|
January 29, 2018 – Volume 1, Issue 2
How Does Your School Community Define Family Engagement?
 Students, parents, community organizations, teachers, family-community liaisons and school administrators each have unique understandings of family engagement. For this reason, before setting out to improve or increase family engagement, it is critical that school-family-community partnerships collectively create their shared understanding of family engagement.
A good place to start is with a facilitated discussion where all stakeholders contribute their visions of family engagement. Tools like the Flamboyan Foundation’s School-Wide Family Engagement Rubric and SEDL’s Dual Capacity-Building Framework from Family-School Partnerships can also expand awareness of the components of effective family engagement. These tools help leadership teams highlight the strengths and weaknesses in current family engagement practices, and guide them in setting priorities and creating plans to achieve their unique family engagement goals.
A comprehensive and shared understanding of family engagement helps parent, community, and school leaders set meaningful and measurable goals. These family engagement goals will be integral to district and school improvement plans such as the World’s Best Workforce plan, school improvement plans, and Title One plans. Look for more information and tools for setting student-focused family engagement goals in the next newsletter.
|
 Featured Minnesota Department of Education staff – Eric Grumdahl, Homework Starts with Home
In 2017, over 9,500 Minnesota students experiencing homelessness were enrolled in over 1,200 schools, across 300 school districts and 77 counties. Research shows that when compared to other students identified as low-income but housed, students who experience homelessness and housing instability are much more likely to be chronically absent, behind in math and reading skills, and disengage from or drop out of school.
Eric Grumdahl is at the Minnesota Department of Education on special assignment for the Homework Starts with Home initiative. Eric suggests you start with the following three key steps and also invites you to reach out to him to help your school prepare to respond quickly when a family or student is facing a housing crisis.
|
-
Understand who counts as homeless. Students are homeless if they lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. Questions? Visit the National Center for Homeless Education or call 800-308-2145.
-
Make sure students experiencing homelessness are supported to participate fully in their education. The McKinney-Vento Act requires schools to remove barriers to enrollment, attendance, and success for homeless students. Questions? Contact your district’s McKinney-Vento liaison and Minnesota's McKinney-Vento coordinator.
-
Connect the family or student with community resources that can resolve their housing crisis. Across Minnesota, Continuums of Care and County or Tribal economic assistance programs can help shorten a housing crisis and reduce its impact on young people.
Family-Community Engagement Training Opportunities and Resources
The Role of Parent Leadership in Improving Student Achievement and Building Equity – January 31
National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement and guest presenters from UPLAN, Teaching for Change, and the National Parent Leadership Institute will share best practices for building parent leadership in the school community and beyond. Register to participate in the January 31, 2018, webinar.
Link it to Learning – Karen L. Mapp, Harvard University
Educational leaders know a lot about family engagement and its impact on student achievement, says Professor Mapp, speaking at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Bold Ideas and Critical Conversations event on September 19, 2017. Professor Mapp shares concrete tips for ensuring that family engagement efforts are linked to learning in this concise eight-minute video Linking Family Engagement to Learning. For additional content, visit the Introduction to Family Engagement in Education edX course page.
How Family, School, and Community Engagement Can Improve Student Achievement and Influence School Reform
This June 2017 literature review, from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, strives to address the following questions: What are the key components (practices, challenges, conditions, goals, and outcomes) of promising family-school partnerships that support school- and district-level reform? How do promising partnerships involve families and communities in education reform? Download How Family, School, and Community Engagement Can Improve Student Achievement and Influence School Reform.
Back to top
Jackie Blagsvedt | School Improvement Program Specialist
651-582-8805 | jackie.blagsvedt@state.mn.us
|
