The 17th Annual
Educational Law and Social Justice Forum will be held on Wednesday, May 6 at 5:30-7:30
pm in the Miller Hall Collaborative Space on the Western Washington University
campus.
The forum is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Journal of Educational Controversy and the Center for Education, Equity and Diversity.
The theme of the forum is: “Bringing Family and Community Strengths into the Life of the School: the Parent Action Team,” and will feature authors of the article, “Everyone Should Feel so Connected and Safe: Using Parent Action Teams to Reach all Families” that was published in our Winter 2015 issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy. The work of the Parent Action Team is a collaborative project between the Woodring College of Education and the Mt. Vernon Washington Elementary School that resulted from a 1.5 million dollar grant by the Washington State Legislature. The grant, Collaborative Schools for Innovation & Success, aims to develop models for enhancing student learning and closing the achievement gap and for better educating teachers who are prepared to teach more effectively in today’s diverse classrooms.
The forum is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Journal of Educational Controversy and the Center for Education, Equity and Diversity.
The theme of the forum is: “Bringing Family and Community Strengths into the Life of the School: the Parent Action Team,” and will feature authors of the article, “Everyone Should Feel so Connected and Safe: Using Parent Action Teams to Reach all Families” that was published in our Winter 2015 issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy. The work of the Parent Action Team is a collaborative project between the Woodring College of Education and the Mt. Vernon Washington Elementary School that resulted from a 1.5 million dollar grant by the Washington State Legislature. The grant, Collaborative Schools for Innovation & Success, aims to develop models for enhancing student learning and closing the achievement gap and for better educating teachers who are prepared to teach more effectively in today’s diverse classrooms.
The partnership has been
able to create a number of innovative practices. One such practice is the forming of a Parent
Action Team as part of a research project that advised schools on ways to
engage often marginalized and hard-to-reach parents --- parents and families that have often felt
alienated in the past and who often face language, poverty and other barriers
that prevented them from advocating for their children or feeling a part of the
school.
Bringing the strengths
and assets of the family and community into the life of school is an extension
of the theme of our current issue of the journal that focused on moving us away
from thinking in deficits terms and instead seeing the student as a person who
brings strengths and resiliency to the learning experience.
The theme of our current
issue is “Challenging the Deficit Model and the Pathologizing of Children:
Envisioning Alternative Models,” and so it was just a small leap to start to
think about the assets and strengths that families and communities also bring
to the life of the school.
The Parent Action Team
members that make up the panel include:
John Korsmo is an
Associate Professor and Director of Human Services at Western Washington
University.
Miguel Camarena is a
parent of a Washington School student.Andrea Clancy is Washington School CSIS co-coordinator and Reading Specialist.
Ann Eco is a parent of a
Washington School student.
Ann Jones is the
ESL/Family Coordinator for Mt. Vernon School District.
Bill Nutting is the
Principal at Washington School.
Basilia Quiroz is a
parent of two children at Washington School. Azucena Ramirez is a Migrant Family Liaison at Washington School.
Veronica Villa-Mondragon
is a parent of two children at Washington School.
Stacy Youngquist, is a
parent of two children at Washington School.
Panelists will share
their experiences and discuss the process and method that was used accompanied
by videos, posters, pictures and a powerpoint presentation. A Q&A session
with the audience will follow.
Location: Western Washington University, Miller Hall Collaborative Space
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Time: 5:30-7:30pm
Location: Western Washington University, Miller Hall Collaborative Space
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Time: 5:30-7:30pm