When parents didn’t show up for the Parent Outreach Academic Seminar on Monday, Columbus Municipal School District officials were not deterred.
Rather than chalking it up as a loss, Superintendent Cherie Labat and Columbus Middle School Principal Billie Smith started walking the neighborhood, holding miniature parent conferences on the steps, streets and front porches of the William Washington complex of the Columbus Housing Authority.
“(Monday) we didn’t have (the parents) all here,” Smith said. “I said, ‘They’re not here, let’s revamp.’ We went door to door. Once we started walking around, we really enjoyed it. The parents were really appreciative to see the superintendent and their principal knock on their door to bring information. They didn’t come to us, so we were going to come to them. It was a mini-session but we shared testing information with them.”
On Tuesday, the district met with parents again at Columbus Housing Authority complexes on William Roberts and Fourth Street South. More than 30 parents met with district administrators and discussed testing materials and tips before end-of-year state assessments.
Smith and Franklin Academy Principal Tawan Williams provided parents with grade-appropriate study guides, testing packets and other resources. Smith helped parents work through each grade level’s English and math sample questions, asking parents to imagine being in their child’s shoes.
“When they’re working on these, don’t let them use a calculator,” Smith said. “Let them work it out and show their work. Talk to your kids, encourage them on test day. Make them something hot to eat for breakfast.”
In addition to test-taking tips, Smith told parents about high school programs available to help students post-graduation, including dual enrollment college credit and ACT and WorkKeys testing.
Lailaka Lyons, who has three children in elementary school, said she didn’t know about the high school programs. After the meeting, Lyons said she felt like she was back in the classroom again. In fact, that feeling, she said, has reminded her how important education is.
“I thought it was great,” Lyons said. “It lets the parents know what’s going on since we’re not in the classroom. It gives us a chance to have a parent classroom to be involved with our children. I love being in class and this has made me want to go back to school. It opens up my mind to what’s going on. It opens you up to more resources that can help you.”
Lyons said she’ll be back if the district holds additional meetings.
“(CMSD) opened that up for us and gave us the packet to help our kids get ready,” she said. “Now we will know what our teachers are talking about.”
Labat said she hopes to host meetings in neighborhoods throughout next school year. The district’s administrators spearheaded the idea of meeting with parents before state testing. Labat added, in an effort to meet with more parents, she wants to host similar meetings in local churches, extending the district’s outreach.
“We feel like meeting parents where they are was important before the test,” Labat said. “We need to make sure we meet parents in a place that’s comfortable for them and not just ask them to meet where we are comfortable at Brandon (Central Services). This is all a part of our parent support initiative, to get more parents involved in their child’s education.”
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