Building Capacity Building Relationships

Pull out the gold sheet of paper with this activity name. Read over the different types of schools and do an honest assessment of your school. If you are comfortable, please discuss with your table. We will ask a few tables to report out.

Types of Schools:• Fortress School• Come-if-we-call School• Open-Door School• Partnership School

Table Activity: What Type of School Are You?

CORE BELIEF ONE▪ALL parents/families have dreams for their

children and want the best for them.

“…I believe that all parents hold big expectations for the role that schools will play in the life chances of their children. They all harbor a large wish list of dreams and aspirations for their youngsters. All families care deeply about their children’s education and hope that their progeny will be happier, more productive, and more successful than they have been in their lives.” (Lightfoot)

CORE BELIEF TWO

▪ALL parents/familieshave the capacity to support theirchildren's learning.

Capacity = Potential

CORE BELIEF THREE

▪Families and school/program staff shouldbe equal partners. Home

School

Community

CORE BELIEF FOUR

▪The responsibility forbuilding and sustainingpartnerships betweenschool, home, andcommunity restsprimarily with school/program staff, especiallyschool/program leaders.

If you can't support and embrace these

four core beliefs, it will be virtually impossible to have a successful

PFE program that includes ALL of your parents and families.

Our society believes that kids can besaved, so if we have to love somebody,we choose to love the kids. The moredifficult struggle is to love and not giveup on the adult who is their parent, tobelieve in the possibilities of a parent'scontinued growth and evolution.

Maisie Chin

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WHERE DO WE START IN OUR WORK TO BUILD EFFECTIVE

PARTNERSHIPS WITH FAMILIES?

WE START WITH OUR OWN CORE BELIEFS

It begins with ME!

START WHERE YOU ARE!!

Where you are is where you start &Where you start is a good place

because you are starting!

▪Technical: can be fixedwith existing knowledgeand solutions.

▪Adaptive: Requires newlearning. Takes time andoften involves shifts intraditions, beliefs, values,mindsets.

Changing our Paradigm/Mindsets about PFE

• Begin with a deep reflection of our own mindsets and biases.o It begins with ME!

• Instead of a closed, self-sufficient system, schools must see themselves as open systems that engage in learning with families and communities.

• Must see parents as valued partners with their own unique skill set.• Schools must form partnerships that encourage learning from people who

do not necessarily share similar views or parenting practices. • Learn about the unique context and history of the community you serve.

o Different does not equal bad or wrong.

INTENTION OF THE UPDATED DUAL CAPACITY-BUILDING FRAMEWORK

Instead of a roadmap, the framework provides a compass; a direction for the development of effective high impact

strategies and initiatives.

The Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships (Version 2)

The Challenge Essential Conditions Policy and Program Goals

Build and enhance the

capacity of educators and

families in the "4 C" areas:

Capacity Outcomes

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Educators are empowered to:

Engage families as co-creators

Honor. family funds of knowledge

Create welcoming cultures

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Families engage in diverse roles:

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Effective partnerships that support student

and school improvement

The challenge helps us understand the reasons why educators and families have struggled to build trusting and effective partnerships.

The challenge helps us identify how to execute partnerships and cultivate and sustain positive relationships with families

The essential conditions offer research based guidance for best practice to cultivate and sustain partnerships.

The term "process" refers to the actions, operations and procedures that are part of any activity. These "conditions" are key to the design of the activity for building the capacity of families and staff to partner in ways that support student achievement.

Essential ConditionsProcess Conditions• Provide a guide for strategy

developmentOrganizational Conditions• Ensure that engagement efforts

are systemic, integrated andsustainable

Elements of relational trust

Respect

Competence

Integrity

Personal regard

Bryk, A., & Schneider, B. (2002). Trust in schools: A core resource for improvement. Russell Sage

Foundation.

Relational Trust - How Do You Know?

Am I showing trustworthiness to this parent?

Am I seeking input and listening carefully to what families have to say? (Respect)

Am I demonstrating to families that I am competent and that I think they are doing a good job as parents? (Competence)

Do I always keep my word with families? (Integrity)

Do I show families that I care about them as people versus objects? (Personal regard)

Elements of relational trust

Respect

Competence

Integrity

Personal regard

The policy and program goals highlight the goals and outcomes that should emerge for educators and families when the essential conditions are met.

The various stakeholders (families, district/school leaders and staff) have not had the opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills, in other words, the capacity (4C's) to

engage in effective partnerships.

