Overview

Tellin’ Stories is the Parent Organizing program of Teaching for Change
Tellin' Stories believes that for schools to provide the quality education our children deserve, families, schools and communities must be involved as purposeful partners in the education process.

At the heart of Tellin’ Stories’ efforts to engage families and staff is the power of story to connect people from diverse backgrounds, to pass on valuable information and experiences and to organize collective action. Tellin' Stories works with parents to create and implement action plans that affect the academic achievement and environment of neighborhood schools through relationship building (creating a story quilt), weekly meetings, workshops, trainings, and grassroots organizing. The most gratifying aspect of our work is that together Tellin' Stories, parents, educators, community members, and partner organizations are redefining the vision of school communities by helping those who are traditionally excluded from the decision-making process become a central part of it. 

Tellin’ Stories' approach has three key components: Comprehensive work in public schools, Cross-City Parent Leadership, and Train-the-Trainer.

(1) Comprehensive work in DC and Maryland public schools transforms parent-school relationships through a focus on community building, providing weekly workshops for parents and teachers/staff, facilitating principal-parent dialogues, community asset mapping, roving readers, establishing academic-based parent-teacher meetings and visits, identifying school-based obstacles to academic achievement, and engaging parents in actions to address those obstacles.  

(2) Cross-City Parent Leadership trains parent coordinators and parent leaders from our seven DC and Maryland public schools to develop their leadership and organizing skills. Parent leaders expand their understanding of educational issues, enhance their leadership and organizing skills, develop parent-engagement strategies to take citywide and back to individual schools, and have the potential to build cross-city alliances that work towards system-wide improvements.

(3) Train-the-Trainer disseminates the Tellin’ Stories approach and methodology to parent coordinators and leaders locally and nationally. In collaboration with the National Education Association and the Maryland State Parental Information Resource Center, Tellin’ Stories trained 31 school and district leaders from seven states in May, 2008.

Tellin’ Our Story: How Tellin’ Stories works in Schools

Community Building: Tellin' Stories creates opportunities for families across race, class, language and cultural boundaries to connect to each other and to their school--often for the first time--through the power of story. In our Story Quilting series, each participant shares a story from his/her history and culture on a felt square. As the squares are sewn together, so too are the lives of those who made them.

Gathering Information And Developing Skills: Parents gain the tools they need during regular parent meetings to analyze the school climate, the facilities, and the quality of teaching and learning at their school.

Identifying And Prioritizing Concerns:
By learning to ask the right questions, parents prioritize concerns and determine who has the power to address them most immediately and effectively. Tellin' Stories supports parents in voicing their concerns at teacher meetings, school board and city council hearings, and in sessions with district wide officials.

Taking Action: Parents determine what actions need to be taken to achieve desired results and collectively, with the support of Tellin' Stories, implement their plans. For example, a group of outraged parents organized a rally outside the 4th District Police Station to demand crossing guards at a busy intersection near their school. Since this visit, a police officer has been assigned to the post.

Collaborating: Tellin’ Stories facilitates collaboration among all members of the school, beginning the year with a parent-led community walk. Efforts such as these ensure a safe, healthy learning environment for the children.

Pass It On: Through cross-city parent leadership training and coaching, Tellin' Stories is helping to mobilize highly qualified and committed parent center coordinators and leaders who are eager to strengthen their own family-school programs.

Evaluating: Every aspect of Tellin' Stories' work involves action and reflection. In addition to an in depth action research project examining the meaningful role parents play in their children's schools, Tellin’ Stories involves all key stakeholders in assessing our work to increase our impact.