What are Academic Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT)?
Academic Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT) is a family engagement model, designed by Dr. Maria Paredes of WestEd, that strengthens teacher-family relationships by focusing on student academic growth and achievement. The APTT Model elevates the efforts of traditional parent-teacher conferences by inviting all families of the same classroom teacher to meet together rather than individually.
A 75-minute APTT meeting includes the following:
- Team-building activity to build a rapport with and among parents and the classroom teacher
- Foundational grade-level skills that students must master by the end of the school year
- An anonymous graph of every child’s status on the skill
- Teacher modeling the activities that are targeted to improve the skill
- Parents practicing the activities together in order to use them with their child at home
- Individualized 60-day goal for their child on the skill
All parents receive materials for the practice activities to take home. After 60 days, the parents are invited back to a second meeting to receive an updated graph of every child’s progress and learn about another skill. Teachers and parents meet for APTT meetings three times during the school year.
APTT in Georgia
The Georgia Department of Education began partnering with
WestEd, APTT’s parent company, during the 2014-2015 school year to provide
training and support on this innovative approach to improving student outcomes
through parent and teacher collaboration. Initially, ten Title I schools
joined the first APTT cohort and then, in subsequent years, trained other
schools within their district. New APTT
schools formed Core Teams to lead the implementation process in the school and
districts formed Family Engagement Leadership Teams (FELT) to ensure district-level support of the program and its continuation and growth throughout the
district. That training model continued through the 2017-2018
school year.
In May 2018, Georgia entered an APTT Training of Trainers pilot
project with WestEd. The pilot project
culminated in May 2019, when 13 Georgia APTT Trainers were certified by WestEd
to conduct the initial APTT training and provide the year of support for
school systems implementing APTT for the first time. Under this new model, the Georgia Department
of Education and a school system, in which the new APTT school exists, partner during the
school’s APTT Startup Year to contract with a Georgia APTT Trainer who provides
onsite and virtual training as well as yearlong technical assistance. This transition allows for greater expansion
of APTT throughout the state.
Information about how to start APTT in a new school system may be requested from your Regional Family Engagement Specialist.
Click on the Georgia map below for current school systems in Georgia that
are utilizing the APTT model.
