Training Formula B

Readiness for Partnerships/ Building Awareness for Family

Engagement

Community Organizing: A powerful strategy to improve schoolsOrganizing Successes:• Education funding• Equitable distribution of resources• Access to college preparatory courses• Teacher recruitment and retention in hard-to-staff

schools

(Mediratta, Shah, and Mc Alister, 2009)

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Community Organizing (2)• Community organizing for education reform

focuses on working “with”—not on behalf of—low-income communities of color to increase the power of residents to speak and act for themselves.

The Strengths and Challenges of Community organizing as an education reform, Annenburg Institute for School Reform

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Broadcasting the BasicsTitle 1/SIG requires communication with families /

communities. First steps:• Who – are the schools receiving the SIG?• What –is the SIG?• Where – will services be provided?• When – is the time frame of the SIG?• Why – was our school selected? (School achievement

data, etc.)• How – will we succeed/ How will families/ communities

partner to help the school improve?

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Social Marketing• Uses commercial marketing

technologies.

• Influence rather than force change.

• Results in voluntary behavior change.

• Targets specific audiences.

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DefinitionFamily and community engagement meansstrategies to increase the involvement andcontributions, in both school-based and homebased settings, of parents and community partners that are designed to support

classroom instruction and increase student achievement.

(School Improvement Grant (SIG) Legislation)

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Keys to Powerful Partnerships• Building Relationships: A steady focus on

developing trust and respect among all members of the school community is linked to higher performance.

• Linking to Learning: When parent and community involvement is focused on student learning it has a greater effect on achievement.

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Reaching Out to Families from Diverse Cultures

• Meet with families in their communities.• Plan informal opportunities for contact and building

trust.• Identify a liaison person.• Ask parents about their needs, interests, and

priorities.• Base programs on parent and educator priorities

and needs.

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Reaching Out to Families from Diverse Cultures (2)

• Develop clear guidelines about how parents can support their child‘s learning.

• Offer options for parent education and support.• Develop theme-based curriculum units that draw upon

cultures about which you are learning more.• Collaborate with colleagues.• Explore your own cultural values and assumptions.

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Current efforts to engage families• Data workshops to help families/community members

understand how data is used to improve achievement;

• Data provided in plain language and connected to concepts in daily life;

• Workshops conducted that help families understand what’s going on in the classroom;

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Adapted from A New Wave of Evidence (Henderson and Mapp, 2002)

Current efforts to engage families (2)• Student work displayed in prominent places throughout the

school and families provided information on what high quality work looks like;

• Family learning activities added to newsletters, organized family literacy /math nights;

• Student achievement data used to develop programs for families; strengthened family-school compacts to focus on grade level academic goals;

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Adapted from A New Wave of Evidence (Henderson and Mapp, 2002)

Current efforts to engage families (3)• Families included on school improvement teams and provided

in-put into the planning process and welcomed in grade level planning meetings;

• Assisted families in understanding requirements for high school/advanced placement courses/job requirements/career/college planning;

• Implement family/community reforms to improve schools.

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Adapted from A New Wave of Evidence (Henderson and Mapp, 2002)

Pulling it all TogetherEssential ingredients for planning

include:• Basic level of trust• Participant input• Recognition of importance of all

participantsNEA Urban Initiatives-Family School Community

Partnerships

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Pulling it all Together (2)

• Climate setting

• Acceptance of partnership concept

• Willingness to change

NEA Urban Initiatives-Family School Community Partnerships

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Stages of Action Planning• Stage 1 - Collect data• Stage 2 - Analyze data• Stage 3 - Set a goal• Stage 4 - Make a plan• Stage 5 - Implement plan• Stage 6 - Evaluate• Stage 7 - Celebrate Success

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NEA Urban Initiatives-Family School Community Partnerships