Understanding the Six Types of Family Involvement

Keys to Successful

Family-School Partnerships

Janie KingFamily Consultant, Tennessee Department of Education

Julie SullivanFamily Voices of Tennessee

Reggie CurranUniversity of Tennessee Center for Literacy Studies

Defining the Terms

• What does the research say about family involvement?

• Who is the “family” of family involvement?

• What is family involvement?

Six Types of Family Involvement

• PARENTING• COMMUNICATING• VOLUNTEERING• LEARNING AT HOME• DECISION MAKING• COLLABORATING WITH THE COMMUNITY

ParentingAssist families with:• parenting and child-rearing skills• understanding child and adolescent

development• setting home conditions that support

children as students at each age and grade level

Assist schools in understanding families.

Challenges• Provide information to all families who want it

or who need it, not just to the few who attend workshops or meetings at the school building.

• Enable families to share information with schools about background, culture, children's talents, goals, and needs.

• Make all information for families clear, usable,age-appropriate, and linked to children's success.

How has SIG responded to the challenges?

Main Point

Workshop is not only a meeting on a topic held at the school building at

a particular time, but also the content of a topic to be viewed,

heard, or read at convenient times and varied locations.

Possible ResultsSTUDENTS • Awareness of family supervision, respect for parents• Positive personal qualities, habits, beliefs, and values taught by family• Balance between time spent on chores, other activities, and homework• Regular attendance, awareness of importance of schoolPARENTS• Self-confidence about parenting and knowledge of child/adolescent

development• Adjustments in home environment as children proceed through school• Awareness of own and others' challenges in parenting• Feeling of support from school and other parentsTEACHERS• Awareness of own skills to share information on child development• Understanding of families' backgrounds, cultures, concerns, goals,

needs, and views of their children• Respect for families' diversity, strengths and effort

Communicating

Communicate with families about school programs and student progress through effective school-to-home

and home-to-school communications.

Challenges

• Make all memos, notices, and other print and non-print communications clear and understandable for all families.

• Consider parents who do not speak English well, do not read well, or need large type.

• Obtain ideas from families to improve the design and content of major communications such as newsletters, report cards, and conference schedules.

• Establish an easy-to-use two-way channel for communications from school-to-home and from home-to-school.

How has SIG responded to the challenges?

Main Point

Communications about school programs and student progress

are not only from school-to-home but from home-to-school, parent-to-parent, parent-to-child, child-to-

parent, teacher-to-teacher, etc, etc, etc.

Possible ResultsSTUDENTS • Awareness of their own progress and skills, and knowledge of

actions needed to maintain or improve grades• Informed decisions about courses and programs• Awareness of their own role as courier and communicator in school-

family partnershipsPARENTS• Understanding school programs and policies• Monitoring and awareness of child's progress in subjects and skills• Responses to student problems• Ease of interactions and communications with school and teachers• High rating of school qualityTEACHERS• Diversity of communications with families• Ability to communicate clearly• Use of network of parents to communicate with all families• Ability to understand family views and elicit help with

children's progress

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.

Challenges

• Recruit widely for volunteers so that all families know that their time and talents are welcome.

• Make flexible schedules for volunteers, assemblies, and events to enable working parents to participate.

• Provide training for volunteers, and match time and talent with school needs.

How has SIG responded to the challenges?

Main Point

Volunteer doesn’t just mean those who come to school during the day, but also

those who support school goals and children's learning in any way, at any

place, and at any time.

Possible ResultsSTUDENTS • Learn communication skills through interaction with other adults• Increased skills that are tutored or taught by volunteers• Awareness of many skills, talents, occupations, and contributions of

parents and other volunteersPARENTS• Self-confidence about ability to work in school and with children• Awareness that families are welcome and valued at school• Use of school activities at homeTEACHERS• Organization, training, and use of volunteers• Readiness to involve families in new ways, including those who do not

volunteer at school• Awareness of parents' talents and interests in school and children• Individual attention to students because of help from volunteers

Learning at Home

Involve families with their children in learning activities at home, including

homework and other curriculum-linked activities and decisions.

Challenges

• Design and implement a regular schedule of interactive homework (e.g., weekly or bi-monthly) for which students take responsibility to discuss important things they are learning with their families.

• Coordinate family-linked interactive homework assignments if students have several teachers.

• Involve families and their children in all important curriculum-related decisions.

How has SIG responded to the challenges?

Main Points

• "Homework" not only means work that students do alone, but also interactive activities that students share with others at home or in the community, linking schoolwork to real life.

• "Help" at home means how families encourage, listen, react, praise, guide, monitor, and discuss schoolwork with their children, not how they "teach" children school skills.

Possible ResultsSTUDENTS • Homework completion -skills, abilities, and tests scores are linked to

homework and class work• Positive attitude about homework and school• View of parent a similar to teacher and of home as similar to school • Self-confidence in ability as learnerPARENTS• Knowledge of how to support, encourage, and help student at home • Discussions of school, class work, homework, and future plans• Understanding of instructional program and what child is learning in

each subject• Appreciation of teacher's skill and awareness of child as a learnerTEACHERS• Varied designs of homework, including interactive assignments• Respect of family time• Recognition of helpfulness of single-parent, dual-income, and all

families in motivating and reinforcing student learning

Decision Making

Include families as partners in school decisions, governance, and advocacy

through PTA/PTO, school councils, committees, and other parent

organizations.

Challenges

• Include parent leaders from all racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and other groups in the school.

• Offer training to enable parent leaders to develop skills to serve as representatives of other families.

• Include student representatives along with parents in decision-making groups.

How has SIG responded to the challenges?

Main Point

Decision making means a process of partnership, of shared views

and actions toward shared goals, not just a power struggle between

conflicting ideas.

Possible ResultsSTUDENTS • Awareness of representation of families in school decisions• Understanding that student rights are protected• Specific benefits linked to policies enacted by parent organizationsPARENTS• Input into policies that affect children's education• Feeling of ownership of school• Awareness of parents' voices in school decisions• Shared experiences and connections with other families• Awareness of school, district, and state policiesTEACHERS• Awareness of perspectives of families in policy development and

school decisions• Acceptance of equality of family representatives on school

committees and in leadership roles

Community Collaboration

Coordinate resources and services for families, students, and the school with businesses, agencies, and other groups, and provide services to the

community.

Challenges

• Solve turf problems of roles, responsibilities, funds, and places for collaborative activities.

• Inform all families and students about community programs and services.

• Assure equal opportunities for students and families to obtain services or participate in community programs.

• Match business and community volunteers and resources with school goals.

How has SIG responded to the challenges?

Main Point• Community means not only the neighborhoods

where students' homes and schools are located, but also all neighborhoods or locations that influence their learning and development.

• Community is rated not only by low or high social or economic qualities, but also by strengths and talents available to support students, families, and schools.

• Community includes not only families with children in the schools, but also all who are interested in and affected by the quality of education.

Possible ResultsSTUDENTS • Skills and talents from enriched curricular and extracurricular

experiences• Knowledge and exploration of careers and options for future

education and work• Self-confidence and feeling of value and belonging in the

communityPARENTS• Interactions with other families in community activities• Awareness of community's contributions to the school• Participation in activities to strengthen the communityTEACHERS• Knowledge and use of community resources to enrich curriculum

and instruction• Knowledge of referral processes for families and children with

needs for specific services

Conclusion

Family Involvement is a win-win situation for all!

Questions??

The content in this presentation is based on the work of Joyce Epstein. Please visit www.partnershipschools.org for more

information.