BATON ROUGE, La. — The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) today announced the launch of BE ENGAGED®, an initiative focused on encouraging parents, families and communities to work together to transform student outcomes.
The BE ENGAGED® initiative is powered through an innovative technology app, PimsPoints. The app rewards parents with PimsPoints for simply engaging with their child’s education. Parents can earn PimsPoints by participating in activities such as an open house or a parent-teacher conference. The app will also send notifications of opportunities to be engaged at their student’s school as well as general information about student learning. After participating in school events and completing learning tasks, parents can exchange their PimsPoints for digital rewards and coupons provided by local businesses.
“LEAP assessment results show that there is a great amount of intervention that has to take place at all levels and innovative methods and unconventional thinking is warranted,” said Dr. Antiqua Hunter, LDOE’s Parent and Family Engagement Coordinator. “We cannot sit around and watch our children be impacted from the lack of engagement. Now is the time for parents, families and communities to be engaged!”
The LDOE’s newly developed Birth-12 BE ENGAGED® Framework defines Family Engagement as an empowering partnership among families, educators, practitioners and communities with shared responsibility for the personal success of children and youth. According to a 2018 Global Family Research Project study, family engagement is one of the most powerful predictors of social-emotional development, educational attainment and success in both school and life for children and youth.
Parents can download the PimsPoints app on their Apple or Android device beginning November 15, 2021. Local businesses can get more information about including their services on the PimsPoints app by contacting their district’s Parent and Family Engagement Coordinator. Contact details can be found at www.louisianabelieves.com/beengaged.
For more information, please contact Dr. Antiqua Hunter at Antiqua.Hunter@la.gov.
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