Parents as Teachers / Early Education

Strengthen a Family

In his 2013 State of the Union Address, President Obama highlighted the need for access to early education, and White House policy prioritizes empowering parents to support their children. According to The First Five Years Fund, early education attendees are 29% more likely to graduate high school, 70% less likely to be arrested for a violent crime before age 18, and earn a 33% higher average salary.

All children benefit from early education, but it is even more important for disadvantaged ones. However, these children are often less likely to receive this critical preparation. For example, in Santa Ana, 91% of students qualify for Free Reduced Price Lunches, but only 20% of children get to attend district-funded preschool through a lottery system, another 20% attend a head start program and 40% of children have no early education at all.

Our Parents as Teachers/Early Education Programs: School Readiness & Early Literacy

• Early Literacy Class: A conjoint educational module in which parents and children 3 – 5 years old participate in pre-reading and pre-writing activities facilitated by a trained parenting educator in small groups. Through modeling and discussion of best practices, parents will be in charge of working, supporting and engaging their child in learning activities
• School Readiness class: An educational module that incorporates Academic learning activities (pre-writing pre-math, early literacy, art music, and science) and socio-emotional learning activities (how to separate from parents, how to work individually and in groups, how to listen, how to respond, how to follow directions, etc.)
• Parents as Teachers/Early Education Programs: Simultaneously, parents engage in our Parents as Teachers curriculum in another room and are given homework to practice with their children during the week. This prepares them to be their child’s first teacher

Parent Engagement Platform

Padres Unidos is a grassroots organization. Our educational modules rely in three elements Outreach, Support and Education to strengthen the community’s commitment to be part of a safety net system in our multifaceted culture. The privilege of knowing and being from the communities we serve, lead us to know and utilize one of the predominant features in our families: the tension generated by the diversity and the cultural, spiritual, and social reality in which we live. Knowing and understanding the Strategy of Tension, helps us use this familial instability as a platform for improvement and enrichment; a transformation source for our children and communities. The diverse and multifaceted nature of our communities’ called Padres Unidos to adopt a “needs-based” curriculum.

Padres Unidos program delivery aspects:

• First, our Outreach is an all-inclusive platform. In Padres Unidos, we define this as a series of informational and outreach strategies that extend the opportunity to all members to take-hold of a robust branch and become stronger, more vibrant part of our families and communities. These activities increase our range, closeness, and inclusion of school and community members who otherwise are non-responsive to the invitation to participate. Our approach aim to include members of the community and encourage them to be a part of the personal and academic success in their children’s lives. These activities include, but are not limited to: Coffee with parents, the Voice Campaign, the door-to-door initiative, Phone campaign, and a digital and printed literature approach.
• Second, the Support Platform is the essence that connects, sustains, and perpetuates the growth of children beyond the space and time provided by the Padres Unidos Programs. The combination of the support that is provided to encourage the implementation of change; and the development of a security net that is interconnected and engages the school, parents, and students as custodians and contributors for their personal and familial growth process are our weekly hand-to-hand community strengthening approach.
• Thirdly, The Educational Platform, is an all-inclusive, skill-building environment for our students where learning takes place. Our framework is an ongoing enrichment process to work on competencies identified by: a) members of Padres Unidos that attend our classes for the past thirty years. b) For eleven years, the Department of Children and Family Services of Orange County for eleven years supervised and nurture our curriculum c) Scholars from Chapman University College of Education for the past five years collaborate with our Educational Modules. Padres Unidos counts on a curriculum of 20 core classes and 148 additional topics that are selected based on the needs of the group participants and the site educators. Another important aspect of our educational modules is our openness to the diverse learning styles of our students. Instead of operating in a hierarchical learning paradigm we engage parents in an inclusive interactional learning experience.

Educational Modules

• Name: “Parents as Teachers/School Readiness” 34 weeks

  Parents as Teachers: This module is Padres Unidos community response to the high number of kindergarten students in the district that start without a formal education experience. The success of our program is based on the intensive training and support parents receive in our classes that guide them to become for four days a week the “First Teacher” at home. Parents get trained weekly with a home curriculum and coached with techniques to successfully teach their children at home.

  School Readiness: While the parents are in separate classrooms children ages three to five years old engage and play with instructional toys that fosters knowledge in science, astronomy, math, physics, literacy and writing. The curriculum developed is intended to improve low-income preschool children’s school readiness, by increasing their social, academic, emotional and behavioral adjustment. The program is geared to have positive impacts on children’s externalizing and internalizing behaviors, improve children’s self-regulation (executive functioning and attention/impulsivity) and increase pre-academic (vocabulary, letter naming, and early math) skills.

