Teacher Dyann Sousa had reached all but one of her 22 students’ families.
“My mom never comes to Report Card Night,” the final student told her. Sousa (pictured) didn’t take “never” for an answer.
To deliver the final report card to the 22nd student in her third-grade class at Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School, Sousa got in her car and drove to Dunkin’ Donuts. She came back with a perfect attendance score, and a big thank you from Mom.
Sousa’s Dunkin’ run came as part of an extra push to boost parent turnout at Report Card Night this year. Her effort made a difference: The K‑8 school scored 95 percent turnout at the annual parent night, one of the highest rates in the district.
Barnard was one of 27 schools in the district that drew more parents to Report Card Night this year than last, according to Laoise King, chief of external affairs for the New Haven Public Schools. King is closely watching the number of parents and guardians who made it out to meet with teachers this year. Turnout at the event, held Nov. 17 and 18 for most schools this year, has been set as a key metric for parental involvement as the city plunges into its first full year of a citywide reform drive.
Barnard was one of several schools where teachers and principals found new ways to connect with parents who might not have shown up in years past.
Metropolitan Business Academy showed the most improvement this year, with 95 percent turnout, an increase of 49 percent compared with last year. Turnout was the lowest at three small transitional programs: At Polly McCabe, a school for pregnant teens, only 3 of 21 students’ families showed up for students. Forty-one kids’ parents (26 percent) showed up to Riverside Academy, and 79 (40 percent) to Hyde Leadership Academy.
Click here to see how many parents showed up to each school.
Caveat: The overall system-wide numbers may not be that reliable.
Here’s why:
Number Trouble
King said in collecting the data, she found “significant variation in the way folks counted their numbers, which can result in misrepresentation of where schools stand.” Some schools reported the number of conferences held or the number of report cards picked up, while others reported the number of parents or guardians who came to the school.
The mismatched counting led to some screwy results.
Worthington Hooker is recorded as having 120 percent turnout, which is impossible, of course. The school reported that 541 parents showed up for 448 students. That’s because the school has many two-parent families, and both parents were counted in the tally, explained King.
King said she’s waiting to hear back from New Haven Academy, which reported a 50 percent drop in parental attendance, from 210 to 103. That decline may likely be attributed to a change in the way they were counted. She also still has to double-check with Truman and Bishop Woods “to find what they reported and whether it is the same or different from last year.”
King said next year, “we will be more explicit about what to report so we can have consistency between schools.”
Despite the discrepancies, King said that she’s confident the numbers do show gains.
“The good news is, anyway you look at it, at 27 of our schools showed increases in the number of attendees,” King said.
All seven pilot schools that were “tiered” in March, meaning they received intensive planning as part of the reform drive, showed significant gains in turnout, King said. The exception was Edgewood Magnet School, where turnout held steady at close to 95 percent turnout: 430 kids’ parents showed up this year, compared to 431 last year.
The three schools in the lowest-ranked Tier III — Domus Academy, Brennan/Rogers and Barnard — all showed big gains, according to King.
Dunkin’ Run
At a Tier III school tagged as a low-performer last March, Principal Mike Crocco said he set an expectation that teachers would reach 100 percent of their students’ parents or guardians. To make that happen, he freed up some planning time that has been added to the teachers’ school day to make room for daytime parent-teacher conferences for parents who couldn’t visit the school at night.
In one case, a teacher went the extra mile — literally — to reach a parent.
Dyann Sousa (pictured) has 22 students in her bustling third-grade class at Barnard. From the first day of school, she makes an effort to be accessible to parents: She sends home a magnet with her cell phone number so parents can stick it on the fridge.
“Call Ms. Sousa any time,” the magnet reads.
Sousa, a 44-year-old cancer survivor who lives in Naugatuck, greeted her kids with a burst of energy after spending a couple of hours away from them, in professional development, one morning last week. Her class starts the day on the “mat,” a soft area with reading pillows (pictured at the top of the story), where students share how they’re feeling that day.
Sousa said during report card time, she’d report back to Principal Crocco on how many students’ families she’d reached. He’d run into her in the hall and ask her latest count. When she got to 21 of 22, he gave her extra encouragement to reach that last one.
