Overview and key findings: Schoolwide toolkit/parent connector network

At the Healey School in Somerville, parents hail from across the globe. It's a school diverse along the lines of both language and income as well: while some parents make technology for a living, some have no computers and no internet. A listserv has long enrolled only some. Robocalls home go in four languages; handouts home often don't. For many, parent teacher conferences require interpreters, and scheduling those interpreters itself is a communication glitch. The school really does enroll people who are deeply empowered in their communications, and people left out of the most basic communications of schooling.

Communication from school to home is a huge issue in any diverse school, particularly across boundaries of language and tech access/training and in an era when most people work too much to talk face to face very often. One Portuguese-speaking dad we knew of worked such long hours he didn't even have time to come to school to post a paper sign saying he wanted to pay someone to help him drive his daughter to school after he left for work.)

We've been working toward a full "infrastructure" of school-home and parent-parent communication strategies, particularly for a multilingual community where not everyone uses computers.

In particular, we've been designing a Parent Connector Network, a fully parent-led effort to support translation and parent-school relationships by connecting bilingual parents (“Connectors”) to more recently immigrated parents via a phone tree. Each Connector will call approximately 10 families once a month, and, be on call for questions at any time.

Our goal: to build personal relationships by phone that support explanations of key school information and catalyze input *from* the parents on the other end of the line.

We see the Connectors as one component of the “infrastructure” for translation and interpretation in a multilingual school. There are other pieces. We’re prototyping a hotline (using Twilio, open source software) allowing volunteer Translators of the Month (also bilingual parents, and maybe, students) to verbally translate information all parents need to know (in Creole, Portuguese, and Spanish). Bilingual parents have noted that translating material into their languages verbally – so, speaking it on to a hotline -- is easier than doing it word for word from paper to paper. So far, we have parents coming to speak into a computer (see photo!). We hope to hone the hotline so that translators can record to it from home.

PHOTO HERE (IS EITHER ATTACHED PHOTO DECENT?)

We're working on other components of the “infrastructure” for translation and interpretation: Google forms for Connectors to record parents’ needs; Google spreadsheets for lists of approved parent numbers. Robocalls home, using the district’s existing system for school-home calls, but targeting the calls to be specific to language groups and at times, recorded by friendly parent voices.

Small infrastructural “moves” can help: one parent noted that at another school, they put information at the top of every handout indicating where you can go to get a translation (over time, our Hotline).

The principal made clear that he needs to think in terms of “systems” for translation. Otherwise, disorganization means that things don’t get translated! Commitment to fully including all parents is key, but glitches certainly can block communication too. One example: because our Connector project started mid-year, we had no beginning of the year form for all parents, saying “do you want a Connector? Check here to release your number to them!” So, it took us weeks to work through the Parent Information Center (PIC) to get parents to release their numbers to other parents! (The school secretary had to figure out how to download a spreadsheet of language-specific numbers for PIC staff from X2, the district’s “student information system”; then the PIC staff had to make the calls home to get parents’ permission to release numbers to the Connectors; then, finally, Connectors got lists and could start calling.)

A key issue we’re trying to understand is where the line is between translation/interpretation that bilingual parents can/will do as volunteers to serve their community, and when the district has to pay professionals. Translation and interpretation are civil rights in publicly funded education, so the District has to pay for translating all important parent information (and it must pay for interpretation at parent-teacher conferences). But all districts are strapped for money and bilingual skills are true community resources. Some of this may be simply organizing resources more effectively. We’re interested in a model from the Turlock Unified School District in California, where parents are trained and paid as professional interpreters and translators (link to interview here ***NOTE: I CAN'T LINK TO THE INTERVIEW UNLESS I POST IT ONLINE, AND I DON'T WANT TO POST TO OUR ACTUAL ONEVILLE WIKI YET, ETC. THOUGHTS? SHOULD I JUST ATTACH IT AS A FILE TO THE BLOG POST?). Somerville’s Welcome Project already trains young people this way in their LIPS program, to translate at public events (http://www.welcomeproject.org/content/liaison-interpreters-program-somerville-lips). Which communications could trained adults handle particularly effectively, and at a lower cost than sending everything to the PIC?

So, we've been fleshing out a full list of components of the "infrastructure" for low-cost translation and interpretation in a school. We've been brainstorming these components with Somerville's Welcome Project (in the Mystic Housing Development down the hill from the school). A parent group formed there that has also focused on translation and interpretation in Somerville, so we've joined the conversations.

Process

Our design process has also been importantly collaborative. We've been working with young people, families and teachers in design efforts to improve the core communication infrastructure of their public schools/community. So, we want to also document: how has that co-design effort worked, and what of that process might others, elsewhere, want to replicate? What have been the stumbling blocks in the process?

We began in fall 2009 creating Reading Nights to link parents across a Kindergarten hallway in face to face efforts to share information on reading with young children. Our events were social, and academic; we met parents who formed the core of the working group that continued to work on schoolwide communication.

We also created a multilingual coffee hour model under the guidance of Consuelo Perez, to supplement the typically English-dominated meetings with the principal.

In a number of community dialogues, we realized just how pervasive problems of communication were to parents being fully included in schools.

Communication infrastructure/communications made possible

CUT THIS DOWN ***!

In our final meetings in Spring 2011 after several months of testing aspects of the Connector Project, we came up with the following list of infrastructural needs.

