Improving Outreach & Collaboration
with Families & Community
Objectives for this Module:
- Understanding how your school site rates in family outreach and create a plan for improvement.
- Learning the "Joining Process" to welcome, honor and connect with families and communities.
- Becoming aware of your preferred communication style and discuss elements of successful communication and interaction.
- Improving feedback methods with parents and stakeholders.
TLMS: Domain VI: Improving outreach and collaboration with families and community
National Standards for Family-School Partnerships:
Standard 1 - Welcoming all families into the school community
Standard 2 - Communicating effectively
Standard 3 - Supporting student success
Standard 6 - Collaborating with community
(NationalPTA.org)
Your Challenge
How do we work together to interact, provide feedback and create opportunities to build partnerships and improve academic success for all students?
How do you move YOUR school to the next level of Family Outreach?
Initial Thoughts
Write down your initial thoughts on these questions to prepare your thinking for your work in this module.
In what ways can we build partnerships with families and communities in support of student achievement?
What do educators need to understand in order to effectively interact with families?
What are some ways to seek feedback from parents and stakeholders (two-way communication)?
Pre-Assessment
What does your score mean?
Four Types of Schools
1. Fortress School - 5-8 (25%-40%)
Parents belong at home, not at school. If students don’t do well, it’s because their families don’t give them enough support. We’re already doing all we can. Our school is an oasis in a troubled community. We want to keep it that way.
(Henderson, Mapp, Johnson & Davies, 2007)
2. Come-When-We-Call-School - 9-12 (45%-60%)
Parents are welcome when we ask them, but there’s only so much they can offer. The most important thing they can do is help their kids at home. We know where to get community help if we need it.
(Henderson, Mapp, Johnson & Davies, 2007)
3. Open Door School - 13-16 (65%-80%)
Parents can be involved at our school in many ways— we’re working hard to get an even bigger turnout for our activities. When we ask the community to help, people often respond.
(Henderson, Mapp, Johnson & Davies, 2007)
4. Partnership School - 17-20 (70%-100%)
All families & communities have something great to offer—we do whatever it takes to work closely together to make sure every single student succeeds
(Henderson, Mapp, Johnson & Davies, 2007)
Compass Mapping
What is your desired state for your school's family and community outreach efforts? (Write down your answer on the compass map)
How will you be able to move your school to your desired state?
Print the map using the link below to complete this activity.
Perspectives and Resources: Partnership, Interaction, and Feedback
Partnership
“When school staff have a better understanding of their students’ home cultures, families’ parenting practices, home contexts, home crises, or significant family and community events, they can develop processes and strategies to bridge school-based and home-based activities and increase support for student learning” (Ferguson, 2008, p. 14).
"While increased family involvement is linked to improved student performance, it is not always fully understood and examined within schools. Different types of involvement may include parenting, communicating with schools, volunteering at schools, supporting learning at home, participating in school governance and decision-making, and taking part in school-community collaborations. In order to encourage and foster this comprehensive involvement with all families, school administrators and teachers must develop mutual trust, consider the different cultural attitudes some families may have towards schooling, and be diligent in reaching out." (Brewster & Railsback, 2018, n.p.)
Click the button below for participant activity.
Interaction
-Kraft & Rogers, 2014
Complete the directions on the communication style link below to identify your preferred communication/interaction style.
Families and Feedback
Wrap Up
Reflect on how your action plan supports reaching your desired state for improving next steps in family and community outreach?
Some things to think about...
Parents need to be welcomed, honored, and connected to form partnerships that improve student achievement.
Positive communication is an important first step in order to effectively interact with families.
Giving and receiving feedback should be a fluid process between schools and families.
When schools and families work together to support student achievement, everyone benefits.
Assessment
How did you use the module to create your action plan? Complete the module assessment below to record your thoughts and ideas for improving family and community outreach.
MODULE FEEDBACK
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Latoya Bridgers
LaToya is a High School Special Education teacher in Wake County Schools. She has been in this area of teaching for 15 years, starting off as a paraprofessional, moving into inclusion resource for middle school grades, and now teaching OCS in one of the biggest high schools in the county. She holds a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies with a minor in Social Work from UNC-Greensboro, Masters, and certification in Special Education: LD and ED from Southern Connecticut State University, administrative certification from Gardner-Webb University, and is currently pursuing her Ed.D in Curriculum and Instruction from Gardner-Webb University as well.
