Family Engagement Assessment
Actionable Data to Strengthen Home-School Partnerships
Family Engagement Is a Powerful Instructional Strategy.
99% 40%
of educators agree that family engagement is critical to student success 1 and decades of research back them up.
faster improvement in test scores has been observed in schools where teachers report high levels of outreach to parents. 2
1 Scholastic Teachers and Principal School Report, 2016. 2 Henderson, A. T., & Mapp, K. L. (2002). A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement.
Strong family-school partnerships lead to:
Higher grades and standardized test scores
More positive attitudes toward schoolwork 2
Better attendance records
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Measure Your Capacity. Improve Your Practices.
Ready to turn family engagement research into real results? With the Family Engagement Assessment (FEA), you can measure your school’s capacity to build family-school partnerships and uncover new strategies to strengthen them. Scholastic experts perform an in-depth analysis of your family engagement practices and deliver a data-rich report with commendations and recommendations for growth in four key areas: Welcoming, Communication, Information, and Empowerment.
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Welcoming From the parking lot to the front lobby, how welcome are families in your school?
Communication How frequent, clear, and inviting is your school’s communication with families?
Information Are families receiving the information they need to support their children’s learning?
Empowerment How well do you empower families to be active and equal partners in their child’s education?
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How It Works The Family Engagement Assessment is an immersive process that examines every single point of contact between your school and families. From the parking lot and family resource center to phone assistance and your website—we can help you optimize every touchpoint so you can reach every family.
On-Site Walkthrough A Scholastic expert visits your campus, bringing a fresh, objective perspective to your school environment.
Communication Analysis A thorough review of printed and online communications is conducted, including family portals, social media channels, your school website, and more.
Shopper Calls To better understand the school’s enrollment process, a specialist conducts a mock call in English or other languages, posing as a parent seeking to enroll their child.
Family and Staff Surveys This unique survey delivers deep insights into the family engagement beliefs, mindsets, and needs of families, educators, and administrators.
Personalized Report We provide a detailed report of our findings and guide your stakeholders through it step-by-step during an in-depth debrief.
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Turn Your Results into Actionable Next Steps
Your FEA report incorporates all the data collected by your Scholastic expert and provides a full 360° view of family engagement at your school. The report includes detailed rationale and recommendations for each goal and indicator. It is intended as a starting point to build awareness and to begin strategic planning for improvement.
YOUR FEA REPORT OVERVIEW Who Participated in the Survey
Quantitative Data A full range of metrics enables you to accurately measure your current practices, chart growth over time, identify the tools you need to acquire, and prioritize the right initiatives.
# of Respondants
71 staff completed the on line survey 36 families completed the family survey
Your Scores This chart illustrates your school’s score for each goal area. The minimum score for an area is 1.00, while the maximum score is 3.00. If your scores are to the left of the brown line, you are in the “low” category. If your scores are to the right of the blue line, you are in the “high” category. If you are in between the lines, you are in the “emerging” category.
School Visit Highlights • A large wood sign, which reflects the diversity of Gibson students, welcomes visitors at the front entrance. • A large mural of the Danville community and large sign with the school’s 3 overarching themes, Be Kind, Work Hard and Never Give Up are the first things visitors see upon entering the building. • The school is excited to be creating a Parent/Family room. During the school visit a tour of the space and ideas for utilization were shared. • On the day of the Scholastic visit, the cafeteria was set up for a family event, “Cupcakes and Conversations.” The cleanliness and organization of the room reflects a school that welcomes and values their families. • Students who meet positive behavior expectations can use tokens awarded in the EA Gibson vending machine located in the foyer.
