Families at the Center of Social Justice in Schools: Lessons From the Learning Community

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Toward a Culturally Sustaining Model of Family and Community Engagement in Schools

Abstract

Families drive social justice in education. They are the moral compass of public education, holding the rights to a quality education and nurturing the highest expectations for children--expectations that transcend math and reading scores and reflect their deepest hopes and dreams for their children. When families hold power and voice in public schools, they can transform public education from a place that reproduces systems of oppression to a place where children learn to dismantle systems of oppression.

The Learning Community is K-8 public school in Central Falls, Rhode Island, serving 575 students-- 96% of whom are student of color, with families from 39 different countries, over 80% of whom qualify for free/reduced price lunch. Despite what may typically be seen as environmental or cultural challenges to family engagement, we are in the 99th percentile for our level of family engagement in Panorama Education’s comparative data set of more than 430 districts and 5,900 schools, across diverse geographic areas, school types, and achievement levels. We engage our families in diverse ways that are rooted in their narratives and experiences. We have found that families are central to our work as a community and we look forward to sharing our experiences alongside researchers in this symposium.

Beyond our successful engagement with families, The Learning Community also outperforms as an academic institution as well. With a poverty rate 70% to 80% higher than the State’s, The Learning Community has outperformed Rhode Island schools in both reading/ELA and math for three consecutive years and in six out of the past seven state standardized test administrations. In addition, The Learning Community has outperformed its three sending districts (Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket) in reading/ELA and math for eleven straight state standardized test administrations. We have developed systems to address the social and economic challenges that our families face. We will share our practices in and out of classrooms that promote academic learning with the support of students’ families.

Our school is an anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-classist public school where we believe that families are the greatest strength in their children’s lives. In this presentation, led by a Co-Director of The Learning Community, we will discuss the ways in which the school works every day to honor, respect and listen to families to ensure that we do our best work for their children.

Author

• Sarah Friedman, The Learning Community