The guide, available from CDE Press , also contains supplemental materials, including a bibliography of relevant research and samples of compacts, to aid in the implementation of compacts. Compacts as a Tool to Help Students Succeed Research shows that students do best in school when families are involved in advocating for and supporting their children's education, both at home and at school. Likewise, student performance improves when schools reach out to families to establish partnerships and assist families with ideas and avenues for supporting their children's education at home and at school. A family-school compact is a tool that schools and districts can use to encourage collaboration with families. Compacts are voluntary agreements between the home and school that describe specific activities that teachers, families, administrators, and students will undertake to support the student's learning.
Compacts are most effective if they have been developed jointly with families.
Compacts may describe home activities such as talking daily about school and everyday events, monitoring the amount and quality of TV viewing, and supervision of homework. The success of compacts depends on the extent to which many school staff and families believe in the concept and use compacts to establish shared responsibilities for students' education. Many alternative schools, such as charter, magnet and specialized program schools, successfully use compacts as a concrete way to engage families, welcome them as partners, and formalize the important role that families play in the education of their children by requiring families to spend a specified number of hours participating in their children's education. Also, families overwhelmingly want to be involved but often do not know how to help. This page is maintained by the CIL Branch Web Team .