Using School-CBO (Community-Based Organization) Partnerships to Improve Parent Engagement in Under-Resourced Schools

• In Event: Utilizing Out-of-School-Time Program Strategies to Reduce Risk and Promote Positive Social, Emotional, and Academic Outcomes

Abstract

The literature demonstrates that positive relationships between parents and schools are beneficial for student academic performance and a wide array of consequential developmental outcomes (eg; Westmoreland, Rosenberg, Lopez, & Weiss, 2009). Additionally, growing evidence suggests that parent engagement can be essential to ensuring youth OST participation and impact (Westmoreland et al, 2009). In under-resourced schools, where both academic outcomes and OST attendance tend to be low, school-CBO partnerships are a growing strategy for increasing parent engagement.

One such school-CBO partnership that has achieved a high level of success engaging parents is The Leadership Program’s Building Family program. Building Family is designed to promote parent engagement by offering school-based parent workshops. Workshops are typically two hours in length and are taught by CBO staff selected for the ability to engage students and parents. School and CBO staff work together to select topics from a menu of curriculum-based options in either stand-alone or series format. The program has grown rapidly; it began in the 2008-2009 school year at 15 NYC public schools, and by the following school year expanded to serve more than 5,000 parents at 63 NYC public schools. Despite its success, mean levels of parent attendance vary widely from school to school, ranging from a low of 2 to a high of 25 parents per workshop.
The purpose of the current mixed methods study is to identify structural elements of school-CBO partnerships that promote parent attendance. The research team conducted nine structured interview sessions with CBO program implementation and supervisory staff. Staff were asked to report their impressions of successes and challenges in getting parents to attend Building Family workshops. Program staff unanimously identified the relationship between CBO and school staff as the most important factor in understanding parent attendance. Numerous staff members also mentioned the existence of additional OST programming as a key ingredient in increasing parent attendance.
Next, the research team conducted a review of program record data to confirm these associations. Ordinary least squares regression analysis confirmed that parent attendance at workshops was significantly associated with the quality of relationships with school staff (β = 2.13, t(59) = 2.20, p <0.05) and associated at the trend level with the presence of youth OST programming at schools (β = 2.37, t(59) = 1.75, p <.10). Together, quality of relationships with school staff and the presence of youth OST programming accounted for approximately 13% of the variance in parent attendance (R2 = 0.13, F(2, 57) = 4.23, p <0.05).

School-CBO partnerships appear to be an effective tool for bringing parents into under-resourced schools. However, the efficacy of those partnerships can vary widely. Structural factors such as the relationship between school and CBO staff account for a significant amount of variance in parent workshop attendance. There is also some evidence that school-CBO partnerships are more effective at engaging parents when the CBO also have youth OST programming at the school. It is likely that the CBO’s pre-existing relationship to families in question serves a building block toward parent engagement.
 

Authors

• Juliana Karras, New York University

• Amanda C. Thompkins, King County Department of Community and Human Services

• Lisa M. Chauveron, The Leadership Program