Mica, Ana, Tonia, Gina

• • next steps on the connector project: infrastructure and tools in the kit

-We need a clear definition of the connector’s job, because there is so much information coming from the school. The quantity of stuff needing to get out is so huge, otherwise. We can’t call families every week to say “there’s this coming up next week.” :

so, the job of the Connectors is to be a conduit for info to and from the school.

So, we need a clear process of getting info FROM school, to get out to parents. And, we will otherwise be available to parents who need to speak out to the school about something.

Too many requests are likely to come to Connectors for translating public information, etc. So, we have to set some ground rules: Connectors can realistically only make calls 1x/month, but also be available for questions.

INFRASTRUCTURE WE NEED TO GET IN PLACE

1. hotline. Plan: first day of each month, a new hotline recording goes up.

TO DO: Seth needs to finish it so it is easy to use for fall, with people able to record on it via phone from home.

           -TO DO: We need to advertise hotline in the front of the school first thing in the fall. AND get it on the radar of the PTA, others who need to advertise things.

2. Connectors will make a monthly call during the 3rd week of every month.

3. Develop a googledoc as one organized place where principal, school leaders, put info that most needs dissemination/translation each month. (people recording on the hotline and making Connector calls, will check the googledoc first.) This googledoc can also be a place where school leaders put questions that require immigrant parent input, that Connectors can ask when they call home.

The googledoc can hold two kinds of information (Note: this googledoc will be for events and basic information that everyone needs to know. We won’t translate high-level official documents that require professional translation.)

Info for connector calls: = info that requires personal translation/explanation, or questions that need to be asked of all parents.

Deadline for getting this info into Connector calls: by Friday of second week of every month.

           Info for the hotline: = events and stuff that everyone needs to know about.

            Deadline for getting that info on the hotline:  by the Friday of the last week of every month.

-We propose that a translator of the month be appointed in each language. This would be a parent who might not have the time to be a connector but would do translation of the googledoc material. (see the Connector spreadsheet for a list of "Choice" parents who expressed willingness to do translation.) That person will translate the info on the googledoc, by the deadlines above.

4. TO DO: We need to appoint a person to fill a key year-long role as Information Coordinator: (paid staff?), who willl coordinate the EVENT AND INFO TRANSLATION effort above.

• • The Information Coordinator will coordinate people to record the information on the hotline and will also help monitor the info going on the googledoc. The Information Coordinator can also put the translated info from the googledoc on an online calendar and the purple calendar. A weekly email from DeFalco can also go out w/ the translated info from the Googledoc, via ConnectEd.

• • Note: TO DO: create a google calendar for the school? (needs to be run by someone central.) ((current calendar is not very effective – Tona can’t find events even when she tries.))

5. TO DO: appoint a person to fill another key year-long role as Lead Connector. This could perhaps be a volunteer parent – who is helping to coordinate the other Connector parents.

-Connector calls will happen the 3rd week of each month.

- So, in the first week of every month, the Lead Connector calls the connectors together with the principal to discuss what they have learned.

The Lead Connector also needs to:

-keep track of the actual Connectors: (e.g.: so far, Marcia and Ivanete have not called any parents, or selected “their” parents on the google spreadsheet. Ivanete is ready to be called and trained on the forms; she has been having dizziness problems. Marcia has been extremely busy at work but is also ready to make calls. Someone, a Lead Connector, has to reach out to them.

-go on the googledoc or make a call to principal, to decide before the 3rd week’s Connector calls what the theme/purpose of the month’s calls will be.

           -keep tabs on the googleform we’ve created for keeping  tabs on parent calls. Tona reworked it so it wasn’t set up as if there was a serious issue each time, but is more of a general recording space. (**question: this role of monitoring parent needs seems larger and suggests that the Lead Connector should perhaps be paid staff. . .TBD.)

           -***convene the multilingual coffee hour – PTA is ready to offer coffee for it.

(TO DO: ASK THE CONNECTORS what they want to do w/ the coffee hour slot. Could be used for a quick update on Connector efforts but mostly, to hear immigrant parents with their issues and to introduce immigrant parents to non-immigrant parents. It could become a routine part of the Connector calls each month to invite parents to the coffee hour.)

Emails with questions at any time can go to the Information Coordinator and the Lead Connector. Mica will be an ongoing partner in such email exchange as well.

TO DO BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR:

A. pick roles.

Appoint a Lead Connector: Tonia is interested. (TBD: On the one hand, it seems important to have it be a parent, since it'll be natural for them to contact other parents (like the Room Parent Coordinator from the Choice Program). Or, if it's too big a role, does it need to be paid staff?)

Appoint an Information Coordinator: (TBD: Is Gina interested in this role, while being a Creole Connector to practice the parent liaison role for her career?)

Support and documentation: Ana

Remote partner in the whole thing, included on emails: Mica

B. Plan a face to face meeting between all of the Connectors. E.g., Gina, or Tona, should reach out to Ivanete and Veronaise ASAP and show them the forms. (TBD: who will do?)

Gina should find out everyone’s best meeting times for that meeting. (Sunday with kids?)

C. let’s still pursue a call home by all Connectors before the year ends – to gather information on “how are the interactions w/ your teachers going? How is translation and interpretation going?”

D. Lead Connector and Information Coordinator will need to organize a summer training for Connectors, by principal, on how the school functions.

Things for other people to do:

-Email training? (PTA or Welcome Committee.)

-actual employed translators/interpreters (Welcome Project)