You'd be hard pressed to find a school district that leaves improving test scores, budgeting for new technology or developing the curriculum to chance. But too many schools do exactly that with parental and community involvement, arguably as important to student success as any of those above activities. It takes work, though, to get past the once-a-year bake sale and some fundraising calls to local businesses.
Joyce Epstein, research professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University, has an answer. As founder and director of the National Network of Partnership Schools, Epstein has spent more than a decade promoting her model of effective school-family-community partnerships, and the network now includes more than 100 districts and more than 1,000 schools. The network's Six Types of Involvement (see sidebar) provides specific ideas on how parents and community members can best impact student performance at schools, going beyond typical PTA-type activities.
"There's nothing new under the sun, so a lot of this thinking was part of the effective schools movement in the 1970s and the comprehensive school movement in the 1980s. The difference is that this is very structured. We provide a lot of support to build the programs in a way that says this is a way to organize the schools," Epstein says.
Put Students First
Ten Steps to Successful School-Family- Community Partnerships
1. Create or identify an action team for School-Family-Community Partnerships
2. Obtain funds and official support
3. Provide training and guidelines to Action Team members
4. Identify starting points-present activities, strengths and weaknesses
5. Develop a three-year outline
6. Write a one-year action planfor partnerships
7. Enlist staff, parents, students, and community groups to help conduct activities
8. Evaluate implementations and results
9. Conduct annual celebrations and report progress to all participants
10. Continue working toward a comprehensive, on-going, positive program of
The bedrock of the Epstein parent-community-school partnership is a focus on student achievement. After identifying what goals the group will target-anything from raising math comprehension to bettering attendance rates-all programs, activities and projects should serve those objectives. It's nice to have parents feel more comfortable in the school, or have local stores support the football team. But considering the depth of resources that parental and community involvement can bring to a school, it's a mistake to pass on the opportunity to harness this energy to provide a better education.
An added bonus is that student achievement is a purpose that everyone can rally around. "When you go to ask businesses for help with the school, for example, you don't have to just say, 'Can you help because you're part of the community?' You can say the school is working hard to increasing reading scores, can you help us reach that goal? Business partners are much more likely to be involved when the goal is so clear," Epstein notes.
Create a Structure
The network's program includes activities and roles for both the district and for individual schools. At either level, to move beyond the ad hoc nature of most parent involvement efforts, the first steps are to create an official body to handle the work and to write a specific plan, with clear objectives, roles and deadlines. As important, provide administrative support to staff the project at the district level.
Once the work has begun, stay organized. In Illinois' Naperville Community School District, the 23-member core team for the School-Family-Community Partnership meets every month and uses a committee structure to keep its meetings focused and productive. The team includes parents, school board members, school staff, principals, business representatives and members of the central office (including the superintendent). "In the core team, we have district leadership sitting there and talking about ideas, and that means a lot," says Nina Menis, the director of community relations for the district. Not only does a clear structure keep things moving smoothly, it also sends the message that the work is important and valued.
Expand Your Idea of Involvement
Some of the types of involvement in the Epstein model might be surprising (helping parents with child-rearing?) or even a bit scary (including families in school governance?). "Schools are used to thinking about this topic only in terms of bodies in the building. This is different," Epstein says. Plan for just two to four big events a year that pull in the whole school community (book night, open house, potluck dinners, etc.) and spend the extra energy on other kinds of impact.
For more than a decade, for example, a parent legislative committee at the Anoka-Hennepin Independent School District 11 outside of Minneapolis has worked with the district to learn about budget issues before every legislative session, then met with the local state representatives to advocate for school support. "The team is recognized as reliable, fact-based and non-partisan," says Linda Rodgers, the parent involvement coordinator for the district. "It's a real asset for us." The district also has a central lending library of books, DVDs and tapes on topics like child development and educational topics for parents, as well as offering parenting classes, and pulls in tens of thousands of hours of volunteer work each year, thanks in large part to a part-time volunteer service coordinator in every one of the district's 43 schools.
