Parent and Family Engagement

The evidence about parental and family engagement with school is clear. When parents are active partners with their child’s school there is a positive impact on things educators care about, things like achievement, attendance and aspirations for the future (Epstein, et.al, 2002; Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Virtually all educators recognize the importance of parents being involved in their child’s school but still struggle to develop viable plans for promoting such engagement particularly among families of limited means or who may be recent immigrants. This brief will discuss parent and family engagement but the primary focus will be on how teachers and principals can develop and implement plans that increase parent and family engagement among all parent groups but especially among these underserved populations. 

Joyce Epstein from the Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships at John Hopkins University (http://www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/center.htm) synthesized the research on parent engagement and found that:

• Just about all families care about their children and want them to succeed. They also want better information from their child’s school so that they can be good partners with the school.
• Almost all teachers and administrators want to involve families but many do not know how to go about building positive and productive partnerships with parents and families.
• Virtually all students at all levels, elementary, middle and high school, want their families to be more engaged with their school and knowledgeable about the schools programs. Students say they are willing to be active partners in supporting communication between home and school. (Epstein, et.al., 2002)

The research also shows that affluent communities have more robust family engagement than economically distressed communities. It also shows that schools in more economically distressed communities more frequently contact parent about problems and difficulties than positive accomplishments. Further, single parents, parents employed outside the home, parents living far from school, and fathers are generally less involved.

The Good News - However, when schools develop and implement appropriate grade and school level practices each of these barriers can be reversed. Parent and family engagement is strong in economically distressed communities when teachers and administrators build positive relationships with students’ families, develop balanced partnership programs including contacts about positive student accomplishments, and scheduling school activities and opportunities for involvement at times and places that fit the needs of diverse parent communities.

Here are two resources that provides tools and strategies for increasing parent and family engagement.

• I recently prepared a research brief for the Oregon GEAR UP Program on parent engagement.
• A recent edition of ASCD Express focused on Family-School Relationships. It provides useful information about home visits and how to guide parents in helping with homework. 

College Readiness Resources

In a recent study from ACT more than 80% of students said they planned on attending college or some form of post-secondary education. But many students and their families don't do the planning necessary to realize that goal.

Several studies have identified the components of a comprehensive college readiness program. They agree on four major activities:

• Take the Right Courses - Assure that students are taking the right courses to gain college admission. This includes taking high-level courses in middle school so that they have access to advanced courses in high school.
• Develop Cognitive and Metacognitive Skills - While taking rigorous courses is important, students also need to develop the cognitive and metacognitive skills that will be needed to succeed in college. These include things like intellectual openness, inquisitiveness, reasoning, argumentation and proof, precision and accuracy and problem solving (Conley, 2007). Such skills are embedded in nearly all college courses.
• Surround Students with Support for College Attendance - Assure that every student is expected to develop a postsecondary plan. Surround them with caring adults who provide the mentoring and support necessary to achieve the plan and build support for their college aspirations.
• Plan for College Costs - While most families believe college education is important many are uncertain about the costs or how to manage the costs. Developing a plan to pay for college is a critical part of planning.

There are three helpful resources that provide greater detail on this issues. I hope you find them useful.

Pathways to College: What High Schools Can Do to Prepare Students for College Admission and Success in Higher Education

http://gearup.ous.edu/sites/default/files/Research-Briefs/ResearchBriefPathwaystoCollege.pdf

College Readiness Begins in Middle School (2005)

http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/CollegeReadiness.pdf

Redefining College Readiness (David Conley, 2007).
http://www.epiconline.org/publications/documents/RedefiningCollegeReadiness.pdf

Increasing Parent Engagement

When families are engaged with their children's school there is a positive impact on student learning, attendance and student aspirations for their future. There's a powerful connection that's been found again and again. While virtually all teachers and principals recognize the value of having parents and families engaged with their school they often struggle to figure out how to promote engagement particularly among families of limited means and those who are recent immigrants.

