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Category: Archive

  • Building relationships with families through home visits

    Communicating with families can be challenging, because both educators and parents are juggling multiple priorities and demands on their time. As a result, home-school communication is often limited to messages about what’s being taught in the classroom or maybe a phone call home if a student is struggling. To establish more personal relationships, some educators… READ MORE →

  • Searching, identifying, and beginning the grant writing process

    Before thinking about writing grants, it is important to ensure you have a streamlined process for searching, identifying, selecting and then prioritizing grant opportunities. Here are a few ideas for beginning the process of grant writing. How does my organization find the right grants? As we talked about in a recent blog post it is important to… READ MORE →

  • Rethinking the parent-teacher conference

    It’s the fall semester and parent-teacher conferences are being held in schools across the country. These meetings—in which parents and guardians meet with a teacher for 15 to 20 minutes once or twice a year—are often a staple of a school’s parent engagement efforts. According to the nonprofit data bank Child Trends, nearly 9 in 10… READ MORE →

  • The mindset of lasting parent engagement

    Ask educators to define parent engagement and you’ll often hear about events or activities designed to bring families into the school building: parent-teacher conferences, movie showings, book fairs and evenings focused on a subject area such as reading and math. These events are usually attended by families who are already tuned in to their child’s… READ MORE →

  • Locating funding to support family-based/family engagement initiatives

    Here is a short list of sources, examples, and databases that can help you identify both private and public funding options for your family engagement initiatives: Federal Funds There are many sources of monies from departments, offices, bureaus and centers at the federal level. For instance, the U.S. Department of Education confers Title 1 funds… READ MORE →

  • Parent engagement programs demonstrate efficacy by connecting students’ school-home life

    Recently, family engagement in schools has shifted from being a low-priority endeavor to an integral part of academic reform. For many schools and districts, parent engagement has been a ‘nice-to-have’ more than a solidified goal. The concept of parent engagement has had success for increasing students’ reading and math comprehension as well as overall engagement… READ MORE →

  • The importance of parent engagement: A list of research and thought leadership

    The following scholars and influencers are what we at Families and Schools Together, Inc. consider to be a select list of the current thought leaders in parent engagement. Along with offering ideas and methods for improving the school-family alliance, as well as identifying the most effective components of parent engagement programming, each influencer validates the… READ MORE →

  • The family engagement movement is happening

    A movement has emerged and the power of this movement is not to be underestimated. Parents, teachers, community organizers, and education leaders are coming together as partners and advocates in new and powerful ways. Creating effective partnerships with parents and community organizations to support student success is recognized as one effective strategy within education reform… READ MORE →

  • Kansas Reading Roadmap: FAST at Chetopa Elementary

    Fifty-one schools in the state of Kansas are taking part of the Kansas Reading Roadmap (KRR) initiative, the goal of which is achieving reading proficiency for every student by grade three. Though united under a common goal, each participating Kansas school, including Chetopa Elementary in Chetopa, Kansas, has unique challenges. Phyllis Ross, a retired teacher with 37 years’… READ MORE →

  • Kansas Reading Roadmap: FAST at Onaga Elementary

    Whether in a public, private or home school environment, community is at the heart of education and plays a transformative role in the lives of students. While teachers play an integral role in leading a student to academic success, parents are the driving force that continually support and encourage their children to succeed beyond the classroom. Research… READ MORE →