# Presentation: 921596

## Research and Evaluation on Family-School-Community Partnerships

- Research and Evaluation on Family-School-Community Partnerships

- A Compact for Learning

**Prepared by Adriana de Kanter, **
**Alan Ginsburg, and Julie Pederson**
- Planning and Evaluation Service
- U.S. Department of Education
**Sue Ferguson**
- Chair, National Coalition for
- Parent Involvement in Education

## Overview

- Part I:  New American Consensus on Education
- Part II:  Research on Family Involvement
- Part III:  Steps to Strengthening Partnerships for Learning

## Part I:  Questions to Ask

***Do you think your school:***
- Has strong family-school-community partnerships?  Do your school partners agree on what family involvement means?
- Promotes high academic standards for all students, informing parents about what they are and how they can help their children reach them?

## Part I:  More Questions

- Does your school use a family-school compact for all students and their families?
- Have you noticed any areas in which differences in student results seem to be connected to family involvement?
- Does your school use data to evaluate and improve partnerships for learning?

## A New American Consensus Sets High Standards for All Students

**Every child in America is reading well and independently by the end of third grade.**
*	**60 percent of fourth-grade students are at or above basic in reading.*
**Every child in America is competent in math, including algebra at the eighth grade.**
*	**20 percent of students take algebra in the eighth grade. *
- \
**Every 18-year-old in America is prepared academically and financially for college and for the workplace.***The proportion of high school graduates taking the core courses increased to 52 percent by 1994, up from 14 percent in 1982 and 40 percent in 1990.*

## Standards let parents know how well their children are doing.

*Prospects, 1993*

## Part II:  Research on Family 			Involvement

**Why is family **
**involvement**
**so important?**

- 	**What are the **
**	****challenges?**

## What do Families Look Like?

*Working Parents*
- 60% of all mothers with preschool-age children.
- 57% of women with children younger than age three were in the labor force.
- 28.2 million children, ages 6-17, have working mothers.
*Single Parents*
- 25% of children live in single-parent families.
- Compared to only 11% in 1970.
*Grandparents*
- 13% of African American; 5.7% of Hispanic; 3.9% of white children live with their grandparents.

*U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, and USDE, 1994*

## Who are the Students?

*Children in Poverty*
- Between 1980 and 1993, the number of
- children living in poverty increased by almost 3.8 million.
- In 1993, 15 million children under age 18 were living in poverty.
*A Culturally Diverse Student Body*
- In the next 10 years, the white, non-Hispanic population will decrease by about 13% in the pre-school range and 2% in the elementary-school range.
- Hispanics will become the largest school-age population.
- The population of Asian and American Indian students is expected to increase by about 45%.

*U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, and USDE, 1994*

## Family Involvement and Student Achievement

- Research

***Predictors of student achievement***
- Not income or social status, but the extent to which that student’s family is able to:
- Create a home environment that
- 	encourages learning
- Express high (but not unrealistic) expectations for their children’s achievement and future careers
- Become involved in their children’s education at school and in the community

*A New Generation of Evidence (Henderson & Berla, 1994)*

## Family Involvement and Student Achievement

- Factors over which parents exercise authority:
- 			Absenteeism
- 			Reading materials in the home
- 			Television watching
- account for nearly 90 percent of the difference in eighth-grade math test scores.
- 							*NAEP, 1994*

- Research

## Family Involvement and Student Achievement

*Students benefit by:*
- Higher grades
- Better attendance and homework completion
- More positive attitudes
- Higher graduation rate
- Greater enrollment in college

*A New Generation of Evidence (Henderson & Berla, 1994)*

- Research

*Schools benefit by:*
- Improved teacher morale
- Higher ratings of teachers by parents
- More support from families
- Better reputations in the community

***The mutual benefits of family involvement***

## Family Involvement and Student Achievement

- Research

*NCES, 1996*

## Family Involvement and Student Achievement

- Research

*NCES, 1994*

## According to Teachers

- 	According to teachers, the
- 	“single most important thing public schools need to help students learn”
- 	is INVOLVED PARENTS.
- 						*Public Agenda, 1996*

- Opinion

- #1

## According to Our Young People . . . 

- 					*Add Health study, 1997*

- According to Our Young People . . .

