Chapter 8: Cultivating home-school collaborations and partnerships

1. Chapter 8: Cultivating home-school collaborations and partnerships Kenley Downing, Megan Ecker & Garrett Shelburne

2. “I take care of her at home, you are in charge of the school part…” Will this parent perspective increase student success?

3. Potential Barriers when collaborating with Families • Time Limitations • Sense of parental failure • Anticipation of negativity • We need to build communication with parents • Listen to parents thoughts too!

4. Family Structures • What is the family like? • Struggles? • Negative attitudes? • Single parent? • Fearful of schools? • Low income? • Lots of children?

5. Attitudes and Understandings • These can be huge barriers: • Judging attitudes • Stereotypes • False expectations • Different values • Don’t play the blame game

6. Cultural and Linguistically Diverse Families • See from their perspective • Different definitions/views of disabilities • Communicate informally too • One approach does not fit all

7. Strategies for working with CLD families • 1. Acknowledge cultural differences • 2. Examine your own culture • 3. Meet families on their own turf • 4. Learn about the families • 5. Learn cultural greetings and use them • 6. Leave your misconceptions and stereotypes out of it

8. Developing Home-School Partnerships • 1. What are your personal values?

9. Developing Home-School Partnerships • 2. Build collaborative relationships • Avoid using jargon • Listen to parents • Be positive with comments too • Focus on Family Strengths • Provide support

10. Developing Home-School Partnerships • 3. Initiate home-school interactions • Invite parents to get involved • When parents get involved they see school in a new light • 4. Individualize it • Know your family’s culture • Know strengths and needs of your families • Use checklists and forms • 5. Evaluate the collaboration • Ask parents how they think it went • Evaluate yourself as well

11. Cultivating Home-School Collaborations and Partnerships • Education of students with special needs is a shared responsibility. Education of the whole child requires solid well-functioning partnerships among the school, family, and community. In a 2003 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll of attitudes towards public schools, 94 percent of respondent's declared that home life, parent involvement in education, student interest in education, and community environment were crucial in improving student achievement.

12. Rational for Collaborative Family-School Partnerships Broadened concept of family. • When collaborating with adults a broad , inclusive, definition of family should be used. • Consultants need to help school personnel accommodate differences in families. Families of children with disabilities, poverty level families, CLD families. • Educators should respond to families in individually relevant ways rather than make assumptions based on their language, ethnicity, or background. Legal Mandates for family involvement. • Education of all handicapped children act (pl. 94-142) • IDEA • Individualized Family Service Plan for ages 3-5 Benefits of Family-School partnerships • Research shows that family involvement can enhance a students chances for success in school and significantly improves achievement. • Allows teachers to better understand their students.

13. Moving from Parent Involvement to Partnerships with Parents • Empowerment of families • Families are a constant in children's lives and families need the knowledge, skills, and motivation to become advocates for themselves and their children. • Empowered people have the means and the knowledge to act; they know what they want and take action to get it. • Schools should help in empowering parents by educating parents. • Collaboration can be hard for parents due to overwhelming life events like work schedule, poverty, single-parent families, etc.

14. Equal Partnership Model • Parent Involvement-Parent participation in activities that are part of their children's education. (Conferences, meetings, newsletters, tutoring, and volunteer work) • Family Collaboration- Development and maintenance of positive, respectful, egalitarian relationships between home and school. It includes mutual problem solving with shared decision making and goal setting for students needs. • Consultants who are striving for equal partnership model of family-school collaboration should focus on: • Understanding of their own perceptions of teacher-parent parity. • Recognizing family strengths. • Including the expertise of the family.

15. Recognize Family Strengths • The Equal Partnership Model stresses the importance of providing opportunities for the family to use their strengths and skills to contribute to the formal education of their children. • Schools can use interviews or checklists to assess parents and determine what kind of contributions families can bring to the students education.

16. Include the Expertise of the Family • Educators must remember family member's are the experts about their children, their families, and their communities. • Educators should honor the fact that family member’s are: • Individuals with initiative, strengths, and important experiences. • The best advocates and case managers for the child with special needs. • The best information resource about the child, the family, and the culture. • Partners in setting goals and finding solutions.

17. Family Participation and Interest Checklists

18. Collaborating in Planning and Conferencing • Planning and progress meetings and conferences should be only one of the many points of contact between school personnel and family members.

19. Family Partners in IEP, ITP, and IFSP Planning • IEP: Individualized Education Plan • ITP: Individualized Transition Plan • IFSP: Individualized Family Service Plan

20. Before entering a formal meeting, be aware… • Parents may be emotional about their child’s problems • Teachers may be apprehensive about meeting with parents in emotion-laden situations with sensitive issues to discuss

21. Being proactive= Meeting success • Provide family members with information before the meeting • Communication can take place by phone, letter, or informal interview • Inform parents/guardians about names and roles of staff members who will attend, typical procedure for meetings, ways they can prepare for the meeting, contributions they will be encouraged to make, and ways in which follow-up to the meeting will be provided.

22. Successful IEP meetings include: • Preparation before the meeting • Starting the meeting on time • Sharing expectations and visions for the student • Reviewing evaluations and assessments • Sharing priorities, resources, and concerns (both family and educators) • Working collaboratively to develop plans • Addressing expected outcomes or addressing issues • Determining placement and services • Summarizing

23. At the end of the meeting… • Educator should wrap up the meeting and ask for questions or feedback • Educators should keep in mind that family members may be • Anxious or nervous about the meeting and may not have questions at the time of the meeting • Emotions may prevent them from “hearing” everything said during the meeting • On a strict time schedule for returning to work, picking up small children, or keeping a medical appointment. • Handout

24. Student-Led Meetings • Counterproductive to formulate goals and objectives without the student’s input • Allow the student to plan the meeting to increase his/her sense of ownership (with assistance from teachers) • Develop a purpose • Set goals • Allow the student to decide: • Which work samples to show • What learning activities to describe • Develop a sample rubric beforehand to evaluate the meeting after it takes place to add to the learning process. • The classroom teacher or special education teacher, or both, may want to have a brief practice session so the process feels familiar and the student is comfortable when the meeting takes place.

25. Steps to a Successful Student-Led Conference • Decide on a goal and discuss why having a student-led meeting is a good idea. • Together, make a simple, uncluttered agenda with time limits built in. • Determine who will be invited and how they will be informed of the meeting. • Have the student sketch a preferred location and a seating arrangement. • Together, choose work samples. • Rehearse! • After the conference, have a debriefing.

26. Maintaining Home-School Collaboration and Partnerships • Successful models include: • Respecting the family as the child’s first teacher • Empowering families and communities to support and advocate for all students • Understanding learning as a lifelong endeavor involving families and communities • Recognizing that all families want the best for their children and can have a positive, significant impact on their children’s education

27. Ethics for Working Together with Families • Avoid judgment and stereotyping • Keep in mind that collaboration will not require total agreement in values or educational philosophy, but school personnel and families must focus on needs and interests of children and their families.

28. Barriers?