Gain a comprehensive understanding of the role that parents and families play in college students’ lives through their involvement starting with K–12, moving through the transition to college, and then focusing on the college experience itself. The authors broaden the conversation to reflect the actual and diverse array of parents and families that play vital roles in students’ collegiate experiences. Particular attention is paid to: diverse families, including students of color, first-generation college students, and low-income students, an agenda for more inclusive research, theories, and practices with the goal of broadening the conversation to reflect the diverse array of parent and family engagement, and standards, models, and best practices that might be applied more broadly and modified as needed. As a whole, this volume offers an expanded way of thinking about how higher education understands, engages, and serves the needs of parents and families. This is the 6th issue of the 41st volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education issue, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.

In today’s colleges and universities, parents and families are increasingly important as partners to support students in enrolling and navigating the college experience. Tailored to higher education professionals who work with the families of college students, this book provides a solid foundation for establishing or enhancing parent and family initiatives across the institution and how to partner with families to foster student success. The chapter authors, seasoned professionals working in higher education, share best practices and relevant research related to partnering with families and addressing challenges that come with engaging families. Chapters also explore ways to make parent and family programming accessible for first-generation families and families from underrepresented groups who may often feel left out of traditional activities, programs, and services. Chapters feature "Voices from the Field" sharing best practices as well as "Tough Talks" breaking down some of the more difficult interactions between families and students and staff. This book is a valuable resource to higher education and student affairs professionals seeking to strengthen their work with families in order to better support student success in college.

Helicopter parents have become a recent phenomenon in higher education. Who are these parents and why have they landed on our college campuses? This monograph examines parental involvement in higher education by looking at the history of the relationship between students and institutions and institutional responses to this phenomenon. It explores alternative theoretical frameworks that highlight the benefits of strong parental relationships for today's college students, paying particular attention to the variables of gender, race, and socioeconomic class and how they inform the student-parent relationship. This text concludes with implications for practice and suggestions for policy so that all parents are included in our institutional efforts, not just the ones making all the noise. -- Back cover.

Thirty-six of the best thinkers on family and community engagement were assembled to produce this Handbook, and they come to the task with varied backgrounds and lines of endeavor. Each could write volumes on the topics they address in the Handbook, and quite a few have. The authors tell us what they know in plain language, succinctly presented in short chapters with practical suggestions for states, districts, and schools. The vignettes in the Handbook give us vivid pictures of the real life of parents, teachers, and kids. In all, their portrayal is one of optimism and celebration of the goodness that encompasses the diversity of families, schools, and communities across our nation.

Helicopter parents—the kind that continue to hover even in college—are one of the most ridiculed figures of twenty-first-century parenting, criticized for creating entitled young adults who boomerang back home. But do involved parents really damage their children and burden universities? In this book, sociologist Laura T. Hamilton illuminates the lives of young women and their families to ask just what role parents play during the crucial college years. Hamilton vividly captures the parenting approaches of mothers and fathers from all walks of life—from a CFO for a Fortune 500 company to a waitress at a roadside diner. As she shows, parents are guided by different visions of the ideal college experience, built around classed notions of women’s work/family plans and the ideal age to “grow up.” Some are intensively involved and hold adulthood at bay to cultivate specific traits: professional helicopters, for instance, help develop the skills and credentials that will advance their daughters’ careers, while pink helicopters emphasize appearance, charm, and social ties in the hopes that women will secure a wealthy mate. In sharp contrast, bystander parents—whose influence is often limited by economic concerns—are relegated to the sidelines of their daughter’s lives. Finally, paramedic parents—who can come from a wide range of class backgrounds—sit in the middle, intervening in emergencies but otherwise valuing self-sufficiency above all. Analyzing the effects of each of these approaches with clarity and depth, Hamilton ultimately argues that successfully navigating many colleges and universities without involved parents is nearly impossible, and that schools themselves are increasingly dependent on active parents for a wide array of tasks, with intended and unintended consequences. Altogether, Parenting to a Degree offers an incisive look into the new—and sometimes problematic—relationship between students, parents, and universities.

Family Engagement with Schools is unique because it is the only book written especially for social workers and social work students who work in partnership with educators. The text introduces social workers to the new Dual Capacity-Building Framework and the latest resources. -- Provided by publisher.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.