A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

Studies of Education Reform: Parent and Community Involvement in Education - 1995

Implications for Policy and Practice

Introduction

Studies of Education Reform: Parent and Community Involvement in Education focused on school/family and community partnerships in nine sites throughout the United States. These nine sites employed different strategies to successfully involve parents, family members, businesses, and their communities in education reform. In some cases, partnerships were developed in order to further reform initiatives; in other cases, school/family and community partnerships were the result of reform efforts. The lessons we learned in each site, and the themes that we found across all sites, can inform both policymakers and practitioners about effective and promising practices of school/family partnerships in the middle grades.

Implications for Policy

From our research several implications for policy concerning school/family partnerships in the middle grades are evident:

Student success -- the ultimate goal of educational reform efforts -- should be an integral theme of policy.
While structures of parent involvement programs, adequate resources, and communication among stakeholders are all vitally important, policymakers must keep in mind that the intended goal of education reform is success for all children. As such, policies should be directed at linking families with resources in the school and the community that foster student success.
Policies, at all levels, must support school/family and community partnerships.
Federal, state, and local education agencies can empower school/family and community partnerships through clear definitions, regulations, guidance, and communication; support for activities at the school level; provision of information and resources; and dissemination of existing and promising practices in the field of middle grade school/family and community partnerships. Formulating policies, establishing information networks (both human and technological), and supporting innovation are some of the conditions that can facilitate the formation of partnerships.
Policies should be written with an understanding of the contexts in which they are to be implemented to allow for flexibility at the local level.
Policies are ultimately implemented in local sites. While federal, state, and district policies must be written for a wide variety of contexts in which middle grade partnerships are implemented, policy language should remain flexible enough to accommodate diversity among students, families, and communities. In short, policies should not create additional barriers to establishing and maintaining school/family partnerships.
Increased funding, while helpful, is not the key to success.
Education reform initiatives that include school/family and community partnerships as an integral part of the reform, or as an intended outcome of the reform, need financial support to operate. Funds alone, however, are not a panacea. Instead, local sites need strategic planning, professional development, commitment, outreach, and other non-financial resources, e.g., time, to be successful. A key role for policy is the provision of both financial and non-financial resources.

Implications for Practice

As we talked with practitioners, parents, family members, and community members; and as we observed district-level and local site activities, we were fortunate to see school/family and community partnerships in action. From our conversations and observations, we drew the following implications for practice:

Find multiple ways for middle grade parents, families, and the community to be involved in school reform efforts.
Recognize the diversity of parents, families, community, and business members as valued resources who have many strengths. Find ways to empower these stakeholders as key players in education reform. "One size does not fit all" when it comes to establishing and maintaining school/family and community partnerships. Institute a variety of practices and programs at the district, school, and home levels to address varying strengths and needs.
Establish support systems to overcome the challenges faced in sustaining effective middle grade school/family and community partnerships.
Parents, families, and school personnel alike must sometimes overcome a large array of internal and external challenges to transform their relationships with each other. As these key players explore together ways to overcome these challenges, non-threatening avenues of communication must be open to them. As middle grade students grow and develop into young adults, schools can help parents and families remain connected, both to the school and to their students, through collaboration and partnership.
Preservice and inservice training for practitioners can promote parents' roles in comprehensive reform, school restructuring, and adult-child learning. Having practitioners learn by doing; being responsible for collaborating with parents, families, and community and business members; and reflecting on effective strategies in group and professional development settings as a regular part of their ongoing careers can be a powerful strategy to build capacity and overcome challenges.
Frequent and thoughtful communication counts.
Establishing and maintaining middle grade school/family and community partnerships is a social, political, and educational activity involving multiple parties with diverse perspectives. Communicating frequently and planfully can help to foster strong relationships.
Allow students to be active co-constructors in home learning activities with their parents and families.
Adolescents struggle with issues of independence and control, but need the guidance and support from their parents and families. Foster positive conditions where the students themselves play a greater role in designing activities that involve their parents and families.
Disseminate information about middle grade school/family partnerships directly to end-users.
Middle grade parents, families, communities, businesses, and practitioners need information about school/family and community partnerships. Use a wide variety of ways to make information about these partnerships (for example, studies that focus on innovative, exemplary practices and programs) available to stakeholders involved in education reform.
Plan to evaluate the impact of your efforts early and often.
Using both formative and summative evaluation information can lead to continuous improvement in the implementation of reform initiatives, and ultimately to greater student success.

Conclusion

School/family and community partnerships in the middle grades share many things in common with partnerships at other grade levels. However, there are unique characteristics that shape the implications for policy and practice on partnerships in the middle grades. Knowledge of adolescent growth and development; the changing roles of key players in a student's life; philosophies of middle grades education; and supports necessary to overcome the challenges peculiar to middle grade parent, family, and community involvement must be considered in developing and maintaining middle grade partnerships. These unique characteristics imply that both policymakers and practitioners must think and act in different ways than they have done in the past.
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[Assessment of the Resources Required to Implement the Reforms]

[Implications for Future Research]