Promising Practices For Family Involvement In Schools

This volume will address major frameworks for understanding family involvement and government support of family involvement projects in the initial chapters. The following six chapters present a theoretical base for understanding school, family, and commu-nity partnerships and research supporting promising practices. Included within each chapter are examples of research in action, focusing on spe-cific interactive activities or programs designed to bring families and schools together. Such promising practices are organized into chapters dealing with two-way home-school communication, family literacy projects, school-site parent centers, parent- school collaborative governance, and family-school education programs spanning infancy through young adult-hood. The monograph concludes with a chapter on teacher preparation for work with family, school, and community partnership issues. Besides their research expertise, each author brings a unique back-ground as classroom teacher, parent, and community social advocate to their writing. Individually, most of us have spent our early professional years within the classroom, acquiring the value of connecting home with school for the benefit of the children. As parents and grandparents, we have advocated for parental interests within the school. As community advocates, we strive for collaborative communication across groups who serve children and their families. We invite you to share our passion for working with families and community groups within our schools.

This volume focuses on family and community connections with education during the high school years. In comparison to the wealth of attention that has been focused on involving parents with schools during the early childhood and elementary school years, less attention has been directed to parents of high school students and fewer educational programs have been developed to forge connections between family, community, students, and educators at the high school level. Researchers have found that family and community have a very significant impact on student achievement and on post secondary attainment despite the considerable decline in parental involvement by high school. Educators know that family and community factors are important for student success in high school while, at the same time, they identify working with families and connecting the curriculum to the community as difficult. Currently, scholars from various fields are involved in conducting research to better understand how schools can best enhance the education of the young through interactions with students’ families and communities. Educational practitioners also are pioneering efforts to involve and serve families as well as to connect with communities in order to enrich the educational environment and enlarge opportunities for students, teachers, families, and community members. This volume, which will be of interest to both researchers and educators, reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the field. The contributors were recruited from diverse fields and workplaces. Chapters are organized into two sections to reflect whether the genesis of the work described is from theory and research or from practice and policy. Chapters originating from theory and research address: adolescent development and family involvement; the role of family and community in extracurricular activity participation; and the evolution of trust relationships in school community partnership development. Chapters originating from practice and policy address: transition to high school, using the community as a “text” for learning; career education partnerships with businesses, post secondary institutions, and community organizations; as well as, state policies and programs that support parental involvement in postsecondary planning.

Promising Practices to Support Family Involvement in Schools is a must-have volume for every contemporary educator. This monograph provides a broad array of exciting research-supported practices to reform schools for the benefit of students, teachers, administrators, families and their communities. These practices will lead to higher student academic and school satisfaction outcomes. Experts in the field prepared this highly readable volume for teachers, school administrators, educational researchers, policymakers, and university faculty. The authors share their decades of educational research, wise insights and practical experiences with hopes to better life for individual families, educators, and society. This book belongs on every educator’s desk!

(sponsored by the Family School Community Partnership Issues SIG) Promising Practices for Engaging Families in Literacy fulfills the need from parents and teachers to improve home/school assistance in every child’s literacy development. Literacy skills are required and valued in all academic areas and at all levels of education from preschool through adulthood. This volume provides suggestions and support to improve parent/child involvement in literacy activities from preschool through teacher education programs. Research is provided to undergird the documented practices that increase student academic achievement through improved literacy skills across academic areas. Practices include connections between home and school across age groups, developmental needs groups, universities, community groups, and technologies.

The technology revolution has made it critical for all children to understand science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or risk being left behind. Promising Practices for Engaging Families in STEM Learning explores how families, schools, and communities can join together to promote student success in STEM by building organized and equitable pathways for family engagement across all of the settings in which students learn – including, schools, early childhood programs, homes, libraries and museums –from the earliest years through adolescence. This thought-provoking monograph includes three main sections with chapters from leading thinkers in the field: > The first section provides the theoretical and research base for the importance of family engagement in STEM and draws out the challenges and opportunities that exist– from the transmission of adults’ anxiety and lack of confidence in their own STEM skills, to inequalities in out-of-school learning opportunities, to biases and misconceptions about the kinds of STEM supports offered by families from low-income and immigrant homes. > The second section builds on this research by presenting success stories, best practices, and approaches to engaging families in STEM. > The final section focuses on how policies at the local, state, and federal level can support the promotion of family engagement in STEM. Taken together, the monograph shows that STEM is a powerful mechanism to connect, engage, and empower families. > STEM provides opportunities for parents and children to spend time together asking fun and meaningful questions that link in-and out-of-school learning. > STEM creates new experiences for families to co-construct and support learning with their children from the earliest years throughout formal schooling and onto college and career pathways. > STEM also presents possibilities for families to build confidence and agency in supporting children’s interests; especially those families who might be marginalized because of their economic or language status, race, or culture.

A timely collection of sound research addresses father involvement in their children's education. Promising Practices for Fathers' Involvement in Their Children's Education visits a less known side of parent involvement, the side of fathers' active engagement with their children's education in the home and that is less visible in the schools. Their contributions from preschool to career decision-making and accessibility to their children's education are covered in ten chapters, focusing on in-depth research from Canada to Argentina and Korea to Africa.

Recipient of AERA Outstanding Contributions Relating Theory to Practice Award: Interpretive Scholarship for 2004

How can colleges and schools support the inclusion of family, school and community engagement curricula in teacher and administrator preparation programs? The contributions in this book try to answer this question, with contributors describing their experiences, their programs, and their support for the goal of enhancing parental involvement and engagement in Schools and Colleges of Education. The authors and researchers, such as Joyce Epstein, who is the foremost researcher on the topic, have the knowledge and expertise in family, school, and community engagement and partnerships from both theory and best practice perspectives. The book is designed to be interactive, and readers are encouraged to engage themselves in the conversation. Readers are invited to e-mail any of the editors to discuss the questions posed. This book was originally published as a special issue of Teaching Education.