How Strong Communication Contributes To Student And

behavior at home and at school. This holds acrossfamilies of all economic, racial/ethnic and educationalbackgrounds and for students at all ages.5 Parent andcommunity involvement are identified as factors inmost studies which examine the research on effectiveschooling.6 Numerous school/family/communitypartnerships have produced dramatic and lastingincreases in student achievement. Some positiveexamples include James Comer’s work with NewHaven schools (Comer 1988), Joyce Epstein’s School,Family and Community Partnerships Network inBaltimore (Epstein, 2001) and the work of sevenurban principals cited in the Heritage Foundation’s NoExcuses (Carter, 2000).Key characteristics associated with academicimprovement include high standards and expectationsfor all students and curriculum, effective leadership,focused professional development, frequentmonitoring of teaching and learning, and parent andcommunity involvement (Henderson & Mapp,2002). The importance of establishing andmaintaining meaningful, direct, two-waycommunication between schools, parents and thecommunity is one of the defining features of effectiveparent and community involvement. Activelyencouraging parental and community involvementhas been part of the National Education Goals since1994. The PTA introduced national standards fordevelopment and evaluation of parental involvementprograms in 1997. The 2001 NCLB legislationmandates written parent involvement policies.While the importance of building these partnershipsis widely embraced, the practices in most schoolshave hardly caught up with the flourishing rhetoric.7Schools still struggle to engage families in helpingtheir children succeed. Home-school relationshipsare often characterized as centered on schoolpriorities and initiated by the schools at the expenseof ignoring families’ concerns and expertise regardingtheir children.8 Parents and principals cite lack oftime as the most common barrier to increasedinvolvement, but research identifies lack of planningfor partnerships and lack of mutual understanding asthe two greatest barriers to effective familyinvolvement.9 Other factors which affect increasedfamily involvement include previous negativeIt’s disappointing that less than half ofAmericans are satisfied with the qualityof public education in the nation, but it isnot surprising. Our attitudes toward thenation's schools come principally fromthe news media, and most of this information is negative. The key for schooldistricts is to communicate the successes of students to parents — and tonon-parents as well, since they make upabout 70% of voting citizens in mostcommunities.— Gary GordonGallup Poll, Global PracticeLeader for EducationMay 2004experiences with the school, language and culturaldifferences, the absence of requests and invitationsfrom the school for family involvement, child careconstraints, lack of transportation and feelings ofinadequacy or inefficacy in dealing with schoolofficials.10Teachers also struggle with increasing familyengagement in children’s education. While 98% ofteachers believe that effective teachers need to workwell with students’ families and 90% see it as one oftheir school’s priorities, the 2005 edition of TheMetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Transitionsand the Role of Supportive Relationships found thebiggest challenge new teachers face and the areas inwhich they feel least prepared is parent involvement.New teachers are most likely to reportcommunicating with and involving parents as theirgreatest problem. Thirty-one percent believe that thisis the greatest challenge, compared to 22% who saythat it is getting sufficient resources and 20% whosay that maintaining order and discipline in theclassroom is the greatest challenge. Other barriersfrom a teacher’s perspective include low teachingefficacy, negative experiences with parents,uncertainty about working with diverse families andinadequate school support for involvement efforts.11NSPRA Parent and Family Involvement7

