francis marion university - school of education

fmu center of excellence

goals and activities: goal 2 - activity 3

activity 3: establishment of colloquium series

minutes of meetings with dr. joyce epstein

francis marion university
the center of excellence
florence, south carolina
april 24-25, 2005

sunday, april 24, 2005
dinner meeting: 6:00pm – 9:00 pm
red bone alley – florence, south carolina

attending:
lorin anderson
joyce epstein
vickie greenan
tammy pawloski

an informal dinner meeting was held at a local restaurant, red bone alley, to inform, explain and discuss the grant’s five goals to dr. epstein. dr. epstein explained how her work with school, family and community partnerships could be infused with the grant’s parent component, module 3 – communicating with families, and also module 8 – accessing and utilizing community resources. she emphasized that the timing is one of the most important factors in establishing a school/home action team. after sharing how other schools, she has worked with, have achieved quality teams and formed partnerships, she explained how our 18 districts could join the johns hopkins network and achieve the same.

dr. epstein emphasized that a time line must be done by the coe staff to ensure that all goals are adequately covered and achieved. she also stated that just one of the five goals could take up to five years to achieve. after hearing more about the goals, she stated that the coe will need more “man power” in order to achieve the goals in a quality manner. dr. pawloski asked if it might be possible to join the efforts of nan ford’s group to help achieve parts of the parent component. dr. epstein said that was a good idea and invited dr. pawloski to join the afternoon meeting with ms. ford’s group, if possible.

monday’s itinerary was reviewed.

monday, april 25, 2005
monday morning conversation session: 10:30am – 12:00pm
pee dee education center – florence, south carolina

attending:
lorin anderson
sharon askins
sheila hess brown
erin elcho
joyce epstein
ron faulkenberry
nan ford
vickie greenan
gayle morris
tammy pawloski
beth pulver
rick reames
cleo richardson
leslie barnes young

dr. tammy pawloski welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced dr. joyce epstein to the group. self introductions were made by the group.

dr. epstein gave a brief overview of her work done at johns hopkins university. she explained that she was here to think with us and make the center of excellence’s work the best it can be, so it will continue to be funded over the next ten years. she stated that school, family, and community partnerships are important for students. these partnerships are for students and are not parents. parents will benefit, but our students are our focus. a shift in thinking about parent involvement programs must happen to ensure student success and achievement.

she referred to statements we have heard from parents that “some parents feel lucky” when their child has had a teacher that communicated and involved them in the classroom or school. dr. epstein stated that this should be the norm not the exception for all families.

dr. epstein gave a brief history of parental involvement over the past twenty years, beginning with head start. she asked the group to consider that if parent involvement is important for our preschoolers, why is it not important to children through out high school? she also reminded the group that transition times from grade to grade and school to school are important.

dr. epstein told the group that a few teacher in-services will not make partnerships happen in schools. it will take district and state level leaderships to determine how successful the partnerships will be.

after reviewing the questions from the group, dr. epstein reminded the group that parent involvement is not about the parents, but about the students. she said that 20% of parents are involved in typical schools, 5% can’t be involved for various reasons (these should be handled case by case), and 75% would be involved, if they knew what to do.

dr. epstein then shared what she has learned from her years of research:

school, family, and community partnerships is a better term than parental involvement to recognize that parents, educators, and others in the community share responsibility for students’ learning and development.
school, family, and community partnerships are a multidimensional concept.
a program of school, family, and community partnerships is an essential component of school and classroom organization.
programs of school, family, and community partnerships require multi-level leadership.
programs of school, family, and community partnerships must include a focus on increasing student learning and development.
all programs of school, family, and community partnerships are about equity. (there is no such thing as equity just striving for it!)
methods of research on school, family, and community partnerships must continue to improve.

the action team structure was explained by dr. epstein and how this approach works to form partnerships. she also reminded the group of existing school improvement councils in all south carolina schools.

dr. pawloski asked cleo richardson, associate superintendent for marion one schools, and rick reames, newly appointed director for the pee dee education center, what can we do to get districts to “get on board” and establish quality partnerships in individual schools? mr. richardson stated that it will take connecting student achievement to partnerships. mr. reames agreed and added publicity and accountability on the state report card. dr. pawloski stated that the center of excellence can help make these partnerships happen. mr. richardson said that “something will have to be taken off the school and district’s plates before something else can be added. dr. epstein suggested that possibly some district personnel could add partnership facilitators to their existing job description. the group agreed that this might work.

in closing, dr. epstein stated that it is possible to raise a grade by 1/3 in an 18 week grading period on a report card. she also said that excellent teaching is the best way, every day, every year to gain achievement, however… while we are improving math, reading, science, and social studies, we can also improve parent partnerships through involvement.

working lunch 12:00pm – 1:30pm
the cottage – fmu, florence, south carolina

attending:
lorin anderson
joyce epstein
ron faulkenberry
vickie greenan
rick reames
tammy pawloski

the morning conversation group meeting was reviewed and discussed by all. dr. epstein pledged her support to the center of excellence through the school, family and community partnership networking program at johns hopkins university. support was also pledged by dr. ron faulkenberry, dean of the school of education at fmu, and rick reames, director at the pee dee education center as of july 1, 2005.

afternoon work session: 1:30pm–2:30pm
pee dee education center – florence, south carolina

nan ford’s group – dr. epstein met with nan ford’s group from columbia, south carolina. dr. lorin anderson was the center of excellence’s representative to this meeting.

lecture: 3:30pm–5:00pm
mcnair auditorium – francis marion university, florence, south carolina

attending:
teachers and administrators – partner and participating districts of the pee dee area
teachers and administrators – headstart schools and daycares of the pee dee area
faculty and students – francis marion university
clergy – pee dee area
apt, pto, apt parent organizations – pee dee area
others from across the state of south carolina

dr. tammy pawloski introduced dr. lorin anderson who then introduced dr. joyce epstein to the group. dr. anderson remarked that dr. epstein was a person with passion and compassion concerning school, family and community partnerships.
using a power point presentation, dr. epstein shared the school, family and community partnership plan to a group of approximately one hundred people. this larger group welcomed the presentation, as the morning conversation group had earlier in the day. dr. epstein provided the group with detailed handouts of the presentation.

following the presentation, dr. epstein answered questions from the audience.

in closing dr. pawloski, asked the lecture participants if they would be willing to “get on board” with partnerships, if the center of excellence would/could pay for it? there was unanimous agreement that this was needed in all districts and schools. she announced to the group that more information would be sent to their districts in early august.

dr. epstein thanked everyone for their hospitality and stayed after the lecture to autograph books and answer individual questions.

de-briefing session: 5:45pm–6:30pm
mcnair auditorium – francis marion university, florence, south carolina

attending:
joyce epstein
tammy pawloski

dr. epstein answered questions and gave a step by step plan to move forward with partnerships. she also suggested ways the center of excellence can help schools and districts be successful in their attempts to think about parents in a new way.