National Information and Resources

Developed by the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, this guide makes the case for collaboration by reviewing some of what is known about improving the well being of young children. It offers a framework for collaboration at the community level to expand early education and care for children in Connecticut, upgrade its quality, build stronger connections between early care and elementary education and improve students’ social, emotional and academic performance. This guide also provides questions to track and reflect on the process, implementation and results of collaboration. The guide also provides some questions to track and reflect on the process, implementation and results of collaboration and lists tools, websites and other guides on the topic.
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A guide from the Harvard Family Research Project that offers information about family involvement and home-school partnerships. The resource guide can be used to find out what’s new in the field, locate national organizations that support family involvement, and inspire new ideas.

Produced by Ann T. Henderson and Karen L. Mapp, K.L. for the National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools, Southwest Educational Developmental Laboratory in 2002. This report examines the role of parent and community involvement on student achievement in high performing schools. The report provides evidence that parent involvement helps student achievement, including test scores.

Produced by the National Center for Education Statistics in September 2001. Using the data from the Parent and Family Involvement in Education/Civic Involvement Survey of the 1996 National Household Education Surveys Program and the Survey on Family and School Partnerships in Public Schools, K-8, this report examines the level of agreement between parents’ and schools’ views of how schools involve parents in their children’s education and how parents respond to the opportunities for involvement that schools provide.

Joyce L. Epstein, Ph.D., of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University and the National Network of Partnership-2000 Schools, has identified six types of parental involvement to guide the efforts of educators to engage parents. This framework helps educators develop more comprehensive school-family-community partnership programs.

A report by the Coalition of Community Schools. This report looks at 20 school models that mobilize community support to improve student learning. Evaluation data show the impact that community schools are having on student outcomes

The National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs were developed by the National PTA in cooperation with education and parent involvement professionals through the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE). Building upon the six types of parent involvement identified by Joyce L. Epstein, Ph.D., of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University (see above), the National PTA created program standards of excellence. These standards, together with their corresponding quality indicators, were created to be used in conjunction with other national standards and reform initiatives in support of children’s learning and success.

This website houses a database of parent leadership programs across the country with information about the goals of each program, whether the program has a replicable model, information about the training content and approach, logistical information, outcomes and evaluation, a self-assessment summary and comments from parents who have participated in the program.

Joyce Epstein and Karen Clark Salinas outline research-based approaches to building school partnership programs and becoming true learning communities in this article. The article offers examples of how schools in urban, suburban, and rural locations are working to create effective programs of family and community involvement to strengthen their learning communities.

This article summarizes three successful father involvement strategies. It was published in the Fall 2003 issue of the Early Childhood Research and Practice Quarterly.

A Report by the Annenberg Institute on Public Engagement in Public Education. This report offers a comprehensive look at the kinds of public-engagement initiatives that have begun springing up around the country and at what they are doing to build citizen involvement and support for school change.

A summary of selected research compiled by Dr. John Wherry, President of The Parent Institute. This summary provides an overview of the parent involvement research that has documented the impact of parent involvement for students, parents, schools and communities.

This report, from the Center for Parent Leadership at the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and KSA-Plus Communications draws on research that documents the impact of parent involvement on student achievement. It includes exercises and talking points to help parents identify what role they want to play; from teacher to supporter to decision maker. The focus of the report is to provide practical advice on how to use parent involvement research to engage parents.

This manual begins with background information on the Children First Initiative. CFI was an initiative of the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund. CFI communities work to engage parents, early childhood educators, childcare providers, school administrators, local businesses, social service agencies, state and local government, and policy makers.

The intent of this manual is to provide the reader ideas, methods, and background information on strategies that have been successful in promoting children's readiness to learn and early school success in the seven Children First Initiative communities. Programs are grouped together in the areas of: Family Support, Parent Engagement and Leadership, Family Literacy and Transition from Community to School.

In December 2003, the Advertising Council conducted a random sample survey of 1,000 adults across the country to assess current public attitudes regarding children. The findings revealed that public perception toward children has made a positive shift in the last 10 years and that those surveyed are more willing to take action on behalf of children. The survey also tested the persuasiveness of both broad messages and more specific appeals to help children. In addition to the survey findings, the report offers insights and advice for engaging the public on behalf of children. (10.7 mb)