Whether your group is an individual school or an entire school district, effective use of the Parental Involvement Pledge includes community outreach. Consider sending a one-page press release to the newspapers, television and local radio stations announcing the distribution of the Parental Involvement Pledge. Invite all interested parents to take the Parental Involvement Pledge and to contact your school(s). Discover what's newsworthy about parental involvement in your school so you draw the proper attention to your release. And learn how to get your releases into the hands of the right editors in the media with the tips and sample press release below.

Press Release Writing Tips

Make it newsworthy. Are you solving a parent/school problem or filling your parent/school needs? Pinpoint what that need or problem is and write the release from that perspective.

A headline that gets to the point. Craft a headline which conveys immediately why this news is important. Avoid promotional sounding words. What you say here determines whether the reader will read the rest of the release.

A strong leading paragraph. Answer who, what, where, when, why, and how. Use this paragraph as an abstract or summary for the release.

 
Be sure to target only the media which covers your topic.

Detailed explanation from the reader's perspective. Give details of the school(s) so the editor understands why it's important to his/her readers. Highlight your association with Project Appleseed, this will illustrate the importance of this news. If you're announcing a Parental Involvement Pledge effort, mention when and where the Pledge will be distributed (concentrate your efforts on parent teacher conferences) and where parents can obtain extra copies.

Short school or district summary. Include especially any information about parental involvement activities of note in your school. Also mention your location. Keep it short.

Include complete contact information. Contact name, school name, full address, phone number, email address, and Web site URL. The contact name should be someone who's available and capable of answering questions.

Keep it short. Maximum length should be one to two pages and no more than 500 words.

 
Tips for Sending a Press Release

Not all journalists want to receive press releases via email -- be careful to contact them in the way they want to hear from you.

Target your audience. Only contact editors who write about education and families.

Find out the best way to contact your audience. Is it by snail mail, email, or fax? Not everyone wants press releases by email.

Don't send email releases with attachments. Send the release within the body of the message.

Don't follow up! You will annoy most editors by making a second contact.

Know the editor's deadlines. Don't expect a magazine editor to cover your event scheduled for next week.

 
Project Appleseed's Press Release Pet Peeves

Update your school Web site with your "news" before sending your release. If it's not important enough to be added to your own site, why should anyone write about it?

Worthless follow up calls ("did you get my release?").

For immediate release

For further information contact
(Your contact name, tile, and phone number)

(Your City and State) -- School leaders at (Your school, district and/or organization name here) are recruiting parents to volunteer at ( school) by taking a written Parental Involvement Pledge. Superintendents, principals, and parent group leaders in thousands of schools and school districts across the United States are taking part in Public School Volunteer Week, April 17-23, 2011. By working with administrators and parent group leaders, Project Appleseed, a national parents' group, will continue to lead the drive to recruit five-million parents to take the Parental Involvement Pledge this school year. The Pledge is a learning compact that requires parents to volunteer a minimum of 10 hours each in their local public schools. Increased parental involvement will improve student achievement and make schools safer.

The Pledge works. U.S. Department of education research shows that schools with properly implemented compacts like the Pledge, raise student achievement higher than at similar schools without pledges. That is why Title I, requires every school it serves to form a pledge. Pledges have a greater impact on student learning than other types of home-school interactions. Principals of schools with pledges report greater family involvement in homework and more parents reading with children at home. Best of all, schools with the greatest needs seem to benefit the most.

"We're trying to get parents to do a better job of getting involved and schools to do a better job of welcoming them. Yada, yada, yada. etc.(You can another quote here of your own)" says (your name, title here), who spends three to four hours a week working in his/her own kids' public schools in the (Your school, district and/or organization name here).

Parents and schools here in (Your school, district and/or organization name here) and across America, are increasingly accepting mutual responsibility for children's learning. When parents are involved in children's learning, at school and at home, schools work better and students learn more. Project Appleseed is working with (Your school, district and/or organization name here), families, employers and community organizations to develop local partnerships that support a safe school environment where students learn to challenging standards. By working together, exchanging information, sharing decision making, and collaborating for children's learning, everyone can contribute to the education process.

Project Appleseed's web site is a clearinghouse of virtual volunteering, strategic information about parental involvement and education reform. With the Pledge the average school and school district can create thousands of hours of new volunteer time with a minimum wage value that is worth tens of thousands of dollars. This is an investment that yields enormous dividends. Schools seeking a master copy of the Parental Involvement Pledge for their schools can quickly obtain the copyright to distribute the Pledge at http://www.projectappleseed.org.