Researchers from UGA Explore Parent Engagement Opportunities

In 2010 and 2011, the K-12 Issue Work Group identified disconnected families as a major hurdle to education progress in the Dalton-Whitfield community.  The group discussed the need to reconsider the role of the family in education as education evolves and family compositions change, and stated that it was “no longer appropriate for the family to simply drop their child off at the school house door.”

Members of Dalton Public Schools and Whitfield County Schools discuss the literacy initiative.

As a result of those discussions and evolving work in the field of literacy in the community, the Archway Partnership brought UGA College of Education faculty Dr. JoBeth Allen and Ph.D. student Roberta Gardner to the Dalton-Whitfield community.  Dr. Allen is a professor of language and literacy education with extensive experience and publications in family and parent engagement.  Ms. Gardner is a former early learning librarian pursing her advanced degree in the Department of Language and Literacy Education. 

Over the next several months, Dr. Allen and Ms. Gardner will work with the Dalton-Whitfield education systems to determine high impact ways to bolster student success with parent engagement in a limited-resource environment.  Dr. Allen and Ms. Gardner kicked off their work on August 27-28, when Dalton Public Schools and Whitfield County Schools provided them with tours of the existing literacy program and interviews and panels with many engaged in public outreach and parent engagement work within the school systems.  The school districts also jointly hosted the UGA researchers on a community bus tour so they could get a feel for the neighborhoods in which many students live.

Dalton Public Schools superintendent Jim Hawkins (left), UGA College of Education faculty Dr. JoBeth Allen (center), and Ph.D. student Roberta Gardner (right).

 

Dr. Allen and Ms. Gardner will continue to collaborate with education and community members to refine the scope of their work.  They plan to return to Dalton on October 23 to work with school personnel at a Leadership Academy co-hosted by the school systems. 

Following their August visit, Dr. Allen wrote a letter to the editor of the Dalton Daily Citizen that can be viewed at the following link:  http://archwaypartnership.uga.edu/news/whitfield-news/letter-congratulations-offered-for-schools%e2%80%99-literacy-instruction/.