Core Beliefs About Family Engagement In most schools, educators readily agree that families must be involved in their children’s education and that home-school partnerships are very important. With such overwhelming agreement, why don’t we find real partnerships in every school? The reality is that educators and families have many beliefs, attitudes, and fears about each other that hinder their coming together to promote learning. The answer to “Are family-school partnerships important?” tends to be “Yes, but….” Before a school can create strong and effective partnerships with families, staff must believe not only that it’s important but also that it can be done—and that they can do it. That means school staff must hold a set of positive beliefs about family engagement. In their book Beyond the Bake Sale (2006), Dr. Karen Mapp and Anne Henderson identify four Core Beliefs that are essential to successful family engagement efforts.
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Visuals Photos and videos help illustrate assessment findings with specific examples of what can be achieved.
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ASSESSMENT
GOAL 2: COMMUNICATION Your Score
Score Ratings As you can see in this sample, each goal and indicator is given a rating of high , emerging , or low .
Definition
Score Rating
Contact between schools and families is frequent, comfortable, and two-way.
2.97
High
Written and oral communication is clear and comprehensible.
2.15
Emerging
Print information is available, attractive, useful, and family/culturally friendly.
2.71
Emerging
Commendations Our experienced
Overall Score
2.29 Emerging
practitioners identify what your school is doing well so you can continue and enhance those practices.
Commendations • Family surveys indicate that they understand information the school provides about their child’s learning. • Administrator survey results indicate they monitor school newsletters and other written communications to ensure they are family friendly. This was confirmed through documents reviewed for the “Cupcakes and Conversations” session. Handouts were family-friendly; they used simple vocabulary, no educational jargon, and bulleted lists. • The school’s website provides current information to families and is easy to navigate. The website also provides access to the school’s Facebook posts. Recommendations • Developing a welcome packet can be an efficient way to plan for and provide information to new families throughout the school year. Versions of the packet in English and Spanish might include contents such as a welcome letter from the principal, information about how families can support, monitor and advocate for their child at Gibson Elementary, a map of the school, a list of learning expectations for each grade level, contact information including phone numbers and email addresses for office, administrator and teachers, tutoring options, a calendar of events for families, a link to the school’s website, and other pertinent information that will help families navigate the school. Engage some Gibson Elementary families to help you identify and prioritize information for the welcome packet. • Think about developing a brochure about your new parent room for inclusion in your welcome packet, on your website and in your main office. The family room brochure might include location, hours available, the purpose of the room, and the types of materials/equipment and supports families can find there. • School administrators might want to consider additional options for inviting 2-way communication. Although the school provides information through the weekly school newsletter, Facebook page, and website, these are primarily 1-way communications. In addition to events such as “Cupcakes and Conversations” and School Improvement meetings where 2-way communication opportunities can be designed into the agenda, consider providing anonymous feedback options, and short 1-3 question surveys that invite input on current processes, opportunities for improvement following events,
Recommendations for Growth You’ll receive individualized, actionable, research- based suggestions and guidance for enriching and prioritizing family engagement practices in each area ( welcoming ,
communication , information , and empowerment ).
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Support for Every Step of the Way Building and strengthening family and community partnerships requires a systematic and sustained approach. Our capacity-building programs and services support students, families, and educators with powerful tools to develop, implement, and sustain family and community engagement.
Meet Families Where They Are Birth–Grade 3
Empower families to fuel literacy achievement at home with family literacy sessions that build and retain a family-school community.
Build Home Libraries Grades K–5
Send books home while leveraging true two-way school-home relationships.
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Build Literacy Community Grades PreK–8
Host interactive read-alouds with community mentors and ignite a love of reading in all students.
High-Impact Professional Learning Ensure effective implementation of any program above with Scholastic Professional Learning. Or deepen your understanding of the latest research and strategies—regardless of what programs you’re using—with courses and coaching led by our certified family engagement specialists.
Let’s work together to strengthen engagement!
Explore these must-read resources today!
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Years of practice and research into learning have established an unquestionable insight: when parents are engaged in their children’s education, students succeed. —Heather B. Weiss, M. Elena Lopez, & Margaret Caspe (2018)
Ready to Transform Your Family Engagement Practices?
Contact your Scholastic Education partner or visit scholastic.com/engage to learn more.
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