March 9, 2006

Sacramento State partnership to
help parents guide kids toward college

Sacramento State has joined a statewide partnership to increase the number of students who are eligible to attend college. The University is among 23 campuses in the California State University system that will work with the Parent Institute for Quality Education, or PIQE, to strengthen parental involvement in preparing elementary and middle school students for higher education.

The University will partner with Sacramento-area schools to identify parents of Latino and other underserved populations to take part.

“One-third of our students come from families where one or both parents did not attend college,” said Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez. “We see our involvement with the PIQE program as a significant step in helping us attract more of these first-generation students by showing their parents that a college education is not only attainable, but vital.”

The San Diego-based Parent Institute for Quality Education offers nine-week training programs where parents learn how to improve performance in the classroom, enhance the parent/child relationship, motivate their child to stay in school and identify steps to help their child attend a college or university. Class sessions are taught in English, Spanish and 12 other languages, and are offered in morning and evening sessions. The course content is customizable for each parent and can address such issues as home-school collaboration, motivation and self-esteem, communication and discipline, drug and gang awareness, and college and career selection. The training will be provided by PIQE facilitators.

Children whose parents “graduate” from the Sacramento State-affiliated PIQE program will receive an identity card that reserves them a space at the University if they meet the minimum admission requirements when they graduate from high school.

Since its inception in 1987, PIQE has graduated more than 350,000 parents and guardians. It is credited with developing and implementing a model for increasing parent involvement in K-12 where parent participation has been difficult to achieve.

CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed will provide $75,000 in funding over the next three years for CSU campuses statewide to partner with local schools. PIQE will match this amount and host schools will cover a portion of the program costs.

For more information, contact Phil Garcia, Sacramento State executive director for Governmental and Civic Affairs at (916) 278-6710. Media assistance is available by contacting the Sacramento State public affairs office at (916) 278-6156.

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