There's lots of evidence for building productive partnerships with parents and families. There's also a lot of really good resources available for teachers and principals to consider when developing plans to improve engagement. I recently wrote a Research Into Practice brief for principals in the Oregon GEAR UP program and after a review of the literature on family engagement identified six things to consider. The complete brief is available here and on the Oregon GEAR UP website.

Here are the six strategies that can be used to improve engagement of parents and families at your school.

1. Check Assumptions and Stereotypes – Be careful about assumptions and stereotypes about families. Most teachers and employees share a middle class background and view the role of parents through their own experience. Recognize that a diverse parent community reflects a variety of values, beliefs about the role of parents and their relationship to school, and comfort in interacting with school personnel. Often Latino and poor families feel unwanted and unwelcome in their child’s school. Be cautious about relying on training, books and other resources that makes generalizations about poor families or families of diverse cultures. Do not organize your parent engagement program around majority, middle-class norms and values. A single approach to parent engagement will not succeed with all parents.

 

2. Build Trusting Relationships – Personal relationships are important when working with families. Many parents are more comfortable interacting with school personnel in smaller, more intimate settings where it may be possible to share information and ask questions. Latino parents are often concerned about being dismissed due to language or cultural barriers. They are aware of the stereotypes present among school employees and other parents and may resist participating in parent activities where those stereotypes may be displayed. Identify ways to meet and talk with families at churches or community centers off campus. Your outreach must be culturally sensitive and specific to each cultural group. Similarly, parents of limited means share these concerns and resist participating in programs where involvement is measured by the economic resources you can contribute to the school.

3. Value Robust Two-Way Communication – All parents want to be active partners in their children’s education. An important part of parent engagement is their sense of efficacy, believing that they can contribute to their child’s education. The literature repeatedly discusses the importance of both learning from families about their children as well as sharing information about their children’s schooling with them. Too often school communication occurs just one way, school to family and just about problems rather than successes. Parents, particularly parents of limited means, but also parents from diverse cultures, perceive that the school may not value their knowledge about their own child. They may resist sharing information that re-enforces assumptions they believe school employees hold about their family and their child. Schools often create structures for parents to share information but those systems are built on middle-class norms about when and how to interact with the school.

4. Identify Authentic Opportunities to Learn From Families – Just as two-way communication is essential, so is creating opportunities for families of diverse backgrounds to share their knowledge and skills. Parents enjoy the opportunity to contribute their knowledge to the school’s program. Don’t rely on a parental engagement program based solely on fund-raising or other resource-based programs. Many parents are eager for an opportunity to provide leadership. Seek opportunities for Latino parents and parents of limited means to participate in decision-making groups. That may require working with community leaders to identify parents comfortable with that role.

5. Train Teachers and Other Staff – It’s important to work with teachers and other staff to become knowledgeable about the diversity present in your school community. The most effective learning occurs when members of these diverse communities are part of the training. Their involvement makes the training more authentic and signals the community that you are committed to learning about and respecting the diversity present in your school. As stated earlier, do not rely on a single book or training session to form generalizations about poor or Latino families. Those materials may only re-enforce negative assumptions and stereotypes.

6. Develop and Implement a Plan – Improving parent engagement requires an intentional plan of action. Good intentions are noble but a systematic, sustained commitment requires planning and resource allocation. The best plans are developed with parents and community. Current governance structures like the School Improvement Team or the PTO may not adequately reflect the diversity of point of view central to a successful plan. Assure that your planning team is diverse and involves each group that will be part of the plan.

Family Friendly Schools

The involvement of families in school life has consistently been shown to have a positive impact on student success. I'm always looking for good ideas about how to make schools more "family-friendly" and read an Eye on Education blog last week that suggested ten useful practices. They include

• Maintaining open lines of communication
• Making positive phone calls
• Cleaning the school before parent meetings
• Hanging student work in classrooms
• Celebrating student success
• Creating a "We Don't Brag" bulletin board to share positive information
• Organizing a family/faculty event
• Post graphs of student achievement
• Holding a contest to encourage attendance at parent meetings
• Encouraging parents to bring a parent of one of their child's friends to a school meeting.

