Good Sports
Parent Group of the Year
2006: Outstanding Focus on Involvement
by Evelyn Beck
Wilson Elementary School in Oklahoma City, Okla., is renowned
for the way it makes art, music, and drama a part of learning. But that’s only
part of the story at this arts integration school. Parent involvement extends
beyond the classroom and is nowhere more evident than on the athletic field.
What started in 1998 with a few
soccer teams has emerged as a sports program that other schools want to
emulate. Wilson’s 10 soccer and 10 baseball teams compete in the city league
while basketball players, who practice in a local church gym, scrimmage among
themselves. Parents serve as coaches. “We always have an overabundance of
parents to sign up, so there are several coaches per team,” says PTA Secretary
Jennifer Webster. The program is so successful that other local schools have
invited Wilson PTA leaders to speak about it.
Over the past five years,
leaders have made a real push to involve more of the school’s 314 students, and
more than a third of the children have responded. So have their parents. In
fact, participation in athletics is the way that many parents hook up with the
PTA. “That’s why I’m involved in the school,” Webster says. “I’d show up at
practice, and there would be a sign-up sheet for upcoming events. While the
kids were practicing, parents discussed an upcoming meeting or open house or
whatever was going on.”
Past PTA President Amy Sergent
also credits the sports program for energizing and mobilizing parents.
“Everybody gets to know each other so well that when a school event comes up,
we can go to a parent and say, ‘You’d be great to help with this,’ ” she
says. “It’s a way to bring in people who might not otherwise have been
pinpointed.” The involvement of a wide spectrum of children and parents is
particularly notable at this inner city school at which 70 percent of students
participate in the federal lunch program and 42 students live in homeless
shelters.
Sports also tend to be a good
way to involve fathers. “Once dads get involved in sports and see it’s not
really what they perceived the PTA to be, they’re very involved,” says Webster,
noting that for four of the past six years, Wilson’s PTA presidents have been
men.
The PTA involves parents in many
other ways, as well. To encourage attendance at the first meeting, it’s
combined with a family ice cream social on the playground. Attendance is also
boosted by fundraising bingo nights, held twice a year after the monthly PTA
meeting. And every fall, the parent group holds a family outing at a local
farm. There’s a picnic lunch, a campfire with s’mores, and a nature scavenger
hunt. Other events include math and science night, when parents lead learning
stations, and arts integration night, when they experience how the arts are
used to teach all subjects.
In the first five years of the
arts integration program, Wilson’s standardized test scores increased 29
percent, and the school now has a waiting list. One reason for these dramatic
changes is parent involvement, evident by PTA membership, which—like the test
scores—has shot up 29 percent. “Student achievement has increased,” says
Principal Beverly Story. “In part, this was due to parents who said, ‘How can
we help you help children who aren’t successful?’ ”
Group at a Glance
Name: Wilson Elementary PTA
Location: Oklahoma City
Community: population 531,324; urban
School Size: 300 students
Grades: preK-5
Annual Budget: $11,000