Home - School Relations: Building Collaborative Relationships

Building School Partnerships with Families and Community Groups

PSEd 26 – Home-School RelationsPresented by:

Mr. Ronald Macanip Quileste, MAEd-SM

School of Education

Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan

Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City

Topic Outline

A. Levels of Involvement

B. Components of Successful Change

C. Program Models

D. Features of Successful Collaborations

E. Achieving Partnerships

Levels of Involvement in Collaborations

• Good collaborative efforts mean that theindividuals in an evolving group endeavor willrecognize that different levels of involvementexists in partnerships (Epstein et al.,2008; Rubin,2002).

• Levels of Involvement:

1. Minimum level

2. Associative level

3. Decision-making level

Understanding Involvement


• The key to successful collaboration is formany community citizens to beinvolved at one level or another, with afew individuals contributing at all levels.


• Minimum Level

- Schools tell, inform and make requestsfrom homes and community


• Minimum Level

School

Parents Community

PTA


• Associative level

- Schools involve parents in many waysand communicate with community


• Associative level

School

Parents Community


• Decision – Making level

- Schools, homes, and communities allwork together as equals to devisegood learning opportunities forchildren.


• Decision – Making level

SchoolParents Community

Components of Successful Change


• Planning Process

- during planning, the team determinesthe needs of children in the community,develops goals, and designs proceduresfor accomplishing these goals.


• Implementation Process

- after the team sets the priorities for thecommunity’s needs, it begins to plan andcollaborate on such activities as providingfamilies with needed services, improvingschool and home discipline, adaptingcurriculum to particular community needs,establishing appropriate social activities, anddeveloping program evaluation strategies.


• Assessment Process

- Data are collected and interpretedregularly; then strategies used in theschool programs are altered or continuedaccordingly.


• Communication

- Good partnership team will providemany avenues for parents andcommunity members to get informationabout school activities and the status ofthe collaboration.

Program Models

Program Models

Program Models

• Head Start

- Head Start, through involvement andcommitment, it began to provide, inholistic rather than fragmented ways,comprehensive services in health,nutrition, and economic counseling forindividuals, as well as school readiness forchildren and their low-income families.

Program Models

• Head Start

Structural Features

a. Parents as Partners

b. Parents as Observers

c. Parents as Learners

d. Supporting Children’s Learning

Program Models

• Comer’s School Development Program

- In 1968, James Comer and hiscolleagues at Yale Child Study Centerbegan the School DevelopmentProgram, a collaboration with two NewHave, Connecticut, elementary schoolsto increase parental involvement inchildren’s education.

Program Models

• Comer’s School Development ProgramStructural Featuresa. School Planning and Management Team

b. Mental Health Teamc. Pupil Personnel Team

d. Parent Programe. Focus Programf. Workshop for Adults

g. Extended – Day Programsh. Social Skills Curriculum

Program Models

• Reggio Emilia- The Reggio Emilia program was developed

in Northern Italy by a group of parentssoon after WWII.

- The curriculum in these 3-year preprimaryschools evolved as teachers, children,and parents worked together, learnedabout each other, and valued eachother’s ways of processing information.

Program Models

• Reggio Emilia

Structural Features

a. Organization

b. Scheduling

c. Implementation is Evolving

Program Models

• National Network of Partnership Schools

- As in other partnership models, theframework of Joyce Epstein’s programcenters on the idea of the sharedresponsibilities of parents, schools, andcommunities for children’s learning anddevelopment.

Program Models

• National Network of Partnership Schools

Structural Features

a. Action Team

The group membership is important and includes reasonablearrangement of delegates from following constituencies:

1. A few teachers from different grade levels

2. A few parents

3. The school principal

4. At least one community delegate

5. A student delegate if the school is a junior or senior highschool

Program Models

• Community Schools

- Community schools are built on thepremise that “educators can’t improveschools without paying attention tochildren, their families, and thecommunity around them” (Warren, 2005,p. 135).

Program Models

• Community Schools

Structural Features

a. Extended School Day

b. School – Based Health Clinic

c. Community Focus

d. Parent Involvement

Program Models

• Freedom Schools

- The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF)Freedom Schools program is a newendeavor by CDF to connect childrenand families to their cultural heritage sndto their communities.

Program Models

• Freedom Schools

Structural Features

a. Sponsor

b. Project Director

c. Site Coordinator

d. Servant – Leader Interns

e. Volunteers

Program Models

• HABLA Program

- HABLA, founded in 2001 by VirginiaMann, aims at improving the languageskills of low income preschool children inSanta Ana, California’s Hispanic families.

- Home-based Activities BuildingLanguage Acquisition

Program Models

• Charter Schools- The charter school movement began in the

early 1990s and grew rapidly.- Featuring charter schools as a positivemodel for family-school-communitycooperation is risky, because in the 16 yearsof their existence, the philosophy direction ofthese programs has moved in manydirections.

Program Models

Program Models

• Charter SchoolsGoals and Objectivesa. To free individual public schools from

large-district bureaucracy;b. To grant autonomy to make decisions

regarding structure, personnel,curriculum, and educational emphasiswhile holding accountability foracademic achievement.

Features of Successful Collaborations


All successful partnerships seem to include the followingfeatures (Comer, Haynes, Jovner, & Ben-Avie, 1996; Rubin,2002):• Programs integrate educational and social services for

children, and especially for needy families.

• Parents’ schools personnel, and community members areempowered to make decisions about, to plan for, and toimplement changes for the community children.

• School bureaucracy is reduced, and involvement offamilies and community members in school managementincreases.


All successful partnerships seem to include the followingfeatures (Comer, Haynes, Jovner, & Ben-Avie, 1996; Rubin,2002):• Schools become family centers to promote better

interactions among teachers, children, parents, andcommunity members.

• Programs include strong volunteer programs, with parents,grandparents, and community members contributingexpertise to support children’s learning and assist in schooloperations.

• The community and home are viewed as important childlearning environments and are integrated into schoollearning.


All successful partnerships seem to include thefollowing features (Comer, Haynes, Jovner, & Ben-Avie, 1996; Rubin, 2002):• Programs have strong leadership and committed

partners able to gain the support of power brokers intheir setting.

• School faculty and staff develop skills needed tobuild and maintain relationships of trust and respectwith children and families.

• Researchers, teachers, and parents work together inassessing the successes of school programs.

Achieving Partnerships


•Anyone interested in achievingpartnerships for their schools shouldcarefully examine the literature onestablished programs.

• Information about the sustainability ofthese programs is helpful for beginnersdeveloping their own particular plans.

Individual Responsibility


• Individual Responsibility- When reading about model programs, wecan certify that those programs including aresearch and assessment dimension haveshown great strides in reaching a new levelof participation.- These also demonstrate that exciting thingshappen when new ideas are introduced,nurtured carefully, and built as changemechanisms.

Thank You!Namaste!