The School and the Community

Prepared By:

SEN XIAO JUN

MOHANA SUNDRA SEGARAN
KAVIYANAYAGI PONUDURAI
 • A social structure that shares
personal values, cultural values,
Community business goals, attitudes, or a
world view.

It Take A Village To Raise A Kid

(African Proverb)
 School and community

A more engaged community improved teaching and learning

- family and community involvement in schools has a positive
impact on student achievement (Henderson & Berla, 1994;
Henderson & Mapp, 2002; US Department of Education, 1994).
 Why Family and Community Involvement Is Important?

• Upgraded school facilities

• Improved school leadership and staffing
• Higher quality learning programs for students
• New resources and programs to improve teaching and
curriculum
• Support for after-school programs and family supports
 The Role Of Principal In Community Involvement

1. Negotiating with Pressure Groups

- pressure groups begin their inquiries at the school level in the
principal’s office.
- Step to take: Identifying – Discussing – Analyzing- Negotiating-
Marshaling Resources (Seek help with other community member)
2. Evaluating the Legitimacy of the Critic
- Community have the right to legitimately question and critize the school
- Principal need to observe the behavior exhibited by the particular group

3. Anticipating Obvious Hot-Button Issues

- To be open minded and ready for question
4. Providing Well-Developed Politics
- Establish a framework within diverging view

5. Working with Review Boards

- Establish review boards to get advice, counsel and development of criteria
- Information sharing and better decision marking

6. Working with other community agencies

- School is the closest social agency
- Principal need to have good relationship with other community agencies
 Brainstorming Session

Case Study 14 (page378) :

A Parent Complaints; The Teacher Does’t Respond

Question: What would you do if you are the principal?

This is your problem, not others problem

 Dealing with the formal and informal
forces

Getting the messaage out and back:

Getting the messaage out: One Way Two Way Public Relations
Public Relations techniquesi techniquesi
 School News Items
File

Print and electronic Newsletters and

media bulletins

One way public

relations
technique

The fog index Report Cards

 Print and Electronic Media

• Electronic media are media that use electronics such as radio,

television and internet. Print media is that means of mass
communication through which information is disseminated in printed
form: eg- newspaper.

What are the messages usually out

in Print and Electronic Media

• Reporting highly localized activities and stories containing general

information about what’s goin on in the schools.
 School News Items File

What is the benefits of school news items file?

• Schools must have central place where ongoing activities are

recorded to make the work easier when reporter or editors request a
story from school administrator.
• Each staff member of event secretary should jot down those projects
on a regular basis form and sent to the principal office.
• The principal can file the reports in a folder labeled according to the
kind of project.
 Newsletters and Bulletins

• Help principal and the school staff will communicate with the home
and outside agencies.
• Format should be simple, the information be written concisely and be
free of educational jargon.
• Messages should be sent via mail and email.
• The newsletters must be produced with care and printed in an
attractive manner and also be taken to recognize the multilingual
nature of many communities.
 Report Cards
• Help teachers disseminate information and parents get to knw about
their childrens growing, developing and learning defies.
• An effective report card should provide three kinds of information.
1. Child’s overall ability compared to other children with same age
through standardized test or the teacher’s judgement of the childs’s
ability based on diagnosis and observation.
2. Child’s individual progress based on estimated ability and a
measure of the child’s achievementin the classroom.
3. Childs conduct in school with a check mark to indicate satisfactory
behavior or unsatisfactory behavior
 The fog index
• Conveying information in writing by using the language meaningfully
and everyone can understand the message.
• Dictates straightforward sentences, unencumbered nouns and verbs
and common language which avoids of jargon and pedagogical
phraseology.
Key Communicators
Principal-Organized Interaction Sessions
IN EXCELLENT SCHOOLS

1 Regular “tell-
it-to- 2 2 type of sessions :
+student/principal 3 Does this type
of sessions
principal” program applicable in our
interaction +parents/ education?
sessions community
program
 Student and Principal program

To establish and maintain a good relationships with students / parents

Conducted regularly in the principal office / school cafetaria(limited 8-10 students)

Representative sample of students participates

Express interests and discuss difficulties / making suggestions about general improvements
 Parents and Principal Progam
parents and community and patrons are invited to the
meeting.( special invitations are necessary)

Rules of meeting : free to talk about anything except

personal complaints about individual teachers

2-3 hours provided for an informal exchange of ideas.

 In Malaysia Education System....

MESYUARAT AGUNG

GENERAL MEETING

explain the process of

work and guidelines
for holding a General
Meeting of
associations.
GENERAL MEETING AGENDA
• Annual report

• Annual Financial Statements

• Discuss proposals

• New Club / Association Executive Council Member Selection

• Brief speech from New President / New Chairman

 transportation difficulties

parents occupation

working parents
PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCE
one-parent households

language spoken

commitment
influencing the success of the endeavor
Use conversational tone

Create an atmosphere of an informal chat rather that that of a

confrontation (watsapp)

Make more positive than negative comments and suggestions

Involve parents in school programs and activities

Parent / Teacher Organizations
Has served organized school program

Provide an oppurtunity for both formal and informal interaction

Good PTO will spend less time in meeting formally and more time in
tasks to be performed around the school.
WHAT AN EFFECTIVE PTO ENGAGES?
Organizing business-industry education days for the career development
programs in school.

Developing after-school programs for children and adults in the

community

Recruiting and training paraprofessionals

Working on curriculum review teams

http://www.pto.org/about.html