Molly Dibble
Molly is an assistant principal in Wake County Schools. She holds a B.S. in Exercise Sports Science - Teacher Education from UNC-Greensboro and M.A.Ed in school leadership from Gardner-Webb University. Molly holds a license to teach Health and Physical Education k-12, National Board Teaching license for Physical Education and a Principal’s license. She is currently pursuing her EdD in Curriculum and Instruction from Gardner-Webb University. Her interests and research efforts are focused on the improvement of student engagement and achievement through kinesthetic teaching practices.
Karen Garmon
Karen is a Healthful Living teacher and Varsity volleyball coach in Wake County Schools. She holds a B.S. in Health and Physical Education, where she attended Pfeiffer University as an undergraduate. At the University of California, Karen obtained an M.S. in Exercise Science and Health Promotion. She is currently pursuing her Ed. D in Curriculum and Instruction from Gardner-Webb University. Her research interest is in how grit impacts student-athletes.
Carrie P. Sharp
DESCRIPTION OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING MODULE
The module is designed to assist teachers and educational leaders in navigating resources that will aid in parent outreach. Henderson, Mapp, Johnson, and Davies (2007) give four core beliefs to build strong partnerships between the home and school: 1. All families have dreams for their children and want what is best for them, 2. All families have the capacity to support their children’s learning, 3. Parents and school staff should be equal partners, 4. Responsibility for building and sustaining partnerships between school and home rests primarily with school staff, especially school leaders. The module, based on those four core principles, provides tools to provide outreach through the lens of partnership, interaction, and feedback to and from families. This module will help educators in learning how to develop trust and understand the families that make up their school communities in the effort to foster comprehensive involvement and improve the overall culture of the school.
Subjects
Family Outreach
Community Outreach
Family and School Partnerships
Feedback between Families and Schools
Family and School Interaction
Family Outreach Action Planning
Terms of Use
The learning cycle featured in this project is based on the STAR Legacy Cycle developed by the IRIS center (2013;http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/) and based on the work of Dr. John Branford and colleagues (National Research Council, 2000).
Refernces
Brewster, C. and Railsback, J. (2018). Building trust with schools and diverse families.
Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/21522/
Ferguson, C. (2008). School-family connection: Looking at the larger picture, a review of
current literature. Retrieved from
http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/sfclitrev.pdf
The essential guide to family-school partnerships. New York: The New Press
Kraft, M. A. and Dougherty, S. M. (2013). The effect of teacher–family communication on student engagement: Evidence from a randomized field experiment. Journal of
Research on Educational Effectiveness, 6(3), 199–222. Retrieved from
http://scholar.harvard.edu/mkraft/publications/effect-teacher-family-communication-
student-engagement-evidence-randomized-field
Mapp, K., Carver, I., Lander, J. (2017). Powerful partnerships: A teacher's guide to engaging families for student success. New York: Scholastic
National Education Association. (2008). Parent, family, community involvement in education. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/PB11_ParentInvolvement08.pdf
National Education Association, (2012). The power of family school community partnerships: A training resource manual. Retrieved from http://www2.nea.org/mediafiles/pdf/FSCP_Manual_2012.pdf
National Research Council. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school (expanded edition). Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning. J. D. Bransford, A. L., Brown, A., & R. R. Cocking (Eds.), Washington, DC: National Academy Press
Stiggins, R. (1999). Assessment, student confidence and school success. Phi Delta Kappn, 81, 191-198
The Equity and Excellence Commission. (2013). For each and every child: A strategy for education, equity and excellence. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/eec/equity-excellence-commission-report.pd.
The IRIS Center for Training Enhancements. (2005). How people learn: Presenting the learning theory and inquiry cycle on which the IRIS Modules are built. Retrieved from [May, 20, 2018] from http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/hpl/
Torres, K., Lee, N., and Tran, C. (2015). Building relationships, building cultures: Cultural brokering in family engagement. Retrieved from https://www.education.uw.edu/epsc/?page_id=66