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Promising Practices
- Abriendo Puertas (Opening Doors)
Target:Parents
Purpose:Introduce parents to materials developed by Texas A&M including curriculum that helps parents understand adolescent growth and development, and recognize the roles they play in helping their students to graduate from high school.
Activities:Parents participate in a series of training sessions covering various materials on high school and college subjects.
Results:Parents are more aware of how they can enhance communication with their students and help their children prepare to go to college.
Contact:
JR Gomez
WSU Early Outreach Program
(509) 372-7288
jrgomez@earlyoutreach.wsu.edu
Full Details Here - UW's Parent Academy
Target:Parents
Purpose:Have parents be better prepared to be involved in their children’s education.
Activities:
-During a series of 4 days, parents are involved in the learning of resources for their students when they enter high school and college.
-Community support networks are introduced to give guidance to parents outside of these sessions.
-Lets parents know of the importance of their involvement and their expectations for their children.
Results:Parents are aware of the availability of resources as well as community support.
Contact:
Dori Baker
GEAR UP 4 Families Program
(509) 654-4379
doribaker@charter.net
Full Details Here - GEAR UP 4 Families Academy Trip
Target:Middle/High School Students and Parents
Purpose:Give parents and students the opportunity to visit a university to see firsthand where students live, study and work.
Activities:
-Parents that graduated from the GEARUP4 Families Parent Academies visited the University of Washington including the UW School of Medicine and Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity.
-Listened to presentations by members of the UW Latino Medical Program.
Results:Parents and students received further training in college financial aid, experienced a college campus, and were taught about alcoholism, anatomy, and pathology by UW’s own Latino medical students.
Contact:
Dori Baker
GEAR UP 4 Families Programs
509-654-4379
doribaker@charter.net
Full Details Here - Bagels And Bucks
Target:Parents
Purpose:For parents to learn early how to pay their children’s post-secondary education.
Activities:
-Before school workshops to accommodate the parents that are not available in the evenings as well as teachers and administrators.
-Community programs came to speak about ways to pay from Banks, Scholarship programs, and Community Colleges.
-Sessions were offered in the spring, since it was most convenient for parents, students, teachers and the school.
Results:Parents were informed on how they can prepare to pay for college as well as gave parents
Contact:
Marika Tomkins
Pioneer Middle School
(509) 526-8621
mtomkins@earlyoutreach.wsu.edu
Full Details Here - GEAR UP/PTO Recognition Family Night
Target:Middle School Students and Parents
Purpose:Provide an incentive for students to perform well in school, and to involve parents in the process of encouraging their children to make academic achievements.
Activities:Monthly and annual recognition of academic achievements of students and involve parent participation.
Results:There was an increase of parent participation and it was a tool to build a better relationship between student and parent. Students were awarded to strive for their future academic improvement and success.
Contact:
Lola Ceja
Toppenish School District
(509) 865-8008
lceja@toppenish.wednet.edu
Full Details Here - "Education Is The Future" At A University
Target:8th Grade Students and Parents
Purpose:Inform parents about what they can do to prepare their children for higher education.
Activities:Workshops about how to budget, financial aid, what to do to prepare to college, but incorporating parents into the learning process.
Results:Parents are informed on the resources and steps to get their children to aspire to college and how to get there.
Contact:
JR Gomez
WSU Early Outreach Program
(509) 372-7288
jrgomez@earlyoutreach.wsu.edu
Full Details Here - Parent Academy Path To Financial Aid
Target:Parents
Purpose:Provide the tools that will help parents have an understanding of the requirements their children need to gain admission to post-secondary education
Activities:Evening class sessions were taught by other parents and learned about critical factors in determining four-year admissions, including high school requirements.
Results:Parents were more aware of how to guide their children towards academic achievement and college.
Contact:
Dori Baker
GEAR UP 4 Families Program
(509) 654-4379
doribaker@charter.net
Full Details Here - Family Day Conference
Target:9th -12th Grade Students and Parents
Purpose:Provide access for families to college and community resources through a college/resource fair.
Activities:: Multiple workshops were available for families to attend throughout the day including financial aid, college readiness, college entrance requirements, college entrance exams, citizenship requirement and other related topics.
Results:9th -12th graders and parents experienced a vast amount of information about the first steps in applying to a college and the needed requirements while in high school. Parents walked away with a better understanding of how to fill out a financial aid form and to succeed on college entrance exams. Parent and students found many more resources to tap into while preparing for college.
Contact:
Tenya Moravec
Sunnyside High School
(509) 837-2601
tmoravec@sunnyside.wednet.edu
- "Education Is The Future" At A High School
Target:Middle and High School Students & Parents
Purpose:A collaboratively coordinated effort of partners to host an educational and informational conference.
Activities:The conference covered a variety of breakout sessions in both English and Spanish. The conference offered students and parents the opportunity to experience firsthand how to learn about college planning strategies and college selection process. Presenters highlighted important college planning resources and web pages that were determined indispensible for students’ success. The walk-through of college planning websites to parents and students added a different informational aspect to the conference versus just informing participants about the educational resources and opportunities available via educational handouts.
Results:Through this conference we were able to educate parents and students on how the whole college wheel spins by given them a vast amount of information on college readiness.
Contact:
Mindy Lopez
Grandview High School
(509) 882- 8772
mlopez@grandview.wednet.edu
- GEAR UP Parent Involvement Committee
Target:9th -12th Grade Parents
Purpose::Coordinate parent activities to minimize the number of meetings and maximize value of involvement for parents and staff.
Activities:
-Grandview School District service providers (GEAR UP, 21st Century, Parent Volunteer Coordinator, Building Bridges, Dropout Prevention Specialist and Title 1 Director) all meet to discuss and develop a district wide parent calendar.
-Each program has a parent component requirement.
-Instead of each program working independently of each other and overlapping services to parents, they all work together on one calendar.
Results:Parents are more comfortable and willing to attend one monthly parent event as compared to three or four a month causing parents to choose among events and possibly miss an important parent meeting. Parents are not overwhelmed with meetings and other school-related programs; this will result in greater participation and an appreciation of the respect for parents’ time.
Contact:
Mindy Lopez
Grandview High School
(509) 882-8772
mlopez@grandview.wednet.edu
- Family Nights
Target:9th, 10th 11th Grade Students & Parents
Purpose::Conduct family monthly meetings at a central location; inform parents and students about post-secondary opportunities and go college awareness materials and the essential steps necessary to obtain a High School Diploma and to be prepared to enroll in college.
Activities:
-Provide informative college awareness materials, such as, “Getting Ready for College and Careers” which covers 9th through 12th grades; Financial Aid booklets which have vital information on how to finance college; and instructional booklets for college-bound students to help them prepare for college during their high school years.
-Facilitate networking of parents and students to share ideas and concerns among themselves and broaden the scope of the GEAR UP philosophy and program.
Results:Parents built a strong support group to encourage each other in following through with the needed requirements of a post-secondary education, or any other school related endeavor. They increased their knowledge of the public school setting and post-secondary opportunities.
Contact:
Andy Torres
Union Gap School District
(509) 248-3966
atorres@uniongap.org