Family and Community Engagement Pioneers and Best Practice RUSD - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Family and Community Engagement Pioneers and Best Practice

RUSD Office of Family and Community Engagement

Overview

• Welcome and Icebreaker Activity
• Family and community engagement overview
• Family and community engagement research and best practices
• The Office of Family and Community Engagement
• Next Steps

Welcome and Icebreaker

• Welcome
• Introductions
• Icebreaker

Icebreaker Questions- Roll The Dice

• 1. If you could be any place in the world right

now, where would you like to be?

• 2. If you were not a ______, Today, what

would be your career choice?

• 3. How many members are there in your

immediate family?

• 4. What are you most grateful for?
• 5. What can’t you live without?
• 6. As a parent, what is the one funny thing that

you do that you never imagined came with being a parent?

FACE Overview

• Family and community engagement (FACE) is defined as “a reciprocal partnership

between parents and programs that reflects a shared responsibility to foster young children’s development and learning”. (Forry, Moodie, Rothenberg, & Simkin, 2011)

• FACE comprises of parents (broadly defined to refer to a primary caregiver) and

school staff, social service providers and community members

• Works together to actively support and improve the academic achievement, social

and behavioral development, and health of children, adolescents and young adults

Defining Engagement

• Engagement extends beyond simple involvement by empowering families to

recognize their own needs, strengths and resources and take an active role in making change

• Engagement vs. Involvement

○ Involvement: Ideas and energy tends to come from schools and from government mandates ■ Parent is directed towards completing tasks selected by school staff ○ Engagement: Ideas tend to be elicited from parents by school staff in the context of developing trusting relationships ■ Parent is considered a leader or potential leader who is integral to identifying vision/goals

FACE Research and Best Practices

• Karen Mapp, Harvard Graduate School of

Education

○ Consulted with the US Department of Education to create the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family School Partnerships ■ https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/u k/14/11/building-capacity-family-enga gement ■ See handout

• Joyce Epstein’s Framework of Six Types of

Engagement

○ See handout

Title 1 Parent Engagement

• Federally-funded program
• It is not a special education program.
• In Racine County, it focuses on reading and math from K3-9th grade.
• For RUSD or non-public schools to qualify they must have a students population of

64.8% or higher of student population that qualifies for free or reduced lunch.

• Qualifying schools gets additional funds for (*All funds must be related to reading and math):

○ Staff ○ Professional development ○ Materials for classroom instruction ○ Parent involvement

Office of Family and Community Engagement

• Mission/Vision/Values
• Initiatives
• Title 1 updates
• Planning and Next Steps

RUSD FACE Survey Results

• In Spring of 2016 FACE administered a survey to RUSD staff who were in the following positions:

○ Teachers ○ Social worker/Counselor/Psychologist ○ School Administrator ○ Others

• Results of the survey helped FACE determine what areas to focus on:

○ 60% of respondents said that the district and the schools perform average or below average on family engagement ○ Communication, Relationships and Collaboration were identified as key components needed in effective family engagement ○ Identified obstacles: communication, lack of resources, school climate ○ Areas of support needed: resources, district climate, communication

Call to action and next steps

• What you can do?

○ Begin to identify fellow/potential parent leaders ■ Build relationships ■ Invite to events ■ Explore starting/joining a parent group in your school ○ Parent Leadership Network (PLN) ■ Who we are and where do we want to go? ■ Relational meeting assignment

• Next Steps for the Office of FACE

○ Strategic planning ○ Upcoming events

Thank You!!!