Improving Schools Through Family and Community Partnerships

From Good to Great:

Improving Schools Through Family and Community Partnerships

by Jonelle Adams

Research clearly shows that school programs that emphasize family involvement and relate well to their community have students who out perform those in schools lacking these qualities. Not only do students flourish, but schools are strengthened when families take an active interest in their children's educations. (Blank, Melaville, Shahs, 2003) The results include the following:

Improved academic achievement
Better attendance
Improved behavior
Higher quality of education
Safe, disciplined learning environment

A review of research by the Southwest Educational Developmental Laboratory (Henderson and Mapp, 2002) provides support for a positive and convincing relationship between family and community involvement and benefits to students, including academic achievement. Studies reviewed concluded that students with involved parents, no matter what income level or background, are more likely to have success in school. The research is organized into three broad categories that examined: a) The impact of family and community involvement on student achievement, b) Effective strategies connecting schools, families and community, and c) Parent and community organizing to improve schools.

Outcomes reported in this research review include:

Higher grade point averages and scores on standardized tests or rating scales
Enrollment in more challenging academic programs
More classes passed and credits earned
Better attendance
Improved behavior at home and at school
Better social skills and adaptation to school

Results of parent, family and community organizing contribute to:

Upgraded school facilities
Improved school leadership and staffing
Higher-quality learning programs for students
New resources and programs to improve teaching and curriculum
New finding for after-school programs and family supports

Two major findings from the research review, "A New Wave of Evidence – Impact of School Family and Community Connections on Students Achievement " by Henderson and Mapp (2002) should be on every school leader's radar screen.

Finding #1 : Parents, family and community involvement impacts student achievement

Parent and community involvement that is linked to student learning has a greater effect on achievement than more general forms of involvement. To be effective, the form of involvement should be focused on improving achievement and be designed to engage families and students in developing specific knowledge and skills.

Programs and interventions involving parents and families in supporting their children's learning at home are linked to higher student achievement.

Parent and family involvement at home has a protective effect. The more families support their children's learning and educational progress, the more their children need to do well in school and continue their education. Families can and often do have a positive influence on their children's learning.

Teacher outreach to parents relates to strong and consistent gains in student performance in both reading and math.

Workshops for parents on helping their children at home were linked to higher reading and math scores.

Finding #2: Parent and community organizing improves school

Engaging parents and families through culturally responsive behaviors and trusting relationships makes a difference.

Schools with highly rated partnership programs made greater gains on state tests than schools with lower-rated programs.

High performing schools engage families and the community.

Organizing parents and community in these efforts held schools accountable for results and differs from traditional parent involvement.

Despite evidence of the positive affects of school, family and community partnerships, its potential is still largely ignored in schools. Principals and teachers do not often systematically encourage family involvement, and parents do not always participate when they are encouraged to do so. Several major barriers to family involvement exist in public schools:

School environments may discourage family involvement "…due to lack of adequate time and training of teachers and administrators and a predominant institutional culture in the schools that places little value on the views and participation of parents." (National Task Force on School Readiness, 1991, p.24)

Not all types of family involvement are equally acceptable to both parents and teachers. Different expectations can further inhibit strong home-school partnerships. (Epstein, 1987)

Negative attitudes toward family involvement can be commonly held by both teachers and parents. Teachers often believe that parents are neither interested in participating in their children's education nor qualified to do so. (Hoover, Dempsey and Sandler, 1997) Teachers often lack the confidence to work closely with families, especially if they have not had experience doing so. Epstein found that although teachers thought that family involvement would improve student achievement, they had reservations about whether they could motivate parents to become more involved. (Epstein and Sanders, 2000)

Helping School Leaders Engage Families & Communities

The Washington Alliance for Better Schools, a non-profit collaborative of 12 school districts in the Puget Sound region representing over 286,000 students, was formed in 1995 to improve student achievement by assisting schools, families and communities to work together to improve learning for all children. The Washington Alliance in partnership with HumanLinks Foundation and the Northshore/Shoreline Community Health and Safety Network created a leadership resource kit and training for school leaders designed to help schools implement effective family involvement strategies and build community partnerships.

Achieving Family Friendly Schools© Resource Kit is designed to:

Create an understanding of the link between family support practices and academic achievement.

Motivate staff to shift from family engagement to family support by:

Examining beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that create barriers or bridges to equal partnerships with families.

Developing school leadership and commitment.

Using Achieving Family Friendly Schools© rubric to assess how well schools are implementing family support practices.

Provide tools and strategies that showcase how schools can improve their relationship with families and community.

Develop a school wide-plan to strengthen family support effects that are linked to School Improvement Plans (SIP).

