Giving Compass' Take:

• Amanda Winkelsas at Getting Smart writes upon several ways parents and families can further their engagement  with schools and ultimately their children's educational success. 

• Principals and teachers receive little training for engaging families and report feeling underprepared, despite valuing relationships with families. How can work toward building more effective models?

• Learn about foundations that invest in supporting parent engagement in schools.

Dr. Rudy Crew said, “We need to create a wider pathway and a more expansive menu of opportunities for parents. Currently, there is a very narrow pathway for the parent-school relationship, which does not invite all different kinds of conversations that are needed and does not ask parents to operate in any actionable way with schools…If we want parents to take action, we need to help build their knowledge about education and the importance of family involvement.”  As a teacher, I tend to agree. The model that’s long existed is in many ways outdated. Participation in PTA meetings or parent-teacher conferences, chaperoning the occasional field trip or attending a school performance or science fair–that’s been the fairly standard menu of options for family engagement.

While the previous model likely always marginalized some parents and families, what we now understand about modern families is that their needs are varied. Families are comprised differently and have an array of schedules and demands. What we’ve also come closer to recognizing is that physical presence at specific events cannot be the only indicator of family engagement. With technology tools at our disposal, we now have a greater number of tools that can be leveraged to cultivate flexible engagement!

Read the full article on differentiating family engagement by Amanda Winkelsas at Getting Smart