Programs: Parent engagement in education; throughout this nine-week workshop, piqe's signature program fulfills its goal of educating, empowering, and inspiring parents of k-12 school age children to take an active role in encouraging and enabling their children to: stay in school; improve their academic performance; develop healthy and constructive relationships with their parents, teachers, and counselors; and, focus/prepare themselves for a post-secondary education. 17,232 parents graduated from this program.
s. T. E. M. Program is a two-lesson curriculum that educates parents on the importance of helping their children build a strong foundation in math and science. Parents learn the meaning of stem and recognize the importance of fostering careers in these areas. They learn fun and interactive ways to teach their children about stem concepts in their everyday lives. The curriculum also stresses how parents can cultivate their children's interests towards a stem career. 1,143 parents graduated from this program.
teacher-parent engagement workshop: in collaboration with the stanford research institute (sri), piqe designed a six-hour teacher workshop to help teachers and counselors review current research on parent involvement and its impact on student achievement. The workshop helps teachers and counselors develop skills to increase meaningful parent involvement. They reflect on the role of the parent and the role of the teacher: same world, different universe. There is a conversation about the many assumptions that can misrepresent the parent-teacher relationship, and the workshop concludes by designing a school-site parent involvement action plan. Early childhood development: the nine-week early childhood development program teaches parents how to provide a stimulating home environment that encourages and facilitates early success in school for their pre-k and kindergarten children. This program engages parents in activities that stimulate language development and essential pre-reading skills, as well as activities that help recognize the presence of mathematics in everyday life. Parents will understand the importance of an adequate preparation for kindergarten, and how it may impact future academic achievements. Financial literacy: the financial literacy program provides parents with essential basic money management skills such as budgeting, setting financial goals, and establishing as well as maintaining lines of credit. The program addresses the importance of college saving accounts (529 plan), and wealth creation through asset accumulation. Also, parents become knowledgeable of mainstream financial services and programs offered by banks and credit unions; and when sponsored by a financial institution, they are given the opportunity to open checking and savings accounts. Parent leadership: parent leadership program aims to develop parents' capacity to engage in their child's school at a deeper level by recognizing that the educational system faces many challenges. They reflect on their own leadership qualities, identify critical school-centered issues impacting education, and learn how to establish a parent leadership team. They acquire tools that will help them conduct effective meetings with the principal and/or school staff. At the end of the sessions, parents will lead a dialogue with the principal, presenting, from the parents' perspective, the most urgent needs affecting students at that school. Parents are then asked to serve as liaisons and role models for other parents. Civic engagement: the civic engagement program (9-weeks) is designed to actively engage parents in their community to promote civic engagement. Parents connect with local community organizations and have the opportunity to network with others who are passionate about initiating social and political change. In addition, parents learn about historical social movements in the u. S. , are informed about the american democratic process, models of leadership, and elements of an effective strategy for change.
