Introduction
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| Contents | Preface | Introduction | Module 1 | Module 2 | Module 3 | Professional Development | Resources | Training Guides | |
Overview
Purpose
"All for one and one for all." We are all familiar with this quote from the French novelist, Alexandre Dumas. It represents the essential partnership attitude that must prevail for a decision-making team to function effectively and efficiently.
It does not just happen that a team operates as "all for one and one for all." It requires preparation, the right climate, respectful communication, and the development of trusting relationships among members.
For many parents, the Head Start experience will provide their first opportunities to be a part of formal decision-making partnerships. These opportunities can provide a foundation for more meaningful relationships between staff and parents, thus preparing parents to be stronger advocates for the program and for their children.
Strengthening parent-staff relationships through decision making requires an understanding of the basic principles of partnership:
- Parents have a fundamental right to shape the direction of policies and services that affect their lives.
- Decisions have greater legitimacy when they are made by a group that reflects the population being served.
- Parents' perspectives are critical to understanding appropriate strategies for working with families and children served.
- Participation in decisions gives parents dignity. It also gives them the responsibility for solving their own problems.
- Creating inviting opportunities for decision making requires careful planning and preparation. This includes training for staff and parents on how to work together as a team and helping people learn to respect each other's unique contribution to the group process.
Audience
This guide is written for staff and parent teams that have been given the task of making program decisions. This guide also may be of use to parent committees and program coordinators to prepare new volunteers to become members of decision-making teams.
Performance Standards
This guide contains material which will help programs meet the Head Start Program Performance Standards requiring them to:
- Involve parents in educational activities of the program to enhance their role as the principal influence on their children's education and development.
- Ensure parent participation in developing the education services plan
and in center, classroom, and home-based program activities.
- Include parents in the development of the curriculum and the health,
education, and nutritional services of the program.
- Involve parents in meeting the parent involvement objectives that require programs to provide different opportunities for parent participation and direct involvement in decision making in program planning and operations.
Organization of the Guide
The guide is divided into three modules:
Module 1: Building Partnerships prepares parents and staff for serving on a decision-making team. This is an important first step that is often overlooked, with the result that team members are "thrown together" and expected to make decisions before learning how to work together. By taking the time to build partnerships, decision making can be more efficient and effective. The activities in this module help participants become comfortable in the group and understand the particular value that each brings to the decision-making process. The activities also help participants establish ground rules for working together.
Module 2: Working Toward Solutions familiarizes participants with the steps in decision making, from defining the task to evaluation decisions. The module provides ample opportunity for participants to work as a team (or to observe such teams in action) and thereby gain competence in group decision making.
Module 3: Ongoing Partnerships helps participants look at the level of parent involvement in their own program's decision making. Activities direct them to evaluate how their program:
- Welcomes parents into
decision making teams,
- Includes parents in the program's important decisions,
- Provides opportunities for all parents to be involved or represented in decision making.
- Helps parents build decision-making skills that they can use at Head Start as well as in other
areas of their lives, and
- Can expand parent involvement in decision making.
Continuing Professional Development offers strategies that supervisors can use to help staff apply new skills and extend their learning.
Resources lists print and other resources that staff can use to learn more about the key issues presented in the guide.
Organization of the Modules
In order to accommodate the needs of different grantees, each module offers two different delivery strategies: workshop and coaching. While activities vary according to the type of delivery strategy, the content and objectives are the same for each approach.
- Workshops are designed for 10 or more participants. The workshop activities are ideally suited for groups of staff and parents who are, or soon will be, working together on a decision-making team. However, they also are
appropriate for use with individuals who are not serving together in a decision-making partnership but who nonetheless seek to improve their teamwork skills.
- Coaching permits a smaller group of staff members and parents
to work under the guidance of a coach—who could be a Head Start
director, coordinator, head teacher, or an outside consultant. Coaching activities can be selected, tailored, and scheduled to meet the needs of individuals. They allow participants to advance skills that they will be using at Head Start or in other areas of their lives.
All modules contain the following sections:
- Outcomes summarizes the skills participants will learn in the module.
