A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Studies of Education Reform: Parent and Community Involvement in Education - 1995

Fort Worth Independent School District
Fort Worth, Texas

Case Summary

Project C3 (Communities, Corporations, and Classrooms) is a partnership between the Fort Worth Independent School District, the Chamber of Commerce and other business leaders that provides the organizational framework for restructuring efforts. Project C3 is a cooperative effort with its origins in community concern over the adequacy of student preparation for the workplace. The purpose of the Project is to operationally define success in the workplace and change the delivery of classroom instruction to link student learning with real world experiences. As a result district performance-based assessments and projects have been developed; the entire community is a "laboratory for learning."

"The single most effective strategy for mobilizing human resources at all levels can be seen in the partnership symbol...C3. This symbol means three equal stakeholders working together to build a better place for our young people."

-District publication

This initiative has produced a number of major programs that affect middle grade students and their parents: Vital Link provides for middle school internships in local businesses; Applied Learning, a curriculum-based effort, focuses on authentic learning, group, and project work; Equity 2000 is a national effort to increase the number of economically disadvantaged and minority students who attend and succeed in college; School Based Decision Making (SBDM) includes teachers, parents and community members in everyday decision making at the school level; and Parent Volunteer Coordinators is a training and resource program to involve parents directly in their children's learning or in school based activities. Individual middle school family involvement initiatives include: Parent University (at two alternative middle schools), a parent work contract, and Parents United with Teachers that involves cooperative decision making, critical thinking, and problem solving between teachers and family members.

The Vital Link program is a job shadowing experience for middle grade students. Although family members are only indirectly involved -- often taking their children to job sites during the summer -- the enthusiastic response to the program by middle grade students has caused parents and community members to be strongly supportive of the program.

Equity 2000 involves families and the community in Saturday Academies (tutoring programs), and the Mathematics Institute. Practical Parent Education, a program administered through the district's counseling office, provides parenting workshops and linkages to other community services.

Training for members of the SBDM teams is provided by the district. The principal, three teachers, and three parents elected by the predominant parent group, and one community member serve on the SBDM team. They receive training in goal setting, curriculum budgeting, personnel allocation, and school organization.

The Parent University at the two alternative middle schools contracts with parents for their participation in school/family conferences, development of individual growth plans for their children, and attendance at three parent workshop sessions held during the year.

Many of our informants stated that a key to the success of the reform initiatives in Fort Worth was the result of the leadership of the former Superintendent. In addition to descriptions of his vision of what schools should be, respondents often talked about the "safe, risk-free environment" that he had created. With a change in superintendents scheduled for the summer of 1994, respondents were unsure of how restructuring would proceed.

Lessons

  1. Community members and businesses may serve as change agents in the restructuring process.

    Restructuring may be initiated not only from schools/districts, but also from the community at large. In Fort Worth, the business community played a key role in the planning and development of the restructuring initiative.

  2. Cooperation between the district staff and the school board is essential in the restructuring process.

    District staff frequently mentioned that support from the school board was necessary for implementing reform programs. They credited much of the success of restructuring efforts to the "buy in" of the school board for programs that involved parents/ families and the community.

  3. Leadership at the district level creates a safe, risk-free atmosphere where personnel are free to "experiment" with restructuring initiatives.

    Personnel felt that the atmosphere in the district had allowed a freedom to be creative, and one where they would not be judged as failures if programs did not succeed. They were encouraged to "reinvent" new ways of involving families and the community in the educational process.

  4. Responsibility for decision making requires training, both for parents and community members, and for school staff.

    In Fort Worth's experience with site based decision making, they found that collaborative decision making was an unfamiliar process for all participants. This change in role and responsibility required training in collaborative decision making processes.


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