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Families are essential educational partners in their children’s education. They have big hopes and dreams for their children and want them to succeed. Over 50 years of research shows that family engagement has a significant impact on student success and helping them thrive. However, educational systems can often be complicated and complex to navigate. 

Many approaches to family engagement attempt to teach families how to be involved in their child’s education, but fail to acknowledge the expertise that parents/caregivers bring to the home-school collaboration. Recognizing families as equal partners presents a myriad of opportunities for meaningful engagement.

The objective of this module is to provide parents with strategies and recommendations on how to navigate the educational system at both the local and the state level by helping parents/caregivers to think about the many roles that they can play both individually and collectively. Through reflection activities, participants will increase their ability to identify and honor family assets.

Throughout this module we breakdown complex educational jargon and share resources for those who would like to know more. We ground this module in community engagement as a key fundamental for relationship building.

This module is intended as training for LEA staff, particularly leaders, educators, and family and community engagement staff members, to better engage with family and caregivers of K12 students:  

  • To affirm parents and caregivers as equal partners in the scholastic community who hold both  individual and collective power 
  • To increase parent and caregiver understanding of local and state policy
  • To increase parent engagement in ways that align, and are reflective of, the immediate/local community values.

This module will provide you with tools for monitoring and evaluating school improvement efforts. Participants will learn why it is important to collect and use data; how to collect, analyze, and report data; and how to use data to address a specific problem in their community or at their school.

 

Engaging educational partners is an essential part of the LCAP development and annual update process. Years of research in school improvement have documented numerous benefits of engaging local community members such as:

  • Access to more comprehensive input to inform the identification of needs, planning, and program implementation
  • More informed decision-making 
  • Increased engagement of educational partners in implementing local plans
  • Development of long-term relationships with individuals and organizations that can support student learning and development 
  • Increased empowerment of educational partners 
  • Improved family-school partnerships

Each local educational agency (LEA) is required to develop a Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). The LCAP development process serves three distinct, but related functions: 

  • Meaningful engagement of educational partners
  • Comprehensive strategic planning
  • Accountability and compliance

California statute recognizes the benefits of engaging local community members by codifying specific requirements for educational partner consultation in the development and annual update of the LCAP, as well as the budget process.

This module is intended as training for K-12 LEA staff, particularly leaders, educators, and family and community engagement staff members, to better engage with community-based organizations and partners. 

  • To define what is meant by community and  Community-Based Organizations 
  • To discuss how LEAs might partner with CBOs to do a landscape analysis that focuses on gifts, strengths, and supports that help communities thrive (reference as the landscape analysis) 
  • To discuss how LEAs might partner with CBOs to do resource mapping and leverage community voices 
  • To discuss how LEAs might partner with CBOs to use the needs assessment and resource mapping to build and maintain strong partnerships 

How can you GROW highly impactful community engagement in your school or district? Start with the ROOTS! Get to the root of effective community engagement by understanding the six essential components of effective community engagement and then examine where your school or district is in relation to these “Essential Roots”. This module will conclude by supporting you in designing a personalized plan to grow strong roots with your families, students, staff, and community partners. This module utilizes the work of the Californians for Justice’s Defend and Mend Coalition.

Community engagement is a central principle in California’s school funding system and is essential for effective decision-making at the school and district levels. In California, a collaborative study revealed six components of ineffective community engagement. The Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) expanded on the study identifying six effective components, called The Six Essential Roots. This module will allow you to learn about the evidence-based components of effective community engagement and provide a user-friendly tool for assessing progress and identifying growth areas.

Key Outcomes

Understanding the root causes of effective and equitable community engagement in the LCAP and other decision-making processes will help you recognize and acknowledge areas of success and identify growth areas in your contexts. You will also identify strategies for improvement and develop a path toward firmly-rooted community engagement.

Our key outcomes for this session include:

  • Assess your community partner engagement efforts
  • Identify activities, strategies, and protocols to enhance the effectiveness of your education partner engagement leading to improved outcomes for all students, particularly low-performing and historically marginalized populations.

You will gain knowledge and understanding of:

  • The Defend and Mend Coalition’s history and the “Root Cause Analysis of Student and Family Engagement”
  • Evidence-based components of effective education partner/community engagement
  • How the Six Essential Roots apply across all strategic planning efforts, especially the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), School Plan (SPSA), and Community Schools

Module Overview:

  • Importance of site leadership in positive community engagement in education.
  • Benefits to students, educators, parents, and the broader community.
  • Understanding the role of school administrators in fostering positive community engagement.

Research has demonstrated a clear link between family and community engagement and positive academic outcomes. As more schools, districts, and state education agencies aim to engage communities in pursuit of improved student learning experiences and outcomes, increased attention has been paid to the role of relational trust and meaningful participation. These elements are particularly important to building community partnerships that help transform schools and districts into equitable systems that contribute to thriving students, families, and communities. In this module, participants will:

  • Learn about California’s recent journey towards building statewide capacity for community engagement
  • Understand the key frameworks that inform California’s approach to community engagement
  • Consider how California’s community engagement approach applies to their work 
  • Reflect on examples of community engagement efforts in schools, districts, and county offices of education and consider how these examples might relate to your own experiences of community engagement and/or inspire new thinking.
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This module was developed through a collaboration between CEI Lead Agency Partners and WestEd

Collaborative leadership in community schools is the intentional and systematic shift in power that allows for greater representation and collaboration between all interest holders.

This learning module is built collaboratively with and based on publications and findings created by the State Transformational Assistance Center (S-TAC) for California Community Schools.

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The Community Engagement Initiative
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