Episode 91: Empowering Educational Outcomes — Harnessing the Power of Community and Parental Engagement in Schools

Unlock the transformative power of community engagement in education with insights from my personal journey as a parent in the public school system. My experiences have fueled a passion for exploring the vital connections between schools, families, and community resources. I am thrilled to share the fruits of my research and advocacy, revealing how active parental participation not only bolsters student achievement but also ignites a culture of collaboration and respect within educational institutions. This episode peeks behind the curtain, unveiling the dynamic interplay between educational success and community involvement.

Step into the world of effective family engagement where I dissect how parent academies, family liaison programs, and strategic use of federal aid during the pandemic have reshaped the learning landscape. From Detroit's revitalization efforts to the pivotal role of non-profit organizations in supporting students, I illuminate the multifaceted benefits when schools invite parents to the table as partners, not problems. I'll discuss the impact of community-based organizations in reaching families and how respectful relationships with families can be a true game-changer for educational outcomes. Join me for an enlightening conversation that may just inspire you to take a more active role in the educational community around you.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

Welcome to another episode of K-12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the micro discriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system, I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening.

Speaker 1: 1:52

On today's episode, I'll be discussing the role of community in education, how community engagement enhances the educational process. The role of community in education seems to center on community engagement. Community involves not only organizations and groups, but, to a larger extent, it involves parents like you, who are advocating on behalf of your children and other children. Having strong family and community engagement through outreach and other programs that engage students and families across the school district is critical to the success of public schools. Breaking down barriers between schools and communities is so important. Let's get started. Some would say that community involves the whole school students, parents, teachers and administrators and that may have some merit, but my focus in this episode is on parents and the external community that of community resources, community businesses, community groups, as well as partnerships with appropriate nonprofit organizations, especially those based within the community where the school is located. Community-based organizations can help establish relationships with parents, especially parents of color, that the school district might want to reach. These organizations can give voice to families that most call hard to reach. Once a relationship between district and community-based organizations has been established, programs such as the Family Liaison Program can be implemented. This program allows families to advocate for their children and for others. Liaisons could also help engage and build relationships with families through regular school events.

Speaker 1: 3:51

Parent leadership is really about helping parents build the capacity to have their own voice. Strengthening connection between students, families, community and schools involves improving basic attendance as well as keeping students on track to graduate. It's about providing opportunities for all stakeholders to learn and grow outside traditional school hours. Community engagement is all about a commitment to listen to families and to deliver for them. During the pandemic, when the federal government gave money to support education, key community members, as well as parents, were involved in how school systems should use the federal aid to address the work that districts had already considered essential.

Speaker 1: 4:44

Many school districts have offices that have similar names, like Office of Family Engagement, and work in partnerships with local community groups. Several districts also have established parent academies where parents can take three classes on a number of topics, such as supporting children's education, parenting, conflict resolution in the home, monitoring, social media, building, credit, learning English and professional development. The focus is on empowering parents In working with community organizations and groups. It's worth the investment in people, meaning taking the time to get to know the people that they serve in order to build strong, positive relationships. Re-engaging parents in cities such as Detroit can help turn around public education in that city. For one thing, when parents, grandparents and guardians are engaged in working in tandem with the district toward increasing student engagement, everyone wins. Sometimes, community organizations get involved with school issues, such as expulsions, by providing parent volunteers to provide extra support for expulsion hearings or individualized education programs or IEPs. These community organizations can also provide tutors to help students fill in academic gaps in their coursework. Additionally, community groups and businesses will often raise money to support educational initiatives like providing devices including internet-enabled tablets and tech support to every student who needed one for remote learning. This can often amount to millions of dollars. The fact of the matter is that schools won't be able to attain their goals if they omit family engagement, but how schools engage families meaningfully and respectfully versus superficially, matters, and this will ultimately determine whether schools reap the benefits of family engagement programs, because more often than not, teachers, school and district leadership often view parents as problems, not partners.

Speaker 1: 7:13

In some cases, the role of director of family and community engagement in many districts expands beyond the typical job description. For instance, anna Pesarela was a former elementary school teacher at the Alpine Independent School District, which is south of Houston, texas. She recognized the specific needs of students, families and communities that she served, and she launched a district-wide summer mobile library known as the Book Bus. This came about especially when she realized that students in her community weren't reading over the summer because their parents had to work and the children were unable to leave home to go to the library. The community donated 14,000 new and used books for the Book Bus. She also launched a training course for families to be able to reach and teach pre-K at home, because parents were ineligible for pre-existing preschool due to economic reasons. She then launched a STEM bus with tools for lesson plans that aligned to state standards. Additionally, she runs a student mentorship program and converted parent university sessions to an online format to keep more parents updated on major district news and instructional best practices.

