CROP’s Education Initiatives

CROP believes that quality, innovative educational programs can help to solve a number of our society’s major problems, including some of the circumstances that are currently sending too many at-risk children into the criminal justice system.  Worthwhile educational tools can serve to help children improve their educational experience and, as a result, help keep them from falling into the downward spiral of gangs, drugs, and other harmful situations.  Helping children get a good, solid education is a major prevention tool that can break some of the cycles of generational failure.  For those who have already been in the criminal justice system, and for those who may not have had an opportunity to get a solid education, good flexible learning tools can be very helpful in providing the necessary educational background to obtain worthwhile employment and to improve future advancement potentials.

The CROP Foundation is committed to providing quality educational programs that can enhance the successful rehabilitation of prisoners and that can help to facilitate their successful reintegration into society.  Toward this goal, CROP is in the final stages of developing a new innovative, computer-based education tool that can be used in closed-loop institutional settings.  This new tool is designed to improve learning and to help insure continuing educational capabilities in times of budgetary constraints.  Watch for more information on this in-custody effort in the near future.

On the prevention and intervention front, CROP is leading the way with its “E-Parent” program that is designed to address some of the major issues facing educators across America.  By improving educational processes, dramatic improvements can be made in parental involvement, student test scores, and drop-out rates.  Statistics show that students who drop out of school are 63 times more likely to end up in our correctional systems and this negative cycle must be broken.

The Parent Roadmap to Student Success

CROP’s educational partner is VPlex (www.vplex.com).  VPlex is headed by Mr. Cleveland Brown, a UCLA graduate (and a member of CROP’s Board of Directors) who has created one of the nation’s most innovative educational programs that is currently employed in over 800 schools in California, Texas, and Arizona.  CROP and VPlex are currently involved in efforts to take the program nationwide.  This innovative program, called “E-Parent”, provides the answer to two of the major problems facing our school systems, namely, the lack of parental involvement in their child’s education, and the digital divide that exists in so many at-risk communities.  The E-Parent program provides a computer-based system that ties together on a daily basis the child, their parents, their teacher, their counselor, their coach, their grandparents or any other significant individual in the child’s life to provide support and encouragement and to follow academic performance.  Parents are trained on the computer system, provided with a significantly-discounted fully-loaded computer, and provided with free access to the internet.  The E-Parent concept can also be adapted to institutional and home settings to provide an opportunity to get a GED, AA, or BA degree through a self-paced learning program.

Vplex realizes the potential of technology to get parents more involved with student achievement. Parents are an often overlooked source, however, they have the best chance at being a major positive force in their child's education. Elementary, middle, and high schools nation wide have already seen the tremendous help that "E–Parent" can be.

The goal of E–Parent is shared by the thousands of staff, teachers, and parents that use our software every day; we all want our students to graduate and begin college or career life with confidence. We have the same wish, but even with the Internet and email there is not clear direction as how to utilize technology to increase parental involvement and awareness in the classroom. There are numerous software products available to schools, of which, none answer the question on how to close the digital divide. With the diversity and socio-economic factors facing parents today, technology is a luxury and not a necessity. E-Parent not only provides software to improve communication with parents, but engages them in such a way that technology becomes the core of the home and instrumental in their students academic development.

The Parent Roadmap is a simple way to illustrate how E–Parent gives schools and parents the tools necessary to ensure their students’ academic success. 

Closing the Digital Divide
E-parent not only teaches schools how to incorporate technology as a tool for parental involvement but brings technology into the homes of families. Technology in the home is vital to the success of students and communication with parents. E-Parent and its partners provide discounted fully-loaded computers, free internet access, email and more.

Workshops and Training
E-Parent hosts multi-lingual workshops at school sites where parents can learn how to use computers, utilize email technology, use E-Parent software as well as more advanced courses including Microsoft Office programs. This is vital as parents learn to utilize technology, they can incorporate this knowledge into their own lives as well as giving their students the chance to succeed.

Registration
E-Parent organizes parent registration, the most important step on the Parent Roadmap to student success to engage parents in the educational process.

Software
E-Parent software allows school-to-home communication (grades, attendance, emergency notification, teacher-parent communication, parent-administration communication).
E-Parent software is easier to use than a personal email program as it takes less than one hour to activate a school to use the system.

The features listed here are meant to outline a typical application of the E–Parent program. Every implementation of E–Parent includes parent registration, workshops and training. These are all handled differently depending on the special needs of the district and/or school. Your E-Parent representative will help you customize E–Parent to launch with the best results.