Blog 7: Mis-Marketing Committee

We have a new principal at my school and one of the first things he did was start something he’s calling the re-branding of our campus.  We now have a marketing team comprised of a group of five teachers, led by two teachers and we are supposed to meet regularly to re-brand our campus.  So far, we haven’t really accomplished anything, and I think I may have some ideas why.   It’s really interesting that most of the talking points in the article we read last week, “School/ Family/ Community Partnerships:  Caring for the Children We Share” by Joyce Epstein seems to share many of the same goals our marketing committee has (2001).  We want to improve school improve the community involvement, improve the way the community views our school, and ultimately improve student achievement.  I think the main think we have missed when we formed this committee is parent involvement.

In her article Epstein stresses the importance of involvement of the community at multiple levels:  parenting; communicating; volunteering; learning at home; decision making; and collaborating within the community (p. 193).  These are the top six tenets she mentions in her plan for “caring” for students in an effort to make a school more cooperative.  Once schools learn how to effectively combine all these practices, a framework will start to come together. 

In my school, when we began to form our committees for our marketing team, if we had used Epstein’s framework we could have mapped out a simple plan:  we could have chosen a group around parent involvement or parent volunteers; student communication; teacher communication; and community outreach.  Currently, we are missing one of the most important components:  the parents.  Without these people we are missing a link to the students’ home.  How can we expect to communicate effectively with the community if we choose not to communicate with one of our largest customers?

Epstein suggests we include parents and students in the decision making processes for improvements and changes we are working to make, and these are exactly the types of decisions parents should be included in (2001, p. 193).  If they are included they are more likely to pay attention to putting time and energy into a cause they feel they are having a voice or a say to make a difference- the future of their child.  Parents should be given a chance to be heard and should be informed about things like curriculum changes, new programs, new opportunities, future opportunities.  If they have a say in these things, then they will begin to take owner ship in our school and care about the future of their child and the future of our school.  This will also start to build a sense of community within our school district.  Families can see familiar faces at meetings and talk with each other.  Brothers and sisters of younger siblings will eventually participate in new activities together and these familiar faces will become more familiar as parents see each other at football games, band concerts and other school events.  By inviting parents to become involved, they become more involved in the school community and by extension the larger community.

Hopefully I can take this idea back to our marketing committee and we can work to include some parents in our group.  I think this is what we are missing right now.  I’m not sure I can convince all the members this is the right direction, but I think with the evidence from Epstein, it’s a good start.  In the past year I have had fewer than five parent volunteers- total volunteers- for the entire year.  I need at least five volunteers per week, per month for my student council events.  Epstein explains that involving parents helps them understand that they are welcome at the school and valued (2001, p. 195).  By including them in the decision making process I would be showing them their opinion matters, and then physically bringing them into the school so I have the opportunity to beg them to help.  This could theoretically solve the problems for the marketing group and get me the volunteers I need.  The whole idea Epstein outlines is a give-and take creating partnerships that will last; this is exactly what the marketing committee should be working towards.

Epstein, J. (2001). School/family/community partnerships: Caring for the children we share.  In J. Noel (Ed.),Multicultural Education (pp. 192-198). Sacramento: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.