Resources for Family Support

National Association of Elementary School Principals

Resource Title: Strengthening the Connection between School and Home
Price: $26.95
Author: NAESP in cooperation with Educational Research Service
Description: Principals play a key role in promoting a strong partnership between a school and its families and in the empowerment of parents to positively affect the education of their children. This book tells you how to give parents that power, as you strengthen the connection between home and school.

Resource Title: Parents and Teachers Working Together
Price: $26.95
Author: by Carol Davis and Alice Yang
Description: It is essential to develop a strong relationship with students’ parents. Gain tips for instituting a strong relationship with every parent with Parents and Teachers Working Together. This book demonstrates multiple ways to communicate from letter writing to conferencing.

Resource Title: ABC’s of Effective Parent Communication
Price: $26.95
Author: by Dyan Hershman and Emma McDonald
Description: Principals understand the importance of working closely with parents to ensure student success. This book gives you concrete guidelines on every aspect of communicating with parents, including making initial contact with parents, staying in touch with phone calls, e-mails, and conferences, talking about student behavior and academic progress, and keeping parents involved as volunteers, tutors and chaperones at events. A great resource for all administrators!

Resource Title: 176 Ways to Involve Parents
Price: $31.95
Author: by Betty Boult
Description: This hands-on guide is for educators who recognize both the need to and the benefit of involving parents in a school or the classroom. These practical and ready-to-use ideas were generated from the practice of exemplary educators who consistently involve parents in all aspects of school life. The book presents its ideas in five distinct sections: Making it Happen, Creating the Climate, Sustaining Involvement, Working in the Classroom, and Venturing Beyond the Bake Sale.

National Center for Family Literacy

Resource Title: Training
Price: See Website
Description: The National Center for Family Literacy is the premiere organization for the delivery of family literacy training. Emphasizing the most recent language and literacy research, our training distills proven methods into practical solutions.

Resource Title: Stories of Impact: Improving Parent Involvement Through Family Literacy in the Elementary School
Price: $14
Description: This inspiring and practical book examines how famiy literacy impacts children's outcomes by increasing parent involvement and helping parents improve their own skills. The book also provides real program examples of blended funding opportunities and success stories from the Toyota Families in Schools program implemented in 45 Title I schools across the nation.

Resource Title: Recruitment and Retention for Family Literacy Programs Kit
Price: $55
Description: Tools, resources and guidance that every literacy program needs. This kit includes a guidebook filled with straightforward ideas for engaging adult students and keeping them motivated.

National Dropout Prevention Center

Resource Title: Family Literacy Strategies Resource
Price: $8
Author: D.A. Stegelin
Description: This publication is a follow-up to Early Literacy Education and focuses on family strategies to encourage literacy.

National School Boards Association

Resource Title: Communities Count: A School Board Guide to Public Engagement
Price: $20.00
Author: Michael A. Resnick
Description: This publication guides school board members through the community engagement process and includes help in understanding the rationale, the benefits, and the concerns that are part of the process of convening the community. Although the specifics of community engagement will be unique for every community, experience shows that success is based on some common principles, a good plan, and continous work.

National Urban League

Resource Title: Read & Rise Magazine
Price: FREE - While Supplies Last
Author: NUL & Scholastic
Description: As a publication, the magazine is primarily targeted to African-American children, ages 3-5 and promotes a pride of heritage while introducing young children to basic concepts that are important tools for reading and literacy development. Through a variety of stories, poems and other activities, parents and caregivers have the opportunity to explore concepts of print with young children, helping them to develop phonemic and phonological awareness and gain a fundamental understanding of the alphabet. It also provides research-based information on the range of practical ways parents can foster their children’s reading and literacy development, in easy-to-understand language, while providing them with ideas for games and activities that they can do with their children. Designed to be fun as well as educational, the magazine also offers an introduction to the world at large, from stories about nature and science, to whimsical pieces about people in the neighborhood.

Resource Title: Read & Rise: Preparing Our Children For A Lifetime of Success
Price: FREE - While Supplies Last
Author: NUL & Scholastic
Description: Read and Rise is a resource guide that offers research-based information and practical tips to help you engage your child in reading and literacy-building activities. The guide is divided by age and grade. Each section includes: An Introduction, where you will find brief, research-based information on the common literacy behaviors by age and grade. A list of Milestones, important literacy goals that your child should be able to achieve at each age and by the end of each grade. Try This!, ideas and activities that can help you help your child gain the skills needed to become a successful reader. And Book Nook, which presents five basic features to look for when choosing books for your child.

Special Education Action Committee, Inc. Parent Assistance Center

Resource Title: ImPACT Newsletter
Price: 2.00
Description: The ImPACT newsletter is published two times yearly and includes information of interest to parents of children with disabilities, special education teachers and others.