Family Engagement in Education: Creating Effective Home and School Partnerships for Student Success

Design family engagement practices that are directly connected to student learning. Increase your capacity to engage staff, families, and your community to improve student outcomes.

“Parent participation is the leading predictor that supports students’ academic success, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or cultural background.” – Karen Mapp, Faculty Chair

Overview

Family engagement is critically important to student achievement, but while most educators recognize its importance, they need opportunities to develop particular skills, knowledge, and dispositions to effectively integrate families into the life of the school.

Family Engagement in Education prepares educators to create a school culture that honors and respects the knowledge that families bring to the learning process. With guidance from Harvard faculty and district and community leaders, participants study best practices in family engagement and identify strategies they can use to promote student learning and improve educational outcomes for all.

Program Details

This four-day institute convenes educators and school leaders from around the world who delve into research on family engagement and learn how to align family engagement initiatives with standards-based reform. You will participate in plenary sessions and small working groups where you can dig deeper into topics relevant to your interests or community. Topics discussed in past institutes have included home visits, outreach to fathers, balancing privilege and power, race in family engagement, and finding sustainable funding for family engagement.

Objectives

• Understand what the latest research on family engagement means for your school
• Understand what systemic, integrated family engagement looks like, as opposed to random acts of engagement
• Explore the infrastructure, roles, and skills required to sustain an effective engagement strategy
• Learn how to define and measure outcomes and to evaluate practice