The Achieving Family Friendly School© Resource Kit has incorporated five leadership strategies based on research from Henderson & Mapp and local case studies.

Leadership Strategy 1: Recognize that all parents – regardless of income, education or cultural background - are involved in their children's learning and want their children to do well

Develop programs considering the educational level, language, culture and home situation of parents

Present programs through a "cultural broker" who has a similar background and life expectations as the parents and families

Send materials on ways to help their child at home presented in parents' languages

Leadership Strategy 2: Design programs that will support families to guide their children's learning, from preschool through high school

Conduct transition activities including school tours, feeder school meetings and summer home visits

For preschool: consider home visits; partnering with libraries to support early literacy and offer story times; offer discussion groups and classes for parents to prepare for kindergarten transition

For elementary: emphasize interactive homework that parents can do with their child; host parent workshops on how to support homework; establish regular teacher contact; send home learning packets and reach out through home visits

For middle and high School: ensure all parents have an explanation of courses and expectations; conduct joint planning with parents about future information around post-secondary options; provide extra academic support; and offer parent workshops on "how to raise teens"

Leadership Strategy 3: Develop capacity of school staff to work with families

Give teachers time to plan and organize parent activities

Improve attitudes of school staff so that they recognize the advantages of teachers and parents working together

Stress routine personal contact with parents, not only when there are problems

Leadership Strategy 4: Link efforts to support families, whether based at school or in the community, to student learning

Treat parents and community members as assets in the process of raising student achievement

Meet face-to-face with parents through home visits, in the community and/or at the school

Telephone routinely

Take parents' interests and needs into consideration when planning activities: provide childcare, arrange carpools and encourage family members to send a substitute family member, when necessary

Leadership Strategy 5: Focus efforts to support families and community members on developing trusting and respectful relationships

Make parents feel more welcome by creating a warm friendly environment

Create social trust through quality of staff-to-staff and teacher-to-parent relationships

Parents are more likely to volunteer or attend activities when contacted by school staff members

School leaders who want positive change and believe that all students can achieve at high levels of academic performance need to put into place those partnerships and processes that will move the school from "good to great." Great schools believe that every student can learn at high levels and that every teacher can help all students achieve at high levels. Great schools also believe that forging a positive, healthy and meaningful relationship with families and communities will bring about expectations and learning that benefits each and every student. (Constantino, 2003)

Believing that true family involvement can assist in helping all students achieve is something that can not be delegated to a subordinate's "to do" list or end up as a statement in some three-ring planning binder. Involving families and communities needs to be a leadership priority focused on moving everyone from good to great!

Reference list

Blank, M. J., Melaville, A. and Shah, B. P., 2003. Making the difference: Research and practice in community schools. Washington, DC: Coalition for Community Schools, Institute for Educational Leadership.

Constanino, S., 2003. Engaging all families: Creating a positive school culture by putting research into practice. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Education.

Epstein, J. L. (1987). Toward a theory of family-school connections: Teacher practices and parent involvement. In K. Hurrelmann, F. X. Kaufmann, & F. Lasel (Eds.), Social intervention: Potential and constraints (pp. 121-136). New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Epstein, J. L., & Sanders, M. G. (2000). Connecting home, school, and community: New directions for social research. In M. T. Hallinan (Ed.), Handbook of the sociology of education (pp. 285-306). New York, NY: Klower Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Henderson, A. T., & Berla, N. (1994). A new generation of evidence: The family is critical to student achievement. Washington, DC: Center for Law and Education.

Henderson, A. T. & Mapp, K. L. (2002). A new wave of evidence; The impact of school, family, and community connections on students achievement. Austin, TX: National Center of Family & Community Connections with Schools: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. M. (1997). Why do parents become involved in their children's education? Review of Educational Research 67(1), pp. 3-42.

National Task Force on School Readiness. Caring communities: Supporting young children and families. Alexandria, VA: National Association of State Boards of Education, 1991.

Shartrand A. M., H. B. Weiss, H. M. Kreider and M. E. Lopez (1997). New skills for new schools: preparing teachers in family involvement. Harvard Family Research Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Prepared for the U.S. Department of Education.

For information on Achieving Family Friendly Schools© Contact: Dr. Jonelle Adams at jadams@nsd.org or 425-489-6041.

This article is in the public domain and can be freely copied and used in trainings as handouts at parent and community meetings, and in creating your school or district programs. (Please cite all sources of materials you use.)

This information is provided by:
Office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Special Education
P O Box 47200
Olympia, WA 98504-7200
(360) 725-6088
Fax (360)586-1631
E-mail: dgill@ospi.wednet.edu