Parent Leadership Institute

The Parent Leadership Institute (PLI) is an advocacy and engagement program that trains parents and communities to advocate for children in their local schools. The PLI is structured to help parents understand the public education system, the policies enacted by the district, the state data for education, and ways that engaged and informed parents can have an impact on the education system. PLI graduates are expected to implement a project that would benefit other families, the schools, and the community. Additionally, the PLI will focus on areas like social and emotional well-being where they can have the significant impact.

• Parents, children and communities benefit when parents are engaged and lead efforts to improve schools.
• Parents gain self-confidence using their skills as change-agents within communities.
• Children benefit when parents participate more in their lives as advocates and decision-makers.
• Communities benefit as parents use their tools of democracy in civic initiatives.

The PLI will consist of three phases: Training, Project Implementation and Reflection and Assessment.

• The training will consist of six (6) consecutive months of day long workshops to educate, inform and direct parent and community leaders on issues pertaining to the education system in general, and the districts in particular.  These interactive workshops will assist parents in understanding the complexities of education data, funding, policies, decision-making, and other processes.  Over the course of the training, parents will identify an issue, policy, or process that they want to address and will develop a plan to produce better outcomes.
• The Project Implementation Phase begins with the start of the school year.  Parent Leaders will engage district staff, community, or parent leaders to begin their project.  They will work with necessary parties until they have reached the expected outcome or it is determined that they have done as much as is possible to address that particular issue under the circumstances.  Due to the nature of this work and the issues that parents are seeking to challenge, there is not a prescribed amount of time to conclude the projects.
• The Reflection and Assessment Phase will happen at the conclusion of the year.  Parent leaders will be asked to attend a half day workshop to evaluate the effectiveness of the training, their level of preparedness to identify what else is needed successfully implement their projects, discuss barriers, successes attained, and identify best practices for future planning.