- 72% of children, ages 10-13 said they
- would like to talk to their parents more
- about schoolwork.  Almost 50% of older
- students, ages 14-17 agreed.
*	**	**National Commission on Children, 1991*

- Opinion

## According to Parents . . .

- 		The vast majority of parents believe that 	their child’s success is directly related to 	their active involvement in the child’s 		formal education (National PTA, 1993).
- 40% of parents believe they are not
- devoting enough time to their
- children’s education (Finney, 1993).

- Opinion

## According to Employers

- Opinion

- 89% of company executives identified the biggest obstacle to school reform as lack of parental involvement (Perry 1993).

- At the Palisades Education Summit of CEOs and
- Governors, employers pledged to “adopt policies to
- support parental involvement in their children’s
- education and in improving their local schools”
- (1996 National Education Summit Policy Statement).

## Part II:  Research on Family 			Involvement

**Why is family **
**involvement**
**so important?**

- 	**What are the **
**	****challenges?**

## Fathers’ Involvement

- Challenges

*NCES, 1996*

## Middle School Fall-Off

- Challenges

*National Education Goals Report, NCES, 1996*

## Parent involvement differs by family characteristics

- Challenges

- Percent of Parents Attending
- Regularly-Scheduled Parent-Teacher Conferences

*(NCES, NHES, 1996)*

## Principals’ perceptions of barriers in Title I schools 

- Challenges

*NCES, 1996*

## Part III:  Steps for Strengthening Partnerships for Learning

_**Partners in Education**_**: **
- Individuals and groups that work together to support children’s learning.
_**Shared Responsibilities**_**: **
- How each partner will work to help all children learn to high standards.

_**Standards:**_**  **
- What every child should know and learn

## Slide 25

## Come Together as a Team

- Step
- 1

***Team-building strategies***
- Plan for the whole school and community:  Include as many participants as possible.
- Talk up ideas to generate interest, even in the early stages of planning.
- Reach out to parents and others who have not traditionally been connected to the school.

## Come Together as a Team

***More team-building strategies***
- Anticipate and plan!  Think ahead to the challenges you may face and plan potential solutions.
- Create a family-school compact for all students to support shared responsibility.
- Be creative!  Make sure your partnership and its activities reflect your school and its community.

- Step
- 1

## The National PTA Standards for 
Parent/Family Involvement Programs
Student learning 
Communicating
Parenting
Volunteering
School decision making and advocacy
Collaborating with community

***Parent/Family Involvement Programs***
- Student learning
- Communicating
- Parenting
- Volunteering
- School decision making and advocacy
- Collaborating with community

- Step
- 2

- Choose a Framework of Shared Responsibility

## Shared Responsibility

- 2

**Choose a framework of **
**shared responsibility**

- Title I
- Family-School
- Compact
- Framework

## Shared Responsibility for Learning and High Achievement

- Set high standards and expectations

- Provide and support sound instruction

- Make schools safe and drug free

- Apply modern technology

- Step
- 2

## Shared Responsibility for Communication

- Times and locations convenient to families
- Priority of time for teachers to communicate
- with families
- Use of modern technology
- Accommodations for non-English speaking families

- Shared Responsibility for Communication

- Step
- 2

## Shared Responsibility for Building Capacity through Volunteering and Training

- Provide teacher training on effective family
- involvement
- Help parents become better educators at home
- Provide training for tutors
- Encourage volunteering

- Shared Responsibility for Building Capacity through Volunteering and Training

- Step
- 2

## Implement Strategies for Success

- Step
- 3

- Address the needs of your school population
- Obtain and allocate resources

## The new IDEA supports family involvement

***IDEA now ensures that:***
- Information provided by parents will be considered when evaluating a child for a disability.
- A team of qualified professionals and the parents of the child determine the child’s eligibility for special education services.
- The child’s parents are members of the IEP team.
- Parents participate in any group that makes decisions on the educational placement of their child.

- Step
- 3

## Bilingual education supports family involvement

*Title VII - Bilingual Education:*
- Authorizes use of funds for parent outreach and training activities.
- Requires local educational agencies to inform parents of:
- The benefits and nature of bilingual education programs.
- The reasons for selection of their child for potential enrollment.

