders, put
together four goals for the Parent Engagement Program project.
The members used Harvard's family research project called, A
Logic Model of Setting Goals. The 2009/2010 Annual Report lists
what the program accomplished during the first year of funding
[report included in document packet]. She noted that the goals
were much more difficult to obtain than expected because
building the foundation takes so much more time then the work it
takes after this is established.
Goal I: Develop a team of parents from each school
district in Alaska to provide parent-to-parent
training opportunities for Parent Engagement.
She explained that Goal I was the main premise of the program;
parent-to-parent discussion is much more powerful than
administration-to-parent.
Goal II: Develop and publish parent engagement
website.
She noted that this website is designed to reduce the amount of
time parents have to spend on the internet. It is divided by age
group and also provides information for grandparents and
military parents.
8:10:20 AM
Goal III: Become the recognized organization for
parent engagement by developing new partnerships.
MS. PAWLOWSKI said that the program has done well in this area.
She explained that it works with the Department of Education and
Early Development (DEED), Best Beginnings, Alaska Parent
Information Resource Centers (APIRC), School Boards Association,
Higher Education Career Readiness Task Force, Department of
Labor and Workforce Development, the Alaska Business Education
Compact, United Way and many more.
She explained that the program's project with RurAL Cap was
unusual. The governor's focus on family engagement is recognized
by the Alaska PTA. AmeriCorps volunteers within middle schools
in both rural and urban areas in Alaska created projects that
would help children connect with their school. She said that
this has been a great program and there have been some
successes. She noted that DEED, APIRC and the PTA have been
RurAL Cap's resources.
Goal IV: Develop a parent engagement class for teacher
preparation programs.
She said that in teacher preparation programs there are no
classes designed to train teachers how to have a parent-teacher
conference or reach out and engage parents. The Alaska PTA
believes that this kind of class should always be required in
teacher preparation; however, only two universities currently
offer this course.
She recapped that some of the goals have been successful, while
others still need more work. Overall, she said that she believes
the program has done good work with the funding that it has
received.
8:15:58 AM
MR. TAMAGNI said that there is educational value to having a PTA
in a school, which engages not only parents but students. He
noted that one upcoming project that the Alaska PTA has is the
Parents as Leaders Project. The program will partner with Bridge
Builders to conduct three outreach community cafes in order to
listen and gather concerns on the education system from minority
groups. Some of the other organizations that they are working
with include the Anchorage School District Minority Concern's
Committee and the Hispanic Affairs Council of Alaska. He said
that the Alaska PTA represents approximately 48 percent of
Alaska's students. In 2009, Alaska PTA volunteers volunteered
over 143,000 hours in schools or over $3.5 million of volunteer
hours for schools, communities, and schools. There are
approximately 9,500 members in the state and 141 active PTA
units.
MS. PAWLOWSKI expressed concern for schools that do not have a
consistent way for parents to be engaged with their child's
education. She stressed that this does not mean parents should
go to school solely during school hours, which is not possible
for working parents. She turned to the last page of the
program's annual report, which includes six different standards
that the John Hopkins University, Harvard University, and the
State Board of Education have followed. She explained that
because the Alaska PTA is connected with the national PTA it now
has an assessment guide for these six standards. The more that
these standards are engaged the more systemic the practice will
be. She stressed that parent engagement in a school should not
depend on an individual parent, but rather the school climate
and leaders.
She turned to the Family Engagement Action Plan [included in the
document packet]. This is a draft report which was just recently
endorsed by the State Board of Education. The report is divided
into what can be accomplished on a state level and through
parent engagement. She noted that the National PTA has created a
new partnership with national Head Start and new materials will
begin coming forward from this area. She stressed that the
biggest forms of community involvement is through legislators,
school board members, and on the family level.
She reiterated that the program was not funded with state money
and will not seek additional funding; however the research
states that family engagement helps with child success. The
Alaska PTA should not be responsible for every parent in the
state but available to work as a partner with DEED.
8:24:16 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS asked what the program's annual budget is.
MR. TAMAGNI replied about $70,000.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS referred to Goal IV of the annual report for
Parent Engagement. He asked if the program deals with the
University of Alaska (UA) with regard to teacher preparation.
MS. PAWLOWSKI replied that the program has not reached the
university level yet. The program was asked, through partnership
with NEA [National Education Association], to create this class.
She said that she has promised NEA a workshop by the fall in
order to make it more systemic for teacher preparation.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS noted that UA has a new president and this may
be a good time to approach him about the concept. He asked if
the national certification program [through the National Board
for Professional Teaching Standards] for teachers has elements
dealing with this concept.
MS. PAWLOWSKI replied yes. She explained that even individuals
who teach teacher preparation programs will say that there is a
thread of parent engagement involved in everything that it does.
She noted that this aspect is a work in progress and the Alaska
PTA would like to see it covered in a more succinct and direct
fashion.
