Engaging Families
for Student Success
Systemic opportunities
for engaging the families of all students
Barbara Boone, Ph.D.
The Ohio State University, CETE
What is the Challenge Before Us?
• Move beyond well intentioned but often
random acts
• Increase understanding and valuing of family
engagement at all levels
• Embed family engagement in the improvement
and leadership system
• Implement practices aligned with district goals
that are research-informed
• Use data to measure progress and drive family
engagement strategies
Definition of Family Engagement
Family engagement is what families do to
support their child’s education and healthy
development, birth through adulthood.
And,
What schools do to partner with families and
strengthen support for the child.
Outcomes for Students
• Accelerated literacy acquisition
• Improved academic performance – higher grades and test
scores
• Positive attitudes toward school
• Improved behavior
• School readiness
• Academic perseverance
• Lower dropout rates and fewer suspensions
• Study skills and homework completion rates
• School attendance rates
• Successful transitions to adulthood
• Promoted more and earn more credits
• Increased pursuit of higher education
Ohio Special Education Research Project, 2013
Higher ranked schools…
Ask yourself:
What might a school look like that has created a
genuine culture of school-family partnership?
Beyond the Bake Sale, Mapp, Henderson and others, 2010
Fortress School
 “Parents don’t care about their
children’s education, and they
are the main reason the kids
are failing.”
 “Parents don’t come to
conferences, no matter what
we do.”
 Principal picks a small group of
“cooperative parents” to help
out.
 “We’re teachers, not social
workers.”
 “Curriculum and standards are
too advanced for these
parents.”
Come-If-We-Call School
 Open house for all parents
at beginning of year. Then
only sporadic meetings, or
conferences with some
families for the remainder
of the year.
 Workshops are planned
by staff.
 Families can visit school
on a few select days.
 Parents called when
there is a problem – “no
news is good news.”
Open-Door School
 Parent-Teacher
conferences are held
twice a year.
 There is an “Action Team”
for family engagement.
 School holds curriculum
night 3 or 4 times a year.
 Parents raise issues at PTA
meetings or see the
principal.
 School sends out parent
survey once a year.
Partnership School
 Parent feedback and
ideas are solicited often.
 All family activities
connect to what students
are learning.
 There is a clear, open
process for resolving
problems.
 Parents and teachers
research issues together.
 Families are actively
involved in decisionmaking.
Family engagement examples
Roles Families Play
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Teachers
Supporters
Encouragers
Monitors
Models
Advocates
Decision-makers
Collaborators
THE KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL-FAMILY-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
EPSTEIN’S SIX TYPES OF INVOLVEMENT
Type 1
PARENTING: Assist families in understanding child and adolescent
development, and in setting home conditions that support children
as students at each age and grade level. Assist schools in
understanding families.
Type 2
COMMUNICATING: Communicate with families about school
programs and student progress through effective school-to-home
and home-to-school communications.
Type 3
VOLUNTEERING: Improve recruitment, training, work, and
schedules to involve families as volunteers and audiences at school
or in other locations to support students and school programs.
Type 4
LEARNING AT HOME: Involve families with their children in
learning activities at home, including homework, other curriculumrelated activities, and individual course and program decisions.
Type 5
DECISION MAKING: Include families as participants in school
decisions, governance, and advocacy through PTA/PTO, school
councils, committees, action teams, and other parent organizations.
Type 6
COLLABORATING WITH COMMUNITY: Coordinate resources
and services for students, families, and the school with businesses,
agencies, and other groups, and provide services to the community.
High School Example Plan for
Postsecondary Planning
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Workshops for parents and students on course credits,
requirements for high school, career planning, college
application
Series of YouTube videos on helping their child plan for career
and college
Field trips to colleges for parents and students
Interactive homework that require student to discuss goals and
make plans with family
Post-secondary planning group (parents, teachers and students)
plans series of activities on post-high school planning
Alumni group and community mentors are linked with students
and families to help guide planning for after high school
School, Family, Community Partnerships, Epstein et al. 2009
Middle School Transitioning
1. New student scavenger hunt and parent tour
2. Panel discussion at feeder elementary schools
3. Survey parents about how they can partner with
the school
4. Videos for parents about how they can best support
their child with learning in middle school
5. Parent-Teacher group plans for successfully
transitioning parents and students
6. Collaborating with feeder schools and hosting joint
events
Elementary Plan - Reading
1. Workshops for parents on various ways to read with
their child – books made available to take home.
2. Teachers meet with parents in classroom to explain
classroom reading data and their own child’s progress.
3. Parent volunteers are guest-readers and reading
buddies.
4. Teachers call or meet more frequently with parents of
children receiving reading intervention so parent can
learn how to intervene at home.
5. PTA support for making books more available to
students (swaps, reading bags, etc.).
6. Community businesses make donations for books for
classrooms and for children to take home.