A 2001 Education Resource Information Center(ERIC) Digest titled Preparing Teachers to Work withParents found that teacher education programs andlocal school districts offer limited educationalopportunities to new teachers on family involvementissues. This, despite proven best practices whichshow that outstanding teachers with National Boardfor Professional Teaching Standards certification orMilken Teaching Award recipients regularlycommunicate with parents and value communicationas an effective tool for working with students.12Traditional school organization and practices,especially in secondary schools often discouragefamily members from becoming involved. Schoolscan make changes that make them more welcomingand inviting places, less hierarchical and morepersonal. Such institutional changes include creatingschools-within-schools, establishing community orparent centers within schools, using parentleadership programs and ensuring that parents are arespected and valued co-equal in organizationalstructures such as curriculum, course scheduling,assessment, budget committees and that theyparticipate on site-based management councils andschool improvement teams.13Developing effective partnerships with families requires that all school staff (administrators, teachers and support staff) create aschool environment that welcomes parentsand encourages them to raise questions andvoice their concerns as well as to participateappropriately in decision making.— Janie E. Funkhouser &Miriam R. Gonzales“Family Involvement in Children’sEducation”Most Studies Agree on Parent InvolvementRecently there seemed to be one blip on een.”A new study entitled, Similar Students,Different Results: Why Do Some Schools DoBetter? 32, surveyed 5,500 teachers and 257principals of low-income public schools inCalifornia. Results indicated that other factors,such as experienced teachers and principals,sticking to rigorous content that fits thestate’s assessments, assessing studentstrengths and weaknesses to bolster achievement, and providing the best educationalequipment created the blueprint for studentachievement. Parent and family involvementwas still positively correlated, but below thefactors just mentioned.No one, we believe, has ever said that parentinvolvement alone will increase student achievement. In fact, the quality of staff and programshas to be in place before parent involvementcan make the well-recognized difference itmakes in schools throughout North America.But just about everyone had said that parentand family can make a huge difference instudent achievement when schools and homesare working together in a collaborative andcompetent approach to education.And let’s not forget that parent, family andcommunity involvement should also play anintegral role in making sub par schools better.Parents need to hold school leaders accountable so their children have experiencedteachers and principals, rigorous content,helpful assessments to prepare for statetesting and the best educational equipmentand resources available for their children.That too, is what parent and family involvementis all about.— Rich Bagin, APRNSPRA Executive Director8NSPRA How Strong Communication Contributes to Student and School Success

What We Know About Effective Family InvolvementEffective family involvement has a positive impact on students, familiesand the schools. The research shows that the most effective forms offamily involvement are those in which parents actively work directly withtheir children in the home on learning activities, such as reading, homeworkor tutoring using materials and instructions provided by teachers. The earliera parent becomes involved, the more powerful the effect on studentachievement. Training and orientation for family members enhances theeffectiveness of parent involvement and the most successful parentinvolvement programs are those which recognize the diversity of the school community and offer a variety ofways in which families can participate with a continuum of options.14Increasing family participation, thus, is an importantgoal for schools and schools must take the lead inproviding families with the opportunities and supportneeded.15 To be effective in increasing studentachievement, school-family involvement policies mustbe well designed and focused. Family and communityinvolvement that is linked to student learning has agreater effect on achievement than more generalforms of involvement. The form of involvementshould be focused on improving achievement and bedesigned to engage families and students indeveloping specific knowledge and skills.16 Every stateand most districts have a family-involvement law orpolicy. However, in many instances, the policies arenot supported with resources necessary to implementthe policy. Research shows that family-involvementprograms have to be well planned, comprehensive(reaching all families) and long-lasting. Hiring afamily involvement facilitator can be a very costeffective means of improving implementation of aschool district’s policy.17Joyce Epstein’s work with family-school partnershipprograms shows that school efforts to engage familiesmake a difference in student achievement. Schoolswith more highly rated partnership programs madesmall but significant gains on writing and math tests,and attendance also improved when compared withschools with lower-rated programs. Epstein and hercolleagues at Johns Hopkins University identify aframework which provides a broader vision ofinvolvement than the traditional PTA activities,booster support and annual parent teacherconference.18 Epstein’s framework describes six types ofactivities that schools use to involve families andcommunities: parent-education activities,communication between schools and families,volunteer opportunities, at-home learning activities,decision-making opportunities and communitycollaborations. The more active the involvement andthe more different types of involvement, the higherthe achievement gains.Type of Involvement / Types of ActivityParenting — Expressing expectations about students’education; limiting TV viewing; supervising time useand behavior; teaching children attitudes, beliefs,customs and social skills; supervising academic work;discussing interests, issues and studies.Communicating — From school to home aboutprograms, progress, academic achievement includingnotices, memos, phone calls, report cards,conferences, open houses, web sites, e-mail and voicemail. Family-initiated contact about performanceand academic programs; post-secondary plans.Supporting School — Volunteering and attendingschool activities.Learning at Home — Interactive homework;information on how families can monitor and assiststudents at home with learning activities; ways tohelp students practice and study for tests; informationabout expectations; academic lessons outside ofschool, music or dance lessons; encouraging college;learning about post-secondary education.NSPRA Parent and Family Involvement9

