Family Engagement in Schools to Promote Student Success
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What is Family Engagement?
When you hear the words “family engagement,” you might think of parents volunteering in the classroom, joining a parent-teacher association, or attending a school board meeting. However, family engagement actually encompasses more than volunteerism and decision making.
There are many frameworks and approaches to defining family engagement in schools in practical ways for educators. For instance, sociology researcher Joyce Epstein’s widely cited typology includes 4 more types of family engagement:
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Learning at home
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Communicating with the school
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Collaborating with the community
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General parenting practices
Similarly, the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) defines family engagement as follows:
“[Family engagement is] a shared responsibility in which schools and other community agencies and organizations are committed to reaching out to engage families in meaningful ways and in which families are committed to actively supporting their children’s learning and development.”
NAFSCE
At ParentPowered, we think of family engagement as any activity that fosters the working relationship between educators and caregivers to support a student’s learning and development, in which caregivers are valued and effective partners in their child’s education. A caregiver is any supportive adult in a child’s life that has some responsibility for the student. In addition to biological parent(s), caregivers can also be grandparents, aunts and uncles, babysitters, or family friends who look after or mentor the child. Caregivers play crucial roles in supporting students at all ages.
Why is Family Engagement Important?
Schools have enough to manage with educating students in the classroom during the day. Yet many educators these days prioritize family and community engagement in schools. Many have budgets and staff dedicated specifically to engaging families. In addition, federal, state, and local governments are increasingly recognizing that family engagement is a critical piece to the puzzle of helping students succeed in public education.
When families are actively involved, it leads to a more holistic learning experience, contributing to academic and social-emotional development. The importance of family engagement in a child’s education cannot be understated. It impacts academic outcomes, attendance, and graduation rates. District and school leaders play a key role in fostering systemic family engagement, promoting family-school partnerships for school improvement and student achievement. Let’s explore just a few of the many benefits of family engagement.
Benefits to Students
There’s a whole field of research on how family engagement in children’s education positively impacts students, leading to better academic and behavioral outcomes. This includes increasing graduation rates, improving outcomes for traditionally underserved student populations, and increasing math and reading scores.
A meaningful family engagement approach that prioritizes parental involvement creates an environment in which families can productively advocate for their children as they grow up. From nurturing early literacy skills in toddlers to supporting career planning for high school students, great family engagement evolves to meet a student’s unique needs at each age.
Benefits to Families
Parents feels good knowing they’re doing right by their child! Caregivers want their children to learn and grow, and family members play a crucial role in supporting this. Also, contributing to a child’s development can strengthen the caregiver’s relationship with that child, which is inherently rewarding.
The best family engagement programs also open up systems of support for the whole family, such as supplemental nutritional programs and health care resources.
Benefits to School
High quality family engagement lays the foundation for a healthy school culture rooted in trust. School events play a crucial role in promoting family engagement by providing opportunities for families to connect with the school community. When students and families feel supported and engaged by their schools, school climate improves, teacher satisfaction and attendance increase, kids are more regulated and ready, and relationships between teachers and families improve.
In addition, parents’ input can be valuable for educators, especially when that family comes from a different cultural or linguistic background with which the teacher is unfamiliar. When schools are able to partner with parents, students may be more likely to get their homework done, too.
Benefits to School
High quality family engagement lays the foundation for a healthy school culture rooted in trust. School events play a crucial role in promoting family engagement by providing opportunities for families to connect with the school community. When students and families feel supported and engaged by their schools, school climate improves, teacher satisfaction and attendance increase, kids are more regulated and ready, and relationships between teachers and families improve. In addition, parents’ input can be valuable for educators, especially when that family comes from a different cultural or linguistic background with which the teacher is unfamiliar. When schools are able to partner with parents, students may be more likely to get their homework done, too.
Benefits to Families
Parents feels good knowing they’re doing right by their child! Caregivers want their children to learn and grow, and family members play a crucial role in supporting this. Also, contributing to a child’s development can strengthen the caregiver’s relationship with that child, which is inherently rewarding. The best family engagement programs also open up systems of support for the whole family, such as supplemental nutritional programs and health care resources.
Benefits to School
High quality family engagement lays the foundation for a healthy school culture rooted in trust. School events play a crucial role in promoting family engagement by providing opportunities for families to connect with the school community. When students and families feel supported and engaged by their schools, school climate improves, teacher satisfaction and attendance increase, kids are more regulated and ready, and relationships between teachers and families improve. In addition, parents’ input can be valuable for educators, especially when that family comes from a different cultural or linguistic background with which the teacher is unfamiliar. When schools are able to partner with parents, students may be more likely to get their homework done, too.
