May 2005 Announcement

Dear FINE Member,

Here are this month's FINE member announcements. Please feel free to forward this information to friends and other education colleagues.

New on the FINE Website

• Research Report: Partnering With Parents and Communities: Are Preservice Teachers Adequately Prepared?

  Based on surveys and focus groups with teacher educators and new teachers, Carolyn Flanigan explores how colleges of education can better prepare teachers to partner with parents and communities.

• Research Digest: British Bangladeshi and Pakistani Families and Education Involvement: Barriers and Possibilities

  Gill Crozier and Jane Davies describe their study of the experiences of British Bangladeshi and Pakistani parents in their interactions with schools and their involvement in children's education.

• Conference Presentation: Understanding and Evaluating Family Engagement in Out-of-School Time

  This workshop introduces participants to the latest research and evaluation findings on family involvement in out-of-school time programs, and presents strategies for engaging with families, using two case studies to illustrate these practices in context.

• Syllabus: Risk and Resilience in Children and Families: Implications for Public Policy

  Julie Boatright Wilson, the Harry Kahn Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, teaches a course that looks at past, present, and future trends in child and family policy and the policy implications of risk and resilience in children and families.

Books, Reports, and Articles

• Radical Possibilities: Public Policy, Urban Education, and a New Social Movement

  In her new book Jean Anyon argues that the organizations that shape public policy are crucial collaborators in urban education reform efforts. Anyon explains the relevance of her book to FINE members: “To achieve lasting reform, educators, parents, and community groups will need to collaborate not only with each other, but also with organizations influencing areas like minimum wage, tax law, and public transit. In this book, I make the case that these public policies often overshadow education policy and urban school reform, reducing opportunities for graduates.”

• Developing Effective Interventions With Families

  This book explores how a child- and youth-care approach works in daily interactions with children, youth, and their families. The book is available for purchase from the publisher at the link above.

• A Meta-Analysis of the Relation of Parental Involvement to Urban Elementary School Student Academic Achievement

  This meta-analysis of 41 studies examines the relationship between parental involvement and the academic achievement of urban elementary school children. Results indicate a significant relationship between parental involvement overall and academic achievement. The full article is available for purchase at the link above.

• Social Heteroglossia: The Contentious Practice or Potential Place of Middle-Class Parents in Home–School Relations

  This article describes the activities, influence, and multiple perspectives of middle-class parents on schools, and raises questions about how to harness the engagement of middle-class parents for the benefit of all students. The full article is available for purchase at the link above.

• Building Strong Families 2004: A Study of African American and Latino/Latina Parents in the United States

  This report examines the resources that African American and Latino/Latina families have or need to raise children that thrive. It is a second study in an ongoing collaboration between YMCA of the USA and Search Institute around strong families and parenting.

Toolkits

• Staying Involved: Approaches to Helping Our Middle School and High School Students Learn

  Staying involved in the education of middle and high school students can be challenging for many parents. The article introduces a model that helps parents understand how older students learn. It explores the roles that parents can play in supporting the learning process during adolescence.

• After-School Programs Parent Involvement Plan

  This template from the Penn State Cooperative Extension's Children, Youth, and Families Are Resilient project is designed to help after school programs create their own parent involvement plan.

• Building State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems

  This series of reports from the National Center for Infant and Early Childhood Health Policy is designed to support the planning and implementation of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau State Early Childhood Comprehensive Services initiative. Two of the reports, “Promoting Positive Parenting Practices Through Parenting Education” (#13) and “Family Support: Fostering Leadership and Partnership to Improve Access and Quality” (#14), provide guidance on state policy development in the areas of parenting education and family support.

• La Lectura es lo Primero (Put Reading First)

  This brochure, now available in Spanish, provides a brief overview of the findings of the National Reading Panel for parents and offers information about what to expect from a school's reading program based on research evidence. The brochure also suggests ways parents can reinforce reading instruction at home with everyday activities and interactions.

Workshops

• Workshops From Community Schools: The Time is NOW!

  Presentations from the 2005 Coalition for Community Schools National Forum are now available online. There are five presentations related to parent engagement which cover topics such as No Child Left Behind and the school–parent compact, parents connecting with hard-to-reach parents, and building a school community by engaging parents in the learning lives of their children.

Program

• Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communities: A Violence Prevention Parent Training Program

  The Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communities Program is a strength-based prevention-intervention training program for parents with children between 3 and 18 years that addresses violence against the self, violence in the family, and violence against the community. The program's message,“keep the value—change the process,” encourages parents to try new methods to teach traditional positive family, cultural, and spiritual values.

Upcoming Events

• School of the 21st Century National Conference: Partners for Success: Linking Community, Families, and Schools

  The School of the 21st Century (21C) is a community school model that incorporates early childhood programs, after-school care, and other family support services designed to promote the optimal growth and development of children beginning at birth. Yale University is hosting the annual national 21C conference for professional development of staff from Schools of the 21st Century, family resource centers, school-age programs, community schools, and other school-based family support programs in New Haven, Connecticut, from July 18th to 20th.

• Brazelton Touchpoints 8th National Forum: Strategies for Empowering Families, Caregivers, and Communities

  The Brazelton Touchpoints Center promotes partnerships between health care and child care professionals and parents to support the health, social, emotional, and cognitive well-being of children. The National Forum will be held in Providence, Rhode Island, from June 2nd to 5th.

Contact Us

Have a problem with the website or questions and comments concerning our work? Send an email to fine@gse.harvard.edu.

Enjoy!

FINE - The Family Involvement Network of Educators

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