UA Partnership Develops Parent, Teacher Leaders at Area Schools

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.  — The University of Alabama’s Center for Community-Based Partnerships is cultivating strong school communities through an initiative that provides parents and teachers with the skills to become effective school leaders.

The Parent Teacher Leadership Academy uses research-based practices to provide professional development sessions during the academic year to parents and teachers who will use the knowledge and techniques learned to support student achievement through strong family-school partnerships.

Program participants are selected by their school’s principal. The parent component of the academy focuses on supporting student achievement at home; developing skills to use when working with parents, teachers, principals and staff; and building and sustaining strong family-school partnerships.

The teacher component emphasizes applying tools to assess parent/family engagement at their school, designing strategies for building those engagements and developing a group of teacher leaders to increase parent/family and school engagement.

“PTLA provides parents and teachers with so many tools they can use in their daily lives,” said Andrea Ziegler, director for community education at UA’s Center for Community-Based Partnerships. “The difference between PTLA and other professional development programs is the attention placed on collaboration. The benefits go beyond the classroom and can be seen throughout the school community.”

Participants meet several times throughout the year to hear from subject matter experts who discuss leadership skills, goal-setting, communication and mental health, among other topics. In addition, participants are divided into teams to work on a project that focuses on one of the school’s yearly goals.

PTLA includes several subgroups that cater programming to the Pre-K, elementary and middle school levels. In addition, a Hispanic Parent Leadership Academy is available for Spanish-speaking families. The HPLA provides the same information as the other groups through translated materials and facilitators.

“While schools are really proactive in accommodating Hispanic students, their families often aren’t very comfortable getting involved with the school,” said Ziegler. “The beauty of HPLA is participants get to work with their team and build relationships with other parents in their school community.”

School districts that take part in PTLA include Tuscaloosa City and County, Alabaster City, Lamar County and Sumter County. School administrators interested in participating in PTLA can contact Andrea Ziegler at amziegler@ua.edu.