This practical volume is designed to help school practitioners and educators build stronger connections with families and enhance student achievement in grades K-12. Beyond simply getting parents involved in schoolwork, the book describes how positive family-school relationships can socialize and support children and adolescents as learners throughout their academic careers. Identified are key pathways by which professionals and parents can develop common goals for learning and behavior, a shared sense of accountability, better communication, and a willingness to listen to different perspectives. The focus is on assumptions, goals, attitudes, behaviors, and strategies that professionals can draw on both to assess school-home connections that are currently in place and to implement new, more productive practices. Grounded in theory and research, the book features case examples, self-reflective exercises, and discussion questions in every chapter, as well as useful appendices. Table of Contents Prologue 1. Family-School Relationships as a Protective Factor 2. Approach: The Framework for Interaction with Families 3. Attitudes: Values and Perceptions about Family Involvement 4. Atmosphere: The Climate in Schools for Families and Educators 5. Actions: Strategies for Building Shared Responsibility Epilogue Appendices: A. NASP Position Statement on Home-School Collaboration. B. Checklist for Quality Indicators of the Six National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement. C. Selected Examples from the "Partner Up" Newsletter. D. A Teacher's Perspective on Communicating with Families. E. Inventory for Creating School-Family Connections. "The major challenge of 21st-century schools is to involve families effectively in students' education. This is the best book I have read on school-family partnerships to enhance children's academic, social, and emotional growth. With great scholarship and wisdom, these scientist-practitioners use theory and current research to inform educators about systematic actions and innovative strategies to develop family-school connections for learners. If more educators, policy makers, community leaders, and parents were to implement the authors' scientifically based principles and practices, countless more children would experience school success each year. A very important book." -Roger P. Weissberg, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago; Executive Director, Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) "Invaluable as a classroom text and practitioner guide. Although many books espouse the importance of parent involvement, this book is unique in emphasizing the enormous responsibility educators have to empower families to engage in partnerships with the school. The book's thesis--that creating home-school partnerships can protect against risk and promote health--will be exciting and challenging to professionals from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Superbly written, this book provides guidelines that are extremely helpful to practitioners in promoting family-school partnerships." -Thomas J. Power, PhD, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia "School psychologists are in a great place to develop partnerships between the people at home and the people at school to benefit children's learning. The strategies described in this book were implemented in our school last year, and we can see the difference. When parents request to continue as partners, when teachers volunteer to participate and recruit other teachers to become involved--that's when we know the processes and systems are working! This book is an important tool for school psychologists, teachers, and administrators." -De Ann Currin, PhD, Principal, Elliott Elementary School, Lincoln, NE from the publisher's website |