Albuquerque Public Schools
Part I. Engagement Policy Implementation
Description of how APS implements required parent and family engagement policy components
Part I. Engagement Policy Implementation
Section I
The Albuquerque Public Schools will take the following actions to involve parents and family members in the joint development of its APS Title I Parent and Family Engagement Policy.
Title I invites all liaisons, parents, and families to attend 3 meetings per year to APS Title I Family Advisory Council. the dates for 2022-2023 meetings will be:
- September 27, 2022
- December 1, 2022
- February 27, 2023
The agenda for those meetings include joint development of APS Title I Parent and Family Engagement Policy, data to consider, the Consolidated Application, and budget.
Council members will be involved in the joint development of the policy during large and small group meetings, online review and feedback systems, and via verbal and digital communications.
Section II
The Albuquerque Public Schools will provide the coordination, technical assistance, and other support to assist and build the capacity of all participating schools in planning and implementing effective family engagement activities in order to improve student academic achievement and school performance. This may include meaningful consultation with employers, business leaders, and philanthropic organizations or individuals with expertise in effectively engaging parents and family members in education:
The coordination, technical assistance, and other support to assist and build the capacity of all participating schools in planning and implementing effective parent and family engagement activities is supported by Title I Family Engagement and Compliance Resource Teachers.
Monthly Professional Development with Liaisons
Monthly informational meetings are held with school liaisons to share effective strategies to reach families. New Liaisons are offered small group sessions. Focused small group PD is also offered to anyone who wants to work on an identified gap or need.
1:1 meetings are held with Title I Compliance Resource Teachers and school leadership twice a year to support their work in planning and implementing effective parent and family engagement activities.
Direct Support of Liaisons
Provide guidance to schools regarding School Compacts, policies, and annual meetings. Consultation with school personnel to guide them on how best to support their students and families.
Leverage Community Partners
Title I collaborates with many partners to support families in academic and physical resources. Partners include: SHINE, Assistance League, Medicaid, Wings, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Parents Reaching Out, Read to Me ABQ, NM PTA, Storehouse, Feed NM Kids, One Albuquerque Senior Affairs, High School Community Support clubs, Community Councils. Resources Include: Food, clothing, books, parent education, hygiene products, relationships, identified community resources.
Title I Team Community Resources are supported using outreach such as StoryTime in the Park, STEAM family events, Mc Kinney-Vento, Adult Basic Education, and Albuquerque READS
Section III
The Albuquerque Public Schools will coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies with other State and federal programs:
The coordination and integration of parent and family engagement strategies with other State and federal programs are leveraged using outreach such as Story Time in the Park, STEAM family events, Mc Kinney-Vento, Adult Basic Education, and Albuquerque READS. Title I also coordinates with Early Childhood Programs, Food Services, Title III, School and Family Health and Special Education through the APS Leadership Team
Section IV
In accordance with Title I federal law, every year Albuquerque Public Schools surveys the parents and families of our students about their schools’ efforts to engage them as partners in their children’s education. This survey is designed to provide actionable information to schools and the district; meaning that the questions focus on things that APS district and school personnel have the ability to change (e.g. communication practices) and improve.
Additionally, the questions on the Title I Family Engagement Survey are intentionally and specifically designed to get to the heart of how well APS is engaging families as partners; as such, it includes questions that ask about schools’ success in 1) meaningfully including parents/families in decision making 2) engaging with them in respectful, understandable two-way communication, and 3) acknowledging and supporting their essential role in helping their children attain academic success.
Distribution and Modes of Response
Parents are offered multiple modes of response - electronic and pen & paper - whenever possible
- The survey is deployed annually in late March or early April.
- Invitations to the electronic survey are sent directly to parents via the email address provided in the APS online student registration system each year.
- Additional, school-specific links to the electronic version of the survey are provided to school principals to distribute:
- to parents who did not receive an email; or
- have issues with the emailed link; and, if needed
- more widely through additional communication methods, (i.e. school messenger, the school’s website, etc.) to improve their response rate.
Language Options
- The survey is available to all schools and parents in both Spanish and English
- Other languages are made available (decisions made annually) based on primary home language information parents provide during the online registration process.
- The electronic option allows parents to choose which language they prefer, but also allows them to switch freely between languages without losing responses.
- Paper copies are printed with English and Spanish front-to-back.
Use and Posting of Results
Survey results provide:
- a district level measure of the APS Parent and Family Engagement Policy’s effectiveness;
- information the district Title I department uses to better support schools’ efforts in the area of family engagement;
- actionable information school personnel can use to improve current practices;
- data to support schools’ 90 day plan decision-making in the area of family engagement; and
- information district and school personnel, in collaboration with families, can use to revise Family Engagement Policies (district and school levels)
Results are made available online through the Strategic Analysis and Program Research (SAPR) department.
- Initial results are posted to an internal site until data can be checked for quality; posting internally provides principals the opportunity to view their data and contact SAPR if they have questions or concerns before it is posted publicly.
- After the quality assurance step is complete, results are posted to the public facing APS Dashboard where they are available to parents and community members.
- The Title I department helps family liaisons, school staff, and the Family Advisory Committee to understand and effectively use the results.
- The district Family Advisory Council and Title I Family Engagement team, discuss the survey results, and current research on effective family engagement, to inform suggestions and strategies for more effective family engagement.
- After reviewing the school level results generated by the questions used district-wide, if individual schools need to gather additional information that is more specific to their school/community, they can contact SAPR to request help identifying the best way(s) to effectively collect this information
Summary
In collaboration with schools and families, each year the Albuquerque Public Schools Title I Department uses continual improvement processes and the annual Family Engagement Survey results to support Title I schools in the design and implementation of family engagement efforts, including writing and revising their school level Family Engagement Policy. Additionally, the department uses the data to review and (when necessary) revise current practices; design new family engagement strategies; and update the APS Title I Parent and Family Engagement Policy at the district level.