Family Engagement and Educational Equity
Parents are children’s first teachers, and it turns out that what happens in the home before children even begin school can make a big difference for how ready children are to succeed at school.
Researchers have found that achievement gaps begin before student are even enrolled. Some students are already behind on school readiness skills like phonological awareness, basic numeracy, and executive function by the time they reach kindergarten. Students from some demographic groups are disproportionately behind. Students from low-income families, students of color, and English Learners are less likely to be prepared for kindergarten, which has long-term effects on academic and social outcomes. Thus, it’s important to reach parents with critical information on how to support their child’s healthy development from the very beginning of the child’s life or even before they are born.
Research has revealed how parental involvement makes measurable differences in student achievement, especially for disadvantaged student groups like those from low-income families. High quality family engagement in schools builds relationships that encourage family voice and advocacy for students. Elevating family voices through family feedback surveys and other means ensures that families’ experiences and needs are heard and addressed.
When families feel more prepared and confident in representing the needs of their children, they increase the school’s ability to achieve equitable outcomes. Reformers have realized the great potential to narrow opportunity gaps through fostering family engagement for all families through new means and new partnerships, with many exploring how to reimagine parent engagement strategies to better meet the needs of families and schools. Involving families in decision-making processes at the school level is crucial for achieving equitable outcomes and fostering a culture of shared governance.
Removing barriers
School leaders often create parent education opportunities to engage families on topics they think parents ought to know. However, the families who could most benefit from these workshops are often the least likely to be able to attend. Families may have to secure childcare and transportation to get to an in-person workshop, or take time off from work if it’s during their work hours.
An equity-focused approach to family engagement is to set a goal of reaching all families (regardless of socioeconomic status). This often means making a special effort to design a family engagement platform, program, or solution specifically for those in traditionally marginalized groups such as low-income families, families who speak languages other than English such as refugee, and migrant families, and families in racial minority groups.
The Dual Capacity-Building Framework‘s nine “Essential Conditions” for family-school partnerships is a great compass toward building a strong and equitable family engagement strategy. Developed by Dr. Karen Mapp of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, this framework highlights that effective family engagement in education means establishing a collaborative, trusting relationship between schools and families. And trust is the best strategy for equitable family engagement.
As Dr. Mapp points out, there are no hard-to-reach families, only hard-to-reach institutions. This means the responsibility is on schools to not just be approachable, but actually approach families in appropriate ways. As a professional skill, staff need dedicated family engagement professional development on this topic to practice it effectively. Professional learning for educators is just one of the essential components to any family engagement toolkit.
Technology and Innovation in Family Engagement
One major barrier to caregiver engagement is getting families onto school sites. With an ever-increasing array of digital tools, educators have an opportunity to connect with more families more conveniently. This includes Family engagement initiatives that partner not only biological and adoptive parents but also foster parents, guardians, older siblings, and extended family. Research has shown that text messaging with these individuals can boost language and literacy scores and even reduce chronic absenteeism.
Family feedback also lends itself to improving family engagement programs. In-text surveys are particularly useful for collecting caregiver input. Further, when educators intentionally develop family engagement reporting and communicate their findings back to the broader school community, it signals the value of family voices in shaping the future of family-school partnerships and student learning.
Schools: What makes family engagement strategies effective?
Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating effective family engagement policies, incorporating parent involvement is crucial. School leaders can use these general guidelines to develop authentic, interactive, trusting relationships with families by weaving them into family engagement strategies for schools.
Equitable / Accessible
The best educators put themselves in families’ shoes when designing programs. The families who could benefit the most from engagement are often the underserved families who face barriers in accessing resources. Sending home an important memo? Translate it into the languages your students’ parents speak. Putting on a parent education workshop? Arrange for childcare or make the children part of the workshop. Organizing a family fun night in a rural district? Arrange for transportation or create a virtual option.
Tiered Supports
Many educators may be familiar with Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) when they think of personalizing student learning, improving attendance, and providing behavioral supports. But this model can also prove powerful in design family engagement programs.
