Learning from Megan Lorio, Managing Editor at Family Engagement Lab
At Flamboyan Foundation, we are mission-driven to help foster authentic, REAL Family Engagement – the kind that facilitates parents’ and caregivers’ involvement in their child’s learning and academic growth.
And we are not the only ones. All over the country, teachers, schools, districts, and educational organizations are working to create opportunities for families to play the Five Essential Roles in their child’s learning. One of those organizations is Family Engagement Lab, which partners with school districts to establish equitable, high-impact family engagement practices, enabling school systems to build relationships with historically underserved families.
Family Engagement Lab does this through FASTalk (Families and Schools Talk), a program that sends families weekly text messages in their home language, sharing tips and ideas for how they can support their child’s learning at home. Part of the power of FASTalk is that it’s specific to the school, grade level, and time of year, so families are getting ideas about learning-focused activities for home that line up with what they are learning in school. This ongoing communication is critical to continue to grow and foster relationships with families while building partnership in service of student academic success.
We sat down with Megan Lorio, managing editor at Family Engagement Lab, to hear about the hows and whys of her important work, and why she’s so dedicated to ensuring families have access to the tools and information they need to support their child. Megan’s approach to working with families as equal collaborators started early in her career: her first year of teaching in DC, she worked at Garfield Elementary School, an early Flamboyan partner, and received training in home visits that very first fall. “I can’t overstate the impact Flamboyan has had on my career as an educator,” she said.
In her role at Family Engagement Lab, Megan is responsible for making sure all of the messages delivered via FASTalk are accessible to all families – including in more than 100 languages spoken by families in partner schools and districts.
Here are three critical takeaways from Megan, drawn from her work as a teacher, instructional coach, school administrator, and family engagement champion.
1. High-impact family engagement is all about relationships.
“Everything we talk about at Family Engagement Lab is rooted in relationship-building,” shared Megan. “Families are just people.”
Parents and caregivers want to be involved and helpful in their child’s learning, development, and growth, but often don’t know how to do so. Families may not even have a clear sense of what their child is learning in school. FASTalk helps families see they have a lot of capacity to help their child, and helps close the “expectation gap” – giving them information about the lesson of the day or week and further developing the connection between home and school.
2. Families want to support their child academically.
Megan reflected that she sees how much teachers want to engage effectively with families – they might just not have the tools or knowledge to do so. Or, they spend their precious time on activities that are fun and create connections with families, but don’t necessarily support the caregiver’s ability to extend their child’s learning outside of the classroom.
Not only does research point to the power of equipping families with ways to engage in their child’s learning, but families are most interested in having this type of relationship with their child’s school and teacher. They want to go beyond social events at the school to playing a role in co-teaching their child.
“We are not saying ‘Don’t do the potluck,’” said Megan. “But instead, how can you figure out how to take that event to the next level and weave in the information that will equip families to support their child academically?”
3. Equity is non-negotiable.
Megan and Family Engagement Lab think deeply about how to ensure that the messages delivered to families via FASTalk are actionable, accessible and useful to them, no matter their own background. They look for tips, questions, and activities that can be done while the family is on the go – in the carpool line for drop off, or at the grocery store. Megan strives to write content at a reading level that all parents and caregivers can grasp, and uses professionals to translate messages into the different languages families speak at home.
“Something that stands out about my Flamboyan training is the level at which they emphasized empathy for families,” said Megan. Parents may have had their own negative experiences with schooling, leading to a lack of trust in teachers or school leaders. Understanding where they are coming from helps to build trust.
Megan represents one of thousands of educators who have been trained by Flamboyan Foundation in building strong relationships, sustaining those relationships through ongoing communication, in service of academic partnerships between families and schools. To learn more about how to grow your own practice, please check out our resource page.