The following 6 areas provide an overview on how Mathis Elementary implements family engagement in our early childhood programs.
The family engagement plan shall:
1. Facilitate family–to-family support: Mathis Elementary creates a safe and respectful environment where families can learn from each other as individuals in groups. We also ensure opportunities for continuous participation in events designed for families by families such as training on family leadership. The following are examples of how we provide this environment:
- Post a visual of the Mathis Elementary Schedule on campus website
- Special Education Child Find
- Campus hosts teacher-student “meet and greets” in person.
- In person events offered by ACE 21st Century
- Teachers provide information to parents through Seesaw, Remind, Google Classroom, Skyward Parent Portal, and Dojo
2. Establish a network of community resources: Mathis Elementary is continuously building strategic partnerships from various agencies to support our families and students. The following are examples of these partnerships:
- Collaboration with the technology department to develop district family resource portal “Skyward”
- Collaboration with ACE 21st Century to offer events on the district Family Resource Page and Facebook.
- Campus staff and Administration will refer families in need of resources to the ACE 21st Century Liaison by completing a “Family Needs” form
- ACE 21st Century Liaison will direct families that are referred to them to the current available community resources
- Continue to collaborate with ACE 21st Century to plan parent workshops MATHIS ELEMENTARY Early Childhood Family Engagement Plan 2022-2023
- ACE 21st Century will provide opportunities for families to learn and engage in strategies to support students at home
- ACE 21st Century provides Adult English classes for Spanish speaking parents
3. Increase family participation in decision making: Mathis Elementary collaborates with families to develop strategies to solve problems and serve as problem solvers. Families can participate and provide solutions through the following:
- Campus Site Based Committees
- Title I Advisory
- SHAC Committee
- District and Campus climate survey
- Campus Parent Huddle
- MES provides participating families with surveys in the beginning and end of year to help drive program development
4. Equip families with tools to enhance and extend learning: Mathis Elementary provides families with home educational resources to support learning at home while strengthening the family/school partnership. The following are examples of this implementation:
- Expand our district family resource Parent Portal by including Early Childhood resources, family events, in collaboration with the district family engagement team.
- Distribution of parent early childhood instructional materials and literacy resources by Project Learn to participating families
- District Pre-K Facilitators will provide families with information, best practices related to age-appropriate developmental expectations.
- Parent will be provided information on their child’s progress during parent teacher Glow and Grow conferences along with recommended CLI Engage MATHIS ELEMENTARY Early Childhood Family Engagement Plan 2022-2023 Circle activities.
- District Pre-K parent resource website which includes: Pre-K At A-Glance, academic content, parent literacy information, social and emotional development, Student Code of Conduct, Bullying Report Submission, Ace 21st Century Application, Extra Curricular Handbook, educational websites, Mental Health Concerns Form and CLI Engage Family
5. Develop staff skills in evidence-based practices that support families in meeting their children's learning benchmarks: Mathis Elementary provides professional development opportunities for early childhood teachers, paraprofessionals and other campus and district staff that focus on supporting the whole child and family. The following are examples of these opportunities:
- District Pre-K Facilitators will provide educators with strategies to promote family engagement as a tool to enhance student learning
- Developing staff awareness and to support and use culturally diverse, culturally relevant, and culturally responsive family engagement strategies
- District Pre-K Facilitators will provide Pre-K teachers with strategies on how to support their families through ongoing instructional coaching sessions
- Teachers will continue to use the Circle assessment as a progress monitoring tool and share that data with each child’s families
6. Evaluate family engagement efforts and use evaluations for continuous improvement: Mathis Elementary gathers feedback from families and uses evaluations such as:
- Campus Surveys
- Data from Campus Improvement Plans
- Utilize TEA Parent Engagement Self-Evaluation to evaluate program