“Solid Foundation” Program Offered
Through the Vermont
Parent Information Resource Center
PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSIONS:
“Solid Foundation” improves student achievement through
parent engagement. This web-based
program is grounded in effective, research based, proven strategies. A study of schools implementing the Solid
Foundation program for building a school community, published by the Harvard
Family Research Project, found that the gain on state assessment tests
demonstrated by these schools over a two year period was nearly double that of
a control group of schools with identical beginning scores. The process of service and support, provided
through the Parent Information Resource Center (PIRC), is tailored to the
resources and needs of each school.
Solid
Foundation is a comprehensive parent engagement program developed by the
Academic Development Institute. The goal of this program is to “improve
student’s learning and school success by informing, equipping, and empowering
parents to enhance their children’s learning at home, support their children’s
learning at school, and make decisions about their children’s learning and
schooling.”
PIRC Vermont is offering
a one-time $1,000 stipend for the first ten schools to pilot Solid Foundation
in Vermont. This
money is earmarked to help support increasing parental involvement and may be
used for: childcare so that parents can attend a training workshop, food for a
school-sponsored function, transportation costs to aid underrepresented parent
who may not usually attend, or even provide gas card incentives to parents who
agree to participate! This money may
also be used to create or update a Parent Resource Center in your school
(ranging from a rack to a room of resources), or to purchase books and DVD’s
for training purposes. Printing expenses
associated with fees for creating a Volunteer Resource Manual, or invitations
for parents to attend school functions may be a way for your school to utilize
these funds.
For more information about
this opportunity to increase parental involvement or any of the other training
opportunities and services offered FREE of charge by PIRC VT, please contact
the Director, Kathleen Kilbourne at 876-5315 ext. 244
or visit our website at www.pircvermont.org.