Action Teams for School-Family-Community Partnerships

1. Action Teams for School-Family-Community Partnerships presented by Michele Anciaux Aoki, Parent Involvement Consultant

2. What the (International) Research Says • Families vary in their involvement • Parents care about success for their kids • Students need multiple sources of support to succeed • Teachers and administrators are initially resistant to partnerships (but become supportive when they see results) • Schools must reach out to involve families (most families won’t do it on their own)

3. From Ordinary to Excellent Programs • Have you ever heard people say: “If we just had parent involvement here, we’d have greater achievement” • What kind of achievement are you looking for? • Which kind of parent involvement is needed? • Where’s the link? • Different types of involvement yield different results • Identify the Hurdles - Face the Challenges • Want to select activities that produce results

4. Think: “Like Reading” • That’s what you’d like School-Family-Community Partnerships to become • Partnerships should be a normal, expected part of school life - no matter who is there • We need to move from luck to REGULAR PRACTICE • The National Network can help speed up this process by connecting states, schools, and districts to each other and to best practices.

5. What does a Partnership School Commit to? • Use the framework of six types of involvement • Create an Action Team for Partnerships • Allocate an annual budget for the work of the Action Team • Allocate time for a 1-day team training workshop, and 1 hour/month meeting

6. Keys to Successful School-Family-Community Partnerships Joyce Epstein Framework: Six Types of Involvement • Parenting • Communicating • Volunteering • Learning at Home • Decision Making • Collaborating with Community

7. What is an Action Team? • The group of people responsible for developing and implementing a program of school-family-community partnerships tailored to the needs of their particular constituency • Links its efforts to goals of the School Improvement Team (District or State Strategic Planning Team, etc.) The Action Team makes it happen!

8. The ABCs of Action Team Leadership Account for team members Be ready to share leadership Communicate with all partners Develop good plans Ensure progress on six types of involvement Foster team spirit

9. Action Team Structures Action Team Structure #1 • School Improvement Team (Site Council, etc.) • Action Team for S-F-C Partnerships • Committees for Types: (1) Parenting, (2) Communicating, (3) Volunteering, (4) Learning at Home, (5) Decision Making, (6) Collaborating with Community Action Team Structure #3 • School Improvement Team (Site Council, etc.) • Action Team for S-F-C Partnerships • Academic Goal 1, Academic Goal 2, Non-Academic Goal 3, Partnership Goal 4 (etc.)

10. Checklist: Are We Ready? • Decisions for the Action Team to make • Deliverables: • Starting Points (inventory of current practices) • Three-Year-Outline (broad goals) • Jumping Hurdles & Hard-to-Reach Families • School Goals and Results of Partnerships • One-Year Action Plan (specific goals) • Accountability: • Annual UPDATE report to the Center for School-Family-Community Partnerships