Family engagement efforts can fall into different MTSS tiers depending on the intensity and whom they’re meant to reach. For example, ParentPowered programs are highly effective Tier 1 interventions designed to give a base level of learning support to all students and families. Our Community Support Stream tool, as part of ParentPowered Trauma-Informed, fits well into Tier 2 approaches to engagement, as educators can curate targeted resources designed to meet more specific needs that only some families may have (such as food or housing insecurity).
Explore the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center or the Collaborative Action for Family Engagement with the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium for more resources about MTSS and family engagement.
Doable
One big reason families can feel deterred from engaging in their child’s education is that the information on how to do that is too overwhelming. Not all families have time to catch up on the latest research and curricular updates, read parenting books, attend a workshop, or even read a newsletter. Look for small things families can integrate into their daily routines and do consistently over time to support their children.
Strengths-Based / Empowering
The mindset with which you approach family engagement matters. Family engagement is all about building relationships, and relationships require mutual respect and trust. To be strengths-based or asset-based (rather than deficit-based) educators begin with the assumption that a) families want what’s best for their children, and b) have a wealth of knowledge that can support and enrich the school community. Another important way to be strengths-based is to hear the voice of families on important issues, from family engagement programs to school activities and policies. Asking for family input enables them to be part of important decisions for what happens with their children’s education.
Culturally Responsive
What families need to feel empowered differs depending on culture. Ensuring communication with families is in a language and format that’s comfortable for them creates trust. In fact, translations of written materials and interpretations of live content are actually required by federal law for families who speak a language other than English.
Culturally responsive family engagement can take family-school partnerships to the next level. Kara Sammet and Linda Kekelis explain that this approach “intentionally taps into family culture and history to develop curriculum that is engaging and meaningful, while also avoiding essentializing cultures.” Even when we don’t know everything about another community’s culture, values, and communication style, just being aware of not knowing and staying curious and open goes a long way. You can offer training for school staff on culturally responsive practice to help build cultural competency and create a culture where diversity is valued.
Grows With The Student
Family engagement programs are often most robust at the youngest grades. Both schools and families can see the role of families as less critical to student success as they build their learning skills and independence. But research shows that family engagement is just as important (if not MORE important) as students enter middle and high school. While the need for family engagement in adolescence stays the same, what that looks like evolves. Learning best practices for engaging caregivers in secondary school helps your team give older students and their families just-right insights to support their tweens and teens during these critical years.
Fun!
The learning and growth of a child is a process full of joyful moments. There’s no reason that building relationships to support this learning and growth can’t be fun!
Families: What can caregivers do to support children’s learning and parental involvement?
With mountains of research and countless books available about development during childhood, the answer to this question can seem overwhelming. But at ParentPowered, we believe every adult has what it takes to learn and own effective strategies for supporting healthy child development through caregiver and parent engagement. That’s why we send weekly texts with bite-sized information that’s easy to take in and use even on a busy day, without any extra supplies or special knowledge. The facts and tips cover math, literacy, socio-emotional learning, and much more, all tailored to the student’s age from birth to high school.
Home-School Connection
Seasoned educators may forget that navigating the school system and understanding the importance of family involvement is not always second nature to families. We can’t take for granted that parents and other caregivers know how and when to speak with teachers or administrators about their child’s learning. Clearing the way for meaningful two-way communication with diverse families sets the stage for student success and improved school climate.
Math & Science
Good news for the math-phobic: you don’t have to be an expert to foster your children’s STEM learning! Simple practices like asking questions, comparing quantities and qualities, using the five senses, embracing mistakes, and doing simple experiments are great ways to develop math and science skills at home. This activity guide has more ideas for young children to build these competencies.
Social-Emotional Learning & Life Skills
Throughout their lives, children develop crucial social and emotional skills that contribute to their thriving as adults. Families are often already cultivating these skills in children without even realizing it! Practicing calm-down strategies, noticing and naming big feelings, and encouraging children to help around the house are great ways to practice social-emotional learning at home.
Even as students move into middle and high school—years marked by greater independence—parents can still support life skills development in age-appropriate ways. By facilitating conversations and self-reflection, caregivers can guide teens to make positive decisions about peers, personal goals, and more.
Language & Literacy
Even before children learn to read, they can build foundational skills like phonological awareness, vocabulary, and diverse background knowledge at home and in the world outside of school. Which language is spoken or read doesn’t matter—families can lean into whatever their home language is. What matters is that they provide a rich oral language and text environment for young children to learn key concepts that will help them learn to read and write. Even caregivers who don’t read or write can foster crucial literacy skills through the power of storytelling.
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