Recommendations for making high-quality environmental education available to all students, finding a funding source to sustain and improve instruction, working with outside organizations to ensure the instruction is high quality, and providing students with a variety of learning experiences.
With these new guides from the California Department of Education and California State PTA, find out more about what the new assessment scores mean for your child and use them as an opportunity to work with your child’s teacher for student success!
Spanish coming soon!
This Family Engagement Guide contains information on why family engagement in schools matters, how to grow family-school partnerships to enhance student achievement and ways to support student success and learning at home. Throughout the resource, the word “parent” refers to parents, guardians and caregivers who have the primary responsibility for raising children and are involved in their development, learning and growth.
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A Blueprint for Great Schools Version 2.0 builds on the groundbreaking 2011 report which helped usher in a new era in California schools that has included major increases in funding, more rigorous state academic standards, online student assessment testing, and greater support for the students and schools with the most needs.
Developed based on recommendations made by a team of 29 education leaders and experts, Blueprint 2.0 details next steps in five critical areas: California standards, teaching and leading excellence, student success, continuous improvement and accountability systems, and systems change and supports. California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said the California Department of Education will now work on carrying out the plans.
The Blueprint 2.0 Planning Team was co-chaired by Martha Infante, a teacher at the Los Angeles Academy Middle School; David Rattray, Executive Vice President, Education and Workforce Development for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and President of UNITE-LA, the school-to-career partnership of Los Angeles; and Chris Steinhauser, Superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District.
As well as detailed recommendations, A Blueprint for Great Schools Version 2.0 includes a call to action, a revised mission, and a review of guiding principles and the emerging “California Way.”
“We have worked hard to move forward together in California in a gradual, sensible, and collaborative way,” Torlakson said. “I call this approach ‘The California Way,’ and it is paying huge dividends across the board. Blueprint 2.0 is the latest example of what The California Way can do.”
The California State PTA Toolkit provides guidance, instruction and ideas to ensure a successful term as a PTA officer or chair.
The Toolkit reflects the hard work and effort of the California State PTA Board of Managers to create the best possible resource for you. It is based on more than 100 years of best practices by PTAs around our state. You will discover valuable information to assist your PTA/PTSA with the important work that you do on behalf of all children and families. Many of your questions and concerns can be answered here in just one place.
Remember, if you can’t find it in the Toolkit, you always have the safety net of your council, district or state PTA to answer your questions. Don’t hesitate to contact them.
National PTA offers family-engagement action steps for local PTA leaders.
The six steps align with the PTA National Standards for Family-School Partnerships, providing a guideline for connecting families and schools.
Download your free copy in English and Spanish and take action for family engagement!
The new assessment report uses four achievement levels: standard not met, standard nearly met, standard met, standard exceeded. The levels will designate the degree of “progress toward mastery of the knowledge and skills needed for success in future coursework.” For 11th-graders, they measure the degree to which students are on track to be ready for college or a career after graduating from high school. Download the sample Student Score Report for 2016-2017.
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The power of civics education was front and center at our recent convention when California State PTA Past President Carol Kocivar sat down to interview Chief Justice of California Hon. Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye. Take a look!
Download this flier to share with your school community.