TeachME Professional Development

1. Years of research has endorsed the roles that families play in a child's education, including being supporters and models of learning, advocates of proper programming and placements for their child, and encouragers of:

2. When student achievement and school improvement are seen as a shared responsibility, relationships of trust and respect are established between home and school, families and school staff see each other as equal partners, and conditions for family engagement in education are likely to flourish.

3. Policy and program goals of the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships include building and enhancing the capacity of staff/families in the '4 C' areas of capabilities, connections, cognition, and:

4. Families and school staff should be given the opportunity to participate in events and programs that are focused on enhancing their ability to work as partners to support children's cognitive, emotional, physical, and social development as well as the overall improvement of the school.

5. In order for educational entities to successfully implement and sustain family engagement, organizational conditions need to support fidelity and sustainability, and initiatives must be extrinsic, circumscribed, and constructive.

6. Which of the following is NOT one of the recommendations to help staff engage in partnerships with families that will support student achievement and student learning?

7. As part of a pilot program, Stanton Elementary School, a low performing school in Washington DC, initiated a Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project (PTHVP) where families were visited with the goal of building relationships of trust and respect between home and school, and teachers realized that parents really cared and when they didn't help with academics if was because they didn't know how.

8. The Stanton case identified the 'essential supports' required for school improvement, which were effective organization and resources, a culturally and linguistically-centered learning climate, and comprehensive and effective planning, and recognized how they can lead to dramatic shifts in the climate of a school and in academic outcomes.

9. As part of the innovative First 5 Santa Clara County program, Family Support Centers (FRCs) run by local partners offer a menu of resources, workshops, and learning opportunities for families, and include each of the following characteristics:

10. Locating the FRCs on or near school campuses is an important opportunity for teachers and principals to meet both current and future parents, and has changed how schools relate to incoming kindergarten parents, as the schools now focus more on preparing parents before their child starts classes.

11. Schools, districts, and government agencies across the country are becoming more aware of the importance of building family-school partnerships that are focused on student learning and development, and are recognizing the necessity that these programs are carried out prior to, or in addition to, other engagement activities.

12. In order for family-school partnerships to succeed, the adults responsible for children's education must learn and grow, just as they support learning and growth among students.