• Name: “Community Worker” 34 weeks

  The Community Worker is an individual equipped with a set of skills and knowledge to work with the community (any assignment that requires having a license falls outside of the Community Worker scope of practice). Their role is to provide outreach support and education to families, collaborate with school administration and staff with issues that can have a negative impact in academic excellence. It is well established by research in the field that children’s academic performance is impacted by the level of engagement and support provided by parents and families. Each school has different community needs and each Community Worker brings a unique and different set of skills that focus on providing parents with resources necessary to increase involvement/engagement in their child’s personal and academic success.

• Name: “Early Literacy” 34 weeks

  This module is Padres Unidos community response to the high need of early literacy development and parent involvement within our communities. Research reinforces the importance of parental involvement in early literacy support for children. Through this module parents are provided knowledge and resources to help develop the foundation of academic success. Parents alongside their child participate in various learning centers that include phonetics, playing with syllables (segmenting/counting syllables), pre-reading activities and pre-writing activities. Family-friendly research-informed practices help caregivers overcome some of their own anxiety about literacy. Armed with the right knowledge and skills, caregivers become just as excited to take home their book bags and continue practicing at home.

• Name: “Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Parenting” 28 weeks

  Each parent program is tailored to help parents learn effective methods of strengthening the child-parent relationship, increase parent engagement, effectively deal with negative/problematic behavior and encourage appropriate behavior. Parents are encouraged and taught skills that utilize gentle but firm discipline without arguing, yelling, or spanking. Parents practice skills, that address issues of school success, development, communication, discipline, decision-making, relationships, and self-control. Each tool/intervention is dependent on the module and community population. Parents from diverse backgrounds are provided with specific skills and techniques that assist in creating healthy family relationships and foster safety and well-being at home, in school, and in the community

• Name: “Transition 4th & 5th Parenting” 34 weeks

  A spin-off from our Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Parenting modules this module is Padres Unidos community response to the developmental changes and differences associated with the shift from child to adolescent. Discipline and parenting techniques change a bit when children hit the pre-teen and teenage years. As children grow older, it’s a parent’s job to give them the freedom to make their own choices (with guidance) and practice self-discipline. Children will test the limits during the pre-teen years. How a parent responds can impact and increase household conflict. Encouraging children to take responsibility for their choices and behavior will be important. Parents are taught skills that utilize gentle but firm discipline without arguing, yelling, or physical punishment. Parents engage in topics that emphasize and focus on adolescent development such as human sexuality, drugs & alcohol, transition from grade-school to intermediate school, friends, etc. Parents learn to show and ask for respect, not get into yelling matches, keep lines of communication open with their pre-teen, set up clear guidelines and behavior expectations as well as clear consequences, and set clear limits. Parents learn that certain behaviors are non-negotiable and how to address at-risk behaviors.

Competencies

Padres Unidos modules target the following competencies. By the end of the attended module parents will have increased their level of competency in the areas identified by different researchers as core competencies to being a successful and engaged parent. These are measured by a self-report questionnaire administered during week 2 of the program and re-administered during week 25, self-report and observation and journaling. Since Padres Unidos utilizes needs-based curriculum the areas of competencies include, but are not limited to:

1. Love and Affection
2. Stress Management
3. Communication
4. Effective decision-making
5. Relaxation Techniques
6. Development of socio-emotional skills
7. Empathy
8. Relationship Skills
9. Autonomy and Independence
10. Education and Learning
11. Life Skills
12. Behavior Management
13. Health (Physical and Psychological)
14. Spirituality and Mindfulness
15. Safety
16. Conflict Resolution
17. Self-regulation

Outcomes

• Statistically significant improvement in foundational skills based on a SAUSD skills assessment instrument
• 100% of principals reported improved test scores, attendance, and kindergarten-ready behavior skills among participants.
• Approximately 50% increase in parent participation at their child’s school
• Results suggest a 48% increase in overall scores

How You Can Help

Padres Unidos has been asked to increase the number of classes at current sites, and to expand to new sites. On average, it costs $30,000 annually to run our program at one school. To subsidize schools limited resources and complement our force of 50 volunteers, Padres Unidos is seeking:

• Individual Donations
• Business Sponsorships
• Private Foundation Grants

With your support, we can reach even more children and parents with early education, parent training, and community support, leading to healthier, happier families and bright futures for children.

• For more information, please contact:
• Alexandra Gerber, Outreach Ambassador Padres Unidos
• P.O. Box 1258 Santa Ana, CA 92702
• alex.gerber@ocpu.org
• (951) 538-9215