Pam,
        Thanks for the interest and query. Via e-mail I'll send you a copy
of the survey I used to assess the extent of parent involvement issues in
teacher education curriculum in USA, reported at AERA this year. Responses
to this survey could be analyzed to assess the degree of an institution's
commitment across the curriculum of teacher education. We simply need to set
up weights for each item. However, the survey does not probe into the time
invested in each course, the duration and depth of activities or projects.
Many did write responses indicating substantive involvement as home surveys
of an ELL family, research studies on parent involvement issues, creating
newsletters for classrooms, working with parents on reading literacy and the
like.
        Your query peaked my interest to do a further data analysis of these
surveys across US, ranking schools from high involvement to low or none.
California is high but California has the only legal requirement for parent
involvement. Some states or schools require parent involvement as a
credentialing requirement but that may be because these states or schools
adopted NCATE standards and did not consciously require parent involvement.
        Some states as Arkansas and Florida say nothing about parent
involvement. Interesting as Gordon made Florida the beacon for parent
education.
        Well, as Howard noted, the chapters for our first monograph are in.
I am in the process of tactfully attempting to bring the authors' together
and make the monograph readable for new teachers. Our group is heavy on the
footnotes and scholarly tone, not as high on "teacher talk" supported by
research.
        Back to work....
        Diana

> ----------
> From:         Pam Kay
> Reply To:     Family, School, Community Partnerships SIG
> Sent:         Thursday, May 3, 2001 1:03 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      The AACTE RFP
>
> Lee, thank you so much for posting this for all of us, and for requesting
> that the deadline be extended to May 31. Reading through the RFP material
> raised a question that I would like to pose for discussion on our list.
>
> 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
>
> Pam Kay         [log in to unmask]           VOICE MAIL (802) 656-8551
> School Research Office,         ->   NEW FAX - (802) 656-9416 <-
> 88 University Heights, Burlington, VT 05405
>
>