Six more schools on the Redwood Coast will hold classes next year in conjunction with the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE), the statewide organization that instructs low-income and immigrant parents on how to navigate the school system and find educational opportunities for their children.
Currently, the Humboldt State co-sponsored classes take place in Del Norte County at Crescent Elk Middle and Smith River Schools. PIQE instruction began in the spring of 2006 at Hoopa Elementary and South Fortuna Elementary Schools. The parents of Natalia Ramirez-Perez (shown) participated at South Fortuna Elementary to assist them in putting her on a path to college.
The California State University (CSU) system partners with the institute, established in San Diego in the 1990s. The PIQE initiative consists of a nine-session plan for parents whose youngsters attend elementary, middle and high schools. It focuses on parents who are immigrants or non-college graduates and unfamiliar with the United States school system.
HSU is receiving a grant of $25,000 a year for three years from the CSU Chancellor's Office to help defray the costs of expanding PIQE's work in the region. Sue McIntyre, a freshman composition instructor at Humboldt State, is the local PIQE coordinator. She locates and trains "facilitators" at each of the local schools and assures fidelity to the PIQE curriculum.
Nearly 80 parents completed the first batch of North Coast classes last year, including 43 in the Spanish language class in Fortuna, according to Bob Sizoo, Humboldt State's Early Assessment Program Coordinator. "We've since held classes at South Bay/Pine Hill Schools, Redway School, McKinleyville High and Middle Schools and Lincoln School in Eureka," Mr. Sizoo said. Lincoln's classes were conducted in English, Spanish and Hmong.
One of the program's central objectives is to reduce the costly burden of remedial education to California's institutions of higher learning. Fully 50% of incoming freshmen to the CSU system require at least one developmental class in English or mathematics, for which they receive no credit toward a degree. "If fewer students had to take these classes, it would save them time and money and free up resources for college-level class offerings," Mr. Sizoo noted.
PIQE classes are scheduled one night a week and they encourage parents to take an active role in their children's schooling. Class content begins with home-and-school collaboration, discipline, self-esteem, motivation and the functions of the school system. The program goes on to explain college-entrance requirements (such as completion of A-G classes), college admission and financial aid.
"By the end of the class, parents know how to encourage their kids to aim for college," Mr. Sizoo said. Instead of blaming the acute need for remediation on teachers and the educational system, he added, "many in the CSU system are creating and supporting programs that focus on the struggle to reduce remediation. We hope that all parents will be as inspired as the Hmong-speaking mother who reported through a translator at the Lincoln School graduation, 'Before taking this class, we knew the stars were out there--we could see them. Now we know that our children can reach the stars.'"