Attending: SPED teacher from Mission Hill, O'Bryant 7^th grade English teacher- part of BTU and goes to community events, Board member of BPON- former member of School Committee, Kindergarten teacher for Yong Achievers and principal intern, Center for Collaborative Education, science teacher for 18 years now at Middle School Academy, Gavin Middle School, Orchard Gardens 1^st grade teacher, Young Achievers FCOC, and parents of students at Lila Frederick, Dearborn, Charlestown High, Hennigan, English High.

Parents and teachers responded to the following questions:

What is an involved parent? How do we define an involved parent?

• We need to ask these questions because there is a tension and disconnect between teachers and parents. Issues with trust have developed but are not always addressed.
• One teacher defines the involvement of parents as a continuum. There are parents who attend, who are invested at home and reinforcing the learning from school also at home, and lastly empowerment (how to advocate for themselves).
• There are different levels of involvement- getting their children to school, involved in the school activities (such as bake sales), etc.
• Teachers need to be more understanding of how hard it is to be a parent
• 99% of all parents care about their kids
• There needs to be a better connection between parents and teachers because parents are the first teachers. Teachers need to embrace what the child brings from home and develop more trust towards parents.

How do you encourage community engagement?

• As a kindergarten teacher, the parents are already a lot more involved because of the age group of their children. Most of them already come in the middle of the continuum. It is important to develop the idea that teachers need parents for successful outcomes.
• The last part of the continuum (empowerment) is the biggest challenge.
• Advocate for more parent organizers in schools, like FCOCs, to reach out to parents.
• One suggestion was to give an explicit message from the school and teachers that it does matter if parents show up. Also, if the students are really excited about what they are doing in school, then parents will want to come and support them too. One school had a really successful science fair with high parent turnout because the students were so excited about their projects.

What kind of message needs to be given to the parents to emphasize the importance of being engaged?

• Language is often a barrier; this is especially a problem when there is no translator available at the schools. There needs to be an opportunity for everyone to participate.
• Schools and teachers should invite parents for a specific purpose. They need to assess the needs of the parents and be sensitive to their needs.
• More resources should be available to support parents and make things more accessible such as carpooling and taxi vouchers.
• Schools and teachers need to follow up with parents. Flyers are not enough and they need to make sure that the important information is actually getting home. It's important to meet halfway!
• Teachers should find out what is going on with their students through email, phone calls, and home visits. They should also highlight the successes of the students, not just call when something negative happens. This can help build better relationships with parents.
• Parents can also contact the teachers, come by, ask what they can do to help.
• There needs to be more courageous conversation about race, segregation, busing, etc. People need to talk about it because it affected the experience of many parents.
• Parents need to talk and be real, but not negative
• Don't go in angry because if parent is angry then the teacher is also angry, defensive and they won't get anywhere- just show that everyone is human and cares
• Many parents gave the kids up for the schools to raise, but the teachers can't be both a teacher and social worker. Parents are insecure about their capabilities and expect teachers to raise their kids
• Be prepared to fight for your child

How can we follow-up with this conversation?

• Positive feedback, breaking barriers, building connections
• Continuation and starting new dialogues with people from all zones and communities. There needs to be more human to human conversation about these issues.
• Putting together a statement to show the findings of parents and teachers to show that everyone wants the same thing: better quality education for BPS students.
• Teachers and parents both really do care.