New Year’s is a time of fresh starts for a lot of people, but for PTAs, it’s the middle of the year. Your PTA doesn’t need a fresh start, but perhaps you could use a few minor “course corrections.” Here are three such changes your PTA should be considering now. Membership Your PTA got off … Continue reading Tweaking Your PTA’s Course in the New Year
Improve Your PTA’s Family Engagement in the New Year
Family engagement is critical to student success, and it plays a big role in your PTA’s success as well. National PTA has rolled out several new resources to help your PTA step up its family engagement efforts. National PTA recently released the latest update of the National Standards for Family-School Partnerships. Accompanying the release was … Continue reading Improve Your PTA’s Family Engagement in the New Year
10 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Tutor
As kids have headed back to the classroom from remote learning during the pandemic, it has become clear that many students have not been able to keep up with their grade level. Some school districts around the country are helping kids get back on track with extra tutoring, and some families are choosing to do … Continue reading 10 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Tutor
An SEL Primer for PTAs
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has been in the news a lot the past year, often criticized alongside Critical Race Theory (CRT). And like CRT, SEL is often misrepresented by those critics in terms of what it actually is. Should SEL become an issue in your school district’s school board elections in the spring, here is … Continue reading An SEL Primer for PTAs
PTAs and Contracts
Every year, PTAs enter into a variety of contracts. Whether it is a contract with a fundraising company for a fundraiser, with a bounce house supplier for a fun fair, or a local artist to conduct a workshop at a PTA event, the PTA is entering into a legal agreement and needs to be aware … Continue reading PTAs and Contracts
The New Update of the National Standards for Family-School Partnerships
PTA’s National Standards for Family-School Partnerships were groundbreaking when they were first debuted. That families should be included in the conversations around their children’s education sounds like common sense today, but 20 years ago, the idea that families and schools should work together for student success was a novel idea. Now, National PTA has released … Continue reading The New Update of the National Standards for Family-School Partnerships
How the Illinois Report Card Can Help Your PTA or PTA Council
The Illinois Report Card, a comprehensive look at all public schools in Illinois, comes out every year near the end of October. This year’s report card shows a record high school graduation rate (led primarily by increases for students of color), student growth outperforming pre-pandemic levels, and Illinois’s teacher workforce defying national trends by adding … Continue reading How the Illinois Report Card Can Help Your PTA or PTA Council
Get Ready to Advocate
PTAs do a lot for kids, from providing programs to support learning, to engaging families in their children’s education, to raising funds to support their work and improve the lives of children. But PTAs make their biggest difference when they advocate, because through advocacy, PTAs affect the lives not just of the children who show … Continue reading Get Ready to Advocate
Support Your Families with PTA Programs
As more and more data comes in, it is increasingly clear that many students fell behind during the first year of the pandemic. One way to help students begin to catch up academically is through out-of-school learning opportunities. A recent report by Bellwether shows that families often find barriers to participation in these learning opportunities. … Continue reading Support Your Families with PTA Programs
6 Ways to Make Homework Time Productive
Regardless of your child’s age, they will have homework at some point during the school year. Whether it is finishing work from the school day, handling worksheets assigned to do at home, or tackling a big project that can’t be done in a single night, learning to make homework time productive is an essential skill … Continue reading 6 Ways to Make Homework Time Productive
October is College Changes Everything Month
Today’s guest post comes from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC), highlighting College Changes Everything Month in October, new changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and expanded financial aid eligibility for some students. High school PTAs and PTSAs can work with school guidance counselors to host FAFSA completion nights. October is … Continue reading October is College Changes Everything Month
6 Steps to Rebuild Your PTA’s Leadership
When schools closed in the spring of 2020 to fight the spread of COVID-19, many PTAs ran into difficulties. Closed schools meant shifting to virtual PTA meetings, and PTAs with spring officer elections often struggled with running virtual elections. When school started back up in the fall of 2020, many schools were still online-only or … Continue reading 6 Steps to Rebuild Your PTA’s Leadership
Grow Your PTA with Membership Mania
Every PTA needs new members. Perhaps your PTA is looking to find people to help out. Perhaps you want to grow your membership to meet your membership goals in the Illinois PTA membership recognition program. Whatever the reason, you need to check out Membership Mania from National PTA. Membership Mania is the update of last … Continue reading Grow Your PTA with Membership Mania
Back-to-School Mental Health Toolkit
Today’s guest post is from Mental Health America, highlighting their new Back-to-School toolkit for children’s mental health. The toolkit contains fact sheets and social media items that your PTA can use to educate families and youth on children’s mental health issues. By now, most of us have read or seen stories on the youth mental … Continue reading Back-to-School Mental Health Toolkit
Resources for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and Illinois PTA has highlighted Safe2Help Illinois when it was first announced in 2020 and covered the new 988 Suicide Prevention Lifeline (an alternative to the 800 number) in our Weekend Update newsletter. As part of its efforts for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, the Child Mind Institute is sharing … Continue reading Resources for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
Transform Your PTA with the School of Excellence Program
Is your PTA struggling to find volunteers? Do your PTA meetings always have the same six people showing up? Are you finding it hard to engage all families in your school? Did you know that PTA has a program that will help your PTA address all those issues? The School of Excellence program has been … Continue reading Transform Your PTA with the School of Excellence Program
Team Up for Your Student’s Success
We’re big fans of Learning Heroes at Illinois PTA, not only for their fantastic family resources, but also for their enlightening research and commitment to meaningful family engagement. As the school year kicks off, Learning Heroes has launched their Ready to Team Up resources for families to help them partner with their child’s teacher for … Continue reading Team Up for Your Student’s Success
Top 10 Tips for New PTA Treasurers
Most people think that president is the toughest job in PTA, but in reality, it is probably the treasurer’s job that is the hardest. Not that the work is difficult—it is mostly just addition and subtraction and attention to details—but that the stakes are high. As treasurer, you are ensuring that all the PTA funds … Continue reading Top 10 Tips for New PTA Treasurers
The State We’re In 2022
Our colleagues at Advance Illinois have released the latest in their series of reports, The State We’re In 2022—A Look at the Impact of COVID-19 on Education in Illinois. While past reports in the series have focused on school funding and student achievement, the latest report dives into how the pandemic has affected education in … Continue reading The State We’re In 2022
Make Membership Easy
You’ve used National PTA’s resources to plan out your membership campaign. You’ve got your elevator pitch down cold and can tell someone why it’s important to join your PTA in under a minute. You know that the main reason people don’t join PTA is that they aren’t asked to join. You’re as ready to recruit … Continue reading Make Membership Easy
One Voice Illinois 