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April 6, 2018

Members, Partners and Stakeholders,

By now you have probably heard that Statewide Family Engagement Centers (SFECs) were included in the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2018 which was signed by the President on Friday, March 23rd. With this funding, statewide organizations in up to 20 states will receive at least $500,000 to build capacity for and advance high-impact family engagement in partnership with their State Education Agencies (SEAs). I invite you to read my recent letter to stakeholders to learn more about the significance of this development.

This is obviously great news for the family engagement movement, and we look forward to engaging our members in the implementation of this effort and keeping you all apprised of its progress.

We are also pleased to share with you that NAFSCE has been awarded an 18-month grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, as well as a second contract from the National Education Association (NEA), to advance our strategic framework vision of a world where family engagement is universally practiced as an essential strategy for improving children's learning and advancing equity. This support is crucial to NAFSCE's efforts to address the systemic barriers that have prevented family engagement from having the impact on student achievement and school improvement that we all know it should and could have. 

The importance of evidence-based family engagement programming has never been so apparent to the NAFSCE team as it was during our time at the recent National Family Engagement Summit in Richmond, VA. We were energized by hearing stories about your work, your successes, and even your frustrations. Our members are encouraged to share their own experiences in our online community, and we hope to see many more of you at the upcoming National Family and Community Engagement Conference in Cleveland this summer! Remember, we are stronger together than we are alone.

Best regards,
  
Vito Borrello
NAFSCE Executive Director

Tuesday, April 24, 2018, 3:00 - 4:30pm ET
Effective Practices Webinar Series
Evaluation has a challenging reputation, but it can be practical and accessible no matter what a program's resources might be; anyone involved in family engagement work can do it. Evaluations are not tasks that have to be relegated to an expert consultant, and we will discuss innovative ways to implement evaluation methods into your own work.

Our presenters:

Heidi Rosenberg
Research Scientist
Education Development Center
Steven Sheldon
Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins University

New Program! Volunteers needed to serve as NAFSCE Ambassadors
"If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever." - Kofi Annan

NAFSCE is seeking volunteers for several different roles in our new NAFSCE Ambassador Program including Group Leader, Resource Librarian, Engagement Liaison and New Member Welcome Ambassador. Find out what it means to be a NAFSCE Ambassador. Complete our interest form today.

IEL 2018 National Family and Community Engagement Conference

Date: July 11-13, 2018
Location: Cleveland, OH
The National Family and Community Engagement Conference, hosted by long-time NAFSCE partner, the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL), is an annual convening where school and district administrators, educators, families and students come together to focus on solutions that enhance and expand engagement through family-school-community partnerships. With pre-conference site visits, plenaries, workshops and other networking activities, participants are immersed in many examples of high-impact engagement work taking place across the country. Stop by the NAFSCE exhibit table while you're there to say hello! NAFSCE members, please watch for announcements about a special member meeting to be held during the conference. Learn More.

 

These programs, hosted by NAFSCE partner, the Harvard Graduate School of Education Professional Education department, address an urgent challenge or priority - from narrowing achievement gaps and postsecondary success to modeling courageous conversations and leading inclusive schools - and provide educators with important context and data, as well as concrete solutions for expanding opportunity and achieving excellence with equity.


Statewide Family Engagement Centers to be funded at $10 million
The funds will enable a crucial opportunity to advance high-impact policies and practices for family, school, and community engagement in up to 20 states nationally. NAFSCE applauds congressional leaders including Congressman Mark DeSaulnier and Congressman Glen Thompson for their tireless, bipartisan work to include SFEC funding in this spending bill, as well as the National PTA and others who have advocated for the appropriation of funds to advance this effort. Read more on the significance of this development from NAFSCE Executive Director, Vito Borrello.

Texas legislature took away $118 million in pre-k funding. Now districts are scrambling.
School officials are accessing other grants, pulling from local taxpayer dollars and diverting funding from different parts of their budgets to meet state pre-K requirements. They're making things work for now, but they anticipate problems. 

The Chicago CPC program is an early education program for children ages three to nine from low-income neighborhoods that has a strong family engagement component. It has been the subject of many studies over the years, and in this particular report, published in JAMA Pediatrics this month, the authors - Arthur K. Reynolds, Suh Ruu Ou, and Judy A.Temple - find a correlation between involvement in the program and postsecondary degree attainment.  The study found that four to six years of intervention was significantly associated with a 48% higher rate of degree completion (associate's degree or higher) compared with lesser participation. The researchers assert that increased educational achievement is the most important benefit of early education programs because it influences so many other outcomes, like mental and physical health, economic prosperity, and rates of criminal behavior. Read the article. Download the study
Administrators who want to raise students' SAT scores might want to consider how parents feel about their schools, according to a new  study conducted by researchers at Rice University in Houston as part of the Collaborative for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy's K-12 Benchmark project, a survey of over 7,500 public school parents.  A multivariate analysis shows that, on average, each unit increase in overall parent satisfaction is associated with a 3.4% increase in SAT score. On average, there is a 169-point increase in SAT scores going from very dissatisfied parents to very satisfied parents.  The findings also suggest that relationships with parents continue to be important into the high school years - a time when parents are often less involved. Read the article. Download the study. 

