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Schools train parents as teachers
Arizona Daily Star
02.03.2006
Angel Rodriguez wiggles his fingers, enjoying the feel of the shaving cream
on his hands.
Then he does what any normal 3-year-old would do, and smears the goo all
over the table in front of him, laughing along with other overjoyed
toddlers.
Angel's mother, Sonia, stands over him, urging him to make as much of a mess
as possible.
Angel doesn't know it yet, but these weekly one-hour sessions with Mom are
putting him on track to be one of the smartest students in his class.
In a multifaceted push to increase student scores on standardized tests and
bring underperforming schools out of their ruts, administrators are looking
to students' parents, who they see as key factors in improving student
performance.
Some parents, like Sonia Rodriguez, are taking a hands-on approach to
improving their children's motor skills, which can translate to smarter
students. Others are learning English and getting GED diplomas as a way to
better understand their kids' classes. And still other parents are using
their children's' schools to learn tax preparation and other skills.
Family education isn't new in Tucson, or the rest of the country. But most
districts now are beginning to track students who leave their
family-education programs and are seeing promising results, including high
scores on standardized tests, which are being used to lend credibility to
the programs and recruit parents.
"I think a lot of our families don't really recognize that they have the
ability to teach their children," said Joan Katz, coordinator of the
Sunnyside Unified School District's Parents as Teachers program. "The idea
is to get parents into the schools and help them feel more comfortable and
help kids feel more comfortable with school."
Academics improving
Most of the programs, like the Stay and Play program that Angel and Sonia
Rodriguez attend regularly at Summit View Elementary, focus on the
development of the child.
But Sunnyside and the Tucson Unified School District, which both have high
concentrations of immigrant families, know that many parents need a boost in
their education, too, so they can understand the assignments their children
bring home at night.
That's why schools hold English and general education development classes
for parents who speak little to no English and feel left out of the loop at
homework time.
"It's helping me with my teenager," said Aracely Cañez, 32, who's taking GED
classes at the Rose Family Center, near TUSD's Rose Elementary. "If I'm
prepared, my kids are very prepared."
Cañez said her 13-year-old son is doing "100 percent better" now that she
works with him on math and history.
Sonia Rodriguez, 37, said she reads to her son 20 to 30 minutes every day,
an important child-rearing skill she never knew was so important before
joining a Parents as Teachers program when Angel was a newborn.
"We also write," she said. "He knows the letters, he knows the numbers and
he can write my name and Daddy's name."
Programs like this, paid for with Title I funds and grants, work for
toddlers because their brains are at the peak of information absorption,
said Marjean Buckner, president of the American Association for Adult and
Continuing Education. And the constant learning at a young age will help
them when it's time to learn in kindergarten.
The Stay and Play program is in its 10th year at Sunnyside, and every week
parents — mostly stay-at-home moms — and children play on obstacle courses
and participate in interactive reading time and other activities that build
motor skills.
If the children have strong motor skills, Katz pointed out, they'll have
more developed brain functions, which could mean easier learning and better
collaboration with others.
Surveys and test results show that after they leave the program, more of the
Parents as Teachers graduates meet or exceed the state standard on AIMS
tests. And 82 percent of Parents as Teachers kids passed the math portion of
the test in 2005, which is generally the lowest-scoring subject in Pima
County.
But family education isn't limited to Tucson's poorer sections. In the
Catalina Foothills School District, as well as at Salpointe Catholic High
School, parents pay a small fee and take classes that range from dance and
yoga to finance and parenting skills.
"One of our missions is to connect the community with the school," said Joan
Marrs, director of Catalina Foothills District's community schools program.
"Parents come through the gate and are very impressed and pleased to use the
facilities that they pay for."
A new goal
To show how much family education has taken hold in many of the city's
school districts, consider that the Family Wellness Centers in Sunnyside and
TUSD were essentially places for low-income families to get free clothes,
food and counseling a decade ago.
Boxes of cereal and clothing still await families there, but interested
parents stay to learn English or get that GED degree they felt they didn't
need when they came to the United States.
"It's helping me a lot," said Lourdes Barcelo, 37, of the GED classes she
takes at Rose Family Center. She said working toward her GED will help her
get a better job and now she can help her high-school age son with his
homework much better than before.
The classes are free, and many of the adult students take them in the
morning and go to jobs in the afternoon.
"For people like us, this is a great way to get a GED," Barcelo said. "We
have the opportunity to come to school and don't have to worry about child
care."
Adult education is increasing in K-12 schools, especially those with high
concentrations of English-language learners, say officials at the American
Association for Adult and Continuing Education.
"In states with a large population of immigrants, we have to look at how we
can effectively educate them as well as their family," said Buckner.
"They're putting a huge emphasis on it. "
● Contact reporter Jeff Commings at 573-4191 or at
jcommings@azstarnet.com.
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