Reaching families of
students receiving
intensive academic or
behavioral interventions
Intensive
Targeted
What we do with all families.
Universal
Programs and services
for families of students
targeted for early
academic or behavioral
interventions.
Pre-K Transitions
Universal
Targeted
Intensive
• Invite parents and
• Provide kindergarten
• Visit students and their
children to visit
enrollment information
families at home prior
kindergarten in the
in the languages of
to the school year
spring of preschool year.
families in the
starting.
• Make personal contact
community.
• Meet with therapists
with families prior to
• Hold specific outreach
and other support staff
the first day of school to
meetings with
to plan for transitioning
begin sharing
community groups
students with
information about the
associated with
disabilities.
child and school
different cultural groups
routines.
in the community.
• Match first grade
parents with
kindergarten parents as
“mentors”.
Attendance
Universal
Targeted
Intensive
• Use a telephone voice
• Use bilingual aids to
• Schedule home visits
system to record
contact parents with
with students who are
absence reporting.
limited English and send
chronically absent.
• Created a recognition
out texts and other
• Assign a staff person to
and incentive program
messages in the
check in with
for attendance.
language appropriate to
chronically absent
• Initiate a tutoring
the family.
students each day.
system in which high
• Send commendation
• Work with families to
school students will
letters to students with
understand barriers to
good attendance are
improved attendance
attendance and help to
permitted to assist
alleviate when possible
younger students.
(i.e.. Provide winter
• Establish homeroom
coat, boots,
periods in high school
transportation, health
with students remaining
care).
with the same teacher
for four years.
Student Achievement
Student Attributes Conducive to Achievement
Academic Self Efficacy
Intrinsic Motivation
Self-Regulation
Social-Self-Efficacy w/ Teachers
Mediated by Child’s Perceptions of Parent Efforts
Parent Efforts of Involvement
Encouragement
Modeling
Reinforcement
Instruction
Parent Involvement Forms
Values, goals
Home Involvement
School Communication
School Involvement
Pre-Involvement
Role Construction
Parental Efficacy
for Involvement
General School
Invitations
Specific School
Invitations
Specific Child
Invitations
Knowledge and
Skills
Time and Energy
Family Culture
Key points to effective family
engagement strategies:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Sustained
Targeted
Intentional – clearly linked to goals
Proactive
Enjoyable
Child focused
Strengths-based
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Principles of OIP
“Every plan gets its strength from the people
who are committed to it. To make sure the
plan will yield positive results, engage
[parents]… in understanding the plan, helping
to make it stronger, and ultimately, becoming
invested in making it work.”
(Ohio Leadership Advisory Council, 2008)
Essential Practices for superintendents and District
Leadership Teams (DLT):
• Collaborate effectively with [parents] in the
development and support of district goals.
• Offer opportunities for meaningful input
and feedback from [parents] with regard to
district goals.
• Ensure that [parent] partnership activities
are focused on district goals.
• Provide for training/support as needed by
[parents] to enable them to meaningfully
participate in activities aligned with district
goals
(Ohio Leadership Advisory Council, 2008, p. 15).
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Essential practices for
Building Leadership Teams:
• Engage [parents] in establishing and supporting buildinglevel strategies/action steps.
• Offer opportunities for meaningful input and feedback
from [parents].
• Develop collaborative partnerships [with parents] aligned
with building-level strategies/action steps for improving
instruction and achievement.
• Provide for training/support needed by [parents] to
enable them to meaningfully participate
Ohio Leadership Advisory Council, 2008, p. 32).
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Where do families fit?
• DLT and BLT include parent perspectives in planning
– Parents on planning teams
• “All kids” perspective
• Preparation for parent members
• Expectations of parent members
• Gathering broad parent input to shape plan
–
–
–
–
–
Surveys and Focus groups
Tapping into existing parent groups
Informed perspectives/expert informants
Parent-Teacher Partnerships groups
Parent perspectives (gifted, spec. ed, gen ed)
• Planning strategies to partner with families to reach goals
• Assessing outcomes of family engagement strategies
– Sharing data with families
– TBT, Building, District
• Child progress
• Feedback on parent perspectives
Princeton City Schools
SST, Region 13
Princeton Parent Teacher
Partnerships Video
Framework for Building Partnerships
Among Schools, Families and Communities
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Ending with the beginning in mind.
Guiding Principles
• For our systems to improve, we must engage parents.
• School leaders must set the expectation.
• Systemic changes that build parent engagement over time
yield the strongest results.
• Family partnerships benefit students, schools and families preK-16.
• Families want, and can learn, ways to help their children at all
ages.
• All families have strengths to build upon.
• It is the responsibility of educators to initiate and build schoolfamily partnerships.
Engaging Families
for Student Success
Systemic opportunities
for engaging the families of all students
Barbara Boone, Ph.D.
The Ohio State University, CETE
Boone.32@osu.edu