Decision-Making — Participatory roles in parentteacher-student organizations; school advisorycouncils; committees; school site improvementteams; school advocacy groups.Collaborating with Community — Usingcommunity learning resources; taking part incommunity groups; communicating parent toparent; establishing connections to increase access tocommunity and support services.A 2001 Westat study of standards-based reformpractices found that reforms are more likely to have apositive effect on students’ test scores when teacherscommunicate regularly with parents. Effectiveoutreach practices include meeting face to face,sending materials home and keeping in touch aboutprogress. In schools where teachers reported highlevels of outreach to parents, test scores grew at a rate40% higher than in schools where teachers reportedlow levels of outreach.19Workshops for parents on helping their children athome were linked to higher reading and math scoresin studies by Shaver and Walls. Schools with highlyrated partnership programs make greater gains onstate tests than schools with lower rated programs.Schools that succeed in engaging families from verydiverse backgrounds share three key practices.1 They focus on building trustingcollaborative relationships amongteachers, families and communitymembers.2 They recognize, respect and addressfamilies’ needs, as well as class andcultural difference.3 They embrace a philosophy ofpartnership where power andresponsibility are shared.20A number of cities and states have been successful increating programs that develop parent leaders andpromote school achievement. Different approacheshave evolved based in large part on how willingschools and districts have been to engage parents.Where the system is open to collaboration with10parents a “Parents as Partners” approach has beensuccessful. The goal of the parents as partnersapproach is to equip parents with skills and contactsto engage other parents; connect schools with thecommunity groups; identify and engage resources forschools; and collaborate with administrators, teachersand other school staff. Kentucky’s CommonwealthInstitute for Parent Leadership (CIPL) follows thistact. The Institute has trained more than 1,100parents in effective school partnership skills. Parentsare taking an active lead in identifying problems andworking together with schools to create solutions. InLouisville, two parents believed that incoming 6thgraders would do better academically if they hadhelp adjusting to the middle school environment.With the help of a school team, they organized a“Transition Night” that included workshops forparents on such subjects as adolescent development,academic standards and school safety. The experiencewas so successful it is now used for each grade.Another program which uses the parents as partnersapproach is Boston’s Parent Leadership Exchangewhich works with parent leaders in three NewEngland states. It offers networking opportunitiesthrough conferences, newsletters, a web site and aforum for sharing best practices. The ConnecticutCommission on Families offers a Leadership TrainingInstitute for parents.When there is resistance to family or communitycollaboration a “Parent Advocacy” approach hasevolved. Examples include Chicago’s Parents Unitedfor Responsible Education, New York City’s Advocatesfor Children and the New Jersey Education LawCenter. These use training, technical support andsometimes legal action to achieve their goal.“Parent and Community Organizing” is a politicalapproach adopted when a school or districtadministration is closed and defensive and usuallyschool performance is low. Groups like the BostonParent Organizing Network, Mothers on the Movein the Bronx and the Logan Square NeighborhoodAssociation in Chicago use direct actions, such asdemonstrations, media events and public meetingswith candidates and office holders to focus attentionon their problem.21NSPRA How Strong Communication Contributes to Student and School Success

