Those connections are being accomplished through family engagement events.

According to Stacey Cole, FDCSD director of education services, that’s because family involvement in a child’s education has proven to increase achievement, regardless of race, ethnicity, class or parents’ level of education.

“When families are involved at home and at the school, their children do better in school,” Cole said.

Rachel Loots, a first-grade teacher at Butler Elementary School, led a family engagement session at the school Tuesday night. About 15 parents attended.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Rachel Loots, a first grade teacher at Butler Elementary Schools, left, looks over a handout on reading scores with Kayla Marvin and her husband Jarred Marvin, both of Fort Dodge, at the school Tuesday night during a family engagement session.

It was held in conjunction with traditional conferences, according to Steph Anderson, principal at Butler Elementary School.

Kindergarten, first- and third-grade teachers hosted family engagement activities. Second-grade and fourth-grade teachers hosted traditional conferences.

“We are piloting some family engagement activities in lieu of conferences,” Anderson said. “Parents have the opportunity to look at individual student data. It’s the same thing they would get at conferences, except for in a large group. They can ask questions and make connections with families. This is a great opportunity to make those connections in an academic setting. They are also given activities they can do at home with their kiddos.”

Anderson added, “We want parents to connect with each other and connect with us.”

Loots’ session focused on the development of reading skills.

“It’s about making connections and helping them feel more comfortable with me,” Loots said.

Seth and Samantha Zimmermann, of Fort Dodge, were two parents in attendance.

Samantha Zimmermann was interested in learning strategies she could take home to her son, Samson Zimmerman, 7, a first-grader at Butler.

“We want to work on reading skills and writing skills,” Samantha Zimmermann said. “Things we can do to encourage that behavior.”

The couple has four children.

Seth Zimmermann said it’s not always easy to find time for education.

“Beyond physically, just trying to give them each their own attention,” he said when describing challenges at home.

During the session, Loots shared with parents some activities she does with students to start the day.

She starts the morning with a greeting.

“Let’s go around the room and say your name and who your child is,” she said.

Loots said the second part of the day she asks students to share something.

“We answer a question,” Loots said. “Sometimes it’s what are you going to do this weekend?”

Next, Loots has students complete an activity.

“We are going to do four corners,” Loots said.

Parents were organized by when they work. They shared their jobs and how close they are located to the school.

Loots asked parents how much time is spent on academics at home.

“Life is busy,” she said. “I understand completely.”

Parents were given a graph, showing at what level their child is reading.

“I really want to focus on reading level,” Loots said.

One strategy shared with parents was learning unfamiliar words using a prompt on a bookmark.

The bookmark reads, “Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?”

Loots said not only can parents ask their child these questions while reading a book, but the child can ask themselves the same questions when reading by themselves.

“When she can answer all three, they know it’s right,” Loots said. “They can ask those questions to themselves when we are not there.”

According to Anderson, the district began looking at ways to improve family engagement practices in April 2017 in response to an assessment conducted by Scholastic Corp., an education company headquartered in New York. The company’s family engagement division visited Fort Dodge schools for the assessment.

Anderson said Scholastic found that the school needed to lay out its expectations better to families.

“One thing was that we really needed to start to share with our families what the expectations are that we have academically for our students,” Anderson said. “We want them to know, how does that compare to the standard that we have for our kids at that grade level? If third grade has work displayed, here is the standard we are working on. How did your child go about meeting that standard? Helping them have an understanding of, here is our expectation and how your child is performing toward that expectation.”

Anderson said family engagement is not about seeing how many parents come to the school, but instead how teachers and parents are communicating.

“We are trying to get away from the head count component,” she said. “Not necessarily thinking about you coming into our building and that tells that you are engaged, but rather we are putting this Facebook post out there, here is what we learned in first grade today and here’s how you might extend that into learning at home.”

She added, “We know families are busy, so we want to make sure we are providing different avenues, not just ‘hey come to the school, that’s the only way you can engage.’ There’s a lot of ways families can engage and extend learning outside of the schools.”