- Step
- 3

## Federal Resources

- Step
- 3

- ESEA
- Title I
- Migrant
- Bilingual
- Goals 2000 Parent Centers
- IDEA Parent Training and Information Projects

## Measure and Evaluate

***The Power of Performance Measurement***
- What gets measured, gets done.
- If you don’t measure results, you can’t tell success from failure.
- If you can’t recognize failure, you can’t correct it.
- If you can’t see success, you can’t reward it.
- If you can’t see success, you can’t learn from it.
***	****From *Reinventing Government* by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler*

- Step
- 4

## Data Sources

- School profiles
- Administrative records
- Surveys
- Focus Groups
- Tracking studies

- Step
- 4

## Asking the Right QuestionsTeacher-Evaluation FormRochester, New York

- Step
- 4

- My child’s teacher is accessible and responsive to me when I call or want to meet.
- The teacher makes clear what my child is expected to learn in this class.
- The teacher contacts me promptly with concerns about my child’s academic or behavioral performance.

*From Education Week on the Web, September 17, 1997*

## More Questions from Rochester, New York

- As needed, the teacher and I develop a cooperative strategy to help my child.
- My child’s teacher assigns clear and meaningful homework.
- The teacher shares my high expectations for my child’s learning and behavior.

- Step
- 4

*From Education Week on the Web, September 17, 1997*

## Collect a variety of survey data

- Step
- 4

- Parents of third-graders who
- report that they have rules
- that the child must follow
- about completing homework
- assignments.

- Percent of third-grade students
- rated “high” on completing
- homework assignments according
- to teachers.

**vs.**

*Prospects, 1993*

## Setting performance standards

- Step
- 4

- Four Methods for Measuring Performance

- Year 1

- Year 2

- Improvement Over Time

- #1

- Benchmarking Against the Best

- Absolute Performance Standard

- Treatment

- Control

## Methods for Measuring Performance

- 4

***Mark improvement over time***
- Marks the progress of doing better than before
- Allows all schools to set and reach goals, no matter what their starting level of achievement
- Requires having a baseline and comparing information over time

## Benchmark against the best
With schools that serve children from families with similar characteristics (for example, similar income level)

With schools of similar size

With schools located in similar settings (rural, urban, suburban)

- With schools that serve children from families with similar characteristics (for example, similar income level)
- With schools of similar size
- With schools located in similar settings (rural, urban, suburban)

- Step
- 4

- Methods for Measuring Performance

## 
Set an absolute performance standard:

		Indicates whether your school is 			doing as well as or better than your 		desired level of performance.

***Set an absolute performance standard:***
- 		Indicates whether your school is 			doing as well as or better than your 		desired level of performance.

- Methods for Measuring Performance

- Step
- 4

## Lessons for Using Data

- Use the process to bring educators and community members together.
- Use data to focus attention on real problems.
- Beware of a picture painted in a single stroke.
- Beware of data that mask achievement gaps.
- Report local data strategically.
- Double-check data.
- Keep data simple but exciting.
***	******Adapted from Education Trust’s Community Data Guide***

- Step
- 4

## Disaggregate for Details

- Step
- 4

- Parents rate their third-grade child’s school

- School Poverty Concentration

*Prospects, 1993*

## Improve and Strengthen the Partnership

- High Standards

- Your School’s
- Performance

- Improvement
- Needed

**Lessons Learned**
-  There is no “one size fits all” approach to partnerships.
-  Training and staff development is an essential investment.
-  Communication is the foundation of effective partnerships.
-  Flexibility and diversity are key.

- Step
- 5

- From* Family Involvement in Children’s Education:  Successful Local Approaches*,
- 				U.S. Department of Education, 1997

## Improve and Strengthen the Partnership

- High Standards

- Your School’s
- Performance

- Improvement
- Needed

**More Lessons Learned**
-  Projects need to take advantage of the training, assistance, and funding offered by sources external to school.
-  Changes takes time.
-  Projects need to regularly assess the effects of the partnership using multiple indicators.

- Step
- 5

- From* Family Involvement in Children’s Education:  Successful Local Approaches*,
- 				U.S. Department of Education, 1997

## Partnership for Family Involvement in Education

- What can the federal government
- and the Partnership for Family
- Involvement in Education do
- to help your school or district?
**www.ed.gov/PFIE**
**1-800-USA-LEARN**