# Presentation: 374755

## Better Education Is Everybody’s Business!

**The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education:**
- A nationwide effort to increase family involvementat home and at school
*and to*
- Promote children’s learning and achievement

## It’s a fact!  Family involvement contributes to children’sacademic success

- Thirty years of research show that greater family involvement in children’s learning is a critical link to achieving a high-quality education.
- Schools with high family involvement benefit from greater parent satisfaction with the school, and have improved teacher morale and more 	community support. (Henderson and Berla, 1994)
- Positive attitudes of families and teachers toward learning are consistently related to children’s academic success. (Henderson and Berla, 1994)

## Recent research again shows:

- High involvement by families can make a positive difference for children’s learning across grades K-12.
- “High involvement” in this study means both parents have done three or all of these activities in a school year: attend a general school meeting, attend a regularly scheduled parent-teacher conference, attend a school or class event, and serve as a volunteer at school. (National Center for Education Statistics, 1997)

## According to teachers:

- “The single most important thing public schools need to help students learn” is involved parents. (Public Agenda, 1996)

## According to parents:

- The school treats them as important partners in children’s learning(89 percent said this).
- They want to learn more about how to become involved in their children’s learning (77 percent said this).
- They want to be more involved at their child’s school. (72 percent said this).
- 	(GTE, 1997)

## Who is responsible for maximizing children’s learning?

- Responsibility should be shared by educators and families with support from the larger community, community and nonprofit organizations, business, faith communities and government. (Henderson and Berla, 1994 as cited in *New Skills for New Schools*, 1997)

## Barriers to family involvementin education

- Lack of time
- Not knowing what to do
- Differences in language and culture
- Unsafe neighborhoods
- Schools lacking a family-friendly environment
- Schools not organized to work with families

## Solutions to barriers to family involvement in education

- Overcome time and resource constraints
- Provide information and training to parents and school staff
- Restructure schools to support family involvement
- Bridge school-family differences
- Tap external support for partnerships from the local community, nonprofit organizations, businesses, government and faith communities

## Who we are

- We are thousands of partners joined together in a growing grassroots movement to support student learning according to high standards.  We come from families, schools, and a variety of businesses, communities, and religions, and are organized into four groups: Family-School Partners, Employers for Learning, Community Organizations and Religious Groups.

## How we are organized

- The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education is organized into four groups:
- Family-School Partners
- Employers for Learning
- Community Organizations
- Religious Groups

## These partners have pledged to:

- Increase opportunities for families to be more involved in their children’s education at home and at school
- Promote children’s learning and achievement

## What the Partnership for Family Involvement does

- We address issues, provide information, expand professional development, and offer opportunities for sharing and networking through:
- Convened meetings
- Materials (guides, kits, reports, CDs and videos)
- Hosted teleconferences
- A monthly newsletter (*Community Update*)
- Directed research
- A Web site
- Extended technical assistance

## The benefits of joining the Partnership

- Share and exchange good ideas and exemplary practices with partner leaders
- Access the latest information and research about family involvement in education
- Help families help their children succeed in school
- Work with other partners to develop a common vision to improve efforts to help children learn and generate enthusiasm for learning
- Promote effective ongoing two-way communication between home and school
- Receive recognition for your commitment to education
- Promote the arts, a second language and technology as integral to learning

## How we achieve our goals

- We come together as a team.  A team could include representatives from a school community—families, teachers, principals, students and concerned community leaders—who agree to share responsibilityfor student learning.
- We identify and commit to shared responsibilities.
- We evaluate the results of the partnership.
- We strengthen, improve and expand your partnership.

## Community Centers
Community Organizations
Local, State and National Government Agencies
Faith Communities
Youth Groups

- Community Organizations
- Local, State and National Government Agencies
- Faith Communities
- Youth Groups

**Partners and partner groups****work with:**

- Schools
- School Districts
- Classrooms
- Students
- Teachers and Administrators
- Families

## What partners doin the Partnership

- Participate as volunteers, tutors, and mentors
- Make work and community sites available as learning sites for students, teachers and families
- Promote improvement of schools and teaching in order to reach high standards
- Elevate excellence throughout the teaching profession
- Support leadership, training and support for principals
- Adopt family- and student-friendly business practices
- Provide before- and after-school learning activities for children in safe, drug-free environments

## What partners doin the Partnership (cont.)

- Make effective use of facilities (for example, schools, community buildings and churches) for children’s and families’ learning
- Give families increased access to resources, training and information to help children learn
- Provide educators with a broad range of tools to better engage families in children’s learning
- Wire and connect schools, students, teachers, community centers and families to the Internet
- Prepare future and experienced teachers as well as students and families to maximize the use of technology for instruction

## The spectrum of partner involvement in education:

- Establish mentoringprograms for students toprepare them for college

- Provide financialaid informationto parents

**College-Going**

- Train teachers inreal-world applicationsof mathematics

- Provide information toparents on math classeschildren should take

**Mathematics**

- Establish literacy as acommunity priority throughintegrated tutoring programs

- Donate Books

**Reading**

**Low Involvement**

**High Involvement**

**Partners**

## PFIE goal: Increase opportunitiesfor families to be more involved intheir children’s education

- Give families the resources, training and information they need to help children learn
- Strengthen family-school partnerships: Extend ongoing two-way communication and information sharing, and work together for children’s learning

## PFIE goal: Promote children’s learning and achievement

- Help children read well and independently by third grade
- Support learning right from the beginning of the school year...and beyond
- Turn around student achievement in mathematics and science
- Keep kids safe and smart before, during and after school
- Give teachers and principals the tools they need to engage families and their support for learning

## “How-To” resources available from the Partnership for Family Involvement 

- For All Partnership Members:
*The Compact for Reading Guide*(available online at pfie.ed.gov)
*A Compact for Learning: An Action Handbook for Family-School-Community Partnerships*
- Especially for Family-School Partners:
*Working for Children and Families: Safe & Smart II–After-School Programs*
*Preparing for Learning: Preparing Teachers to Involve Families *(CD-ROM)
- Especially for Community Organizations:
*Investing in Partnerships for Student Success: A Basic Tool for Community Stakeholders to Guide Educational Partnership Development and Management*

## “How-To” resources availablefrom the Partnership for Family Involvement  (cont.)

- Especially for Employers:
*The Corporate Imperative: A Business Guide for Implementing Strategic Education Partnerships*
*A Business Guide to Support Employee and Family Involvement in Education*
*Using Technology to Strengthen Employee and Family Involvement in Education*
- Especially for Religious Groups:
*Faith Communities Joining with Local Communities to Support Children’s Learning: Good Ideas*

## How to access resources fromThe Department of Education

- 1-800-USA-LEARN
- 1-877-4ED-PUBS
- www.ed.gov
- pfie.ed.gov