Higher Ed Mini Grants 2005

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Mini-Grant Projects

KPIRC Mini-grant 2007-2008
Ottawa University

The overall goal of the Family and Parent Involvement – Curriculum Enhancement Initiative is to ensure that all graduates of Ottawa University’s Teacher Education Program foster relationships with family and parents for the purpose of improving students’ learning. Surveys have shown that previous student teachers felt the least confident with Profession Standard #10 (The educator fosters collegial relationships with school personnel, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support all students’ learning and well-being.)

A learning community has been formed to research family and parent involvement initiatives that have proven to be successful. This group will in turn share their findings and resources with the faculty of the Ottawa University Teacher Education Program to use in their courses. The teacher education candidates will learn about family and parent involvement practices that will positively impact student learning.

In addition to sharing strategies within the University, there will be an opportunity to speak at the Association of Teacher Educator meeting to be held in New Orleans in February. The Family and Parent Involvement grant findings, along with two other learning communities’ findings, will be shared through a program entitled “Ottawa University Teacher Education Program Faculty: Develop Learning Communities to Complete Action Research Projects as Models for Teacher Candidates.”

Institute of Higher Education Mini-grants 2007-2008
Baker University

ABSTRACT
Parent and Family Involvement Grant

Dr. Machele Timberlake at Baker University will be using the funds in several classes. The ED 362 Education Orientation Internship course is taken the semester before teacher education candidates begin their capstone course – student teaching. It is a thirty-hour internship that gives teacher candidates a first-hand look at the beginning of a school year in an elementary or secondary school. In the August class, teacher candidates in ED 362 were responsible for interviewing two teachers on how they establish an effective communication plan and form a positive parent-teacher partnership with their parents. Teacher candidates were also required to create a Parent-Teacher Relationship Plan that would encourage positive interaction between themselves and the parent(s). Teacher candidate plans included a component on ways to keep parents informed of student’s progress other than report cards and quarterly progress reports, ways to share with parents positive things their student has done throughout the week, ways to handle a difficult parent, ways to keep parents that do not speak English informed of their child’s progress, and ways to work with parents of an exceptional child.

Teacher candidates were then encouraged to use their plans during their student teaching, ED 450 and ED 470. In addition, to help student teachers record their contacts with parents, a Parent/Family Collection sheet was created to determine the frequency and type of parent interactions per month.

Institute of Higher Education Mini-grants 2007-2008
Kansas State University

Abstract:
Listening to Families: A Curriculum Enhancement Initiative

The curriculum enhancement initiative developed Dr. Jim Teagarden at Kansas State University was awarded a mini-grant to address the overall inclusion of parental involvement in the pre-service training of special educational teachers.
The project involves the collection of video interviews with families as a requirement of students enrolled in EDSP 745: Consulting in Special Education. These structured interviews are designed to allow the families to share their views on how schools may how a variety of types or methods of engaging families.
Edited versions of these interviews are presented to pre-service teachers enrolled in EDSP 323: Special Education in Secondary Schools and/or EDSP 324: Exceptional Child in the General Classroom. These students are required to write a philosophy of education as part of the course requirements. Inclusion of statements of parental involvement elements in this philosophy will be tracked as an indicator of the impact of this project.
The third activity developed as a result of this mini-grant is related to the practicum experience for students enrolled in EDSP 785: Practicum: Adaptive Special Education. This experience is limited to those students admitted to the graduate school and are adding special education adaptive endorsement to their licensure. This experience includes the structured field based experience to include families in the education of a special education student. The practicum utilizes an on-line professional community that allows an ongoing reflection and feedback from peers. The practicum is also project based allowing the teacher enrolled to refine their skills in this area and to develop artifacts for the portfolio used to document competencies for the master’s program.

Mini-grant Recipients for 2005

Two new KPIRC higher education mini-grants have been awarded to faculty for the spring semester of 2005 with an overarching goal of integrating parent involvement concepts into pre-service teacher education courses and to help future teachers understand the value and benefits of parent involvement.

Fort Hays State University
Kansas State University

Mini-grant Recipients for 2004

During 2004 the KPIRC funded two higher education projects through a competitive mini-grant. The purpose of these grants was to integrate parent involvement concepts into teacher preparation courses at four year teaching training institutions and into education foundation courses offered through two year community colleges.

