Resources
>Video:
Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project
>Video:
Changing the Face of Education in Oakland-12 min

Education Links
>Cal Dept of Ed
>Ed Trust-West
>Edweek
>EdVoice
>Public Advocates

PICO California creates innovative solutions to pressing community issues; translates faith into action; builds a legacy of leadership; and raises a new vision for California.

Working together, community leaders are building strong relationships among parents, teachers, and school administrators. They’re digging into data to understand their schools’ strengths and their challenges; they’re identifying the programs and strategies necessary to make sure all schools work for all students; and they’re working to bring these “best practices” to their communities.

Learn about our work to:
• Create Small Schools
• Involve Parents
• Insure Quality Teachers
• Activate Youth

Small Schools

The research is clear: students do better academically and social-emotionally in a small-school environment.

Recognizing the value of small schools, particularly for low-income youth, PICO California projects in Oakland, San Jose, Berkeley, and San Francisco have successfully lobbied for the creation of new small schools and for the conversion of large schools into small autonomous schools.  Although each of these schools has its own unique focus and culture, they share common characteristics, including: challenging curriculum that meets the individual learning needs of every student, involved parents, committed teachers who have structured time for professional development and planning, and a safe, caring community where youth and adults are respected and supported.

In 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed PICO-sponsored small schools legislation. The new law, AB 1465 (Wilma Chan, D-Oakland) sets aside $25 million of school construction bonds to create an incentive for school districts to build new small high schools and to reconfigure large high schools into smaller communities. The legislation is based on PICO school reform efforts in Oakland (Oakland Community Organizations), San Jose (People Acting in Communities Together) and Sacramento (Sacramento Area Congregations Together).

Good Schools news >>
Back to Top

Involved Parents

For students to succeed, their parents must be active partners in their child’s education. That’s why in communities throughout California our leaders and staff are organizing to ensure that parents have the tools they need to support their children at home and are actively involved in decisions being made at school.

In 1998, for example, Sacramento Area Congregations Together launched a parent-teacher home visit project at 8 area (elementary and middle) schools. Through these home visits, schools were transformed: community involvement soared, attendance improved, and students and schools posted dramatic gains in student achievement.

Today, parent-teacher home visit projects are in place in dozens of schools throughout the state and a separate not-for-profit organization continues to train parents, teachers, and administrators in this highly effective model of home-school collaboration.

The Home Visit model developed in Sacramento was the basis the Nell-Soto Home Visit legislation. Passed in 1999, SB and AB 33 provided funding for expansion of the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project to more than 600 schools. In 2003-2004, the Home Visit Project trained over 1,015 educators from over 130 different school communities in cities across the United States. Since August 2005, 840 educators and parent advisors from Sacramento, Oakland, and Rio Linda school districts have participated in home visit training, using a combination of grants, Title 1 money, and site funds.

Good Schools news >>
Back to Top

Effective Teachers

Every student deserves a caring, qualified teacher who has access to the support and resources necessary to effectively teach each and every student. Too often, however, poor students and students of color are taught by the least qualified teachers. PICO California organizations are working to highlight and then change these staffing inequities.

In 1999, the Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization successfully organized for the creation of 12 new teaching positions at Kennedy High School in Richmond, an inner city school that had long been plagued by high teacher turnover. Statewide, PICO California co-sponsored legislation that became law in 2005 mandating that schools disclose the average salary paid to teachers.

Statewide, PICO California co-sponsored legislation that became law in 2005 mandating that schools disclose the average salary paid to teachers. This new reporting requirement will enable parents and community groups to unmask the significant differences in experience levels – and subsequently salaries – of teachers in schools even within a single district.

Good Schools news >>
Back to Top

Youth in Action

Our youth are our future, but they are involving themselves now in the fabric of our community through their studies and action. Youth organizers have won funds for school improvements and recreation programs and are working to affect policy that affects youth and their neighborhoods.

Good Schools news >>
Back to Top