In February 2006, California State University San Marcos and the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) entered into a historic collaboration to offer a parent involvement program in five schools in the community each year over a three-year period. The goal of the program is to improve the college admission rate for under-served students.
PIQE provides a nine-week parent involvement program that teaches parents of pre-K and K-12 students how to navigate the school system, assess their children’s grade-level academic progress, and understand what classes and tests are required for admission to a four-year university. Since 1987, PIQE has graduated more than 350,000 parents in California from 15 language groups.
“Assuring the greatest success for our future students at Cal State San Marcos requires that we connect with their greatest educational resource—their parents,” said President Karen S. Haynes of the university’s involvement with PIQE. “This program will help local parents find new and better ways to support their children’s academic and personal growth.”
CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed has pledged $75,000 to PIQE over a three-year period to serve 15 schools in the university’s service area. PIQE will match this pledge and leverage private contributions to meet the program cost. The host schools will cover a portion of the costs. The project agreement provides that each child of a PIQE graduate will receive a college ID that reserves them a space at the university, if they meet the minimum admission requirements when they graduate from high school.
Several CSU campuses have entered into similar partnerships with PIQE.
“The CSU partnership with PIQE is significant since it adds to many other efforts to help improve the public school system,” said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. “Improving the state’s public K-12 schools is critical to the future of California and quality of the Cal State system, since we expect that many of those students ultimately enroll at a CSU campus.”
California State University San Marcos is north San Diego County’s higher education leader, fostering lifelong personal growth and sustainable community development. Students benefit from individualized attention in small classes, the latest equipment and facilities, a superb faculty that enjoys teaching, and a rigorous academic program that prepares them for success. Serving more than 7,600 students, the campus offers 23 bachelor’s and 10 master’s degrees, a joint doctoral degree, and 13 teacher credential programs.
The Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) is a statewide research-based and comprehensive parent involvement program in California. PIQE offers a nine-week series of classes on parent involvement, a four-month “coaches” follow-up program and a six-hour teacher workshop on parent involvement. Since its founding in 1987, PIQE has graduated more than 350,000 from its nine-week classes, 75,000 from the follow-up program and more than 750 teachers from the six-hour workshops. PIQE’s goal is to graduate 1 million parents by 2015, and this historic partnership with the CSU will expedite the program’s expansion in California and beyond. More information is available at www.piqe.org.
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