Title: Archived: Family Involvement in Children's Education: Successful Local Approaches; Executive Summary
Headings: Executive Summary
A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n
Executive Summary
Families and Schools as Partners
Successful Approaches to Family Involvement in Education
Effects on Students and Families
Guidelines for Effective Partnerships
Profiles of Successful Partnerships
Notes

Content: Whatever steps schools take in developing partnerships with families, schools that are most successful are prepared to reconsider all of their established ways of doing business and to restructure in ways that will make them less hierarchical, more personal, and more accessible to parents. Bridging school-family differences. Language and cultural differences as well as differences in educational attainment separating families and school staff can make communication and family participation in school activities difficult. Strategies to address these differences include reaching out to parents with little formal education, addressing language differences through bilingual services for communicating both orally and in writing with families about school programs and children's progress, and promoting cultural understanding to build trust between home and school. Tapping external supports for partnerships. Many Title I schools have nourished and strengthened partnerships by tapping the supports available in their local communities and beyond. Collaborative efforts to provide schools and families with the tools they need to support learning can include partnerships with local businesses, health care and other community service agencies, and colleges and universities, as well as supports provided by school districts and states. Effects on Students and Families
The experience of the school and district programs reviewed for this report supports the conclusion that family involvement can have significant effects on student achievement. Appendix B presents evidence of improvement in student outcomes, wherever it was available, for each of the school or district programs highlighted in this Idea Book. Although it is impossible to attribute student achievement gains or other student outcomes in any of these schools or districts solely to their parent involvement activities, it does appear that many schools that make parent involvement a priority also see student outcomes improve.