- Key Concepts describes the critical issues addressed.
- Background Information provides a rationale for the module.
- Activities provides step-by-step instructions for the facilitator.
- Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice contains suggestions for how participants can apply the information and skills learned in the training situation to their everyday lives.
Ideally, participants should complete all the workshops or all the coaching activities in each module, in order. Similarly, the modules should be used in order, since activities in each delivery strategy build on one another.
Definition of Icons
| Coaching |
 |
A training strategy that fosters the development of skills through tailored instruction, demonstrations, practice, and feedback. The activities are written for a coach to work closely with one to three participants. |
| Workshops |
 |
A facilitated group training strategy that fosters the development of skills through activities which build on learning through group interaction. These activities are written for up to 25 participants working in small or large groups with one or two trainers. |
| Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice |  |
Activities assigned by the trainer immediately following the completion of the module to help participants review key information, practice skills, and examine their progress toward expected outcomes of the module. |
| Continuing Professional Development |  |
Follow-up activities for the program to support continued staff development
in the regular use of the skills addressed in a particular training guide. It
includes: (1) Opportunities tailored to the participant to continue building on the skills learned in the training. (2) Ways to identify new skills and knowledge needed to expand and/or complement these skills through opportunities in such areas as in higher education, credentialing, or community educational programs. |
| Module |
|
|
|
| Module I: Building Partnerships |
Activity 1-1: Problems and Solutions (W) |
30-45 minutes |
Handout 1, pens or pencils |
| Activity 1-2: Making Decisions (C) |
minutes |
Handout 2, pens or pencils, lined paper |
|
| Activity 1-3: Getting to Know You (W) | 30-60 minutes |
Pictures cut in two, arts and crafts supplies optional) |
|
| Activity 1-4: Understanding My Role on a Team (C) |
60 minutes |
Handout 3, pens or pencils, lined paper | |
| Activity 1-5: Working Together (W) | 45-60 minutes |
Handouts 4 and 5, household items,"junk" or classroom supplies, pens or pencils, lined paper | |
| Activity 1-6: Managing Conflict (W) | 60 minutes |
Handout 6, chart paper, markers, easel | |
| Activity 1-7: Conflict Makes Me Feel... (C) | 30-60 minutes |
Handout 7, pens or pencils
|
|
| Activity 1-8: The Rules We Live By (W) |
minutes |
Chart paper, markers, easel, tape |
Introduction
| Module |
|
|
|
| Module 2: Working Toward Solutions |
Activity 2-1: Building Bridges
(W) |
30-45 minutes |
Handout 8, Overhead 1, overhead projector, screen, 2 chairs, bridge-building supplies |
| Activity 2-2: Sticky Situations (C) |
minutes |
Handout 9, pens or pencils |
|
| Activity 2-3: What Decisions Are We Trying to Make? (W) | 45 minutes |
Handout 10, chart paper, markers, easel | |
| Activity 2-4: Identifying Solutions (W) | 30-45 minutes |
Handout 11, pens or pencils | |
| Activity 2-5: Benchmarks (W) | 30-45 minutes |
Handouts 12, pens or pencils, chart paper, markers, tape | |
| Activity 2-6: Decision Making in Action (C) | 45-60 minutes |
Handout 13 | |
| Activity 2-7: Personal and Group Process (C) | 60 minutes |
Handout 14, pens or pencils |
| Module 3: Ongoing Partnerships |
Activity 3-1: Valuing Partnerships with Parents (W) |
30 minutes |
Overhead 2, overhead projector, screen |
| Activity 3-2: Who's Right to Invite (C) |
minutes |
Handout 15, pens or pencils |
|
| Activity 3-3: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions (W) markers, sticky dots | 90-120 minutes |
Handout 16and 17, pens or pencils, chart paper, tape, markers, large supply of sticky dots in three distinctive colors | |
| Activity 3-4: Spreading the News(W) | Varies | Handout 18, stenographer's notebook, index cards, pens or pencils, paper, access to in-kind and meeting records |
(W)=Workshop Activity
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