Thirty-six of the best thinkers on family and community engagement were assembled to produce this Handbook, and they come to the task with varied backgrounds and lines of endeavor. Each could write volumes on the topics they address in the Handbook, and quite a few have. The authors tell us what they know in plain language, succinctly presented in short chapters with practical suggestions for states, districts, and schools. The vignettes in the Handbook give us vivid pictures of the real life of parents, teachers, and kids. In all, their portrayal is one of optimism and celebration of the goodness that encompasses the diversity of families, schools, and communities across our nation.
Much has been written about how public schools in the United States are funded. However, missing in the current literature landscape is a nuanced discussion of funding as it relates to public charter schools. This text, authored by researchers and professionals working in the charter school world, provides readers with a comprehensive overview of issues related to the funding and operation of charter schools. The book opens with an introduction to charter schools and how they are funded. The financial management and oversight of charter schools and issues related to funding equity, including how charter schools impact district school finances, are addressed. Special considerations for charter schools related to serving special education students and transportation issues are also addressed. After reading this book, readers will have a thorough understanding of how charter schools are funded and managed financially.
School leaders are increasingly called upon to pursue meaningful partnerships with families and community groups, yet many leaders are unprepared to meet the challenges of family and community partnerships, to cross cultural boundaries, or to be accountable to the community. This book brings together research perspectives that intersect the fields of leadership and partnerships to inform and inspire new approaches that strive toward more authentic collaboration.
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.
Critical Perspectives on Education Policy and Schools, Families, and Communities offers scholars, students, and practitioners important new knowledge about how current policies impact families, schools, and community partnerships. The book’s authors share a critical orientation towards policy and policy research and invite readers to think differently about what policy is, who policymakers are, and what policy can achieve. Their chapters discuss findings from research grounded in diverse theories, including institutional ethnography, critical disability theory, and critical race theory. The authors encourage scholars of family, school, and community partnerships to ask who benefits from policies (and who loses) and how proposed reforms maintain or disrupt existing relations of power. The chapters present original research on a broad range of policies at the local, state/provincial, and national levels in Canada and the USA. Some authors look closely at the enactment of specific district policies, including a school district’s language translation policy and a policy to create local advisory bodies as part of decentralization efforts. Other chapters reveal the often unacknowledged yet necessary work parents do to meet their children’s needs and enable schools to operate. A few chapters focus on challenges and paradoxes of including families and community members in policymaking processes, including a case where parents demonstrated a preference for a policy that research demonstrates can be detrimental to their children’s future education opportunities. Another set of chapters emphasizes the centrality of policy texts and how language influences the educational experiences and engagement of students and their families. Each chapter concludes with a discussion of implications of the research for educators, families, and other community partners.
This edited volume is part of the Information Age Publishing (IAP) Series on Family, School and Community Partnerships. This book addresses the ways families and communities engage with an increasingly common feature of the American public education landscape: charter schools. Family and Community Engagement in Charter Schools contains seven chapters examining this emerging field of study authored by both established and emerging scholars. Chapters examine how charter schools, the policy landscape, families, community institutions, and charter school educators both create and inhibit opportunities for effective family and community engagement. Data is included from intensely charterized school districts such as Los Angeles, Denver, New York City, New Orleans and Oakland as well as broader state-level perspectives from California and Massachusetts. The authors approach this important relationship without the fixed ideological lens that often colors research on this controversial from of school organization. In addition to highlighting their unique findings, chapters propose practical, research-based strategies for schools, districts, or communities so that charter schools can be strong sources of local democracy- an oft-cited but rarely achieved goal. The book will broaden the field of Family and Community Engagement by including new theories, scholars, and areas of study. It is valuable reading for researchers, graduate students, policymakers, educational leaders, and community-based organizations seeking to better understand this unique form of organizing public schools.
How often do you hear, "The only parents who showed were the parents who didn’t need to be here." But how often do you consider time of day, lack of child care, cost of dinner, transportation, language of the presentation, even relevance of the topic—all real-world barriers for families of our historically underserved students. Here at last is a resource that will open up access and reveal all-new ways to forge more culturally inclusive partnerships with families and communities . . . partnerships that extend well beyond parent-teacher conferences, PTA meetings, and the occasional bake sale. The two big services Equity Partnerships provides? Using the Tools of Cultural Proficiency, you’ll Discover new concepts and strategies to engage families and communities—and reduce, if not eliminate, barriers--through four essential principles: communication, connection, collaboration, and community Engage in frequent opportunities to reflect on your own assumptions and values, then collaborate with colleagues to co-create systemic practices and policies for devising, implementing, and assessing family and community engagement actions in your schools and districts We know inherently that family and community engagement is critical to the success of our students. Let Equity Partnerships be your go-to tool for breaking down the walls that for too long have limited all of us. "Raising the next generation is a shared responsibility and privilege. These authors have been first responders for decades by promoting Cultural Proficiency as a means to ensure equity and access for all. In Equity Partnerships, they identify the powerful and critical link of family, school, and community engagement to strengthen families, build community support, and increase student success." --TRUDY ARRIAGA, Associate Dean for Equity and Outreach, California Lutheran University, and Coauthor of Opening Doors
(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.
Just Schools examines the challenges and possibilities for building more equitable forms of collaboration among non-dominant families, communities, and schools. The text explores how equitable collaboration entails ongoing processes that begin with families and communities, transform power, build reciprocity and agency, and foster collective capacity through collective inquiry. These processes offer promising possibilities for improving student learning, transforming educational systems, and developing robust partnerships that build on the resources, expertise, and cultural practices of non-dominant families. Based on empirical research and inquiry-driven practice, this book describes core concepts and provides multiple examples of effective practices. “This is the most compelling work to date on school and community engagement. It will be required reading for all my future classes.” —Muhammad Khalifa, University of Minnesota “Full of practical steps that educators and administrators can and must take to build strong collaborations with families.” —Mark R. Warren, University of Massachusetts Boston “This important publication provides a way forward for educators, families, students and community members to co-create “Just Schools” by honoring, validating, and celebrating each other’s knowledge, skills, power and resources.” —Karen Mapp, Harvard Graduate School of Education
University involvement within their communities and the promotion of engaged scholarship is essential for the success of the learning institution as well as for providing students with opportunities to interact with various leadership roles and hands-on interactions with the communities themselves. Community schools employ strategic partnerships to expand the boundaries of school improvements and to increase the direct benefits gained by the community. Emerging Perspectives on Community Schools and the Engaged University is an essential research publication that explores the importance of civic engagement in various school settings, but especially in higher education settings. Featuring a wide range of topics such as service learning, charter schools, and democracy, this book is ideal for community organizers, superintendents, directors, provosts, chancellors, education practitioners, academicians, administrators, researchers, and education policymakers.
