The School Leader Tool
REAL Family Engagement
At the Flamboyan Foundation, we have seen – and research shows1– that families play Five Essential Roles in their children’s education: (1) communicate high expectations, (2) monitor performance, (3) support learning at home, (4) guide their path, and (5) advocate for their needs. All families deserve to have access to the information and connections they need to play these roles well; Flamboyan champions REAL Family Engagement within schools and school systems to make that a reality.
REAL Family Engagement happens when families have:
Relationships with teachers built on trust, ongoing communications, and shared power;
Experiences where educators challenge their own biases and promote racial equity;
Academic partnerships that include grades and social-emotional development; and
Leadership in schools, school systems, and communities who create the conditions for meaningful engagement
When family engagement gets REAL, educators and families become true allies in educational excellence, schools foster a sense of belonging for everyone, and students succeed in school and beyond. Though it is essential to student success, family engagement is not always an easy or clear task. The School Leader Tool is a place for school leaders, and those who support school leaders, to start building a school-wide culture of family engagement.
Evidence shows that students do better in school and life when their families are engaged in their education,2 and that schools improve faster when families are engaged.3 In fact, the largest predictor of whether families are involved at home and school are the specific school and teacher practices that encourage and guide families’ engagement.4 Educators are the experts on curriculum and pedagogy, and families are the experts on their children, from the earliest years to and through adulthood.
Getting Started
As a school leader, you are constantly collecting, analyzing, and utilizing data. Regular reflection on family engagement data supports deep and equitable family engagement, where all families are engaged in their child’s education, have trusting relationships with their child’s teachers and have the information they need to support their child’s success. Reflection on family engagement data allows us to see our impact, understand gaps, and identify solutions. This type of reflection requires vulnerability, humility, and self-awareness takes time to cultivate. To put it simply, REAL Family Engagement takes work – intrapersonal and interpersonal – and the School Leader Tool is here to help.
REAL Family Engagement is not just the strategies or practices teachers use to partner with families; it is a way of being. The School Leader Tool:
- Supports school leaders to create the conditions for REAL Family Engagement to thrive;
- Illustrates how high-quality, equitable school-level family engagement can look; and
- Guides those who are coaching school leaders – such as district or CMO family engagement personnel – on what to prioritize and how to support REAL Family Engagement in schools.
The School Leader Tool is organized into four domains:
- Embedded Family Engagement
- Fostering Asset-Based Beliefs about Families
- Listening to Families
- High-Quality + Equitable Practices
Within each Domain are a set of prompts to guide reflection and coaching, and sample leader actions.
The School Leader Tool
At-A-Glance
Family engagement is a living and breathing part of the culture, systems, and structures of the school.
- How is family engagement connected to school-wide goals?
- Can every staff member clearly describe their role in supporting effective family engagement?
- How is family engagement connected to school-wide systems and structures, and reflected in your long-term plans?
- How are you creating time and space for staff to reflect on beliefs about families, their relationships with families, and the quality of families’ experience at your school?
- In what ways does data inform school-wide messages and priorities?
- How would family engagement work be carried forward in the absence of key individuals?
The school community recognizes the assets and strengths of all students and families and interrupts bias and deficit beliefs.
- How do you routinely discuss and embrace the strengths of your students, families, and school community?
- How are you creating or strengthening a brave space and psychological safety for all staff to engage in conversations about beliefs and biases?
- How do you – as the school leader – challenge low expectations, deficitbeliefs, and dispositions toward blaming families?
- How are you proactively building the capacity of staff to interrupt bias and deficit-based beliefs about families, both within themselves and amongst colleagues?
- How do staff interactions with families reflect their asset-based beliefs?
School improvements and innovations are informed by a diverse sampling of family input, especially from those who have been historically excluded from decision making.
- What questions do you ask families to inform school improvements and innovations?
- How do you develop staff to be empathic listeners?
- Whose input gets heard and receives the most traction? Why?
- How are you differentiating your outreach to families to ensure that families who have historically been excluded from decision-making are heard?
- How are you strategically using input and feedback from families to make decisions in service of equity and impact?
- How are you communicating back to families how their input and feedback are utilized?
All families experience a meaningful partnership based on trust and consistent communication, regardless of their child’s grade or classroom.
- How do your family engagement practices give families what they need to communicate high expectations, monitor and support learning, and guide and advocate for their child?
- How do you invest and build staff capacity for quality family engagement practices?
- How do staff use qualitative and quantitative data to reflect on the quality and impact of their family engagement practices?
- How will your approach to family engagement evolve based on your school’s current needs and assets?
- How does your approach to family engagement reflect families’ preferences and feedback?
Domain 1: Embedded Family Engagement
Family engagement is a living and breathing part of the culture, systems, and structures of the school.
Domain 2: Fostering Asset-Based Beliefs About Families
The school community recognizes the assets and strengths of all students and families and interrupts bias and deficit beliefs.
Domain 3: Listening to Families
School improvements and innovations are informed by a diverse sampling of family input, especially from those who have been historically excluded from decision making.
Domain 4: High-Quality Equitable Practices
All families experience a meaningful partnership based on trust and consistent communication, regardless of their child’s grade or classroom.
Additional Resources
CITATIONS
- Flamboyan’s 5 Essential Roles
- Jeynes, W. (2005). A Meta-analysis of the relation of parental involvement to urban elementary school student academic achievement. Urban Education, 40(3): pgs. 237-269; Hill, N. & Tyson, D. (2009). Parental involvement in middle school: A meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement. Developmental Psychology, 45(3): pgs. 730-763.
- Bryk, A.Sebring, P., Allensworth, A., Luppescu, S., & Easton, J. (2010). Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Dauber, S. L., & Epstein, J. L. (1989). Parents’ attitudes and practices of involvement in inner-city elementary and middle schools. In N. Chavkin (Ed.), Families and schools in a pluralistic society (pp. 53-71). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
- http://www.pthvp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/PTHV_Study1_Report.pdf