|Kings Park Elementary School in Springfield, VA is in the Fairfax County, VA Public School District, one of the largest districts in the nation.|
|Dotty Lin, Principal of Kings Park Elementary, knows that research shows that when parents are engaged, student achievement is significantly impacted.|
In order to meet Kings Park’s School Improvement Plan goals of closing the achievement gap between English Language Learners and their English proficient peers, Dotty said she implemented the Realizing the American Dream Program “to strengthen our learning community, both academically and socio-emotionally, by intentionally engaging the families of our students and educating them about their role in student success.”
Dotty recruited a parent liaison to conduct the 10-week after-school program in Spanish (with support of, and in collaboration with, the school counselors) in the hopes of helping parents be more involved in their child’s education that ultimately resulted in higher student achievement.
The program provided free parallel childcare by school-based instructional personnel and home school community-building and literacy ideas. This included fun math games and literacy activities, coupled with parent support tips on engaging their child in active reading. Children’s books were also given to families each week to build home libraries in English and Spanish while supporting literacy growth and parent/child interaction.
The program was a huge success! Dotty plans on implementing RAD at her school every year to help parents.