Developing Vision Through Community Involvement

Community involvement has always been an integral part of the way that the Ankeny Community School District (ACSD) conducts its daily business. To this end, several District committees have been formalized as the Comprehensive School Improvement Committees. These committees are the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee, the Combined Committee, the Education Task Force, and the Parent Advisory committees. The Superintendent’s Advisory Committee’s membership changes annually. The members of this committee are appointed for a one-year minimum and represent the various contingencies within the District such as Title I parents, At-Risk parents, Special Education parents, the Safe and Drug-Free Schools support group, students, teachers, Gifted and Talented parents, administrators, and constituents with no children currently in school. This committee meets monthly to review the CSIP, other information, and proposals for decisions to guide the District.

The Education Task Force is a committee of the Ankeny Chamber of Commerce. This committee consists of representatives from the business community, PreK-12 teacher representatives, administrators, Board of Education members, Central Iowa Regional Planning board, Des Moines Area Community college, and students. Many of the business leaders on the committee are also parents of students within the District, but this membership is not appointed. The Education Task Force meets on the first Friday of the month during the school year at the Chamber of Commerce. The committee reviews the CSIP, the K-12 School-to-Work program, data gathered by the ACSD, and feedback from the surveys of its members and its members’ customers.

Also, each building in the District has a Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) that provides the principals with feedback on the building and District goals. For example, the PAC’s provided principals with feedback on the new elementary report card that is aligned with District Standards and Benchmarks and the Reading Template, which is the vehicle used to collect and report the elementary reading data for each student in the District.

Finally, the Combined Committee is the third committee to serve as part of the Comprehensive School Improvement Advisory committee. The Combined Committee is composed of teachers representing all nine buildings in the District, members of the Ankeny Education Association, representatives of other major District Committees, Teachers on Special Assignment, administrators, classified staff, and members of the Board of Education. This committee serves as the District Steering Committee for the CSIP. One of the main purposes of this committee is to align Phase III, staff development, Exemplary Projects, and technology funds with the CSIP. The members of the Combined Committee utilize input from the other committees and state and District resources to align all of the District’s efforts to support the CSIP.

In addition, the Comprehensive School Improvement Advisory Committees all use the District’s Mission Statement, Belief Statements, District Essential Learnings (Student Learning Goals), Content Standards, and Benchmarks as a foundation for their work. During the five years of this current CSIP, these committees will be refining the District’s Philosophy, Mission, Belief Statements, and District Essential Learnings since they were all developed/refined last during the 1995-1996 school year. These committees also review the data collected by the various District Needs Assessments. These committees will assist in the development of a needs assessment to be randomly distributed to households in the ACSD during the new five-year CSIP.

Community involvement in the ACSD also involves representatives from all constituencies in other areas as well. For example, the Title I regulations require that districts involve parents of Title I in the development of a Title I program (including programs, as appropriate, for migrant, neglected, delinquent, and English Language Learners). As in all previous years, K-3 parents, including Title I parents, will have multiple opportunities to meet with staff about the program, children’s literacy development, and their child’s progress. Notification letters with student eligibility information are sent to parents in the fall of each school year. In September 2001 and every September thereafter, an annual parent meeting will be held for parents to meet staff and learn about the Title I program. The Parent Policy and Compact is reviewed and an opportunity for parents to give input is provided. All K-3 parents will attend conferences in the fall and spring and will provide feedback to teachers during this time. A Title I reading summary will be shared with parents three times a year. Parent meetings are held during the spring of the year to provide pertinent information on how children learn to read, suggested activities for parents to support their child’s reading, and opportunities for questions and answers. In addition to the listed activities, a monthly newsletter, Home School Connection, and a Parent Lending Library in each elementary building provide additional information and communication. At the end of the school year, these Title I parents provide input to the CSIP committees to review and determine the major educational needs for future years.

Another form of community involvement that gauges the needs of the community and District are the parent report cards that each of the nine buildings in the District distributes and collects from all parents. The parents have an opportunity to provide input toward any facet of their child’s education. As a matter of fact, comments on parent report cards were the impetus for the reading template and the change in report card format to a report card that chronicles student progress in each academic area throughout the school year. The progress of the students is shown through a four-point rubric for each content area. The report card data is collected for all students throughout their K-12 careers in the Ankeny Community School District. The reading template is the District’s attempt to involve parents in the reading instruction of their children. The template collects data on the student’s use of reading skills and strategies throughout the year. The results are reported to K-3 parents three times per year and two times per year for 4^th and 5^th grade parents. Reading strategies are shared with parents so that they can work with their students at home. Each year’s reading data is transferred to the student’s teacher for the next year. Parents had asked for progressive reporting on students’ reading abilities, and the reading template was created to meet this demand. Both the reading template and the report card for K-5 are electronic. These software programs are locally designed and provided for teachers to save their time in reporting and to allow the District to collect long-range data on student achievement.

In addition, Ankeny High School administered the Black survey to parents, students, and staff to determine priorities for their building improvement plans. As a result of the data collected from this survey, the High School designed and implemented a comprehensive School-to-Work program for all students and an advisement program to deal with student concerns, academic issues, career exploration, and future academic pursuits.

Alternative forms for involving the community and ascertaining needs comes from every publication that is distributed to Ankeny residents. For instance, the District publication Hawkline is sent to every Ankeny address three times per year. A feedback form and telephone numbers are provided in all publications for residents to provide feedback on what they have read or anything that they feel needs to be addressed by the District. A specific example of such feedback comes from many comments that have been received from parents and residents about Northview Middle School, the eighth and ninth grade building in the District. To prepare students for high school and to lower class sizes, that building is investigating and piloting a modified block schedule during the 2001-2002 school year. Toward the end of the year, Northview’s administration will distribute surveys to parents, students, and staff to collect data on the modified block schedule. A decision will then be made as to which type of schedule will be used in that building for the 2002-2003 school year and beyond.

Other forms of data collection and community involvement used in the District would consist of specialized surveys of the community. One such survey was the technology survey that collected data during the 2000-2001 school year. The purpose of the survey was to ascertain how wide-spread home computer use was and the platform and type of software used in most homes. This data was compiled and is being used by the District to design a data warehouse that will provide information for the school district and the home. Also, the District randomly distributes a survey to community members on a multi-year cycle to obtain information about the needs of the District and its constituents.