Parent Institute for Quality Education

Program Orientation
January 22-25
Agenda
Daniel Heller, Manager of College and Career Readiness, GEAR UP Grant Coordinator
Daniel Russell, GEAR UP Grant Coordinator
Andrew Motaung, 10th grade AP at Carver
Elizabeth Borkowski
Sylvia Lam

History of PIQE in BCPSS

- Rudy Ruiz (former Exec. Director of College and Career Readiness) purchased the PIQE curriculum 2-3
years ago. Curriculum has been since been modified to fit BCPSS. However, PIQE was passed around and
no one wanted to take ownership, despite having the PIQE LA team present in Baltimore City.
Apparently, people were randomly selected to head the program, and as a result, it didn’t go anywhere.
- As a part of the GEAR UP grant, PIQE targets one of the three goals: parent engagement. Ultimately, the
goal is to engage and empower parents and to expand to more high schools and middle schools in the
district.

PIQE Basics
- 9 week program
o Week 1: planning session/orientation. Scare parents and raise the level of concern. The goal is to
get parents to sign up and return each week.
o Weeks 2-7: 6 core weekly classes take place typically on T/W/TH, morning and/or evening
depending on the need. Topics covered each week are:
 Understanding the HS system
 Identifying the classes that form the Maryland graduation requirements
 Discussing higher education options
 Identifying the different financial aid options
 Recognizing the importance of GPA
 Reviewing other important requirements and programs
o Week 8: principal’s dialogue/forum. Questions are selected from the parent group and are
asked to the principal/leadership in a panel discussion
o Week 9: parents’ graduation. This is an emotional experience. Parents with perfect attendance
receive a star on their certificate
o 1 absence permitted and can be made up by attending the same session at another school/time
- Additional programming to the PIQE Signature 9 week program (for parents who finish the 9 week
course): Teacher workshop; Family financial literacy; Parent leadership training; STEM

Staff: Facilitators/Recruiters/Site Coordinator/Contact Person

- Classes are run by facilitators who must have graduated from PIQE and have been trained (not just a
professor/teacher). Facilitators have passion and a tie to the community (“PIQE facilitators in Baltimore
must be African American”). Facilitators have to be dependable and available for the initial 12-hour
training, available to facilitate all weekly classes, participate and attend weekly Monday meetings, reach
out to parents weekly, and teach from the curriculum.
- Recruiters are in charge of finding facilitators. They can be the same person but skill sets are different.
- Each school should have a contact person in addition to the site coordinator (present in am and pm)
and facilitator. The coordinator is responsible for the operations at the school. The contact person is go-
to person between the school and the district.
- HIRING WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE DISTRICT LEVEL. Send recommendations Danny’s way!

1
 PIQE at Digital
Who: 326/1258 DHHS students are 10th graders. Digital is 72.4% Black/African American, 8.1% White, 17.3%
Latino.
- Racial success rates (according to PIQEs in South Carolina, Milwaukee, California)
o Latino: 40%
o Black/African American: 6-10%

When: DHHS will be on Track A (there are 2 tracks starting 2 weeks apart) beginning the training the week of
3/5, starting the week of 3/12, and graduating week of 4/ 28. The LA PIQE staff will be in town to help out with
the first week of training. There will be two morning and afternoon courses, English and Spanish:
- Each course gets one facilitator, so 4 in total, one of which is Spanish speaking
o Think about opening up the Spanish course to 50 9th graders, depending on availability

How: Families are more likely to come if there is childcare and food (not just coffee and pastries, but a meal)
provided.
- Must have childcare for 9 weeks and at one point for 5 hours (during principal’s dialogue)
o CPR certification? Licensure? Service learners? Regardless, should have 1 adult present
o Good opportunity for age appropriate activities

Action Steps/Ideas:
- Parent/staff/student support
o Ms. O. Smith: Black History Month Family Dinner in late Feb?
o Ms. Wainwright (College bound), Ms. Edwards
o School Family Council
o Send a flyer home at least a week before classes begin: English, Spanish and Arabic; bright color
o Incentivize students to bring parents: HW passes, lunch treat, extra credit, field trips, etc.
- Find potential community/recommendations for recruiters and facilitators
o Ex: Ms. Cortez
- Find updated class rosters
o Recruiters will not deal with 40% of students having incorrect info
o Clean the rosters so that households do not double
- Ms. Williams & GEARUP team
o Host GEARUP week (so that we are eligible for the fund)
o Designate a GEARUP room
o Submit documentation and funding proposal for $17500 and $10000 (?)
 Proposal: find a part time/give an extra prep for someone to handle GEAR UP and
another person for PIQE at school
 Proposal: SAT Saturday Prep. Identify top PSAT performers and provide tutoring
 Proposal: College Visits beyond Baltimore WITH PARENTS
 Proposal: chrome books with filters (site filters) and guardian (suicide/harm prevention)
for all students
- 1 month prior to program
o Review of school checklist, school flyer, school schedule, directory, recruitment docs and report,
meeting with school principal and staff to discuss logistics, preparing recruiters, cleaning and
distributing rosters, documents, and sent reports to recruiters
o Principal and site coordinator should know all of this
- 2 weeks prior
o content facilitators meeting with assignments, assigning calls and following up with recruiters,
planning session
- Looking Ahead for Fall 2018: Getting a larger group in California for training and expanding schools