What’s a Parent Portal?

The parent portal is more than a web site. It is a space that presents diverse information in multiple media formats. This portal is designed to provide support to parents in Delaware and surrounding communities in the Muncie, Indiana area.

What’s the purpose of the Parent Portal?

The purpose of the portal is to provide a collaborative of local community service and school agencies to coordinate services, share resources, and engage parents in their child’s education.

This portal is the result of an emerging media grant through Ball State University. It reflects two year’s of work conducted by lead professors Dr. Sheron Fraser- Burgess, Dr. Matt Stuve, Dr. _John_Fillwalk with their graduate assistants, students, and the help of many community agencies including the ICan network, Sutton Elementary, Parents Encouraging Parents, the Muncie Housing Authority, Indiana Partnership Center and Action Network.

What will parents find on the Parent Portal?

The parent portal uses emerging media and varied media formats in providing information and mentoring which include:


• Podcast interviews with local parents on what has worked for them in advocating for their children in the schools

• A downloadable step by step parent book written for parents on what to ask, seek out, and look for in helping their children transition from middle school to high school and from high school to the university

• Links to community centers where parents can access information and resources that allow them to support their children’s education which include social service agencies, free tutoring, and free parent mentoring

• Opportunities to build online parent communities around topics of interest and concern



Why empower parents?

We know that families are a key component in any social system and we know that families play a significant role in the education of their child. Conventional public schooling approaches have generally not had an effect on the lack of educational attainment and generational cycles of poverty.

During a time when education is so critical for our young people, effective parent advocacy in the schools is the key to a child’s success in schools. It is often difficult for teachers and schools to perceive and utilize the social, economic, linguistic, and cultural background of the parents they serve. Likewise, it is difficult for parents to navigate the public school system, which also has its own cultural and language barriers.

Why create a portal and not just a web site?

New technologies offer the promise of altering existing relationships between families, the schools, and community agencies and the parent. Information is power and having not only access, but the opportunity to engage with that information can create individual and collective voice and action. Emerging media provides the opportunity for parents to access that information through audio, video, and online virtual environments.

While in the portal, parents can read, research, listen, view, react, respond, ask questions, find answers, have discourse, form relationships, find their voice, and create strategies.

Who can use the portal?

Parents, educators, and any local community agency who supports the public school system in the local Muncie community. This portal will be ever evolving. As new resources arise, we will add those. As new technologies emerge, we will add those. As parents request and require new information, we will add that.