SENATOR STEVENS thanked the PTA for its involvement in the
Higher Education Career Readiness Task Force. He said when he
looks at the school board in Kodiak he does not recall a
Pilipino or Asian member involved. However, the recent census
for the district shows that 40 percent of the population is
Pilipino or Asian. He asked how to cross that cultural divide
and get these parents more involved with the PTA.
MS. PAWLOWSKI replied that the Parents as Leaders Conference is
attempting to address this issue. She explained that last year
the National PTA moved towards this by requiring that all state
PTAs need to have a plan of diversity. This means that it is up
to the PTA on a state level to train individual PTA units to
look at their population and make sure that minority groups are
represented. Alaska PTA has worked closely together with Bridge
Builders and found that every parent has the same need and want
their children to succeed. She noted that next year getting
minority group involvement will be part of the program's
mission.
8:30:57 AM
[CO-CHAIR THOMAS turned the gavel over to Co-Chair Meyer at 8:30
a.m.]
SENATOR FRENCH asked what degree of involvement the PTA has with
the "parents as teachers" efforts that is being advanced in the
House.
MS. PAWLOWSKI replied that the PTA has a legislative platform
that deals with different sections in education; early childhood
is one of those sections. Parents as Teachers is a way to assess
children early-on and begin to involve parents in their child's
education right away.
CO-CHAIR MEYER said part of the challenge as parents in today's
society is that both parents are often busy and they do not have
as much time to be involved in their children's activities. He
said within his own district some PTAs have a large crowd, while
others have a very small group of members. He asked how the
Alaska PTA gets parents involved given the situation in today's
society where people are pulled in so many directions.
MR. TAMAGNI replied that this challenge has been seen across
Alaska. He explained that the PTA is losing parents because they
don't have enough time to attend those meetings. He noted that
the Alaska PTA is asking individual PTAs to become "dynamic and
diverse" in order to engage parents in their particular
communities.
CO-CHAIR MEYER commented that it would be helpful for PTA groups
if there was some way to share all of these different ideas. He
said that he has noticed that PTAs change meeting times
constantly.
MS. PAWLOWSKI noted that it is not just the PTA that is
suffering. The rotary clubs and other private clubs are failing
in membership as well. She said that Alaska PTA is trying to
keep up with modern technology through Facebook, their webpage,
SurveyMonkey, and more. She stressed that if PTA groups cannot
create activities that don't involve families it will not work.
CO-CHAIR MEYER concurred.
8:38:17 AM
SENATOR STEVENS asked what Bridge Builders is.
MS. PAWLOWSKI replied that Bridge Builders of Anchorage was
started by Mayor Rick Mystrom, during a time when the city was
experiencing a lot of crime and gang activity. He brought
together ministers to discuss these issues and help bring
minority groups together. Bridge Builders puts together
activities throughout the year that allow minority groups to
meet and mingle with each other and their community.
CO-CHAIR MEYER said that some of the PTA meetings that he
attends in his district are parent dominated and others are
teacher-principal dominated. He asked if it is difficult to find
a balance.
MR. TAMAGNI replied that typically teachers are more involved in
the PTA and it is important to encourage parent involvement as
well.
CO-CHAIR MEYER said that last week the committee took up SB 84,
which deals with the base student allocation (BSA) increase,
along with a section outside of the BSA which deals with
vocational education. He said that the committee has heard from
teachers, school administrators, principals, and others.
However, he explained that he has not heard from many parents.
He asked how to get more parents involved with the legislature.
MS. PAWLOWSKI answered that the timing of the meeting is
inconvenient. She noted that a recent online survey of parents
through SurveyMonkey show that about 95 percent of parents are
supportive of CTE [career and technical education] and the final
numbers will be released to the committee as soon as the survey
closes. She explained that the concern is that in having CTE
funding be a part of the BSA, this money will not necessarily go
to CTE.
CO-CHAIR MEYER noted that SB 84 keeps the vocational funding
separate from the BSA so that money will definitely go to CTE.
MS. PAWLOWSKI added that the legislative process is difficult
for parents. She explained that the Alaska PTA does not
recommend that parents support a particular bill by number or
title, but rather by the concepts within the bill. She noted
that following legislation is a different way to be engaged.
CO-CHAIR MEYER said a quick e-mail would also suffice.
MR. TAMAGNI asked if the committee is still look for feedback on
SB 84.
CO-CHAIR MEYER replied yes.
MR. TAMAGNI said that he would make sure an e-mail gets out to
the Alaska PTA's members.
CO-CHAIR MEYER said it does make a difference when parents are
engaged in their child's school.
8:48:09 AM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Co-Chair Meyer adjourned the meeting at 8:48 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 Parent Engagement Rept.pdf |
SEDC 3/23/2011 8:00:00 AM |
|
| Cover Letter.pdf |
SEDC 3/23/2011 8:00:00 AM |
|
| DEED Family Engagement Plan.pdf |
SEDC 3/23/2011 8:00:00 AM |