Family and Community Engagement
Webinar 2: A Walk Through the Handbook
Families and Schools
Checklist of Recommended Practices
Center on Innovation & Improvement
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
U. S. Department of Education
Welcome!
Download the Handbook free from:
www.families-schools.org
Or purchase the published version from:
Information Age Publishing
www.infoagepub.com
How the Handbook is Organized?
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Part I: Framing the Discussion
Part II: Families and Learning
Part III: Families and Schools
Part IV: Checklist of Suggested Practices
Why the Handbook?
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Bring best research together in one place
Add the wisdom of many voices
Present in a straight-forward manner
Provide practical application
Include ample references and resources
Leaven with a dash of reality with vignettes
Part III: Families and Schools
• A Framework for Partnerships
• Parent Leadership
• Maximum Homework Impact: Optimizing Time,
Purpose, Communication, and Collaboration
• Differentiating Family Supports
• Bridging Language and Culture
• Minority Families and Schooling
• Association of Poverty with Family Relations and
Children’s and Adolescents’ Socio-emotional
Adjustment
Part III: Families and Schools
• Families of Children with Disabilities: Building
School-Family Partnerships
• Linking Schools to Early Childhood
• Family Engagement in High Schools
• Family and Community Engagement in Charter
Schools
• Family Engagement in Rural Schools
• Bridging Two Worlds for Native American Families
A Framework for Partnerships
Steven B. Sheldon
“The four organizational principles for a strong
partnership program are: (1) employing
teamwork; (2) writing annual, goal-oriented
action plans; (3) using a multidimensional
definition of involvement or engagement; and
(4) evaluating partnership practices.”
Parent Leadership
Anne T. Henderson & Sam Redding
“Where leadership is shared with parents,
research demonstrates its power in boosting
school improvement. It also accesses an
untapped resource and lifts the life prospects
of the parent leaders themselves.”
Maximum Homework Impact: Optimizing Time,
Purpose, Communication, and Collaboration—
Frances Van Voorhis
“Teachers play critical roles in homework design,
student perception, and encouraging
appropriate levels of family involvement.”
Differentiating Family Supports
Patricia Edwards
“The rationale for differentiating family supports
comes from theory, research, and educational
common sense. Educators must understand
that parents are not all the same. They have
their own strengths and weaknesses,
complexities, problems, and questions, and
we must work with them and see them as
more than ‘just parents.’”
Bridging Language and Culture
Patricia Gándara
“Our greatest concern must be with those
parents and children who do not have the
social capital or the English skills to be able to
navigate the education system.”
Minority Families and Schooling
Susan Paik
“Many minority families tend to reside in poor
neighborhoods. Facing cultural, language, and
economic barriers, their children’s
achievement gap widens throughout the
school years.”
Pause to Reflect
What struck a chord with you in these Part III
chapters? – Jot a couple notes for the
discussion later.
Association of Poverty with Family Relations and Children’s
and Adolescents’ Socio-emotional Adjustment
Ronald Taylor
“The effects of poverty and economic problems
on children are indirect and operate through
their impact on parents’ adjustment,
interpersonal relations, and parenting
practices.”
Families of Children with Disabilities: Building
School-Family Partnerships
Eva Patrikakou
“A key factor in establishing and maintaining
home–school partnerships is ongoing and
productive communication. The need for
communication between educators and
families becomes even greater for students
with disabilities.”
Linking Schools to Early Childhood
Kate McGilly
“A child who is ready for school is socially,
emotionally, and cognitively ready. The
contexts in which children develop from
birth—the relationships they form, the
environments in which they are placed, the
responsiveness of those environments—are
predictive of readiness for and later success in
school.”
Family Engagement in High Schools
Mavis Sanders
“Adolescents’ success in high school is enhanced
by home-based family engagement and
communication practices. Further,
communications about school and
postsecondary plans between parents and
adolescents and among parents, adolescents,
and school teachers are positively associated
with students’ school success.”
Family and Community Engagement
in Charter Schools
Brian R. Beabout & Lindsey B. Jakiel
“Increasing the levels of family and community
engagement in schools has been an important
rationale for the creation of charter schools
from the beginnings of the movement in the
early 1990s.”
Family Engagement in Rural Schools
Amanda Witte and Susan Sheridan
“Rural schools are uniquely positioned to foster
and benefit from family–school partnerships.
Because of their centrality within the
community, rural schools routinely connect
with families in multiple capacities as part of
typical daily routines.”
Bridging Two Worlds
for Native American Families
Pamela Sheley
• Persistence matters. Enlist the willing parents
who attend school functions to to help
communicate with other families. Talk to the
tribal council and involve them in the school.
Speak to the elders and include them when
teaching the students of their heritage and
culture. Invite parents in to share special skills
related to supporting at home their children’s
success at school.”
Pause to Reflect
What struck a chord with you in these Part III
chapters? – Jot a couple notes for the
discussion later.
Part IV: Checklist of Suggested Practices
Sam Redding
“Each contributor brought to the Handbook his or
her own passions, special interests, personal
background, and experience. The contributors
synthesized the research and offered practical
action principles for State Education Agencies,
Local Education Agencies, and schools. This
chapter provides a checklist of suggested
practices derived from the action principles in the
preceding chapters.”
The Vignettes
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Angela, by Patricia Edwards
Billy, by Sam Redding
Tony, by Lori Thomas
Marie, by Pamela Sheley
Discussion
1. What struck a chord with you in Parts III and
IV, and how does it relate to your role?
2. What question do you have that one of the
webinar participants or facilitators might be
able to answer?