Question 1
What are the steps in encouraging parent involvement in high school students'
career exploration/awareness/decision programs? What are others doing? What
has proven successful? Primary target group - at risk, special needs, non-college
bound students.
STW Wizard Strategies
Wizard Strategy 1
I have found that as students get more involved in exploring their options
for the future, parents get more involved. If a student has a transition-focused
Individual Education Plan or some other form of individualized career plan,
they also need to have a team of people to help them meet their goal. This
is the case for ALL students, not just those with disabilities. The most
important people on the team, besides the student, are the parents. It is
effective to invite the parents to participate on the student's planning
team by attending meetings, completing surveys, and ongoing conversations
about the student's progress toward meeting goals. When parents know that
the goals of their child are the primary focus of a plan, they get involved.
Wizard Strategy 2
Our area is up and running with a number of projects to develop school-to-work
and we have decided to dedicate a lot of energy to marketing. We are developing
videos, posters, brochures and fliers to get the word out about our options
for kids (internships, apprenticeships, PSEO, vocational classes, etc.)
and will set up booths during
parent-teacher conferences, registrations nights, and open houses. We
are also marketing through our local newspaper to get the word out. We are
still in the planning stages, so I cannot report the results of these efforts
as of yet, but hope that increasing their awareness of options will excite
parents as well as students.
Wizard Strategy 3
Some of the things I think of are:
- transition weekends for students and parents that have been held in
various parts of the state.
- conferences that have been held that parents have been invited to attend
related to transition and career planning
- transition fairs work well to involve parents/students in career planning
- some PTA groups have focused on learning more about career planning
- a few chambers of commerce have held Saturday open houses to promote
this for students with the parents being invited
- parents can come in to schools to share with students what type of
work they do; this helps parents better understand the needs for their
own children based on what the students want to know from them; it also
helps students better understand the actual skills needed for a specific
career
- mentorships and apprenticeships can involve parents helping others;
they can also network with each other
- we have had students and their parents together during a weekend each
spring and career exploration is discussed along with a Saturday conference
that was held last year
- Scouts can do this as a badge requirement and parents can be involved
as well as activities that FFA, DECCA & 4-H participate in
- start early (kindergarten)
Wizard Strategy 4
A few suggestions:
1) Ensure that parents know the goal of career development programs and
guidance. Its important to stress to them that making informed decisions
about future options takes a long time but is well worth it to increase
probability of achieving a satisfying future for all of today's youth. Also,
I believe its important to stress up front that there are so many questions
todays students will face with regard to their futures. With this in mind,
school-to-work is a great rationale for starting early, involving many people
in the process, and keeping a very open mind.
2) For any student, especially Special Education, a solid transition
plan can help tremendously. The plan needs to be developed jointly between
school, student, and parents, and should always divide responsibilities
up fairly. A good transition plan will bring sometimes opposing parties
together to work toward a common good. Parents will be more involved and
open to contributing in areas they may otherwise assumed was a school responsibility
if they can see how this will benefit their child.
3) Another hook for parents I find it to address their concerns in a
manner they can best relate to. For example, don't talk about career development
as a means of helping their child choose a career. Related to their concern
about pigeonholing their child into a narrow track with limited options,
speak to how career development opens doors to many new paths and provides
a road map to achieve a number of broad career goals. Also, address the
number of students today who come back from college with no marketable skills
and a big financial debt. Address the number of jobs (80%) which are expected
to become available with some post-secondary education but less than four
years.
4) Finally, use other parents who can relate their stories (both good
and bad) concerning their experiences with career development.
Hope this helps somewhat. Also, you can find many good resources on parent
involvement on the WWW. Try the National STW homepage as a starting point.
You can do a keyword search (parent involvement) as well as read through
some of their resource bulletins on the topic. Address www. stw. ed. gov
Finally, we are putting together a "Family Involvement Resource
Kit" here in Massachusetts which will contain some good materials and
tip sheets regarding this issue. Please contact me in about 2 months if
you are interested. Good luck.
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Wizard Strategy 5
What I have found most successful to keep parents involved in their high
school student's education is maintaining a good working relationship with
the parents. Keep them informed about what is happening at school, schedule
conferences so the parents are able to attend, meet at locations convenient
to the parents, and contact them when things are going well for their child
as well as when there is a problem.
Many parents have not had good experiences at school themselves, so we
need to make meetings with them as useful and positive as possible.
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