Stockton, CA Night of Culture series highlights first-generation college students and their mothers
Every school semester there is a panel and art exhibit as part of the series, as a way for families to meet parents, students and community members who are working to improve educational equity and access in Stockton, according to organizers.  This event was dedicated to the women who are first-generation college students and their mothers, who although did not attend college themselves, play an important role, said Nancy Huante, director of parent engagement for Stockton Schools Initiative. Learn more.
This educator determined that "summer slide" is the symptom of a bigger problem - so he did something about it
When first-grade teacher Alejandro Gac-Artigas noticed it took his North Philadelphia students until Thanksgiving to return to the level of reading they had achieved before leaving for summer break, other teachers told him, "'That's just the summer slide,'" he said. "As if it were a law of nature that growing up poor, for every two steps you take forward during the year, you're going to take a step back during the summer." In response, Gac-Artigas founded Springboard Collaborative to address that literacy disparity through after-school and summer programs aimed at building a collaboration between parents and teachers that encourages parents to read to their children at home.
Three ways middle school parents can reignite a love for reading in their children 
Research shows that reading for pleasure leads to success in school, the workplace, and life. It helps students empathize with their peers and reduces their stress levels. However, many students stop reading for pleasure by middle school. Here are three ways parent volunteers can help counteract that trend.
Read 1,000 books before kindergarten? No problem.
A new preschool initiative of Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL) in Maryland, MD challenges parents to reach a lofty goal: read 1,000 books to your children before they enter kindergarten.  By suggesting that parents spend time reading with their kids, library officials hope the "1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Initiative" will encourage the development of early literacy skills and family engagement. Reading just one book per day will allow kids and families to hit 1,000 books in less than three years, according to MCPL. The flexible program allows repeat reading of books to be counted toward the 1,000-book goal. Learn more about the program.
Linked to Learning: A creative program ties The Three Little Pigs to STEM and literacy for parents and students
The Parent Academy Program in a Chicago Heights school district is designed as a monthly in-school workshop that gives parents of students in grades K-4 the opportunity to work closely with their child's classroom teacher. During each session, parents work together with teachers to practice and reinforce new skills and concepts that their child is learning. "Our families were so eager to plan and test the houses they built together after listening to the different versions of The Three Little Pigs presented by the teachers," said Kennedy School Principal Artis McCann. 

Reducing chronic absence requires problem solving and support, not blame and punishment
"Despite the fact that punitive practices are widespread, a growing number of researchers have found that they are not particularly effective. To change the current thinking and practice related to student absence, states, districts and schools must begin by helping educators to understand the causes of their students' absences and, next, by helping them address absences with proactive, positive, problem-solving strategies." --   Jane Sundius, Senior Fellow, Attendance Works
Is parental involvement necessary for Michigan to become a Top 10 in education? Yes.
"If parents aren't active stakeholders in the educational process, we can't succeed. Once we all realize how intertwined our lives are, we will begin to make changes that are driven by the quest for student success. Strong collaboration with the community means schools are not looked at as separate entities, but necessary to the state's success. All these factors support student success, the supposed goal." - Sibyl Wilson, president of the Michigan Parent Teacher Association

Become a Member. Join a Movement.
When you support NAFSCE, you are supporting initiatives that have the potential to change the way our country thinks about the family's role in our children's education. From our partnership with the NEA to develop higher-education training for future teachers, to our work with the Frameworks Institute to create a fundamental shift in the way people think about engaging parents and caregivers, NAFSCE's work will have a profound effect on how we all think about family engagement.

Learn more about our membership benefits for individuals and organizations. 


Fatherhood Engagement Specialist
Providence Connections is currently seeking a Fatherhood Engagement Specialist that will create, plan and implement various programs and activities to engage fathers in programs that will enhance their well-being, strengthen their parenting skills and provide opportunities to meet other dads and find support among their peers.
Research and Program Assistant, Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium
MAEC is looking for a detail-oriented and dynamic individual who is comfortable prioritizing multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment.  Learn more. 
List your job opening or resume in NAFSCE's Career Center
NAFSCE's Career Center features a searchable job bank focused solely on family engagement opportunities. Posted positions are promoted in NAFSCE News, reaching thousands of family engagement professionals each month. 

Members can also post their resume in our searchable Resume/CV database.

NAFSCE Members receive one free job or resume posting. Organizational members receive five postings. Not a NAFSCE member? Join today to enjoy this exclusive member benefit.

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