At the Delaware Department of Education’s Jan. 4 town hall meeting, Delaware PTA President Yvonne Johnson heard someone quote a PTA position. That, she said, is a perfect example of advocacy in action—knowing that you are getting your message across and that it is having an impact.
On Jan. 7, roughly a dozen budding advocates from around the state gathered at the Christiana Hilton in Newark for a day of advocacy training run by the Delaware PTA.
Delaware PTA leaders led participants through a series of mini-workshops on the following topics:
- Developing strategy for conducting an advocacy campaign
- Building coalitions
- Recruiting and building the organization
- Using the media as a tactic
- Learning how to effectively meet with decision makers
- Motivating parents about the Common Core Standards Initiative
Johnson emphasized the influence that Delaware PTA has.
“We are the power of the parents’ voice, and never underestimate that,” she said.
One workshop session focused specifically on the Common Core State Standards Initiative in Delaware. Delaware PTA recently received a $40,000 grant from the National PTA to educate parents throughout the state about Common Core, a bi-partisan, state-led effort to create and support consistent, rigorous English-language arts and math standards for kindergarten through 12th grade to be voluntarily adopted by states. Nearly all states, including Delaware, have adopted the Common Core standards. Delaware’s implementation efforts are underway.
To learn more about Common Core in the First State, contact Delaware PTA at (302) 838-8770 or de_office@pta.org.
At the end of the workshop, participants were invited to sign a commitment form, indicating they will take action to share the information they had learned with others.
“Our power is demonstrated by our numbers,” concluded Delaware PTA President-elect Susan Brown. “You are now part of Delaware’s Common Core committee team.”
