This is a reflection tool, not a compliance report. It works best as a conversation rather than a solo exercise. The assessment is designed to be completed with students, families, and community members in the room alongside LEA staff, because who takes part shapes what the results actually mean.

The Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) supports California LEAs, whether school districts, charter schools, or county offices of education, in moving beyond compliance-driven outreach toward authentic partnership with the students, families, and communities they serve. CEI defines that partnership as relationships grounded in equity, built on trust, and connected to real student outcomes.

The five metrics in this tool translate that definition into practice. Each one names a condition that authentic engagement depends on:

1. Strong Relationships and Authentic Partnerships. Trusting, reciprocal relationships among staff, students, families, and community members.
2. Shared Beliefs and Collective Efficacy. A shared conviction that working and learning together improves outcomes for students.
3. Shared Power and Decision-Making. Real influence for students, families, and community over the decisions that shape schools.
4. Alignment of Policies, Practices, and Resources. Systems, staffing, and budgets that actually sustain engagement rather than leave it to chance.
5. Centering the Experiences of Educational Partners. Families and communities treated as co-educators whose knowledge shapes how the LEA works.

These metrics build directly on CEI’s original Community Engagement Best Practices Self-Assessment Tool, distilling its detailed rubric into five focused areas while keeping the specific, observable “look-fors” underneath each one. In this tool you’ll rate 28 of those look-fors on a four-stage continuum of growth, from Not Evident to Developing to Maturing to Advanced, so you can see not just whether a practice exists but how far it has matured.

What to Expect

• It takes a real conversation.
  Rating 28 look-fors with a team is meeting-length work. Your progress is saved in your browser as you go, so you can pause and pick back up in the same session.
• You choose who’s in the room.
  The tool asks which partner groups took part and records it with your results. A rating built with families and students carries different weight than one done by staff alone.
• You leave with a plan, not just a number.
  After rating, you’ll see your results by metric and by CEI’s underlying purpose, then work through reflection prompts for each metric: what you’re proud of, why it matters in your context, and three concrete next steps.
• Your results stay yours.
  Nothing is transmitted anywhere. When you’re done, export a PDF or CSV to keep, share, or attach to your existing reporting. LEAs in a CEI professional learning network can include the export with their regular reporting, with no separate submission, account, or login required.