Designed for easy use by school administrators and teachers, this illustrated publication presents strategies to help in the involvement of parents and families, including single parents and those with limited English skills, as more active participants in their children's education. The suggested strategies are appropriate for all students, including those with special needs, and focus on improved communication between educators and families in the areas of: school programs, activities, and procedures; the progress of individual students; and home activities which can improve children's school learning.

Community service and learning experiences are booming as we enter the 21st century. This practical guide assists college students and other constituents as they psychologically prepare for volunteering, service-learning, practicums, fieldwork assignments, and internships in a diverse and ever-changing world. Though created with the novice community worker in mind, this book will also assist professors, teachers, administrators, and agency personnel in understanding and preparing workers for community service and learning in schools, child care centers, soup kitchens, and shelters for the homeless. Written in a practical, conversational style, this book offers the voices, issues, concerns, and resources of more than 200 previous community workers. This book includes their struggles with the initial adjustment process, as well as ongoing gender, race, and class issues encountered in various service learning environments. Topics range from choosing a community service site to appropriate methods of bringing closure to the experience when it is time to say good-bye. This book in essence, provides hundreds of role models, scenarios, and worker perspectives that will help less-inexperienced workers prepare for the real-life, hands-on experiences of community engagement.

This book provides guidance and resources to help teachers communicate and collaborate with the families of Latino English Language Learners (ELLs). Practical tips and tools, including reproducible form letters in English and Spanish, are provided to help teachers solicit valuable information about students from their families, extend families' knowledge of how U.S. schools operate, and provide families with ideas for helping students with their schoolwork at home.

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.

Reach beyond theory and engage every family in student success Family engagement increases student achievement but how do schools connect with families who don’t participate yet? Educators can easily become frustrated trying to reach the disconnected and often fall back to engaging the already engaged. Is it possible to win over everyone? Discover how to move beyond theory to change your culture for better family engagement and student achievement. Through practical steps, reflections, and case studies, you will discover and address: How and where family engagement breaks down, and How to create a truly inviting culture for successful community and family partnerships