Lake Charles, Louisiana

Row 2 (L to R):  John Spikes (Federal Programs Director), Angela Lewis, Lori Young, Tommy Campbell (CAO), Karl Bruchhaus (Superintendent)

Family Finds: A Teacher’s Treasure

Calcasieu´s partnership leader is helping to “scale up” programs of family and community engagement in other districts in Louisiana.  Calcasieu is a mentor district for LA SPDG (State Personnel Development Grants). In that role, Calcasieu´s leader presented family engagement sessions at 4 locations in the state to help educators learn the “basics” of NNPS approaches.  This included the importance of building relationships with families, the Framework of Six Types of Involvement, promising practices that encourage school-wide family engagement, and classroom strategies and practices that facilitate partnerships with families.

Participants learned about research-based strategies that they can use in their districts and schools to strengthen relationships with families and communities to increase student learning and development.  Attendees received several resources, asked questions, and evaluated the sessions very positively as a first step on the path to good partnerships.

Fathers, Uncles, Cousins, Brothers and Others

The district leader in Calcasieu Parish is always looking for resources to support the efforts of ATPs in 42 Title I schools that are members of NNPS.  She often uses NNPS books of Promising Partnership Practices to see what other districts and schools are doing on goals that match those in Calcasieu.  One district goal for good partnerships is to help schools engage more fathers and father figures in activities at school and at home.  Research shows that children with more involved fathers experience fewer behavior problems and are more successful academically.

The district leader explored the 2015 and 2016 books of Promising Partnership Practices and compiled 18 practices focused on engaging fathers, grandfathers, brothers, uncles, and others in children’s education.  She knew that her schools would be able to review, adopt, or adapt activities that fit the needs of their students and parents.  The booklets were printed and distributed to schools’ ATPs to consider which activities, if any, would be useful in their own schools.  Although mothers are often most active at school, everyone recognizes the importance of involving mom and dad (and other family partners) in children’s learning and development at school and at home.

Fathers, Uncles, Cousins, Brothers and Others is featured in Promising Partnership Practices 2017.