Tweaking Your PTA’s Course in the New Year

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

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

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

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

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

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