The evidence-based strategies in this volume close the achievement gap among students from all sociological backgrounds. Designed according to local needs assessments, they provide the services, programs, initiatives, and relationships that are crucial for children's success in school and life. These practices and programs include afterschool and summer sessions, early-childhood education, school-linked health and mental health services, family engagement, and youth leadership opportunities. This book addresses the policy and funding requirements that help these partnerships thrive and offers effective counterarguments against those who would question their value. The text describes strategies that work in both rural and urban contexts and includes a chapter evaluating school-community partnerships across the world. Because it involves collaborations across professions and organizations, the book's interdisciplinary approach will appeal to those in social work, education, psychology, public health, counseling, nursing, and public policy.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

From the time the reform movement began in the progressive era with concerns about public health and universal access to education, arguments have been raised for and against linking schools and social services, and the merits or otherwise of each system.; A new argument for the collaboration is that integration will lead to substantially better services than those provided by separate organizations.; This volume brings together a wide array of cross-national research and public policy issues to focus on a new framework of service provision. It looks at the different networks of organizations of which schools and social services have been a part, and at the political implications or results of bringing together the professionals from such organizations. It takes into account the constraints resulting from the larger institutional network experience by such organizations. The book also presents a range of perspectives on the way preparation is followed by four responses that present somewhat varying points of view.; The contributors come from a wide range of experiences including specialists in politics of education, law, urban studies, children's issues and those providing reflections on practical experience.

Recipient of AERA Outstanding Contributions Relating Theory to Practice Award: Interpretive Scholarship for 2004 This is the second in a series of monographs by the Family, School, Community Partnership (FSCP) Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. Parent involvement, as one of the eight National Education Goals in 1994, has brought heightened awareness to the importance of connecting educational institutions and their communities. The goal envisions “school partnerships that will increase parent involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and academic growth of children.” The U.S. Congress additionally supported this goal in the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. This act is the renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and strongly promotes schools’ active involvement with families and the surrounding community.

These hearings transcripts recount testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives concerning early childhood development programs. Testimony addressed the questions of how public and private investments in early childhood programs contribute to successful outcomes for infants and mothers, and how these successes can be measured and replicated as states implement welfare reforms and demand for quality child care grows. The transcripts include statements and/or testimony from Rob Reiner of the I Am Your Child campaign; Lincoln C. Almond, Governor of Rhode Island; a representative of the RAND Corporation; the director of program and policy analysis of the National Center for Children in Poverty; a professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine; a single mother; Representative Christopher Shays (Connecticut), and Representative Edolphus Towns (New York). (HTH)