This course provides strategies and best practices for guiding parent involvement and developing and sustaining meaningful relationships and partnerships in the broader school community. Creating an environment that values two-way communication with families and stakeholders promotes and supports student success.
Standard 8: Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community
Effective educational leaders engage families and the community in meaningful, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial ways to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.”
(National Policy Board for Educational Administration, 2015)
Developing and sustaining effective partnerships builds mutually beneficial alliances supporting student achievement from elementary through secondary school grades, including such initiatives as school-to-career transitions for graduating students.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Reduce or remove barriers to school interaction and participation for parents, volunteers and community stakeholders
- Support teachers in counseling and being inclusive with parents and external stakeholders
- Use the Home-School Learning Compact and other models to engage and secure commitment from parents, teachers and stakeholders
- Create a welcoming environment for families and external stakeholders
- Design a volunteer development program that conveys policy consistently across the campus
- Use community asset mapping to identify and engage community assets
- Use gap analysis and action planning to develop sustainable relationships with the community including local business
Lessons contain exercises that you will be asked to complete, and resources you can use for continuous learning. Use a personal journal to record your completed exercises and document your learning in this course. This guide can assist you with creating your personal journal. Your school district facilitator may request you submit your personal journal to show proof of course completion. Direction on where to submit your finished journal will be provided by your district facilitator, should they require it.
Select a lesson from the table of contents below to begin your learning. Lessons do not need to be completed in sequence. The pre-test and post-test are optional. If you would like to receive a certificate of completion, you must mark each lesson as complete.