The Learning Community at Broadalbin-Perth is working toward having 100 percent of its students and parents participate in the Parents as Reading Partners program, called PARP, in which students log the books they read at home and turn in the results each month.
“We want every TLC student and parent to participate in the coming months,” The Learning Community Principal Brad Strait said.
TLC launched its yearlong PARP program in October with a superhero theme. Students and their parents are asked to read at least six books together during the month. This is the second year that the PARP program has been expanded from just one month of the school year to being a yearlong endeavor.
“We realized that reading was too important to limit it to one month,” said Tammy Staie, who helps coordinate PARP at TLC.
“It’s a team effort,” she said of the staff who lead the PARP program, “But parents are the driving force.”
To encourage participation, the boy and a girl from each grade level who read and log the most books during the month are dubbed the “super readers” for that month and have their photos featured in the PARP Supernews comic. Classes with 100 percent participation also are recognized in the colorful fliers that are sent home monthly with each child.
Children can check books out of the media center and can take books home as part of the 1,000 Book Club, which has been fully restocked for this school year. Parents can check books those books out through the main office.
“Literacy is woven through all academic areas,” Strait said. “Teachers are able to teach reading concepts within the school day, but it’s more important to practice at home.”
Collaboration between teachers and parents is critical to children’s success in school. A 2007 study by the National Education Association (NEA) found that parent involvement was the top predictor of students’ early literacy success.
“It sets them off on the right path for the rest of their academic careers,” Staie said.
As part of its new five-year comprehensive plan, Broadalbin-Perth is focused on fortifying the school/home partnership to better encourage student success and is committed to offering more opportunities for parents to participate in their children’s learning process.
Strait said he is looking forward to having a new media center in the elementary building, which he hopes will be included in the upcoming capital project. He envisions it becoming a community-wide resource. “It’s another way to bring the community into the school, so we can support one another,” he said.