You can get much more detail by clicking on the post. I'd enjoy hearing from you about other things you do to involve families in school life.

Supporting Homeless Students

Schools have a legal, as well as an ethical, obligation to serve homeless students. While the McKinney-Vento Act, now a part of NCLB, identifies the requirements, it doesn't offer practical suggestions that teachers can use to work with homeless students and their families. I recently read an article from AMLE (Association for Middle Level Education) that suggests 10 things teachers can do to support homeless students. I found it incredibly useful and will be using it in many of my classes.

I'd enjoy hearing from you about how you, your school or district addresses the needs of homeless students and their families.

Strategies for Student Success

I'm always looking for great ideas to share with teachers and principals. Last week I read Reducing the Risk, Increasing the Promise by Sherrel Bergmann and Judith Brough. I was touched by the stories they shared of students with such promise who were at risk of failing in school. The authors identify six essential social skills that contribute to student success---resilience, resourcefulness, responsibility, relationships, respect and the ability to read.

But the most important feature of this book is the useful set of strategies and tools to help students reduce risk and increase promise. Every chapter provides ideas that teachers and families can immediately use to help students develop each of the six essential skills.

Reducing the Risk, Increasing the Promise is the latest in a useful series of books by Bergmann and Brough. Others include Teach Me--I Dare You!, Lead Me--I Dare You! and Teach My Kid--I Dare You! All are available from Eye on Education. 

Teaming with Families and Community

As a principal you spend a significant portion of your time working with the families of your students. Too often, the emphasis is negative as you resolve a difficult discipline problem. I'd like to suggest that an equally important role is to lead a coordinated school-wide effort to interact with families in ways that support students, families, the school and the larger community.

Intuitively we know that involving parents and family members in a partnership has a positive impact on students. When parents are involved both at home and at school, students do better in school and stay in school longer. When a parent and a teacher work together to help a student in a specific subject area, such as reading, students typically improve in that area. Students do best when their parents are comfortable with the school and the people who work at the school.

I've learned from principals that there are four strategies you can use to create a positive relationship with families and engage them in school life.

• First, use a variety of communication strategies, some in print, some in person, and some electronic. Technology can be a wonderful tool for communicating but not all families will be as comfortable with technology or have access to technology. Publish a family-friendly school newsletter written in everyday language, avoiding educational jargon. Involve families in a variety of activities throughout the year.
• Second, create and support authentic, meaningful roles for family members. Rather than just holding a meeting provide activities that include training and support. Ask families to participate in meaningful decision-making roles. Create volunteer options for family and community.
• Third, provide support and resources for families. The specific type of support will vary with your population but one possibility is to create a family and community learning center. Identify a physical space with adult-sized furnishings; then add basic refreshments and helpful information. You may want to include information in a language other than English. Or you could create family support groups that deal with topics identified by families and their advocates.
• Finally, support the larger community. Seek ways to move beyond the confines of your school. Identify opportunities for students to participate in community service activities. Celebrate the cultures of your community with specific activities. Collaborate with other agencies or groups in the area to deliver services such as immunization clinics, free health screening, or dental clinics. One school in Mississippi partnered with local doctors to provide a free health screening with only one requirement, that they bring their school-age children with them. Parents got hundreds of dollars of free services, students participated in fun activities and the bonds between school, families, and community were strengthened.

I'd love to learn about the ways that you've partnered with families in your school and community to improve the education of your students.

Working with Families and Community

I recently completed a project at Hadley Junior High School in Glen Ellyn, IL during which the staff and parents examined their program to find ways to strengthen and enhance their services to students. Several major commitments emerged during the project. First, the planning group worked diligently to keep parents and community informed. They held a series of Town Hall Meetings where they shared information with the community and heard about their concerns. Second, they published a series of newsletters in both paper and electronic format. They are also working to create a series of videos or podcasts of critical school events (6th grade orientation) that will be available for parents. They are also committed to making these resources available to parents and families where English is not the primary language. The commitment of the Hadley community to assure that everyone (families, community, teachers, students) are informed and have an opportunity to share their ideas about their school is significant. The commitment transformed their school.