Project Appleseed

Project Appleseed is an outstanding educational resource for families in public education. Our web-based tools utilize the Six Types of Parental Involvement from Dr. Joyce Epstein's research to engage with families, schools, and communities for student success and achievement in K-12 education. It has many useful resources for both staff and parent... s including tips, the Parental Involvement Toolbox, and handouts. Project Appleseed's Parental Involvement Pledge is a learning compact, providing an opportunity for parents to formalize their commitment to working with their child's school through a written agreement, which they can complete and take to their parent leader, school secretary, teacher, or principal. The Pledge is based on the Six Types of Parental Involvement developed by Dr. Epstein. This resource also includes an example of a survey of parent volunteer interests. The survey identifies areas in which parents can volunteer in school, outside the classroom, and at home. Though not yet at the scale of the national civil rights movement, organizers around the nation are currently working in communities to ensure that historically marginalized parents and students can participate in local, state, and national education debates and decisions. We are guided by the research which has shown that the community organizing approach to school reform has led to successes such as increases in education funding, more equitable distribution of education resources, greater access to college preparatory curriculum, and more effective teacher recruitment and retention in hard-to-staff schools. (Strengths and Challenges of Community Organizing as an Education Reform Strategy: What the Research Says; Prepared by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, Renée, M., and S. McAlister.Read More