New Center Tackles Achievement By Building Stronger Ties Among Parents, Schools and Community

A unique resource that helps bring parents, schools and the community together to improve students’ academic success is now available throughout Northern and Southern California.

The newly established California State Parent Information Resource Center (CS-PIRC 1), also known as INSPIRE (Innovations that Nurture Success in Parent Involvement to Reach Excellence) Project, provides a host of resources and trainings for parents, teachers and administrators. The aim is to encourage the building of action teams that will support community and school site leadership as well as individual and group school reform plans. Additionally, there is a special focus on providing services and resources to parents of pre-school aged children.

“Involved and informed parents have a profound impact on the education and life-long success of their children,” said Hector Garcia, Project Director and ACOE Director of Curriculum and Instruction.

“Parents in underserved communities want to be involved in their child’s education, but often times they don’t know where to begin. The school system can be daunting. INSPIRE helps break down the barriers and gives everyone an opportunity to be a part of the solution,” said Alameda County Schools Superintendent Sheila Jordan. “We are pleased to have this partnership with the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) and the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (SBCSS) to create this much-needed resource.”

This past summer, the first group of INSPIRE participants began a series of workshops (there are 12 in all) by exploring such issues as, “Parent Involvement: Helping Your Child Achieve Academic Success.” Building on what University of California, Davis education professor Patricia Gandara calls “cultural capital,” known as “bienes culturales” in Spanish, attendees created books based on family stories of someone who had overcome great odds or had helped others. The end result: Parents took home a book that validated their life experience and helped them see there are “people like us.” These types of books inspire learning long after parents leave the workshop and affirm the message to their children that, “Yes I can!”

“I liked the theme of the books as representing the tree of our roots, seeing the value in our culture, and how children need to be centered in order to be give good fruits,” said Raquel Gevera, a parent attendee.

And the workshops don’t end there. Parents, schools and the community are encouraged to continuously work together toward the development of a learning community that will provide strong support for student academic success.

At a recent reception celebrating the opening of the center, parents, educators, activists and other community members joined forces to start building the bridges that will bring together all of the stakeholders.

As one participant said, “We must be successful for the sake of our children.”

The INSPIRE Project is headquartered at ACOE and serves Northern California through six satellite centers. The project is licensed to offer Virtual Pre-K, an online resource with educational training sessions and materials for parents, educators and teachers. These resources can be used at home, pre-schools, and community settings.

The INSPIRE Project is made possible through its partners and funding from the U.S. Department of Education. For more information, contact the INSPIRE Project at 510-670-4570 or visit www.acoe.org.