Empowering Students Through Multimedia Storytelling
This article shares programs and strategies that use multimedia storytelling as outlets for student-voice. Author Michael Hernandez argues that by introducing interdisciplinary media projects into the classroom, students can focus more on creating authentic products that can be relevant outside of the classroom. Source Organization: Edutopia Visit the Resource
Preparing Leaders for Deeper Learning
This paper focuses on program design and development for school and district leaders surrounding the creation of sustainable deeper learning environments. The paper addresses two fundamental questions: 1) As a growing body of schools and districts recognize the need for deeper, blended, competency-based learning environments for students, how must the role of leaders evolve to… Read More ›
The Underutilized Potential of Teacher to Parent Communication: Evidence from a Field Experiment
This paper documents the findings of a study performed in which teachers and school administrators in a summer high school credit-recovery program sent weekly one-sentence messages via text message, email, or phone call to parents regarding their children’s performance. The findings show that communication between the school, teachers, and parents is imperative for the success of the children. Source Organization:… Read More ›
Getting Started in Education Organizing: Resources and Strategies
This guide provides strategies and resources to support community organizing for education reform. It is designed for community organizations that have some previous experience with organizing and want to tackle disparities in the education system. The guide outlines how organizing for education reform differs from other organizing efforts. It explores how to build a base… Read More ›
Students Give Thumbs Up for Brain Based Teaching
This article in The Edmond Sun describes the efforts of a local teacher to make metacognition come alive in her second-grade classroom. She explicitly teaches students how the brain works. In one lesson students use pipe cleaners to represent neural pathways and create a class brain, making visible learning pathways by connecting concepts from one… Read More ›
Expanding Opportunity: The Potential of Anywhere, Anytime Learning
This issue of the Family Involvement Network of Educators newsletter explores the importance of engaging families in anytime, anywhere learning. There is growing understanding of the importance of inequalities in access to interest-driven learning out of the traditional school day in afterschool and summer activities and programs, at cultural institutions, and through digital media. However,… Read More ›
Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement
This report explores the role of districts in promoting family involvement. The report looked at six districts that are working to build the core components of systemic family engagement by fostering district-wide strategies, building school capacity, and reaching out to families directly. The report includes a description of the practices used by each district to build… Read More ›
Five Professional Development Resources that Promote Family Engagement
This article provides advice and resources to help schools and community organizations provide high quality professional development around family engagement. The five tips covered include incorporating family engagement into professional development systematically, using digital platforms to connect with families, and providing educators with clear examples of family engagement practices. The article also describes and links… Read More ›
Harvard Family Research Project
This organization seeks to promote family and community involvement in children’s education anywhere and anytime they learn, be that in the home, at school, in community programs, or through digital media. To that end, the Harvard Family Research Project conducts research and documents promising practices, creates frameworks and policy papers, and provides tools for professional… Read More ›
A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement
This often-cited report synthesizes over 50 research studies on the impact of family and community involvement on academic outcomes conducted between 1995 and 2002. The authors provide an overview synthesis of findings across the studies as well as a detailed summary of each individual study. The synthesis of the research studies found that parents of… Read More ›
SoundOut
This organization works with schools to build student voice through meaningful student involvement. Its website offers many resources for students, teachers, administrators, and community leaders working on school reform. The issues section contains overviews of key concepts including meaningful student involvement, student voice, student engagement, and student/adult partnerships. The tools section includes toolboxes on meaningful student… Read More ›
PTA National Standards for Family-School Partnerships: An Implementation Guide
This guide introduces the six standards for family-school partnerships developed by the National Parent Teacher Association. The standards, welcoming all families, communicating, supporting student success, speaking up for every child, sharing power, and community collaboration, are described in detail along with vignettes of local success stories. For each of the six standards the guide also… Read More ›