Kansas State University Mini-Grant Award
Hutchinson Community College Mini-Grant Award

Fort Hays State University Mini-Grant Award 2005
Dr. Paul Adams and Dr. Germain Taggart at Fort Hays State University will be using the funds in the TEEL 478 Mathematics and Science Internship class that conducts an after school science and mathematics enrichment program for Hays USD 489 K-5 students. The proposed project will expand the after school program to engage parents and children in exploring science at home. The theme of the project is "Nutrition" and Fort Hays students will facilitate the program in which after-school children and their parents become food detectives (similar to the popular CSI crime scene investigations television program). One of the program goals is to encourage family and parent involvement by raising parental level of content knowledge and their science/mathematics comfort level.

http://www.fhsu.edu/coe/is/

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Kansas State University Mini-Grant Award 2005
Dr. David Allen at Kansas State University will be using the funds in EDEL 473 Elementary and Middle-Level Mathematic Methods. The funds will support training pre-service teachers to incorporate family and parent involvement initiatives in Professional Development Schools through a Family Mathematics Course that will be implemented in the evenings for parents/community members and students in grades K-6. The course will include activities from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards and Family Math. The goal will be to expose parents and community members to national mathematics standards, "best practices," and current research in mathematics. Pre-service students from Kansas State University will be teaching the course.

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Kansas State University Mini-Grant Award 2004 Marilyn Kaff was awarded a mini-grant for EDSP 323 – The Exceptional Student in the Secondary Setting course at Kansas State University. As part of her curriculum she had students reflect on their beliefs about parental involvement in secondary settings at the beginning of the course. Using a constructivist approach to learning about parental involvement, her pre-service secondary education students were exposed to issues surrounding parental involvement. Working in collaborative teams, students were given several authentic tasks related to parental involvement including responding to case studies of students with and without disabilities; simulations and role plays of parent teacher student conferences; interviewing teachers, parents, students and administrators about parental involvement; and developing a year long plan for parent involvement that they will use during their student internships and when they become classroom teachers. Upon assessing students’ perceptions of parent involvement at the end of the course, Dr. Kaff learned that students views radically changes. She intends to follow these students through their student teaching experiences and first year of teaching to research their evolving perceptions of parent involvement. Students designed innovative methods for enlisting the support of parents that were shared as power point presentations in class. Below are their presentations.
General Strategies for Parental Involvement (559KB)
Individualized Education Plans aka IEP (95KB) Parents and the IEP (197KB)
Teachers and Parents Looking at Student Work Together (236KB) Teacher & Parents Looking at Student Work Together (43.5KB)
Parent Teacher Conferences/Student-Led Conferences (25KB) Parent Teacher Conferences (47.5KB)
Homework & Parental Involvement (100KB) Parental Involvement in Homework (361KB)
Decision Making (38KB) Decision Making & Community Involvement (231KB)
Communication: It Takes Two (119KB) Communication in Our School (94.5KB)
Volunteering: No parent Left Behind (189KB) Myth Busters: Volunteerism – Myths and Other Misconceptions (126KB)
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Hutchinson Community College Mini-Grant Award 2004
Sharon Stephenson at Hutchinson Community College was awarded a mini-grant for ED 201 Introduction to Education. As a result of this project, students enrolled in this course were involved, for the first time, in two authentic projects that created a better understanding and awareness of the value, benefits, and importance of parent involvement. Students were required to gather information, via interviews with principals and students, regarding the school and community to which they were assigned to observe as a course requirement. This enabled these students to better understand the children, the families, and the culture surrounding the communities – which also helped them to realize how important it is to know their communities, once they are classroom teachers. Another activity that was incorporated into the curriculum involved students in directly observing or participating in events that included parents at their schools. Sample activities included parent/teacher conferences, IEP meetings, and attending special school events. Student reflections on these assignments reveal that students, who are just beginning with teacher training, sometimes have misconceptions or a limited understanding of parent involvement and might mislabel what they perceive as lack of involvement as apathy. To assist her students’ understanding, Ms. Stephenson intends to continue integrating parent involvement into this beginning education foundation course with plans for additional parent involvement experiences.

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