This Fort Worth school program is for parents. Next year it will be district-wide.
Marta Plata just wanted to improve a few things at her own school when she started Parent University in 2013.
Plata originated the program at Manuel Jara Elementary School, where she was principal at the time. She had noticed that, despite the efforts of teachers and administrators, the school’s academic outcomes lagged. Attendance and discipline were a problem, too, she said.
Eight years later, the program has found such success that Plata, now the Fort Worth school district’s executive director of parent partnerships, plans to take it district-wide. Starting at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, the district will offer Parent University classes to parents of students at all schools.
When the program began, Plata started a class she hoped would help get parents more involved in their children’s lives and education. About two dozen Jara parents met one evening a week for 13 weeks to talk about things like the importance of school attendance, how best to communicate with their kids and what they wanted for their children’s future. She hoped students’ grades and behavior would improve once parents were more involved at school.
The idea paid off, Plata said. Parents told other parents about the program, and interest grew, she said. Gradually, she noticed a shift in school culture. Attendance improved, and there were fewer disciplinary issues, she said. Graffiti at school, which had been a constant challenge up to that point, was almost non-existent, she said.
Fort Worth school program helps parents with communication
When the first year of the program ended, parents didn’t want to leave, Plata said. Many of them had connected with other parents in the group. So she developed a curriculum for a second Parent University class, this one to apply what parents had learned in the first class. Several parents told her the class helped them realize they didn’t really listen to their kids, especially when they were under stress, she said. That problem has become even more acute for many families with the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
“It really became a communication class,” Plata said. “When parents are in crisis, or when they’re in survival mode, they don’t really speak with their children. They speak at them.”
Since then, Plata has helped principals at other elementary schools begin Parent University classes. The program has also added other classes on personal finance, tech literacy and other skills. Courses are available in English and Spanish.
Sara Perez attended three sessions of Parent University when her youngest son was at Jara. Before she took the classes, she was already somewhat involved at the school, she said. She volunteered as a chaperon for field trips and went to PTA events. But the class gave her a chance to spend more time at school while her son was there, she said. One of her fondest memories is an evening when Plata had parents read to their children from books of poems.
Perez said the program gave her a better relationship with her son’s teachers, as well. She’d always been willing to call or email his teachers when there was a problem or if she needed information about something, she said. But by meeting with them face to face at school, she built stronger connections, she said. Perez thinks the program could be a good fit for any parent who wants to build those relationships and who is able to commit the time the program calls for.
Making parents more comfortable coming into their children’s schools and interacting with teachers and principals is a major part of the program, said Plata. Many of the parents in the program live in high-poverty parts of Fort Worth and don’t have much agency, she said. Often, they don’t completely understand that schools, teachers and administrators are there to serve their families, she said.
“If you’re on the right side of the tracks, you know we all work for you,” she said. “But if you’re in a community where there’s a lot of poverty and you’re all in crisis mode, you don’t know that. You feel you’re invisible.”
