|
December 5-6,
Washington, DC
A national invitational conference
entitled “School–Family Partnerships: Promoting the
Social, Emotional, and Academic Growth of Children” was
held December 5–6, 2002, in Washington, DC. The event
was sponsored by the Laboratory for Student Success (LSS)
as part of its Signature Series of National Invitational
Conferences for Educational Leadership.
This working conference featured lively discussion
between key policymakers, researchers, educators,
parents, and other stakeholders to examine
research-based knowledge on school–family partnerships (SFPs),
particularly the effects of family involvement on the
nature, quantity, and quality of SFPs. Panelists
presented summaries of papers on general, developmental,
cultural, and policy issues. The summaries stimulated
discussion of such matters as ways that SFPs influence
children’s social, emotional, and academic growth and
factors that promote or hinder SFPs. Much effort was
devoted to generating recommendations for future SFP
research, policy, and practice.
Highlights
Highlights of the discussion included the following
points. Evidence shows that SFPs work to improve
children’s learning; family involvement in schooling has
positive effects on test scores, suspension and dropout
rates, and motivation. Crucial to successful parent
involvement is the construction of a parental role as
coeducator. Developing this role requires active
outreach by educators to involve parents. Such outreach
is particularly important for families whose
socioeconomic status places their children at risk of
failure. Moreover, data show that children from
low-income, minority, or non-English-speaking households
can benefit when their families are included in
school-related decisions. In such collaborations to
sustain SFPs, strategic policies to involve families
tend to work better than piecemeal policies involving
unconnected programs.
Barriers
Much discussion centered on identifying barriers to SFPs
and working on ways to overcome them. One significant
obstacle noted by participants was the dearth of
preservice and inservice training for educators in areas
related to family involvement. Participants agreed that
colleges of education must integrate family involvement
training in both coursework and practicums. Another
obstacle noted was the tension between families and
educators that can arise because of cultural
differences. It was agreed that greater opportunities
for dialogue between educators, parents, and children
can do much to foster cross-cultural understanding,
decrease tension, and clarify goals for collaborating as
coeducators. Community organizations can help mediate
between schools and families to facilitate dialogue. A
final obstacle discussed was the lack of clear
definition of what constitutes a functional partnership.
Participants suggested that communication, respect, and
shared power should characterize the work of all SFPs,
though partnership features and goals must vary with the
community context.
Next Steps
Conference participants meeting in small work groups
formulated many recommendations for next steps to
promote SFPs. Recommendations emphasized ways to
overcome the barriers to SFPs and emphasized active
measures, such as initiating school–family contracts and
back-to-school nights, that schools can take to nurture
partnerships. Also strongly recommended was
communicating research to practitioners in usable forms.
A conference digest including these recommendations will
be produced in the near future by LSS. Also to be
published is a book consisting of the conference papers,
the next-step recommendations, and procedural tools for
practitioners. Look for information on these products on
the LSS website.
|
