United Parents and Students’ Parent Academy offers free adult education workshops designed to provide parents with a core understanding of the issues that most affect their communities.
A schedule of classes is tailored to meet the needs of a particular neighborhood, but can include, among other subjects, financial literacy, homework assistance strategies, English as a Second Language, bullying prevention, voter registration, and health and wellness.
The Parent Academy directly develops the core skills of parents and strengthens student pathways to college and career readiness. Courses are designed and led by UPAS leadership and Green Dot staff in collaboration with local community service partners.
The Parent Academy is the first rung on a structured leadership ladder towards more consistent and effective participation in the public life of the community. Last year, more than 10,000 people completed Parent Academy workshops at Green Dot schools.
Why Parent Engagement Matters
Engaging parents and the wider community is an essential component of the United Parents and Students mission. The importance of an active and supportive community is well founded. The No Child Left Behind Act (2002) defines parental engagement as the “participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication” and goes on to provide the concrete expectations that are a requirement of receiving Title I federal funding.
The Harvard Family Research Project, which looked at the results of 77 separate studies of parent involvement, found that:
Parental involvement is associated with higher student achievement outcomes. These findings emerged consistently whether the outcome measures were grades, standardized test scores, or a variety of other measures, including teacher ratings.
Parental Effort, School Resources, and Student Achievement, a 2008 study conducted by researchers at the University of New Hampshire, went so far as to quantify the impact of parental engagement:
Parental effort is consistently associated with higher levels of achievement, and the magnitude of the effect of parental effort is substantial. We found that schools would need to increase per-pupil spending by more than $1,000 in order to achieve the same results that are gained with parental involvement.
Board of Directors
Allison Bajracharya
Erika Toriz
Gabriel Sanchez
Contact Us
1150 S Olive, Ste 1340
Los Angeles, CA 90015
