Innovation: Grand Partners in Education

USA

AAI Domains:

• Independent, healthy and secure living (educational attainment, lifelong learning)

• Participation in society (voluntary activities)

The life course can be viewed as a series of transitions from birth, early years, going to school and for many going on to university before getting a job and living well through adulthood in order to maximise the potential for healthy life years. However, there are deeply entrenched inequalities that mitigate against all people having an equal chance of leading a long and healthy life.

Education is one of these areas of entrenched inequality but schools can be improved so that educational achievements are less unequal and opportunities for the rest of the life course are made (slightly) more equal. Grandparents have the potential to make a difference to how schools work in partnership with parents in an innovative pilot project.

Grand Partners in Education is a pilot project operating in Glenmount Elementary and Middle School in Baltimore. The school has a predominantly black student intake (89%) in one of the most deprived areas of Baltimore, Maryland.

Grand Partners in Education is a partnership initiative of Generations United (a major voluntary organisation that works for the health and well-being of children, young people and older adults), the Grandfamilies Parent Teach Student Association (a community-based affiliate of the Maryland Parent Teachers Association) and the Centre for Law and Education (a national centre advocating for a good quality education for all students). It secured $500,000 of funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to pilot a two year programme in Glenmount school to improve the school and educational outcomes through enhancing parent engagement in education.

The key feature of the pilot is the use of grandparents who are raising children as leaders working with other families in a four stage process.

• The first stage was the development of a new parent involvement policy (June to July 2014)

• The second stage is an ongoing programme of training for parents with information and assistance on parent engagement so that they become full partners in the school.

• The third stage is the joint development between the school and parents of a new school programme plan including effective teaching methods, enrichments to the curriculum and effective help and support for students who are struggling in classes.

• The final stage in 2015–16 is an assessment of the impact of the intervention with a view to rolling it out across other schools in Baltimore if it demonstrates improvements.

The use of grandparents as leaders of the process on the parent side is an example of drawing on the experiences and wisdom that many older people have accumulated and sharing it with younger parents in a relatively deprived area of Baltimore.

In relation to active ageing, Grand Partners in Education is designed to improve educational attainment among young children that should increase their capacity to live well and actively age. The process is based on mobilising parents and grandparents in voluntary activities to enhance children’s experience of school and the training programme for parents is an example of lifelong learning that should enhance the parenting skills of adults with children in the school.

Links

Grand Partners in Education summary (PDF, 183KB)

W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF)