Family Engagement in a Post-Covid World
We all know the importance of family engagement in education. Volumes of research have been published in this area over the past fifty years. Yet, despite many efforts, family engagement has been a non-performing asset for many, if not most, schools and districts.
The educational community has not been able to develop a scalable, equitable solution in this time. Now, as the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed even more fissures in our educational system, we are faced with the challenge to implement an effective strategy amid economic uncertainty.
What do we mean by effective family engagement? Family engagement exists where parents are actively involved in the development and education of their child. We use ‘parents’ in the broad sense of anyone with the primary responsibility of taking care of a young person, such as a guardian, grandparent, or foster parent. Effective engagement translates into greater attendance, higher student achievement, and well-rounded young adults that can grow and contribute to the community as a whole.
One Green Apple believes that we can achieve significantly more in terms of family engagement than we currently do, even with the current resources. These require a subtle realignment of responsibilities and a common platform to implement, monitor, measure, and analyze our efforts.
Background
In December 2010, the Harvard Family Research Project and the Southwest Education Development Laboratory (SEDL) published a paper, Beyond Random Acts: Family School, and Community Engagement as an Integral Part of Education Reform, which extolled the virtue of “a systematic and integrated approach to family engagement (as) an innovative strategy.”
Then, and unfortunately in many cases now as well, family engagement was considered “an ‘add-on’ to what teachers already do. The paper suggests a strategy where:
“…family engagement is integrated into teaching and learning by providing teachers with a partner who supports and monitors student learning. Rather than being activity driven and dependent on time-‐limited funding, family engagement is more likely to be sustained when it is outcome-‐oriented and tied to the instructional goals for a student, with specific benchmarks across the school year.”
The efforts described in the seminal paper showed impressive results; however, the cost for these activities is probably prohibitive for most districts without additional funding. Today, modern technology can lower the costs for these types of interventions. Much of the parent-teacher interaction then was in person; again, technology can alleviate some of this cost, and can make it safer and more efficient.
Inertia to change, based on a lack of understanding, is the greatest challenge to implementing an effective strategy. Many teachers still view family engagement as an “add-on” to their duties. In fact, many family engagement solutions rely solely on making the parent-teacher communication efficient. This is short-sighted; developing a dialogue based on a meeting of the minds takes communication to the next level. This involves elevating the role of the parents and meeting their needs as well.
Many teachers accept the responsibility for family engagement, but they do not know when to escalate an issue or seek additional administrative help. Few districts adequately define procedures that teachers should take, nor address the timing of such. This lack of definitive responsibility extends to the parent coordinator role.
Parent coordinators are viewed as a social service for families. Although this is a worthwhile endeavor, many of the issues they face lie outside of the purview of the district’s responsibilities. The school district is not funded as a social support system for families, but to educate their kids. From a district standpoint, family engagement must correlate to improved student achievement to be considered successful.
The Ecosystem of OPUS Family Engagement
One Green Apple has developed a concept that that we call the Ecosystem of OPUS Family Engagement. Based on research, in-the-field interviews, and management principles, this ecosystem thrives using the OPUS platform to bring together the community resources to support student achievement. OPUS is kept as simple as possible, but only as complex as necessary.
A key component to a successful engagement strategy is centering the ecosystem on the family and their needs. Enabling them to see their child’s progress in context and inviting them to be partners in their child’s education changes the paradigm. To accomplish this, we must meet the parents on their turf, not just physically, but mentally as well. OPUS is unique in its ability to translate difficult information that is easy to understand and within FERPA guidelines.
Teachers need parents to have critical input as well: to maintain expectations for their child. The school cannot do this on their own. As Tom Loveless states in his book, Between the State and the Schoolhouse: Understanding the Failure of Common Core, “Standards imposed by policy are a poor substitute for the expectations of adults conveyed through real human relationships with children.” Within OPUS a parent sets expectations for their child, which helps establish a meeting of the minds for both the parent and teacher.
Many engagement strategies focus solely on the communication from teacher to parent; this focus misses many of the underlying issues identified by research that need to be addressed. Teacher communication is an integral part of the Parent Teacher Partnership, but it is only a part of the relationship. In fact, a school’s or district’s approach to family engagement consists of additional resources beyond the teacher. OPUS helps these resources to engage collectively.
Family engagement is supported by multiple constituents within the community. Many people touch a student’s life, including her advisor, guidance counselor, coaches, even her homeroom teacher. Each of these roles offer an opportunity to strengthen the safety net for a child when her family support structure is minimal or nonexistent. As opposed to other systems, these “followers” have read-only access to the student’s records and engagement in OPUS; this allows them to be part of the FE team, offering guidance when needed.
As the family role increases in education, the parent coordinator can and will have greater impact in the new ecosystem. The parent coordinator, or the person fulfilling that role, can act as a liaison to additional resources and will be a source of professional development for teachers and families. They can be empowered to monitor and manage the unified strategy within the school or district. Parent coordinators can act as an intermediary for principals and administration to implement guidelines, analyze data and refine strategy. OPUS SM provides unprecedented analytics, giving direction for the future and evidence of engagement success.
These new responsibilities may sound overwhelming. Technological advances, such as OPUS, will streamline information gathering and increase efficiency. Better defined procedures will help eliminate gray areas and help the school and district move forward. The parent coordinator role will evolve, but, at its core, its mission remains the same: to help families and the students achieve greater success. One Green Apple can provide support for the parent coordinator as they assimilate to their greater position in the ecosystem.
Many issues that affect a student’s performance lie outside the responsibilities of the district. Community based organizations (CBO) can be a resource to provide basic needs including housing, health care, and other assistance. The parent coordinator is in a unique position to coordinate these efforts. With OPUS, these CBO’s can follow the children they are supporting to help offer additional resources if necessary.
With clearly defined protocols and role responsibilities, metrics can be developed to evaluate teacher, school, and district performance correlating family engagement to student outcomes. OPUS is designed with this ecosystem in mind, offering a platform for district-wide family engagement management and strategy.
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