Parent Engagement: Building a Strong Foundation

"I want all parents to be real partners in education with their children’s teachers, from cradle to career. In this partnership, students and parents should feel connected—and teachers should feel supported."—ARNE DUNCAN, U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, MAY 3, 2010

Core Belief 1: 

All families have dreams for their children and want the best for them.

Core Belief 2: 

All parents have the capacity to support their children’s learning.

Core Belief 3: 

Parents and school staff should be equal partners.

Core Belief 4: 

The responsibility for building partnerships between school and home 

rests primarily with school staff, especially school leaders.

As I consider my daily work as a leader to ensure the social/emotional and academic success of our students, the four core beliefs identified in Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family -School Partnerships  is a wonderful lens through which we can view and evaluate our work as a school community to actively engage families. 

All successful relationships require a strong foundation. As a staff, we work together to build strong relationships with one another and our students and value the support of our families.  We have the privilege of teaching amazing students who carry their parents'/guardians' hopes and dream. We have a responsibility to cultivate strong and healthy partnerships with families to support these dreams by providing opportunities for parents/guardians to share these dreams and identify how we will equip students with the tools to achieve them along with ways that families can support students at home. In order for this to happen, we have to believe that "all parents have the capacity to support their children’s learning."  If we believe that each adult in a student's life has "funds of knowledge" about their children and their community, then it is our responsibility to respect this knowledge and value their input by partnering with families to equally support our students. We have to actively seek to build these partnerships as a school community. 

We are ready for this opportunity to embed these core beliefs into our learning community's strong foundation of support.  Our first step will be to evaluate our current practices and create an action plan to better connect parents/guardians to our community "through a focus on the children and their learning."  As I consider our next steps, I'm excited about this journey, and I know that we will continue to enrich the lives of our students by building strong active relationships with our families.  

I look forward to sharing our progress with my fellow #ptcamp'ers and learning your journey toward strong family partnerships.