Family Engagement in Action: A Roadmap for Building Authentic School-Family Partnerships that Boost Student Learning

In Durham, North Carolina, Black parents are partnering with teachers to create culturally affirming tools that help families and teachers develop more responsive learning environments for students, and they are helping facilitate workshops for educators interested in improving their engagement with Black parents and instruction of Black students. In Los Angeles, CA, an organization has partnered with the union for janitorial and airport staff to provide training and information at their job sites focused on supporting their children’s learning, college preparedness, and health and wellness. And on and near the tribal lands of South Dakota, staff at the statewide family engagement center help schools conduct listening sessions with families to understand their experiences at the school and their hopes for their children. Following these conversations, they develop a report of strengths and needs for each school that is shared with the family engagement leadership team and is used for action planning. 

While scholars and practitioners have, for decades, suggested that purposeful partnerships between schools and families can help improve students’ outcomes, it has been challenging to pinpoint strategies for how nonprofit organizations, schools, and districts can effectively design these types of partnerships.

Ten organizations serving diverse communities across the U.S. are showing us how they are doing it and getting results. Detailed in “Family Engagement in Action,” a new report from the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) at Columbia University, the learnings from these organizations offer valuable lessons for organizations, schools, districts and their funding partners. With support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, these organizations spent two years working with CPRL to build their leadership capacity and try out and assess new strategies for their school-family partnership initiatives. 

This report lays out an inclusive school-family partnership model that focuses on building family and educator capacity and providing space for families and educators to listen, learn, and codevelop, all in service of building responsive learning environments for students. The report concludes with recommended action steps that nonprofit organizations, funders, schools, and districts can take to build strong school-family partnership programs that result in responsive learning environments. 

Read "Family Engagement in Action."