SERVICES

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Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Section offers a comprehensive array of services to school systems, colleges/universities, parents, community groups and other stakeholders in North Carolina. Outreach projects and professional development we currently offer are described below.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH:

Web Site & Publications
A web site - specifically devoted to student achievement issues - is maintained by the Section. This web site is linked to the NCDPI web page. The site currently includes resources that address significant achievement gap related issues. The web site address is www.ncpublicschools.org/racg/.

The Section produces print and electronic publications during each fiscal year. Please review the Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps web site for publications that are now available.

Guiding Development of Local Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Community Task Forces
The Section provides guidance to Local RACG Community Task Forces who extend opportunity for involvement in gap-related issues to the members of the school's geographical community. See Guidelines for Local RACG Community Task Force Development.

Connecting the Village
Connecting the Village is a statewide meeting and community forum designed to build collaboration with faith-based organizations, community-based organizations and state and local agencies in order to advance student achievement and close gaps between and among groups of students. Specifically, this forum will allow us to extend services and various trainings to non-school based organizations or agencies. These meetings provide valuable information on funding sources, ways in which schools can communicate with parents, parenting tips on disciplining children and working with them at home, reducing the dropout rate and suspension and expulsion rate, and much more. Two meetings are scheduled per year at different locations across the state. More information can be found on the web site under "Hot Topics".

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:

Cultural Responsiveness
Based upon the Culturally Responsive Educational Systems Module Training provided by the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt), this training teaches participates how to advance their knowledge and skills about culturally responsive practices within organizations. The training also provides a forum for open discussions to better enable participants to help school and community members think more broadly and systemically about culturally responsive schools and classrooms. Overall, participants will serve as effective transformational agents of change for culturally responsive practices and systems. This training incorporates the following modules:

• Module 1: Culture and Cultural Responsiveness,
• Module 2: Culturally Responsive Practices and Pedagogy,
• Module 3: Collaborative Leadership Teams and
• Module 4: Collection and Use of Evidence

Ruby Payne's "A Framework for Understanding Poverty"®
Findings suggest that children living in persistent poverty appear to be at greater risk for serious academic failure, and their potential contribution to society will be limited. The fact that poverty has strong and long lasting effects on educational attainment suggests that effective interventions must be found and applied. The Section provides "a framework for understanding the culture of poverty" which offers practical strategies for working effectively with children of poverty to impact student achievement based on the research of Ruby Payne and other experts in the field. This is a two day training.

Parent Empowerment - Train-the-Trainer
Changing the Way We Do Business in the Village through Parent/Family Empowerment is designed to increase awareness of the benefits of parental involvement in our schools. This training will review and discuss the six modules of the Parent Empowerment resource document mentioned below. Participants will review each of the modules and have an opportunity to discuss effective practices to strengthen knowledge of educational practices and collaboration between parents and schools. Participants will also receive resources and materials to deliver the training to other organizations. This is a full day training.

Parent Empowerment Modules
The research on parental involvement is clear: when parents are more actively and meaningfully involved in their child's education, many successes are experienced by the child. The trouble is how can schools and parent groups encourage greater parent and caregiver involvement? Changing the Way We Do Business in the Village through Parent/Family Empowerment points to some ways schools and parent/child advocacy organizations can promote parent and family involvement. Any section of Changing the Way We Do Business in the Village through Parent/Family Empowerment can serve as a stand-alone presentation, or all sections can be used to create a series of trainings on parental and family involvement. Each module is 90 minutes in length.

• Self Esteem - This session takes a look at how a child's self-esteem impacts his/her classroom achievement. Participants will also see how the self-esteem level of the parent determines school success.
  
  
• Managing Behavior/Self-Discipline - Practical, effective uses of discipline in the home can make all the difference in how well children perform academically and behaviorally in the classroom. Participants will see the correlation between home practices around discipline and school achievement.
  
  
• Effective Parent/Teacher Conferences - Parent/Teacher conferences do not have to be uncomfortable, series of negative exchanges between the parent and teacher. This necessary school-parent interaction can be handled through easy-to-use steps by parents interested in creating productive, useful conferences with their child's teachers.
  
  
• Home Study Skills – Participants will understand the parent's role in engaging their child in activities that help develop the skills needed to function successfully in a classroom. Learn how to develop organizational skills, time-management skills and active study strategies.
  
  
• Language Development - Participants will discover how influential the home is in preparing children to speak, write and use other forms of communicating thought. Language is not happenstance! It's developed!
  
  
• Knowledge is Power - Parents and families can be successful as partners with their child's school-given what they know about education matters. This session gives participants timely information about education policy and state and federal legislative mandates that impact all of North Carolina's children. This is a valuable session for parents, community leaders and schools who are trying to forge a meaningful partnership.