September 2018
New and Improved! A Resource to Support YOUR Partnership Program
School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, 4th Edition
Steven B. Sheldon, Ph.D.
Associate Director, NNPS
Engaging families and communities as partners is key for helping all students succeed in school. From kindergarten through high school graduation, studies have shown that students are more likely to achieve academically, more likely to attend school, and more likely to be engaged and motivated in school if they have a parent or other family members who actively support their education in and outside of school. Equally important, research shows that goal-linked school programs and outreach will engage more and different family and community partners to support student learning and development.
At NNPS, we are excited to share with you news about the publication of the new edition of School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, 4th Edition. The Handbook not only covers the basics, but also includes new resources and updated sections to support your efforts to implement systematic and sustainable partnership programs that are linked to student outcomes.
The Handbook translates lessons we have learned through research and fieldwork with members of NNPS into practical approaches that will enable school, district, and state leaders develop and expand their programs of family and community engagement.
For example, the new book:
- Adds an Awareness Session—Partnerships Then and Now—to enable leaders to present an overview of components of effective partnership. (See the PowerPoint and presentation notes on the CD in English and Spanish).
- Provides and updated overview of more than one hundred studies of the connections of family and community engagement with results for students in reading, math, science, attendance, behavior, and other outcomes. (See Chapter 1.3).
- Presents new examples of partnership activities for preschool, elementary, middle, and high schools from members of NNPS. (See Chapter 2).
- Provides improved tools, templates, agendas, and evaluations for leaders to organize and conduct a full One-Day Team-Training This will prepare schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships (ATPs) of educators, parents, and community partners to work together in support of student success. (See Chapters 4 and 5, and the CD).
- Discusses special considerations for family and community engagement in middle and high schools. (See Chapter 6).
- Adds a CD (in the back cover) for leaders to organize and customize presentations for school teams and other audiences with materials in English and Plus—a new URL from Corwin Press to download all resources in this book.
Other chapters provide support and insights for readers to develop strong teams (Chapter 3) and sustainable, high-quality programs of family and community engagement. Chapter 7 updates the NNPS framework and guidelines for district and state leadership for partnerships. With this information, leaders can prepare state and district colleagues to become expert leaders and facilitators of school’s partnership programs.
For educators interested in how to integrate family engagement with the school curricula, Chapter 8 presents Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS)—NNPS’s research-based program of interactive homework. This chapter discusses how teachers can use TIPS in Literacy/Language Arts, Math, and Science with students in the elementary and middle grades. It includes sample TIPS activities. This evidence-based program has been shown to improve student achievement, homework completion, and social-emotional outcomes.
Because we understand how vital assessments are for the continuous improvement and success of this work, we updated Chapter 9 to support evaluations of partnership programs. In this chapter, we provide readers with a range of data collection approaches for insight into the implementation and impact of partnership programs. The NNPS inventories and templates will support evaluations of family and community engagement practices.
The 4th edition of School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action continues NNPS’s long-standing commitment to help educators implement effective and equitable programs of family and community engagement. The book is representative of our understanding that schools, districts, and states can and should support the engagement of families and communities to increase student success.
See information on the Handbook-4th Edition and the special 20% discount for NNPS contacts. New members that join NNPS will receive one copy of the new Handbook in their “new member packets.” Also see Corwin Press for large order discounts.
