Victory Stolen from Ward 8 Community: Parents Fight Again for Orr ES Modernization

Orr Elementary School (DCPS) parents in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8 have organized for many years to have the building modernized. Orr, with an almost entirely low-income African American student population, is among the last open floor plan schools in the District. Built in 1974, it has never been modernized. The dedicated, high quality administration and teaching staff make […]

Twitter Chat on Roving Readers Program April 22, 2015

Parent read alouds of multicultural books promote family literacy, bring #ParentsTeachersTogether Please join Teaching for Change for a discussion of the Roving Readers program on Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 9pm EST. The chat, hosted by the Institute for Educational Leadership, will give insights for schools that want to implement Roving Readers, a program to bring parents into the classroom to read […]

Participatory Principal Selection Process

Maria squeezed into the packed Parent Center at Bruce Monroe at Park View Elementary School in D.C. on Friday morning. She came to find out how she can be involved in choosing the school’s next principal in an interactive session led by Teaching for Change that brought to life information DCPS shared the previous week via PowerPoint. As Dr. […]

Welcoming Immigrant Students Into the Classroom

This blog post was originally posted on Edutopia.org by Sara Burnett of the Community Education Center of the American Immigration Council and contains useful recommendations in line with the Tellin’ Stories approach to family engagement. The photos are from the day-to-day work of Teaching for Change in schools in the D.C. metro area. Read about […]

Welcome Back Breakfast: Parents and Staff Meet and Greet

Do you remember those long evenings, seated in the auditorium at Back to School Night? Were you struggling to keep from nodding off while one school administrator after another took the stage to tell you all you need to know about the school rules and expectations? By the end of the evening, school staff and parents alike are tired […]

Meyer Foundation Spotlights Teaching for Change’s Storytelling  Efforts

In a recently released report, the Eugene and Agnes Meyer Foundation celebrated efforts by Teaching for Change to expand the impact of our parent engagement work through storytelling. Sharing stories is an integral part of Tellin’ Stories, Teaching for Change’s parent engagement approach, but it had not been a core piece of the organization’s communications […]

Making Parents and Grandparents Feel Welcomed at a New School

Grandparents Jaime and Lorenza Vargas* sat among the 85 parents and guardians who flooded into the cafeteria of Brightwood Education Campus (DCPS) for the first Parent-Principal Chit Chat of the year on September 26, 2014. The Vargas family has two grandchildren in grades 5 and 7 who had arrived in the United States from the […]

Family Partner Series Offers D.C. Schools a Fresh Start on Family Engagement

This year, bilingual school counselor Senovia Hurtado has been entrusted with the mission of revitalizing family engagement at Brightwood Education Campus (DCPS), a pre-K through eighth grade school in Washington, D.C. It’s her 15th year in DC Public Schools, but her first as a parent coordinator. With a reopened parent center, a supportive principal and […]

Teachers Connect with Families in Community Walk

[embedit cf=”ORR-WALK-SEP-2014″]   Teachers, staff, and parents of Orr Elementary School (DCPS) began the 2014 school year with a community walk in the neighborhood of the school. Orr ES partners with Teaching for Change to implement the Tellin’ Stories approach to parent engagement. The community walks are one activity we recommend and help plan to strengthen […]

Principal Meeting Launches Tellin’ Stories Family Partners Series

“Of the many hats I wear, one of those hats is that of the community organizer,” shared Thomson Elementary Principal Carmen Shepherd. “As principals, we are really here to serve and work with families.” On July 30, 2014, Ms. Shepherd, principal of Thomson Elementary (DCPS), joined principals from six other DCPS schools and one Prince […]