Promising Practices For Partnering With Families In The Early Years

This volume is directed toward research to practice issues related to partnering with families of children birth through age 5. This monograph and the next monograph focuses on family and school involvement issues in two age categories. This sixth volume analyzes family involvement practices across a variety of settings and programs at the early childhood level. The seventh monograph in this series addresses research and practices related to family–school issues in middle and secondary schools. The chapters address, to varying degrees, five themes based on the principles of familycentered partnerships: 1. Recognizing and respecting one anther’s knowledge and expertise; 2. Sharing information through two-way communication; 3. Sharing power and decision making; 4. Acknowledging and respecting diversity; and 5. Creating networks of support The monograph supports the accomplishment of these goals as a whole by providing important insights about exemplary programs and promising practices, informed by current research. Also it highlights policies and theoretical perspectives relevant to these aims. Individual chapters offer a variety of practical strategies and recommendations that families, early childhood practitioners, policymakers, and researchers can use to enhance their knowledge and strengthen their skills for partnering effectively.

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.

This concise monograph addresses the expanding field of family involvement to out of school time (OST). OST may be defined as time outside of state required time limits for compulsory school attendance but time in which students are engaged in planned academic or enrichment activities. During the past decade, OST programs have burgeoned across the United States. OST programs are offered to children and youth, elementary through high school, as structured and safe venues to increase student academic achievement, and extend students’ interests. Chapter authors share promising practices from a range of backgrounds, including nonprofit organizations, faith-based, health, and governmental agencies as well as university-school connections. Contents describe the benefits and concerns of parent engagement in OST, such as student outcomes of parent engagement in OST, how parents select appropriate programs, ways to connect with parents to assure regular attendance of youth, methods to solicit families to participate in OST activities, and evaluation measures.

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!

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.

(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.

Family and Community Partnerships: Promising Practices for Teachers and Teacher Educators, offers a fresh new look at the competencies, strategies, and practices that effective educators develop to build strong partnerships with families and communities. Written by leaders in the field, the book is an outgrowth of a cutting-edge initiative led by the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement to reimagine how educators are prepared for family and community engagement. Based on four guiding practices - reflect, connect, collaborate, and lead alongside families – each section of the book highlights theory, real-world strategies, discussion questions, and activities that can be used by teachers, teacher educators, and professional learning specialists to inspire new ideas for courses, workshops, and for self-reflection.