Working the Plan, part 4: Better parent, community involvement fourth goal of Cape Girardeau School District's improvement plan

She has just earned her associate degree in paraprofessional education, bound to begin work on her bachelor's degree in elementary education. For now, she says she is working overnights to pay the bills.

But Crystle Sandridge asserts her children's education is a top priority. The 30-year-old single mom from Cape Girardeau's south side spends a few mornings a week volunteering in her 3-year-old son's Head Start class. During the evenings, she helps her 10-year-old son with his homework, when the tween allows her to hang around, she jokes.

She's busy. Very busy. But Sandridge said it's important that she is involved in her children's lives and in their learning, something her single mother always stressed.

"The parental involvement on her end wasn't really high because of her job," Sandridge said. "But she came to parent-teacher conferences. For the most important things, she was there."

So Sandridge finds it irritating when she sees school-aged children walking the streets or hanging out in stores when they should be in school. Some of it she chalks up to tough economic times, parents working long hours to survive. But sometimes, she said, parents just don't care.

"It's like, 'If you go to school, you do; if you don't, you don't,'" she said.

And that is the big challenge the Cape Girardeau School District faces as it works to improve parent and community involvement -- Goal IV in the school system's five-year Comprehensive School Improvement Plan. While a vital link in the district's campaign to raise the bar on student and educator performance, parental involvement has often been the least talked about element in partnership education, community members and educators say.

"People think maybe they can't change a parent," said Nancy Jernigan, executive director of the United Way of Southeast Missouri. "Maybe in some minds it's too big a thing to do. They think, they're adults, they should know better."

But it's not always so simple, say those who work at the forefront of community relationship building.

A matter of trust

For Pat King, much of the disconnect between some families and the school district boils down to negative reinforcement. King, director of Cape Area Family Resource Center on South Sprigg Street, said some parents, especially those living in poverty, come from negative school experiences, and they often impart their distrust of educators and education on their children.

"I'll talk to a child and tell them they have to stay in school, and the parents say, 'Ah, school ain't do you no good,'" King said. "That's how society has beaten that parent down. Now that parent is reflecting that on that child."

King said the big hurdle is building back up the relationship between the home and the school, adding it can be an overwhelming proposition.

"You've got to feel for the child because they are a product of their environment," King said.

The environment for an increasing number of children is life in a single-mother home. The black community's rate of single-mother households, at 72 percent, eclipses that of most other groups: 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of American Indians were born to unwed mothers in 2008, the most recent year for which government figures are available, according to a story earlier this month from The Associated Press. The rate for the overall U.S. population was 41 percent. Children of unmarried mothers of any race are more likely to perform poorly in school, go to prison, use drugs, be poor as adults and have their own children out of wedlock, statistics show.

There is mounting frustration driving the divide, according to service agency officials. Some parents grow discouraged, feeling that the only contact they have with the school is when their child has done something wrong, King and others say.

Brenda Lewis has spent the past 10 months trying to build bridges between at-risk homes and the school district. Lewis serves as parent liaison for the United Way's LIFE Initiative. She works with eighth- through 12th-grade students in peril of not graduating. To date, she has contacted dozens of the homes of the 100-plus students on the district's academic watch list. Lewis said she is trying to build lasting relationships with people who don't trust the schools and administrators and teachers who have grown frustrated.

"There is fear and walls on both sides," Lewis said.

Those walls are beginning to fall, she said.

Reconnecting

District officials say the school system works to keep families connected with the classroom, but many agree that there needs to be a renewed effort. The school improvement plan strives to increase the percentage of parents and guardians involved in their child's education. In some cases that means providing transportation to parent-teacher conferences or student activities. And if parents can't get to school, educators will come to them.

Jefferson Elementary School through programming and, particularly, its parent liaison, is building better relationships with its educational community, said principal Mark Cook. A Halloween-themed family night last month drew 500 people to the school. There are family literacy nights, an annual movie night and a host of other activities to make the school an educational home, Cook said.

Jim Welker, superintendent of the Cape Girardeau School District, said the community school is vital to the district's push to improve the delivery of education.

"The more we get [families] to come into school the more connected and more able we are to build a relationship with them so we can have more of an impact there," Welker said.

Jefferson Elementary, like other schools in the district, is trying to make more positive contact with parents, sending out letters to celebrate successes or making phone calls to remind caregivers about the importance of their presence at school meetings.

"There's no silver bullet here," Cook said. "I have a lot of parents that come in and they spend time. A lot don't. I don't have an answer to that. But the more you talk [to parents], the more you know."

Educators like Cook and Cape Girardeau Central High School principal Mike Cowan say a big part of the district's success is the involvement of so many of its parents, grandparents and extended family members. But the schools, Cowan said, ultimately must serve one constituency above all others: its students. While building relationships with parents is important, the principal said that is of secondary concern to meeting the educational needs of children.

"Some parents don't give us much of a chance to connect. So where do you put your energies?" Cowan said.

What's at stake

Reams of research underscore how critical parental involvement is to the educational success of a child. When parents are engaged, students have higher grades, test scores, graduation rates and better attendance. Above all, parenting trumps poverty, research shows.

"Family participation in education was twice as predictive of students' academic success as family socioeconomic status," according to the Michigan Department of Education.

Lewis, the parent liaison, said she has seen the difference firsthand. For instance, she encouraged a single mother to connect with her son's counselor and teachers, and Lewis said that partnership has changed the child's course.

"Her intervention resulted in his attending summer school and attaining a needed credit," Lewis wrote in her October reports.

Crystle Sandridge said it's not always easy for parents to find the time, but staying involved sends a powerful message to students.

"It shows a student you care about their education and [they think], 'Hey, my mom is watching me, my dad's watching, so I'd better make sure I'm here, that I'm doing my homework.'"

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627

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