Student graduation rates improve with this California model
 
PHOENIX - The Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE), a nine-week parent involvement program, launches this week at two local grade schools. The Institute, which is being administered by the Arizona State University Center for Community Development and Civil Rights at the Downtown Phoenix campus, has a successful 19-year history in California of teaching parents how to be their child’s primary educational resource. 

More than 350,000 parents have graduated from PIQE in California. According to a San Diego State University longitudinal study, 94% of the parents who have graduated from PIQE report that their children have received their high school degrees. The average educational level of a PIQE parent is sixth grade.  Other positive program outcomes include increased parental involvement in schools, reduced absenteeism and improved retention and graduation rates of school-aged children.

PIQE launches at Mesa Jr. High School today and at Mitchell Elementary School on October 23rd.  The program is open to all parents of Mesa Junior High School and Mitchell Elementary school at no charge. Classes are available in both English and Spanish. Sessions will meet weekly for 90 minutes and discuss a broad range of topics such as creating a nurturing home learning environment, working with teachers and school administration, identifying a child’s educational needs, and ensuring the child’s needs are being addressed at school.

Nationwide the program is offered in more than 16 languages and is guided by a mission to “bring schools, parents, and community together as equal partners in the education of every child.”  Parents are taught methods for being effective advocates for their children’s futures.  Parents are also encouraged to meet with teachers, to volunteer at their child’s school and to take advantage of school resources.  Schools work with PIQE and offer a dialogue with school principals as the culmination of the training.

Raul Yzaguirre, national civil rights leader and professor of practice at ASU, directs this project out of the Center for Community Development and Civil Rights, which he founded.  The Center is focused on joint university-community research and initiatives with major social impact and which can be replicated regionally, nationally and internationally.  The overarching goal is to make communities and societies more prosperous, equitable, and just.

For more information about the Parent Institute for Quality Education see www.PIQE.org or call (602) 496-0433

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SOURCE:
Leticia de la Vara, Leticia.delaVara@asu.edu
(602) 496-0433


MEDIA CONTACT:
Debra Palka, debra.palka@asu.edu
(602) 496-0409 direct line / (602) 370-6128 cell

College of Public Programs
Arizona State University
Phoenix, Arizona  USA
Copp.asu.edu