The qualitative research study was guided by the following research questions: What factors impede how parental advocacy works in collaboration with the IEP team, and what motivates parents to be involved and/or engaged with their child? The qualitative study examined the everyday experiences of parents and school personnel as they collaborate to…

Background: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, American students have demonstrated substantial losses in achievement (Amplify, 2021; Domingue et al., 2021; Dorn et al., 2020; Storey & Zhang, 2023), while chronic absenteeism doubled after the pandemic, with the largest increase among low-income students (Chang et al., 2022; Dorn et al., 2021). Among…

The present study utilized Stuffle beam's (2017) Context, Input, Process, and Product(CIPP) model of program evaluation, to evaluate the All Pro Dad program. The purpose of the evaluation was to determine whether All Pro Dad met the goal of the North Texas public-school district which was to increase involvement of fathers and father figures. The…

African American children and youth are disproportionately represented in special education, school suspensions, expulsion, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Research indicates that increasing the engagement of African American parents in their child's education is an indicator of academic success for African American students. This article…

Parent engagement is one approach to decrease the opportunity gap for Black, American Indian, and all children of color. This report from the field describes the use of the World Café participatory approach to support parent engagement in five early childhood, culturally embedded Montessori programs. Serving the Whole Child (SWC) is a…

This study examined multiple risk behaviors (violence, delinquency, and substance use) among 240 African American and 262 Hispanic preadolescent boys from urban schools in the Midwest United States. Latent transition analysis allowed patterns of multivariate risk to emerge uniquely within and across these ethnic groups, highlighting patterns for…

With support from a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) grant, the FAST (Families and Schools Together) program has been implemented in thirty Philadelphia schools to improve family engagement and, by extension, advance school turnaround. The project team includes the nonprofit Families and Schools Together, Inc.; the Early Childhood Education…

In general, youth whose parents are involved in their schooling experience better academic outcomes. Yet some parents, especially those with few resources in low-income urban communities, face barriers to becoming engaged in school and community. This report from the field describes the "Neighboring Project Parent Empowerment and Volunteer…

In this chapter Dr. Cochran uses an empirically based overarching conceptual framework linking historical patterns, current policy goals and intervening influences as a tool for understanding the policy and program outcomes manifested in the early education programs of representative Western countries (Australia, France, Italy, Sweden). Policy…

Parental involvement and parent-school-community partnerships receive wide acclaim for making a positive difference in the educational and transition outcomes for youth with and without disabilities. Although the impact of parental involvement in education remains undisputed, secondary education traditionally emphasizes the emerging adult…

This brief describes how investments in student data systems are taking family engagement and student achievement to a whole new level. In addition to addressing areas where a student most needs improvement, the data can serve as a catalyst for home-school communication. Parents benefit from having information about key indicators on which they…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how the intervention mapping (IM) protocol could be applied to the development of two school-based interventions. It provides an extensive description of the development, implementation and evaluation of two interventions which aimed to increase fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption among primary…

The author describes a parent art program, how it works, and ways to implement it. She emphasizes the strengths of parent programs as a way to support and enrich existing arts education, not as a replacement. Hansen describes the art kit--the adult's teaching resource--and the basic four-part process: presentation, demonstration, an art activity,…

In today's world of restrictive school budgets and increasing property taxes, it is an unfortunate reality that many school districts will be faced with a budget crunch crisis that unenlightened school boards may try to solve by cutting or eliminating funds for music. At the crisis stage, it is often only the effective advocacy of an organized…

As colleges and universities adjust to the changing relationship between today's students and their families, the benefits of providing parent services become increasingly clear. Parents have a stake in their student's education because of the financial and personal investment they are making. Today's young adults are in frequent contact--50…