Pee-soat'eng Project Drug Elimination

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During the May, 2004 Award Meeting Travis Parashonts, Cedar Band Chairman, spoke to the parents and students concerning the importance of completing their education.  He emphasized Cedar Band’s support to the children’s education.  Cedar Band gave $10.00 gift cards to all the students who were in attendance.  Special recognition was given to graduating seniors and graduates from the universities by the Cedar Band Council.  All graduates spoke concerning their education and their future goals.  Parents of the graduates were also recognized.

Research Questions

How many parents/guardians/adults attended the Award Meetings? 

The number of adults who attended each monthly Award Meeting is displayed in Table 5.   Parents of Cedar Band students as well as adult extended family members typically attended the monthly meetings.   The column labels read “Parents/Adults” to reflect the fact that many of those who attended each Parent Education and Monitoring meeting were extended family members, although this report more often uses the limited term “parent”. 

The number of parents who participated in the Parent Education and Monitoring Program this year, varied slightly from September, 2003 to May, 2004.  The number of parents who agreed to participate in the Parent Education and Monitoring Program is shown in the third column.  Due to continued outreach efforts by the Family Facilitator, the Outreach Worker, and other Pee’soats-eng staff, three parents gave consent to enroll in the study after September.  

Table 5.  Number and Percentage of Participating Parents/Adults Attending Award Meetings

What percent of the parents/guardians who agreed to participate in the Award Program attended at least 5 of the 8 meetings? 

A total of 53 parents, guardians, and interested adult extended family members agreed to participate in Parent Education and Monitoring Program as of May, 2004.  Of those 53 parents/guardians/adults, 15 (28%) attended at least 5 of the 9 meetings held this year.  The overall average number of meetings attended was 3.25. 

The above figures include four adults in the community who do not have Cedar Band students in their immediate or extended family, yet they attended meetings.  Of the 49 participating adults with Cedar Band students in their immediate or extended families, 31% (15) attended at least 5 of the 9 meetings this year.  There was an average of 3.37 meetings attended within this group.  Two of these 49 adults did not attend any Award Meetings this school year, although they did give their permission to the program to monitor their students’ grades and attendance.

Did the parents/guardians who participated last year continue to participate (i.e. attended at least 5 of the 8 meetings)? 

It is important to the students’ continued success in school to have parents, guardians, and extended family members who support the students’ efforts in school every year.  The program offers speakers and educational topics throughout the school year in order to encourage repeat attendance.  This research question was intended to address the issue of continued displays of support on the part of adults. 

A total of 27 parents showed some participation in the Award Meetings both last year and this year.  Of those parents, 41% (11) showed continuing interest and support by attending more than half of the meetings held this school year.  The average number of meetings attended for this subgroup of 27 parents was 3.85 meetings.

How many newly enrolled parents/guardians participated (i.e., attended at least 5 of the 8 meetings)? 

One method of addressing this question is to examine the parents who were rated by the program expert as “Never” participating in the Parent Education and Monitoring Program and Cedar Band activities last year.  There were 20 parent/guardians in this category.  One of these parents did not attend Award Meetings this year, although they did provide their consent for the Pee’soats-eng Project to monitor their student’s attendance and grades.  In contrast, 20% (4) of the parents who “Never” attended last year did attend more than half of the Award Meetings this school year.  On average, these 20 parents each attended 2.80 Award Meetings this year.

How many parents/guardians in the Cedar Band who have youth attending school chose not to participate (i.e., attended no meetings)?

There was only one parent of a Cedar Band youth in school who chose not to participate in the Parent Education and Monitoring program through the Pee’soats-Eng Project this school year.

Did the level of participation stay the same or increase this year when compared to the Expert's Ratings of participation last year?

A Pee’soats-eng staff person with experience in the Parent Education and Monitoring Program’s Award Meetings last year was asked to rate each parent/guardian in terms of their level of participation in that part of the program over the 2002-2003 school year.  This Expert Rating of participation was given as “Never” coded 0, “Sometimes” coded 1, “Usually” coded 2, or “Almost Always” coded 3.  The expert was able to rate the participation of 47 parents/guardians using this scale.  The average, or mean, rating was 1.30 which reflects participation that is less than “Usually” and more regular than “Sometimes”.    Results are shown in Table 6.

Table 6.  Expert’s Rating of Parent/Guardian Participation in 2002-2003 (n=47)

The same program expert rated participation of parents/guardians in the Award Meetings for this school year.  Two more parents were included in the Expert Rating this year over last year because there were two additional Cedar Band students eligible for the program.  The expert rated the participation of 49 parents/guardians using the same scale (ranging from Never to Almost Always; see Table 7).  The average, or mean, rating for the 2003-2004 school year was 1.84.  Details are displayed in Table 7.  Over one half of the parents, guardians, and adults were rated as “Usually” or “Almost Always” participating in Parent Education and Monitoring Program activities this year.

Table 7. Expert’s Rating Parent/Guardian Participation in 2003-2004 (n=49)

Overall, 28% (13) of these parents/guardians who were eligible to participate both years demonstrated continued support for their student family members and were given the same Expert Rating of participation for both years.  There were 17% (8) parents/guardians who were rated as showing less regular participation this year.  An indicator of the Parent Education and Monitoring Program’s increasing success in engaging family members is that 55% (26) adults had better Expert Ratings of program participation this year when compared to the 2002-2003 school year.

How many youth received awards for grades each month? 

Those youth who met the standard of an average academic grade of 80% or higher for the month were given an award.  (Students in Kindergarten through Fourth Grade were not eligible because the school did not use a grading system for these young students.)  Note that the number of students who were participating in the program (column two of Table 8) increases during the year because additional parent/guardians gave their permission to the Parent Education and Monitoring Program to access their child’s grades.  From 29 to 61% percent of the students received awards to recognize their academic achievement in any month.  Four students received an award for their grades at each of the eight meetings; including those students, there were 10 students who received an academic award at more than half of the meetings in the 2003-2004 school year.

Table 8. Students Receiving Awards for Academic Grades by Month

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