Family-School Partnerships

Family engagement in a child’s education is the most accurate predictor of student achievement regardless of family income or socioeconomic status. Research shows that when families are actively involved in their child’s education, the child has higher academic achievement, better attendance, higher graduation, and improved social skills and behavior.*

• Families are children’s first teachers and their most influential role models. 
• Alaskan students in grades 6 through 12 who state their families are involved in their education are more likely to have better grades and less likely to miss school.
• Effective family partnerships improve the feel of a school and community. When family engagement practices are embedded in schools, staff say they have stronger relationships with students and their families, they feel like they are part of a community, and this improves staff retention.

 *Wood, L., & Bauman, E. (2017). How family, school, and community engagement can improve student achievement and influence school reform: Literature review. American Institutes for Research and Nellie Mae Foundation; and Sheldon, S. B., & Jung, S. B. (2015). The Family Engagement PartnershipStudent Outcome Evaluation, Johns Hopkins University School of Education.

• Use a research-based framework, such as Stronger Together: The Power of School and Family Partnership in Alaska. This is a guide for school staff to integrate family partnership practices. This offers core building blocks, school-wide family partnership planning tools, and additional ideas on how to support family partnerships at a distance.
• Assess how your district or school is doing; use a family engagement scanning tool and your family school climate data to better understand and improve upon your family engagement work.  
• Develop a family engagement plan for each school. This should include specific strategies to engage families in decision-making, learning, and climate-building. 
• Adopt AASB’s recommended family engagement policies.

The Alaska Family Engagement Center (AFEC) is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and many of the resources have been developed through funding with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Reuben E. Crossett fund.

AASB partners with the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) and Southeast Alaska Regional Resource Center to strengthen and share the best practices for family engagement around our state. 

AFEC is part of a national network of state family engagement centers. AFEC aims to improve school-family partnerships across the state by working with 13 school districts to develop training, resources, and activities for schools and families. The work is also guided by a Family Advisory Board and Alaska Family Engagement Center Coalition. 

• Look at your family surveys and family data in the School Climate and Connectedness Survey. What are families’ perceptions of school and learning? How are they communicating with schools? What are the barriers for participation in their child’s formal learning? 
• Identify family partnerships as a priority in your long-range plan, hiring practices, policies, and protocols within the district. 
• Seek ongoing professional learning opportunities to build confidence and strategies through training in skills and best practices for creating positive family-school partnerships. Click here to request learning or coaching. 
• Host a book study on Stronger Together: The Power of Family and School Partnerships. 
• Review key strategies for building culturally responsive and authentic relationships with families. 
• Build on what families and students know, and incorporate at-home discussion prompts for students. 
• Offer tools and opportunities for families to support social emotional and academic learning.
• Host dialogues to better understand families’ interests and school partnership requests. 
• Review and adopt AASB’s recommendations on family engagement policies.