Pam,

You ask:
>
>ONe of the requirements for those submitting proposals is that one's
>institution be committed to promoting parent involvement. There are
>numerous checklists for public schools. However, I wonder how we can
>gauge the committment of our institutions of higher education. What do the
>other readers of this list suggest? Pam

I've been thinking a lot about this lately, having just finished the chapter
on "Preparing Professionals for School, Family and Community Partnerships"
for our SIG volume which Diana Hyatt-Michael is editing.

The surveys look at whether schools, colleges and departments of education
(SCDEs)
have a separate course on partnerships and/or infuse partnerships throughout
the curriculum.  A related issue is whether these courses are required or
electives and who takes them.  One pattern is that early childhood,
elementary, and special ed teachers are required to take courses with
partnership content, while other teachers and administrators are not.

So one way to guage higher education commitment to partnerships is to ask
whether a full course on the subject is required for all teachers,
counselors and administrators in training.  A "Yes" answer would show real
commitment.

Next would be to ask if one or more courses in  which partnerships is a
MAJOR component are required for all teachers, counselors and administrators
in the program.  A "Yes" here should also demonstrate a major commitment.
We might want to study the syllabi a bit to see if their definition of
"major" is consistent with ours.

Finally, I would ask if a focus on partnerships is infused throughout their
required curriculum for all professionals.  Here I would treat a yes answer
skeptically.  It's easy to say we do this, and we probably mean to, but in
practice it's common to do it superficially, sporatically, or with lots of
duplication across courses. It would take a very close examination of the
syllabi, and perhaps some additional investigation, to ascertain whether the
commitment is real.

I'm sure there are other ways to go about it, such as interviewing
graduates, or better yet, seeing how consistently and effectively the
graduates are implementing partnerships in their work.  But I'll stop there.

Sorry to miss you in Seattle this year,
Howie Kirschenbaum

Howard Kirschenbaum
Frontier Professor of School, Family and Community Relations
Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627

Phone: 716-275-5077
Email: [log in to unmask]