It Takes a Community:
Addressing the Needs of Students
Schools Can’t Do It Alone
Student learning and achievement are strongly influenced by family experiences. At the Federal level, Title 1 under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as reauthorized by the Every Student Succeeds Act, requires schools to have parent engagement policies that reflect a collaboration between the school and families to improve student achievement.
Ohio law requires local school districts to adopt family engagement policies that address: parent communication, how parents can become actively involved in their child’s school and informing parents about other issues such as how to provide learning support. As required by law, the Ohio State Board of Education has adopted model parental involvement policies which are available on the following Ohio Department of Education website: http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Other-Resources/Family-and-Community-Engagement/Getting-Parents-Involved
Influencing Student Achievement
Multiple factors influence student achievement. These factors exist in and out of school. For instance, a student may very well know the content covered in the classroom, but on any day, the ability to perform well in school could be hampered by factors external to school, such as hunger, sorrow or illness. To have a positive influence on student learning and achievement, the scope of interventions must include an examination of all factors that drive learning and achievement.
Strengthening School, Family, and Community Engagement to Address Student Needs
Depending on the needs of your school, there are multiple ways family and community engagement can be used as a strategy to positively influence student learning and achievement. For instance, as a foundation, Joyce Epstein’s Framework for Involvement conveys six types of parent involvement which include: assisting with parenting skills, communicating about the student’s progress, volunteer opportunities for parents, providing ways to help students learn at home, including families in decision-making procedures of the school, and coordinating resources with the larger community.
The following are some resources, research, and tools to assist in strengthing your capacity to engage families and the community for the benefit of supporting student learning and achievement.
National Parent-Teacher-Association
Resource guides to help families address a variety of issues.
https://www.pta.org/home/family-resources
The Achievement Gap Initiative at Howard University
A publicly available clearinghouse of research, publications, and videos of convenings that address a variety of topics, including parenting.
http://www.agi.harvard.edu/projects/Parenting.php
National Dropout Prevention Network
A publicly available clearinghouse of multi-media family engagement research, tools, and resources.
http://dropoutprevention.org/effective-strategies/family-engagement/
Annie Casey Foundation
Engaging Parents, Developing Leaders: A Self-Assessment and Planning
Assess your school’s parental engagement readiness within the scope of four domains.
http://www.aecf.org/resources/engaging-parents-developing-leaders/
National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation
Resource Guide on Public Engagement
This guide identifies a wide range of approaches to public engagement.
http://ncdd.org/rc/
Coalition for Community Schools
Resources and tools to start and/or scale up a Community School (Community Learning Center)
http://www.communityschools.org/default.aspx
Open Space (Engagement Tools)
Use this method to increase engagement and ownership of community engagement events.
http://openspaceworld.org/wp2/explore/
HB70 and state takeovers missed the mark. Ohio’s students need and deserve better!
These children can’t wait for Ohio to get it right. Please add your name to our petition to repeal state takeovers of local school districts and restore local control now.
#OhioEducatorsCare #Unity #TheseChildrenCantWait
