NASP Domain 8

1. NASP Domain 8 Home/School/Community Collaboration

2. Home/School/Community Collaboration School psychologists have knowledge of family systems, including family strengths and influences on student development, learning, and behavior, and of methods to involve families in education and service delivery. School psychologists work effectively with families, educators, and others in the community to promote and provide comprehensive services to children and families.

3. Activity • Case Conference Committee Meeting • IEP Review • Mother and grandmother attended • Teacher concerned about his inconsistent academic performance, behavior • IEP revised; extended time and aide for Terra Nova Test • Mother concerned about ADHD and Autism • Conners Rating Scales- Revised for parent and teacher • Autism specialist observations

4. Literature Review • Home-school Collaboration • Occurs when parents and educators share common goals, are seen as equals, and both contribute- results in shared responsibility • Is Not: • Parents only as volunteers under school direction • Parent-teacher conferences with one-way exchange of information • Contacts only when the child is failing • Parent education programs determined by educators to be important for parents (Christenson, 1995)

5. Literature Review • Family-School Contact • Decreases in frequency between preschool and kindergarten • Kindergarten families received more negative notes/news than preschool parents • Establishing contact at this time helps to emphasize shared responsibility, introduce families to school culture, buffer stress of student (Rimm-Kaufman and Pianta, 1999)

6. Literature Review • Why is it important? • Parent involvement in school is associated with school success • Students show improvement in grades, test scores, attitudes, behavior, engagement, attendance • Teachers evaluated higher on teaching skills by parents and principals, indicate greater satisfaction with their jobs • Parents gain greater understanding of the school, increase communication with their children in general but especially about school • Schools are rated as more effective (Christenson, 1995)

7. Literature Review • Especially important for students whose backgrounds include • Economic impoverishment • Limited parental education • Stressful home situations • Cultural discontinuities between home and school • These families may be less involved, and many educators will assume these parents are not interested in their child’s education- not the case • Stressful life circumstances • Bad school experiences themselves • Feel “different”- think they won’t be understood, accepted • Feel disempowered, that they don’t have anything to contribute (Raffaele and Knoff, 1999)

8. Literature Review • Role of School Psychologist • Provide information on how parents can facilitate their children’s school performance and development • Let parents know about resources available • Provide support and consultation to parents and teachers • Clarify rights, roles, and responsibilities between educators and parents for children’s learning (Christenson, 1995)

9. Literature Review • School psychologists must serve as systems consultants • “Infiltrate” all areas in the school with a family-school focus • Actively reach out to parents before their kids have problems • Improve family-school partnership, not just family-teacher or family-psychologist (Christenson, 2004)

10. Literature Reviews • Evidence-based Interventions • Home-school collaboration interventions are effective in helping achieve desired school outcomes • Best results were seen when • parents and educators worked together to implement an intervention • had a two-way exchange of information between school and home • Daily report cards and school-to-home notes • While simple, these techniques were effective in addressing problems with • quality of schoolwork, • academic achievement, • acting-out behaviors, • absenteeism, • study skills, • and on-task behavior (Cox, 2005)

11. Reflection • “School psychologists have knowledge of family systems, including family strengths and influences on student development, learning, and behavior, and of methods to involve families in education and service delivery” • Talking with parent allowed us to see how student’s behavior differed at home, how his family interacts • Able to use knowledge of development and behavior to address concerns • “School psychologists work effectively with families, educators, and others in the community to promote and provide comprehensive services to children and families” • Attending this meeting allowed me to see how educators and parents can collaborate to address problems

12. Reflection • Suggestions for improvement • Could have talked to parent earlier on • Would have learned of her concerns about ADHD and autism at an earlier point • Parent could have been involved in interventions • Intervention may have been more effective if it was continued at home

13. References • Christenson, S. L. . (1995). Families and schools: What is the role of the school psychologist?. School Pyschology Quarterly, 10(2), 118-132. • Christenson, S. L. (2004). The Family-school partnership: an opportunity to promote the learning competence of all students. School Psychology Review, 33(1), 83-104. • Cox, D. D. (2005). Evidence-based interventions using home-school collaboration. School Psychology Quarterly, 20(4), 473-497. • Raffaele, L. M., & Knoff, H. M. (1999). Improving home-school collaboration with disadvantaged families: Organizational principles, perspectives, and approaches. School Pyschology Review, 28(3), 448-466. • Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., & Pianta, R. C. (1999). Patterns of family-school contact in preschool and kindergarten. School Psychology Review, 28(3), 426-438.