Parent engagement newsletter, 2016 Spring-Summer

Parent Engagement

Educating Georgia's Future

Spring/Summer 2016

From THE SUPERINTENDENT
The 2015-2016 school year has come to a close, but Parent Engagement continues even in the summer months. In fact, Parent Engagement is crucial during the summer break to keep Georgia's students from experiencing "The Summer Slide," when students struggle to retain up to a month of instruction. Find fun and engaging activities on the Parent Engagement Program's social media (links below) and keep your children academically engaged over the summer.
As the school year wound down, schools participating in our Academic Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT) program held their third and final meetings. These meetings have been instrumental throughout the school year in keeping parents informed of their child's academic progress and equipping them with useful academic-oriented activities. In this issue of the Parent Engagement newsletter you'll learn about exciting plans for APTT in the next school year.
Finally, be sure to review our recently updated transition brochures and distribute them to parents whose students are entering kindergarten, middle school, or high school. They are key to helping parents bridge these challenging times with their child. Another resource that is now available to parents is a video explaining the Georgia Student Growth Model (GSGM). Along with scores from the Georgia Milestones, the GSGM paints a more complete picture of our students' success.

APTT MEETING #3
In the closing months of the school year Georgia's APTT schools held their third and final 75-minute meeting of the year. This meeting was a celebration of student growth due to the family-school partnerships established through APTT throughout the year.
During two earlier meetings in the year, teachers provided data on how students were performing on key academic skills. In the third meeting, however, teachers provided data on how students performed over the course of the year. Following the APTT model, teachers also provided and demonstrated activities for parents to use with their children for the rest of the school year, and in some cases, over the summer.
School districts participating in the APTT program represent two cohorts. Districts in these cohorts will be adding additional APTT schools in the fall while a third cohort will be launched in new school districts. To learn if your district or school is participating in the fall, visit the APTT state map at: www.bit.ly/gaapttmap
Parents participate in an APTT team building activity to get to know each other.

Richard Woods, Georgia's School Superintendent facebook.com/GaDOEParentEngagement

@GaDOEParents

parents.gadoe.org

Parent Engagement Program
Transitions materials available online
The summer is an exciting time for students who are transitioning into kindergarten, middle school, or high school as they anticipate new experiences and more challenging academic lessons. Along with their excitement, many students experience anxiety as the changes draw near. Parents aren't immune to this anxiety either, which is why the Parent Engagement Program, in collaboration with several community partners, offers transition brochures to guide students and parents alike through these academic thresholds.
The transition brochures are available in English and Spanish. Download them from the Parent Engagement Program website at: www.bit.ly/downloadandprint
Final ISSUE OF THE PARENT ENGAGEMENT NEWSLETTER
As the Parent Engagement Program seeks new and innovative ways to help schools and districts build capacity to educate families of Georgia, we are turning our resources toward developing new and expanded multimedia communications vehicles in the 2016-2017 school year. Therefore, this will be our final newsletter. Be sure to follow us on our social media accounts on Twitter @gadoeparents and Facebook at www.facebook.com/GaDOEParentEngagement to get the latest information from this office. The office of the State Superintendent publishes regular newsletters addressed to parents and other stakeholders. Sign up for their email notifications at www.gadoe.org/Pages/Newsletter-Signup.aspx
NEW VIDEO THAT EXPLAINS STUDENT GROWTH PERCENTILES
In collaboration with the Office of Assessment and Accountability, the Parent Engagement Program has developed a new video to help parents better understand the Georgia Student Growth Model and Student Growth Percentiles from the Georgia Milestones Assessment. View the video at gsgm.gadoe.org. Find the "Student Growth Reports" section in the right menu, then click on the "Understanding Student Growth Reports Video" link.