Partnerships at the Center: Year 1 Findings of Family Engagement at a Community Elementary School

• In Event: Early Lessons Learned From a Statewide Initiative to Build Dual Capacity for Family-School Partnerships

Abstract

Objectives or purposes:
This paper explores family-school partnerships at one elementary school in Kentucky’s Appalachian region. By exploring family-school partnerships in one specific context, this research helps explain how schools and districts are engaging DCBF as they expand and deepen their commitments to family engagement. This paper responds to the following research question: How and to what extent is the elementary school engaging the Dual Capacity-Building Framework? How does this change over time?

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework:
We draw upon DCBF to evaluate the school’s (and district’s) process conditions and organizational conditions to identify strengths in the schools approach to family engagement during its early engagement with DCBF (Mapp & Bergman, 2021). This includes a review of stakeholders’ efforts to build and restore trust among families and educators, a review of the resources provided and infrastructural shifts enacted to sustain family engagement, and an assessment of how educators collaborate with families and community partners to build capacity through equity-centered approaches.

Methods and Data:
The research included an analysis of semi-structured interviews, demographic survey data, and document analysis. Interviews ranged in time from 30 minutes to 65 minutes, and included parents (20), teachers and school staff (8), and district staff (1). Themes tracked across the semi-structured protocol and documents include engagement, leadership, and decision-making; child learning and parental support; and equitable frameworks for minoritized students, students with disabilities, and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view:
The school's leadership emphasizes the important role that families play in children’s learning, particularly through its dedicated personnel who support family engagement. As the district undergoes a recently initiated equity audit, teachers and families are engaged as partners in these discussions and are encouraged to submit feedback and participate in decision-making committees. In partnership with community stakeholders, the school offers trainings to encourage parents to build capacity in advocating for their children. Parents collaborate with each other and lead initiatives to create safe learning environments, including an initiative to fund new facilities accessible to students with physical disabilities. While early in its engagement with DCBF, the school’s review of its practices, guided through an equity lens, signals potential to ensure that barriers to decision-making are challenged, that its program participants are representative of the parent and student population, and that a family engagement framework is communicated with all school staff, including new teachers.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work:
A key takeaway is that a community focused on creating sustainable family-school partnerships, particularly for families from marginalized backgrounds, through DCBF, can achieve this goal. Additionally, insights gleaned from this project can inform the literature on family engagement systems at the statewide level, specifically how statewide goals are implemented at the school and district levels.

Authors

• Jeremy Martin, University of California - Berkeley

• Mellie Torres, Nellie Mae Education Foundation