Speaker 1: 8:49

Effective community engagement is about connecting students and their families with community resources to help them attain their goals. One example of this is a high school sophomore who wanted to drop out of school and start working to support himself. Although he did well in school and wanted to be an aerospace engineer, he didn't see a pathway. His mentor had connections at the NASA Center in Houston and through those connections the student was able to become an intern at NASA during high school and is now in college studying aerospace engineering. Schools often indicate that they want a broader, more diverse group of parents to attend meetings, ask questions and participate in school-based activities, but you just can't invite families to show up. You need to set up systems that make those parents feel welcome and heard. For example, if there's a low percentage of Latino families that are attending school meetings, then schools may need to provide translators so the families know what they're saying will be heard and that what's being discussed will be understood. These small acts of understanding and consideration can go a long way toward boosting parent participation in school meetings and school decision making.

Speaker 1: 10:19

Community groups often provide help for schools with challenges like hunger, housing instability and mentorship needs. These resources need to be connected to students who need them the most and then check on the progress of how that help is being monitored. Communities and schools is a national nonprofit organization that trains school-based coordinators to help manage integrated student supports, like donations and social services provided by out-of-school organizations. Integrated student supports are support systems for students' non-academic issues like having clean clothes to wear or dealing with a parent who is incarcerated, addicted or other forms of trauma. If these types of issues aren't dealt with, then there's not going to be a lot of success with math and reading scores. Integrated supports means using the data to track a student's progress so that staff members understand how to apply community resources such as local food banks, mental health services, optometrists or legal services to aid the family. To fund many programs within schools, teachers reach out to businesses to ask for donations and they also look to parents, who might be able to provide funding. Schools can collaborate with local businesses, nonprofit organizations and community members to enhance learning experiences, provide additional resources and address local issues. Such partnerships can enrich the educational environment and foster a sense of shared responsibility for education within the community.

Speaker 1: 12:17

Home visits are an important aspect of community engagement, not only for the families, but for the teachers as well. Visiting the homes of families that have been historically marginalized and not included in decision-making processes related to education can be an eye-opening experience for many teachers. Building relationships with families through home visits and community outreach in students' neighborhoods helps teachers better understand the circumstances and situations that many families and their communities have to deal with on a daily basis. Parents help the teachers in this regard by providing information that teachers may be unaware of. Home visits don't necessarily mean to the family's home. You could be a meeting in a park or a library or any other space that feels right and safe for the family. It's about building trust, and teachers who build enough trust with parents may eventually consider them partners in the education process. Strategies that can be applied to build critical relationships with parents and community include starting early in the year, listening, communication and outreach, asking family about questions that they may have and listening to their fears and needs.

Speaker 1: 13:43

Community members need to lean in, weigh in and lead the schools in these communities. Too often, educators can promote the lead to succeed narrative, which basically intimates that students of color in schools across the nation should leave their neighborhoods if they want to achieve any level of success. But that's not helpful because it undermines the students and their community and exposes low expectations and biases. Instead, students of color should embrace the communities in which they attended schools, where they work and where they live. In order to better the community for everyone, it's most helpful to show students the value of investing in their own families, neighborhoods, connections and relationships, both as students and later as adults. Students need to be encouraged to dig into the history of their community and to express what they are committed to change and uplift. School leadership teams, especially principals, can send a strong signal by embracing community members, businesses and strengths. Even if they don't live in the community, they would do well to bring the community into the school, show students that their neighborhood is something to love, draw inspiration from it as well as respect, no matter how challenged it may be or how bad it looks to an outsider. The right perspective is important. Schools don't usually have their own community. Communities have schools within them. Here are this episode's takeaways Effective community engagement is about connecting students and their families with community resources to help them attain their goals.

Speaker 1: 15:59

Community-based organizations can help establish relationships with parents, especially parents of color, that the school district might want to reach. These organizations can give voice to families that most call hard to reach. What's the relationship between the district and community-based organizations has been established. Programs such as a family liaison program can be implemented. Programs can collaborate with local businesses, nonprofit organizations and community members to enhance learning experiences, provide additional resources and address local issues. Such partnerships can enrich the educational environment and foster a sense of shared responsibility for education within the community. Strategies that can be applied to build critical relationships with parents and community include starting the conversation and connection early in the year, initiating communication and outreach, asking the family about particular questions that they have and listening to their fears and needs.

Speaker 1: 17:22

Did you enjoy this episode? If so, then leave me a rating, a review or a comment on Apple or Podchaser. Leaving me a review is a great way to support me and help my podcast grow. Do me a favor remember to share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and your community about my podcast. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Be sure to stay tuned. On the next episode, I'll be sharing my thoughts on accepting what is and dealing with it. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.