By working together with parents, neighbors, students and your school, you can make a difference in strengthening school holding power. The strength of neighborhood public schools and the community is intertwined. Strong schools value their students and the involvement of others. When parents, families and others are actively involved as partners with their schools, students thrive and the community itself is made stronger.

Resources on connecting with other parents

School Holding Power – Communities in Action

Get Data on Your Texas High School – IDRA's School Holding Power Portal is designed to help community and school partners examine their school data and plan joint action to improve school holding power. Organized around IDRA's Quality School Action Framework.

NCLB Action Briefs – a project of Public Education Network (PEN) and the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE). Designed to keep community and parent leaders up to date on various provisions of NCLB. Topics include: NCLB overview; Title I overview; Title II teacher and principal preparation; teacher quality; paraprofessional quality; parents' right to know; standards and assessment; community and parent decision making: A review; state accountability system and adequate yearly progress (AYP); public school choice for schools identified as low performing; LEP requirements; supplemental educational services; district and school parent involvement policies;  school-parent compacts; state and local report cards; students who are mobile: transient, homeless and migrant; relationship of IDEA and NCLB; transferability/block granting of funds; and military access to secondary school students. 

IDRA La Semana del Niño Parent Institute
This interactive, bilingual institute is a forum for parents, parent liaisons and educators to discuss the leadership that families exert in education and their partnerships with schools. The next institute will be held in 2011, in San Antonio focusing on parents networking to promote school success. Let us know if you wish to be notified when the next institute is scheduled.

WOW! Workshop on Workshops, Learn the art of planning and conducting workshops (bilingual, English/Spanish) – see materials, get info about training

IDRA Classnotes Podcast – conversational audio program with episodes on parent engagement