Starting Points
Saint Paul Public Schools has, as a district, joined the National Network of Partnership Schools and adopted the framework developed by Dr. Joyce Epstein to guide Family & Community Involvement efforts. The framework helps stakeholders develop more comprehensive programs of school-family-community partnerships.
Each type of involvement includes many different practices of partnership. Each type has particular challenges that must be met in order to involve all families, and each type requires redefinitions of some basic principles of involvement. Finally, each type leads to different results for students, families, and teachers.
Although all schools may use the framework of six types of involvement as a guide, each school must choose practices that will help achieve important goals and meet the needs of its students and families.
TYPE 1—PARENTING: Assist families with parenting and child-rearing skills, understanding child and adolescent development, and setting home conditions that support children as students at each age and grade level. Assist schools in understanding families.
TYPE 2—COMMUNICATING: Communicate with families about school programs and student progress through effective school-to-home and home-to-school communications.
TYPE 3—VOLUNTEERING: Improve recruitment, training, work, and schedules to involve families as volunteers and audiences at the school or in other locations to support students and school programs.
TYPE 4—LEARNING AT HOME: Involve families with their children in learning activities at home, including homework and other curriculum-linked activities and decisions.
TYPE 5—DECISION MAKING: Include families as participants in school decisions, governance, and advocacy through PTA/PTO, school councils, committees, and other parent organizations.
TYPE 6—COLLABORATING WITH THE COMMUNITY: Coordinate resources and services for families, students, and the school with businesses, agencies, and other groups, and provide services to the community.
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March 2007
In their newly released book, Beyond the Bake Sale, authors Anne Henderson, Vivian Johnson, Karen Mapp, and Don Davies suggest that the answer to this question will help schools determine how well they are partnering with families and connecting with community resources. The authors’ research found that schools typically have one of four kinds of relationships with families:
- Partnership schools—Schools believe all families and community members have something important to offer.
- Open-door schools—Parents can be involved in many activities if they choose.
- Come-if-we-call schools—Parents are welcome only when schools ask them because there’s a belief that there is only so much parents can offer.
- Fortress schools—Parent support belongs at home, not at school.
Schools are classified based on how well they
- build relationships between and among school staff, families, and community,
- link families and community support to student learning,
- address differences in race, class, and culture,
- support parents as advocates for their children, and
- share decision-making power with families.
As local leaders consider ways to strengthen partnerships between home and school, these partnership descriptions offer an effective way of looking at the strengths and weaknesses of your school’s relationship with families and community members.
PTA Local Leader News/NCPIE
March 28, 2007 - NCLB Reauthorization: Effective Strategies for Engaging Parents and Communities in Schools - Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
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