Sousa was already on the case. She had called home several times, leaving messages. The parent she was trying to reach was a single mom working multiple jobs, she said. Sousa asked her student if she could help.
“How come mommy hasn’t called me?” Sousa asked.
“Oh no, my mom never comes to any report card night,” the student replied, according to Sousa.
After lots of phone messages, Sousa finally reached mom.
“I just want to meet you,” Sousa told her. Sousa agreed to meet at a convenient spot outside the school. They picked Dunkin’ Donuts on Whalley at 4:15 p.m. The spot was on Sousa’s way home and on mom’s way to work. The mom said she had never had time to visit her daughter’s school because of work commitments. They had a good talk about her daughter, who was getting a bit distracted during school.
For the first time in her six years teaching in New Haven, Sousa counted her parent turnout as 100 percent.
“I was really happy to get that last parent,” she said.
Transportation Hurdle Overcome
Of the seven tiered schools, Domus Academy showed the most improvement. The transitional program for troubled middle-schoolers was taken over by a charter group this year. Last year, only eight kids’ families showed up to the former Urban Youth program in the bleak bunker on Dixwell Avenue. This year, 28 kids had parents in attendance, or two-thirds of the school. That’s an increase of 42 percent turnout, King calculated.
Melissa Bailey File Photo
The school is now in a swing space on Leeder Hill Road in Hamden. Craig Baker, the chief education officer at Domus Academy, said the school used various strategies to get parents in the door. Before school even began, at a back-to-school cookout, staff set an open-doors policy where parents are welcome to visit the school. They followed up with several parent nights at the school. Just before Thanksgiving, staff invited parents in to the school, where each homeroom of students presented their work to their parents. Meanwhile, teachers are required to call 10 students’ families each week. So-called “family advocates” call home frequently, too.
As a result, parents are in regular contact with the school, and are in the habit of visiting, Baker said. To add to that, the district is providing free transportation for parents to get to the school for all school events, Baker said. Schools Chief Operating Officer Will Clark said the district does that service for schools in far-away swing spaces. Parents without other means of transportation got a free ride to Domus on parent night.
“Getting over transit obstacles was a big deal,” Baker said.
Domus and Brennan/Rogers, a K‑8 school in West Rock, were the two low-performers tapped as “turnaround” schools this year.
Brennan/Rogers, where the principal hired 50 percent new staff to start the school year and has extended the day, drew more parents in the door this year, as well. The school showed 56 percent turnout (189 of 337), an increase of 18 percent over last year, according to district numbers.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Report Card Night at Brennan/Rogers featured a major literacy push, where parents were recruited to read aloud to their kids. The turnout was so much higher than expected that families quickly ate through 20 boxes of pizza (pictured), depleting the whole supply.
Principal Karen Lott said she made good use of Parent Link, an automated phone system, to remind parents about the big night.
High Schools
Turnout typically drops off in high school. Two schools are making a special effort to reverse that trend.
Over at Metropolitan Business Academy, Principal Judy Puglisi brought in student-led report card conferences from her former school, Cross Scholars. Instead of having parents come in to the school for the late-November Report Card Night, parents come in mid-semester to hear a report from their students on how they’re doing. Click on the play arrow to watch a sample from last year.
The new method drew parents in the door for 271 of 285 students, a turnout of 95 percent.
“I think that the parents get a lot out of it, and also it helps to build strong relationships,” Puglisi said.
At James Hillhouse High School, a new system of “small learning communities” and an energetic new leader are helping to reverse that trend.
Sandra Clark, mother of a 12th-grader, credited Principal Kermit Carolina with setting a new tone in the school where parents feel welcome. Report Card night fell on the heels of a well-attended meeting about the New Haven Promise college scholarship program. Carolina has created a “parent room” where parents have space to speak with teachers when they visit the school.
Clark, who also had a daughter graduate from Hillhouse in 2008, said the school is now “making a greater effort now in reaching out to the parents.”
“The atmosphere in the school is very good,” Clark said. “There’s a great difference when you walk in there.”