This Dissertation in Practice explored the impact of an individualized meeting with family members of low-income students on the family member sense of connection to the university and knowledge of campus resources. Parents and family members play an important role in higher education as influencers, stakeholders, fundraisers, bill payers, and…

Early identification of developmental delays in young children is a national priority. Yet, a significant number of children do not receive timely developmental monitoring and screening as part of current health and early identification systems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) "Learn the Signs. Act Early."…

Introduction: Early informal learning experiences are essential for sparking long-term interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In a prior study, we found more promising parent involvement outcomes when families of young children were provided with STEM family education events along with home STEM activity kits compared to…

There is a need to engage people with chemistry and to facilitate learning about chemistry in both nonformal and informal learning environments. A variety of platforms have been used to achieve this, including science festivals, summer camps, and so on. The events are voluntary, and participants need to be motivated independently to engage. The…

Family engagement has long been held as an important component of the educational experience for our students. This study is about how schools tend to aim towards the middle when looking to engage families in their child's school life, and future implications for how educators need to shift from the lens of the middle-class to reach our…

Since 2016 the Center on Reinventing Public Education has sought to learn from the work of organizations with navigator services and understand its implications for the K-12 education system. In this brief, we present findings from a preliminary analysis of 10 such organizations. The organizations profiled in this brief offer important lessons for…

This study uses "authentic cariño" to explore a "care and connect" model in a case study of a single district in Teachers Educating All Multilingual Students (TEAMS), funded by a National Professional Development (NPD) grant. Along with ESOL/dual language licensure coursework, teachers in five districts engage in…

This article details the findings from Project LOCAL (Library Outreach as a Community Anchor in Learning), a mixed-methods study that explored how public libraries contribute to educational equity by going into community locations to reach and serve families and children in underserved communities who cannot come into the library due to a variety…

Parents play a central role in supporting the early learning that positions young children for success when they enter formal schooling. For this reason, efforts to engage families in meaningful collaboration is a long-standing goal of high-quality early childhood education (ECE). Family-school engagement can take multiple forms; in this review we…

Familial engagement is a cornerstone in comprehensive alternative education; however, implementing high-quality parental outreach is difficult. Traditional approaches to parent outreach view diverse families from a deficit perspective and seek to change their behaviors, instead of building on their funds of knowledge. This article presents a case…

This brief report summarizes some of the family engagement services provided by Austin Independent School District's parent support specialists to families at their schools during the 2018-2019 school year.

Background/Context: There is a growing need for schools to examine the best ways of working with immigrant and multilingual families, as it is ever more likely that all teachers will work with multilingual newcomers and their children during their career. However, teachers often view multilingual families in deficit ways, and many teachers lack…

In this multiple case study, the author analyzes the work of three elementary school teachers who served as instructional support specialists in reading, ESL, and gifted education.

Every family deserves access to the information they need to understand the quality of their community's schools and to make the best decision about their child's education. School report cards are the primary way that states communicate the information that families want and need about schools, but too often, the report cards are more focused on…

At the middle school level, active family engagement is difficult enough with native English speaking families but even more so with parents of English learners (ELs). Using a funds of knowledge approach in this article, we position families as knowledgeable participants with strengths who contribute significantly to their adolescent's academic…