Strategies to Engage Families and Communities

Keys to Reengaging Families in the Education of Young Adolescents, Loucks and Waggoner, 1998, provides a comprehensive list of strategies that addresses the six Parent Involvement categories. The strategies provided below are just a few highlighted in this resource. Thanks to Kentucky Department of Education for sharing.

Family as Decision Maker and Advocate

* Create councils for families to offer input into areas of concerns and school policies through curriculum advisory councils, school activity councils, family advisory groups and other organized groups. Develop a policy for family involvement in decision-making roles. Outline a procedure whereby families can get involved in productive and effective ways.
* Plan ways in which families can get involved in decision-making roles for activities that effect their child’s life.
* Media approach to promote parenting: publicity (multi-media, newsletter, newspapers, fliers, TV [including local access cable channel], radio, posters).
o Simplified, selective messages to families – less is more. Identify what is important and deliver that message. Deliver once a week, color code them so families can identify and expect them. (Use gimmicks to get students to take them home).
o Focus of family involvement should be on student learning/achievement.
o Use school newsletter to establish expectations. (it is best to mail them home if possible)
o Have teachers issue regular notes to families, possible at three and six week intervals with specific areas to be addressed (one positive note for each negative note.)
o Place a telephone in each classroom or teachers’ work area for ease of communicating with families.
o Use an assignment sheet or notebook kept by students and sent home each night.Communication can be two-way: notes to and from families/teachers through notebooks (families know these are to be completed daily).
o Hold PTA activities and conferences at flexible times to accommodate families’ work schedules.

Family and School as Communicators

* Schedule parent/student conferences regularly and provide instruction to staff on how to make conferences valuable and non-threatening. Role play with inexperienced faculty members. Describe the procedures of the family conference in a note to familiarize the families with what to expect at the conference. The child is the focus of the conference and the goal is to determine how the family and school can work together as partners to assure academic progress.
* Make frequent phone calls and/or send notes home regularly. Suggest that two positive calls/notes be made for every negative/corrective call or note. Include a time when families are most likely to find teachers at school.
* Develop a policy that encourages families to visit the school and classrooms. Take special care to ensure that all staff, including secretaries and maintenance people understands they are in the service business. A smile and helping hand can go a long way in keeping the doors of communication open.
* Create special opportunities for families to visit the school, observe classrooms, and ask questions after the visit. Friday coffee with the principal; family, grandparents, or school critical friend lunches are possible events that bring families into the school.
* Make all communications easy, simple, and direct. Keep in mind that many families may have language barriers both because of literacy or lack of knowledge of the English language. Use pictures, short words and whenever needed, translations. Know your audience. When referring to the family remember that there are all types of families: single family, stepfamily, foster, blended, multi-generational.

Family as Learners

* Sponsor workshops for families on how to improve their
o parenting skills,
o discipline techniques,
o communication with their child,
o knowledge about AIDS, drug abuse, Algebra 1, or a host of other subjects. These can be taught by the school social worker, psychologist, a classroom teacher, or a family volunteer.
* Provide a video library where parents can check out informational tapes and/or school-made tapes with instructions on such areas as how to help with special projects, homework, or preparation for tests.
* Provide a place and time when families can meet in small groups to discuss common parenting concerns. Families of children experiencing difficulty may be specifically targeted for conversations in which the school counselor or social worker serves as facilitator.
* Enlist the aid of bilingual key communicators for non-English speaking families. Provide appropriate English as a second language programs or alter learning experiences, which have been traditionally available only in English. Look for the assets and strengths of each family and build on those. Families are powerful teachers of other families.

Family as Teachers/Coaches

* Develop a calendar of events of seasonal activities, places to visit, and things to do for families and young adolescents. Include activities that promote family-child interaction that is unhurried and pleasant for both.
* Provide a family/child suggested TV viewing list with an occasional assignment for family/child discussion after viewing a particular program.
* Invite families to join in field trips and send home pre- and post-trip discussion questions.
* Send home suggestions about school related activities to do at home and in the community. (Homework sheets, incentives – positive behavior, and calendar of activities.)
* Provide a list of learning activities and projects plus a reading list to encourage learning.
* Hold a reading, math, or science fair for families at school where projects are displayed and explained by the students.

Family as Supporters, Volunteers, and Audience

* Survey families at the beginning of each year to identify ways in which they would like to help at the school Place in groups (for example: library helpers, field trip sponsors, room families, computer aids). Provide training guidelines. Note: Sample survey is located on p. 95. DO NOT survey families unless you plan to follow up on all responses.
* Host an orientation session for each type of volunteer group. At that meeting establish conditions for volunteer participation. Provide a handbook when possible that includes the guidelines as well as other helpful information. Also solicit leadership form the group so that it can function without the administrator’s constant guidance. The leader from each volunteer group could then make up a volunteer council or care committee which could meet regularly to deal with concerns or changes needed.
* Provide working families an opportunity to provide support through offering Saturday or take-home projects such as copying classroom projects, cutting out materials, and building backdrops for a play. Build your volunteer program on the premise that most families have the desire and ability to help in some way.
* Provide special events that require family participation: read-along night, game night, science fair workshop, creative writing workshop, or multicultural night.
* Develop a community “buddy” program for at risk students Many civic clubs have improving education as their goal – ask them for assistance.

Family, School and Community as Partners
* Send home ‘tip’ sheets, which suggest ways in which families can better, support their young adolescent’s academic performance and/or school attendance.

EXAMPLE:
o Five ways to have fewer homework tears;
o Television viewing guidelines;
o Ten reasons to read with or to your child
o A monthly calendar or seasonal calendar of things families could be doing together. This could include visiting local sites of interest such as the public library and making something.
o Homework assignments that encourage or even require family and child to discuss, share, or work
o Homework and study procedures
o Homework Hotline;
o A safe walk/ride night for students and family members (possibly in conjunction wit open house). Encourage families to walk or ride to school with their young adolescent and discuss safety rules;
o Frequent opportunities for families to utilize their skills and talents with students by sharing hobbies, life experiences, travels, and career information;
o Problem solving strategies for families: A three-way conference among teacher, family, and child is often more successful. The child has the problem (low grades, poor behavior, etc.) the teacher and the family can collaborate to help find a way to assist the child in resolving the problem.

* Engage senior citizen programs
* Outreach programs, e.g., Golden Card, (reduced admission to events)
* Pen Pals
* Provide meals on special occasions, grandparent/good friend tea, etc.
* Solicit local businesses to give release time for families to be involved in their child’s education and /or provide technical resources.
* Suggest to families that they and their children set aside a specific time (one hour) for homework each night. Call it “The Power Hour” and initiate a community marketing plan using posters, advertisements, and buttons stressing the importance of homework and The Power Hour program.