What We Know About Effective Community InvolvementIn the United States, schools originally were an integral part of a community,reflecting its political, moral and institutional identity. At the beginning of theth20 century there were about 100,000 local school districts, each of which hiredits teachers and principals and set its own curriculum. After World War II, therelationship of the school to the community began to change, reflecting majordemographic and social changes — increased individual mobility, greater femaleworkplace participation, divorce, fragmentation of traditional ethnicneighborhoods — and functional and organizational shifts. By the end of the1970s, research demonstrated that schools had taken on their own organizationalculture and lost their community-based identity. Sociologists found that publicschool variation in the U.S. was minimal.22 Today the number of school districtsis down to about 16,000. Huge, consolidated school districts deal with apopulation increasingly diverse by language, cultural and ethnic background,economic status and family composition. As a result, links to the community disappeared. Rebuilding theselinks with the community should be part of an administrator’s public relations program. A school connectedwith its cultural community enjoys school pride, open communication, productivity, cooperation, widespreadinvolvement, sense of cohesiveness and acts of caring and sharing (Barth, 2002; Brandt, 1998).There is clear evidence that expanding the school’soutreach beyond families into the community alsohas measurable positive impact in at least fourimportant areas: student learning, familyengagement, school effectiveness and communityvitality.23 Studies find that community organizationcontributes to the following changes in schools:!Upgraded school facilities.!Improved school leadership and staffing.!Higher quality learning programs forstudents.!New resources and programs to improveteaching and curriculum.!New funding for after-school programsand family supports.24Community schools link school and communityresources. As a result, such schools have access toadditional resources, reduce demands on the schoolstaff, provide both academic and non-academiclearning opportunities and build social capital — assetswhich connect students to people and information thatcan help them solve problems and meet their goals.The extent to which community assets are madeavailable is related to the community’s attitude towardsthe school. The more familiar people are with theschool, the more likely they are to view it favorably.According to the 2003 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup pollon public schools, 26% of Americans give the nationalpublic school system an overall grade of A or B, 48%gave their local school an A or B and 68% of publicschool parents rated the school their oldest childattended an A or B. Gallup concludes that Americanstend to base their perceptions of the state of theeducational system on what they see and hear in themedia, what they personally experience and theexperiences of their peers. Parents have firsthandknowledge of those schools and witness theiraccomplishments on a day-to-day basis through theprogress of their children. Communities are oftenfinancially invested through local tax dollars.Homeowners are further invested in their localcommunity’s schools because real estate investmentsfrequently depend, in part, on the reputation of thelocal schools.25 Communities have a self-interest indeveloping and maintaining good schools.There are a variety of models for building orincreasing community involvement in schools. Insome cases, the impetus to involve the communitystems from the community itself, responding to whatit perceives as a crisis or failure of the school to meetbasic needs. In other cases, the school reaches out tothe community in an effort to increase resources.NSPRA Parent and Family Involvement11

Since the late 1980s, communities, parents, schools,activists and other groups have sought to use theschool as a social center to address broadercommunity problems. These have produced anumber of new models of partnership. By mobilizingthe assets of the community to solve barriers tolearning resulting from poverty, changingdemographics and other social changes, theseprograms have not only been successful in raisingacademic achievement, but also in triggering positiveshifts in actions, attitudes, interests, motivations andrelationships of students.26 The programs haveproduced innovations, such as family supportcenters, early childhood and after-school programs,health and mental health services, academic outreachand adult literacy, as well as partnerships withbusiness and civic groups and use of the school forcommunity activities. School, family and communitypartnerships have the most success when partnershipactivities are linked directly with school goals. A1999 study by Sanders and Simon27 examinedschools participating in the National Network ofPartnership Schools. They found that partnershipactivities lead to improvement. (See chart below.)The partnership must reflect the community andinvolve them in all stages of program development— from selecting the partnership goals todetermining evaluation methods. Families, schoolstaff and community representatives should beselected for their talents, interest and dedication.Flexibility is a key component of success.!Providing for the meaningful involvementof parents and the local community inplanning.!Implementing and evaluating schoolimprovement activities.!Employing annual evaluations of studentachievement and implementing of reforms.!Using external technical support from anentity with experience and expertise inschoolwide reform and improvement.!Using high-quality and continuousprofessional development for staff andteachers.The researchers looked at 29 of the most widelyimplemented CSR models and found that the threemodels meeting the highest standard of evidence havebeen shown to be effective in improving studentachievement across reasonably diverse contexts. Theseprograms are Direct Instruction, SchoolDevelopment Program and Success for All. TheSchool Development Program established by JamesComer stresses the impact of the community ineducation. Success for All uses a family support teamconcept and one-on-one tutoring. Direct Instructionuses highly interactive lessons presented

white papers sponsored by the National School Public Relations Association. How Strong Communication Contributes to . that the local paper gets the sports schedule. In an age of instantaneous access and 24/7 demand, schools . pre- and post-comp