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Building Family-School Partnerships That Work

Building Family-School Partnerships That Work

The evidence is in: when schools and families work together to support learning, everyone benefits.

  • Students do better in school and in life.
  • Parents become empowered.
  • Teacher morale improves.
  • Schools get better.
  • Communities grow stronger.

What's New

NCPIE Update, May 2009: Does the political will generated by community organizing in low-income, urban communities ultimately enhance the capacity of schools to improve student learning?

NCPIE Update, May 2009
Does the political will generated by community organizing in low-income, urban communities ultimately enhance the capacity of schools to improve student learning?

 

¡Colorín Colorado!
Colorín Colorado's mission is to find research-based and best practice information about teaching reading to English language learners (ELLs) and use the power and reach of the Internet to make it widely available to parents, educators, and policy makers. Read more »

Partnering with Parents and Families to Support Immigrant and Refugee Children at School
Coming to the United States in search of a better life for their children, immigrant and refugee families care greatly about education and have high aspirations for their children. Read more »

Present, Engaged, and Accounted For: The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in the Early Grades
Hedy Chang continues to research the impact of chronic early absence on students behavior.

Organized Communities, Stronger Schools

Present, Engaged, and Accounted For: The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in the Early Grades
Hedy N. Chang | Mariajosé Romero

 
Using Study Circles

Using Study Circles to Engage Racially Diverse Parents, Staff, and Students in Dialogue and Problem Solving
Engaging families from all racial and ethnic backgrounds is challenging in diverse schools. Cultural differences, language barriers, and stereotypes often add to the difficulty of getting input and involvement from all stakeholders. To address these challenges, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) developed a program called Study Circles which combines vigorous outreach, facilitated dialogue, and collaborative action. Learn more.

 
101 Ways

101 Ways to Create Real Family Engagement
Many schools and districts have proclaimed their "strategies for family engagement" and set about "doing things" but they have not succeeded in engaging all families. At best, many have merely increased the engagement of the already engaged.

Author Steve Constantino addresses the cultural revolution that must first occur, along with providing strategies and exercises that help schools begin making the tough cultural changes. Readers then learn how to build on that new cultural foundation and create the relationships that motivate family involvement, and ultimately create family engagement. The book contains more than 100 tested ways to create REAL family engagement. More information.

 
National Network Partnership School Handbook

New edition of National Network of Partnership Schools handbook is ready for distribution from the publisher: Epstein, J. L. et al. (2009). School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action, third edition and CD. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. See flyer for details.

 

star Research Review and Resources

star NCPIE Meeting Schedule — Year 2009

star NCPIE Update: Read NCPIE's monthly newsletter highlighting the training and resource presentations given at the NCPIE monthly meetings.

star Action Briefs: Helping Parents & Communities Better Understand the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)
NCPIE and the Public Education Network (PEN) have developed online Action Briefs for the major themes covered in NCLB. These Briefs can be used in multiple ways — as a training tool, for professional development, or an easy reference to the law's intricacies — with a variety of audiences. Each Brief includes information on what the law says, action items for parents and community leaders and a set of resources. There will also be resources on the legislation, regulations and policy guidance, a glossary of education terms and an implementation timeline. Come back regularly to get new Action Briefs.

NCPIE is a coalition of major education, community, public service, and advocacy organizations working to create meaningful family-school partnerships in every school in America.

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Archive section for special reports
Special reports that have been on the NCPIE home page for over a month will be located in this section. Click here to view reports.

NCPIE Database of Organizations and Resources

NCPIE Partners
NCPIE is committed to making partnerships work in every school in America.

NCPIE Partners, by Category

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NCPIE Member Resources

NCPIE serves as a clearinghouse for resources created by our partners that help build and facilitate effective family-school partnerships.

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Contact

National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE)
Sue Ferguson, Chair
1400 L Street NW, Suite 300
Washington DC 20005
phone 202-289-6790
fax 202-289-6791
ferguson@ncpie.org
All kids deserve good schools

National Dropout Prevention Center / Network Volume 20 Number 2
Family/School Relationships: Relationships That Matter
We often hear how important the three R's are in dropout prevention: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. Looking at the third R, Relationships, we naturally think first about the connections teachers and other school personnel are making with students — engaging them at a personal level; knowing each of them, their interests, their special problems, and their aspirations; caring about them as individuals; and thus not letting them fall through the cracks. And this is extraordinarily important. However, the notion of relationships with parents and families is every bit as significant in order to solve the dropout crisis. Positive personal and school relationships with parents and families translate into strong family engagement, one of the most powerful indicators of student success. View report here.

Public Education Network announces the first-of-its-kind online tool that allows communities to measure their support for their public schools. It's an excellent resource!

The Civic Index is:

  • A tool.
  • That helps identify what civic behaviors the public believes are critical for quality public schools.
  • That leads communities to gain a better understanding of the role civic action plays in the quality of public education.
  • Through strategies which can increase civic involvement through public engagement.

Negotiating The Special Education Maze by Deidre Hayden, Cherie Takemoto, Winifred Anderson, and Stephen Chitwood
For more than 25 years, this classic guide has taken parents, guardians, educational advocates, and special educators step-by-step through the special education process. Now revised and updated, reflecting the latest changes to the special education laws, NEGOTIATING THE SPECIAL EDUCATION MAZE continues to provide thorough, time-tested advice based on the authors' years of experience helping parents advocate for their child. More information here.

Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships by Anne Henderson, Karen Mapp, Vivian Johnson and Don Davies
One of American School Board Journal's editors top education books of 2007 is Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships!! It is recommended as one of the must-reads of the year. More information here.

Kentucky Parent Advisory Council Issues Recommendations and Rubric for Parent Involvement. More information here.

The American Association of Colleges of Teacher Preparation (AACTE), with support from the MetLife Foundation (and behind the scenes support from NCPIE), held a Mini Institute for their members in February of 2007 to promote the importance of engaging parents in the academic success of their children in pre-service teacher training programs and in-service professional development programs. The Survey and Findings, as well as the presentations from leading researchers are being made available on their website.

This site will offer various presentations and information for use in addressing the concerns for Parental Involvement. We hope you use this site to develop or begin a program that provides new teacher training and in-service professional development with the tools necessary to effectively work with families to increase academic success for all students.