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…

This article reports findings from a case study of district leadership for school, family and community partnerships in a suburban district in the mid-Atlantic region of the USA. Analyses suggest that the case district's family and community involvement specialist has been successful in using different kinds of data to achieve a variety of goals…

In this qualitative case study, the author describes (a) how parent liaisons in a diverse suburban district have supported school, family, and community partnerships and (b) the role played by the district family and community involvement specialist. On the basis of analyses of interview, observation, survey, and document data, the author…

In Baltimore, Maryland, 49 schools are working with the National Network of Partnership-2000 Schools at Johns Hopkins University to build comprehensive, permanent partnership programs with their families and communities. This article profiles three elementary schools that attribute their success to action teams, six types of family involvement,…

Examines role of community in school-based school, family, and community partnerships. Presents a definition of school- community collaboration, identifies gaps in current knowledge, and analyzes survey data to learn more about types of community partners and the challenges schools face in developing partnerships. Discusses steps needed in…

Reviews the current theoretical and empirical literature on community involvement in schools, describing different rationales for community involvement. Discusses four major forms of school-community partnerships (business, university, service learning, and school-linked service integration) and factors influencing their implementation and…

Since 1987 schools in Baltimore (Maryland) have been working with the Fund for Educational Excellence and the education research center at Johns Hopkins University to develop comprehensive programs of school-family-community partnerships. To understand better how these schools are building and improving their partnership programs, administrators,…

Analyzed data from a 1996 end-of-the-year survey that updated information on schools in the National Network of Partnership Schools, which was designed to build comprehensive programs of school, family, and community partnerships. Results indicated that five ingredients were crucial for partnership success: active and supportive action teams,…

This handbook serves as a guide for state, district, and school leaders to organize and implement positive and permanent programs of school, family, and community partnerships. The book's eight chapters offer step-by-step strategies to improve school-family-community connections. Chapter 1 summarizes the theory and research on which the handbook…

Despite strong agreement on the importance of parent involvement, most schools, districts, and states still need help in developing comprehensive programs of school, family, and community partnerships. This revised handbook translates lessons learned over 20 years of research and fieldwork into practical solutions for program development. The book…

Despite increasing interest in the role of community involvement in school improvement, few studies have examined motivations for, or results of community partnership development in high schools. To fill this gap, the authors conducted case studies of three high schools with successful community partnerships. The authors found that case high…

Drawing on J. Epstein's theory of overlapping spheres of influence (1991, 1995), this study explores the effects of teacher, family, and church support on the school-related attitudes, behaviors, and academic achievement of African American, urban adolescents. To achieve this objective, 826 students in an urban school district in the southeastern…

To better understand how some secondary schools are working to encourage continued family and community involvement as children progress from elementary to middle and high school, 22 educators, parents, and students at 2 middle schools and 2 high schools were interviewed. The four schools are members of the National Network of Partnership Schools,…