The 4C’s of Capacity Building

• Capabilities – Skills & Knowledge• Connections – Network• Cognition (Consciousness) – Shifts

in Beliefs and Values• Confidence – Self-Efficacy

Assessing Readiness

Inventory•What engagement practice(s) currently exist inyour school/district?

Capacity [Capabilities, Connections, Cognition & Confidence]•What do you do well? (Knowledge & Skills)•Who has an engagement mindset (Beliefs &Values) and/or implements effective practice(Self-efficacy)?

•What resources exist to support the planning andimplementation of effective engagement practice(Networks)?

The capacity outcomes show how improvements in capacity lead to educators and families working in mutually supportive ways, leading to school and student improvements.

LINKED TO LEARNING/DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE

List at least five events/activities that schools currently have for families (think across the entire school year)

Circle all of the activities which fit the following criteria:Families leave knowing more about what their child

should know or be able to do (the learning/developmental goals) at that grade/age level They leave knowing how (through practice) to employ a

new tool or activity at home to support those goals

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Our society believes that kids can be saved, so if we have to love somebody, we choose to love the kids. The more difficult struggle is to love and not give up on the adult who is their parent, to believe in the possibilities of a parent's continued growth and evolution.

10

Introducing

www.DualCapacity.org

Marissa Alberty Eyal Bergman

Share Your Work

IMPACT ON FAMILIES▪Families' perception of their “job description” shifts (their

“role construction”)

▪Families gain confidence in their ability to shape andinfluence their children’s learning and development (their“self efficacy”)

▪Families develop an increased sense of accountability to theirschool or neighborhood, and advocate for all children versustheir children

▪Families are empowered to take on new challenges in terms oftheir education, careers, and civic participation

Home Visits

John Hopkins Evaluation 2015: Family Engagement Partnership (FEP) in

Washington, DC

• Students whose families received a home visit,one of the core strategies in the FEP, had 24

percent fewer absences than similar students

whose families did not receive a visit.

• These same students also were more likely to read

at or above grade level compared to similar

students who did not receive a home visit.

JORGE’S STORY▪ Jorge entered our second grade classroom as a new student to the

school. He is an English Language Learner and Spanish is thelanguage spoken at home. When Jorge arrived, he didn’t yet knowany of the sounds that letters make. On a reading assessment inlate September, he scored at an early kindergarten level. At themid-October family conference, both Jorge and his mother were intears. It was devastating to be seven years old and not to be able toread. During the conference, Jorge set a goal to improve hisreading. He pledged to read every chance he got and his motherpromised to sit with Jorge each night and to listen to him read.

JORGE’S STORY▪ Jorge joined a reading intervention group at school, and I sent

home many books for him to read, exchanging the booksas he mastered them. In less than two months, Jorge could identifyall the sounds the letters make, and he had increased his readingby two levels. In late November, Jorge was reading at an end ofkindergarten level—with 6 months of the school year still ahead. Atthe next family conference, Jorge’s mother spoke about how sherenewed her commitment to listen to Jorge read at home once sheunderstood its importance. Without a doubt, Jorge’s ability to makereading progress was multiplied by the home-school connection.(p. 6)

POWERFUL PARTNERSHIPS

TwoGreat

Resources

IC = InstructionalClassroom

Leadership Drives Systemic Engagement

Moving PFE Outside the School Walls• Enable parents to support their child’s learning through strategies that are

aligned with what teachers are using in the classroomo Send home learning kitso Send home ?'s for parents to ask about an assignmento Monthly, send home list of what student will be learning for the

month• Have math or reading nights at a neighborhood location (library,

church,etc.)• At the beginning of the school year, do neighborhood walk-throughs• Do Home-School visits• Have volunteer tutors at the neighbor library once a week• Get creative - ask lots of questions-find out what they need

7 Ways Parents & Teachers Build Partnerships

1) Engage together in meaningful dialogue2) Show mutual respect3) Actively listen to one another4) Collaborate on issues that affect student learning5) Empathize with one another6) Open themselves to learning from each other7) Engage parents in the schools decision-making process8) Involve students as responsible collaborators in their

own learning9) Help parents understand the school's vision and mission.

Research shows that parents and teachers build partnerships that help children succeed when they:

2019-20 Cluster Meetings

2019 Statewide Parental Involvement ConferenceDecember 12 - 14, 2019

SpanishEnglish