PIQE provides nine-week programs that teach parents of K-12 students how to navigate the school system and assess their children's grade-level academic progress. The program also explains about "A thru G" high school classes and tests that are required for admission to universities. Since 1987, PIQE has graduated more than 350,000 California parents from among 15 language groups.

"Cal State Northridge is proud to be working with the Parent Institute for Quality Education. Given the increased diversity of California and our multicultural society, we must work to ensure that everyone in the community has the opportunity to benefit from a college education," said CSUN President Jolene Koester.

"A college degree is now essential to be competitive in today's environment, and to achieve personal and professional fulfillment. Cal State Northridge's partnership with PIQE goes a long way toward educating young people and their families about the importance of higher education," Koester added.

PIQE plans to offer its program to parents at five San Fernando Valley-area public schools for each year of the three-year program. Among the schools participating in the first year will be Sylmar High School, Van Nuys Middle School and Sun Valley Middle School. PIQE classes are taught in English, Spanish and 13 other languages, and are offered in morning and evening sessions. The classes are taught by professional facilitators.

Vahac Mardirosian, PIQE's founder, said the organization had its genesis in the Los Angeles student walkouts of 1968 and in the more than 30 years of dedicated work by many individuals in the community committed to a quality education for all students.

"PIQE has developed and widely implemented a model for increasing parent involvement in K-12 schools where parent participation has been difficult to achieve. The barriers that discourage immigrant parents from participating in schools are not insurmountable," Mardirosian said.

The California State University system, through CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed, has pledged $75,000 to PIQE during a three year-period to serve the 15 schools within Cal State Northridge's service area. PIQE will match the Cal State system's pledge and leverage private contributions to cover the program's cost. The host schools also will cover a portion of the program costs.

"The CSU partnership with PIQE is significant since it adds to many other efforts to help improve the public school system," Reed said. "Improving the state's public K-12 schools is critical to the future of California and quality of the Cal State system, since we expect that many of those students ultimately enroll at a CSU campus."

Added PIQE President and CEO David Valladolid, "PIQE is committed to expand its outreach to parents throughout California. This special partnership with the CSU, and with CSUN, will greatly benefit the children of PIQE graduates and enhance the success of our recruitment of parents. It will send families the profound message that their children can attend college if they study hard and meet the admission requirements."

The Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) is a statewide research-based and comprehensive parent involvement program in California. PIQE offers a nine-week series of classes on parent involvement, a four-month "Coaches" follow-up program, and a six-hour teacher workshop on parent involvement. Since its founding in 1987, PIQE has graduated more than 350,000 from its nine-week classes, 75,000 from the follow-up program and more than 750 teachers from the six-hour workshops. PIQE's goal is to graduate 1 million parents by 2015. See www.piqe.org.

California State University, Northridge has 33,000 full- and part-time students and offers 63 bachelor's and 48 master's degrees as well as 28 education credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.