FWPS Family Engagement Practices Featured in Harvard Policy Brief

Harvard’s Family Research Project recently spotlighted six school districts across the country, including Federal Way Public Schools, that are using innovative strategies to create and sustain family engagement systems. Published by the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) and the National Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), the policy brief, Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement, examines the role of school districts in promoting family engagement.

“We are grateful that an institution as noteworthy as Harvard has chosen to recognize our efforts to involve our parents in the education of their children,” Supt. Tom Murphy commented. The report’s findings point to three core components of successful systems: creating district-wide strategies, building school capacity, and reaching out to and engaging families.

Federal Way’s programs and practices such as the Parent Leadership Institute and family–school communication are highlighted in the article. It takes note of:

• The inclusion of Trise Moore, the Family Partnership Advocate, at the core level of administrative planning, to ensure that family engagement is an integrated part of district programs rather than an afterthought.
• The role of the District Parent Committee, made up of parents and teachers, in helping shape the annual performance goals of the Family Partnership Office, creating the agenda for parent meetings and training, and assisting the schools in their efforts to communicate with families.
• The series of workshops called the Parent Leadership Institute (also known as the Advocacy Process Workshop), where parents exchange ideas and strategies to effectively advocate for their children’s school success. Developed by Moore and the district-level parent committee, the program teaches parents how to guide their children to educational success from kindergarten to college. Parents develop one-page support plans to use as a resource for communicating with teachers and counselors. This workshop also serves as the first step toward parents taking leadership roles in the district.
• Assistance given to schools in conducting “What Every Parent Wants to Know” workshops, where parents are invited to ask questions and learn how to partner with teachers and administrators. The workshops impress upon parents the importance of their roles in children’s education and provide concrete examples of how parents can support their children’s academic progress.
• Professional development, particularly in the areas of cultural competency, an initiative that came out of the Equity and Achievement work the district has done but which has tremendous implications in family and parent engagement.

The report also proposes a set of recommendations for federal, state, and local policies that would promote district-level family engagement efforts in support student learning.

“A first step is capitalizing on some emerging promising practices and sharing those lessons with the field,” the report notes, continuing, “ For example, some districts have developed particularly innovative theories of change that capture the complexity of how family engagement can impact an entire educational system. These districts have moved beyond counting heads to assessing differences in behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes among parents and school staff, from changes in school culture to changes in parenting skills at home.

The PTA and HFRP have provided the report to national education leaders and legislators. 

Posted: July 31, 2009