HomeMy WebLinkAbout09 Report 14-013 PIC_Your Child's Education - Be a Part of It!
Report 14-013, Your Child’s Education – Be a Part of It! Page 1
PARENT INVOLVEMENT COMMITTEE 15 January 2014
Report No. 14-013
Review of Parent Involvement Committee Publication: Your Child’s
Education – Be a Part of It!
Key Contact: Michèle Giroux, Executive Officer, Corporate Services, 613-596-8211 ext.
8310
PURPOSE:
1. To collect feedback on the Parent Involvement Committee’s (PIC) 2010
publication: Your Child’s Education – Be a Part of It! in order to update the
publication.
CONTEXT:
2. In 2007, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s (OCDSB) PIC utilized
parent engagement funding from the Ministry of Education to publish a brochure
for parents titled: Your Child’s Education – Be a Part of It! This brochure sought
to encourage parent engagement by providing information and ideas on ways
parents/guardians can support their child’s learning at home, school and in the
community.
The publication was originally drafted in English but was translated into French,
Arabic, Mandarin, Urdu, Spanish, Farsi and Somali to meet the needs of our
diverse parent community.
In 2010 the publication was updated (Appendix A) to reflect the OCDSB’s
renewed branding and colour scheme but the content remained largely the same
as the 2007 publication.
KEY CONSIDERATIONS:
3. The 2013-2014 PIC Workplan, ‘Building a Bridge Between Home and School’,
presents three pillars of the parent engagement strategy: Support, Encourage
and Enhance parent engagement in the OCDSB. Under the pillar of Encourage,
there is a goal to improve communications with parents/guardians, especially
those who are less engaged in their child’s education. The updating of this
brochure helps PIC to move toward the completion of its goal under the
Encourage pillar of its workplan.
Report 14-013, Your Child’s Education – Be a Part of It! Page 2
4. The current version of the brochure provides general information to
parents/guardians on obstacles to parent engagement, identifies strategies they
can use in their home, at school or in the community to support their child’s
learning. It also gives basic contact information for the OCDSB should they have
any questions. The general content allows for the publication to be used for a
number of years without requiring a revision.
It is time to update the publication and to do that, the committee’s input is
needed with respect to: content, format, structure, specificity, and languages of
availability. These revisions could be useful in connecting parents/guardians with
supports or programs the OCDSB has to offer.
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:
5. There is cost associated with the updating, translating and printing of this
publication. In 2007, approximately 51,000 brochures were printed at a cost of
roughly $26,000. There are funds available in the committee budget for this
work.
COMMUNICATION/CONSULTATION ISSUES:
6. There is no consultation required.
STRATEGIC LINKS:
7. The publication and distribution of resources, such as the parent brochure,
supports the District’s strategic priority area of engagement commitment to
enhance parental engagement and outreach to all parents and encouraging
broad community engagement in District initiatives.
GUIDING QUESTIONS:
8. The following questions are provided to facilitate discussion of this report:
What revisions would the committee like to see in the next version of the
publication?
What is the balance of having a general parent engagement booklet with
information that is timeless versus a more current booklet that requires
frequent revision (and subsequent translation into multiple languages)?
Should the brochure be translated into more languages?
Michèle Giroux
Executive Officer,
Corporate Services
Jennifer Adams
Director of Education and
Secretary of the Board