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PARTNERS IN LEARNING:GOOD RESOURCES
Family Involvement in Children's Education: Successful Local Approaches (1997) is jam-packed with concrete examples of school programs and structure changes that have broken down the common barriers to family involvement. Reaching All Families: Creating Family-Friendly Schools (1997) offers a variety of possible school strategies for helping to involve families at back-to-school time and throughout the school year. Both books are free from the U.S. Dept. of Education. To order, call 1-800-USA-LEARN. Urgent Message: Families Crucial to School Reform by Anne Lewis and Anne Henderson (1997) provides rationale, examples, results and resources. To order, send $14.95 + $5 postage/handling to: Center for Law and Education, 1875 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 510, Washington DC 20009 (202/462-7688).
New Expectations: Community Strategies for Responsible Fatherhood by James Levine with Edward Pitt (1995, $22) and Getting Men Involved: Strategies for Early Childhood Programs by James Levine, Dennis Murphy, PhD and Sherrill Wilson, PhD (1993, $12.95) both offer a user-friendly, solution-focused look at involving fathers. Available from Families and Work Institute, 212-465-2044, or check with your local bookstore. The Heart of a Father (1996) covers a man's relationship with his own father, fathering "how-tos" and fathering stages; The 7 Secrets of Effective Fathers (1992) discusses the characteristics of successful fathers. Both books are by Ken Canfield, PhD, founder and president of the National Center for Fathering. The Center publishes a quarterly magazine, Today's Father, conducts a nationwide radio program, and operates a great website for fathers and others at: http://www.fathers.com/pracx.html For information, call National Center for Fathering at 1-800-593-DADS.
Web Development & Maintenance for Not-for-Profits (Including Schools) by Jayne Cravens, Coyote Communications, provides high quality guidance on web development time-lines, writing style, policies and security, school web design, marketing and maintenance. It can be viewed at: http://coyotecom.com/
Are We Family Friendly? by Sue Christensen and Ann Rosen, The Family Connection of St. Joseph County, is a very basic survey that can be sent home to families or used when large numbers of families come into the school (i.e., open house or conferences). Simple to complete and compile, results can help identify areas in need of strengthening. Are We Family Friendly? [For a camera-ready copy, send a SASE to: The Family Connection, 132 N. Lafayette Blvd., South Bend IN 46601] What's Happening? What would you like to be happening? by Sue Christensen and Ann Rosen, The Family Connection of St. Joseph County, is a self-assessment tool to help teachers think through current practices and determine priority areas for future focus. [For a camera-ready copy, send a SASE to: The Family Connection, 132 N. Lafayette Blvd., South Bend IN 46601] Taking Stock: The Inventory of Family, Community and School Support for Student Achievement by Berla, Garlington and Henderson, helps schools at all levels to assess how well they involve families and to use the results to plan for improvement. Taking Stock focuses on everyday policies and practices-things well within a school's control. Includes camera-ready surveys for families (in English and Spanish) and for staff. Also has a helpful section on overcoming barriers that is keyed to survey questions. [$26, from FSCP, 4755 Kingsway Dr., Suite 105, Indianapolis IN 46205 · 317-205-2595] School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action by Joyce Epstein, et. al. is a guide for planning, implementing, and maintaining family, school and community partnerships. Contains materials for presentations and workshops, planning forms and discussion guides, a good inventory to identify your school's present involvement practices, and more. [229 pps. $29.95 + $3.50 shipping. From: Corwin Press, Inc. 2455 Teller Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 · 805-499-9774] School and Family Partnerships: Surveys and Summaries by Joyce Epstein and Karen Salinas, are extensive reproducible questionnaires for teachers and parents, with step-by-step guides on how to summarize your school's survey data. Two versions are available-for elementary and middle grades, and for high schools. [$8.00 each, from Center for School, Family & Community Partnerships, JHU, 3003 N. Charles St., Suite 200, Baltimore MD 21218 · 410-516-8808] National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs by the National PTA presents standards, quality indicators and sample applications. Also includes a checklist to determine if quality indicators are evident and a seven-step process for planning. [On-line at: http://www.pta.org/ or through the National PTA, 312-670-6782] Minneapolis Public Schools Family Involvement Standards is an excellent model for familly-school partnerships at all levels of education-district, school, class-room, and home. Their quality indicators can be used in an audit/assessment of your own practices. [On-line at: http://www.cyfc.umn.edu/ or call 612-627-2255] Parent Involvement in Children's Education: Efforts by Public Elementary Schools by the U.S. Dept. of Education, is a report on a nationwide survey of family and school partnership activities. Findings are included for schools of different sizes, locations, and extent of low-income and minority enrollment. Questions are keyed to ideas in Reaching All Families and other government publications. To compare your school with similar schools nationwide, you can obtain a blank survey and Reaching All Families. [Contact Oliver Moles, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, US Dept. of Ed., 555 New Jersey Ave. NW, Rm 610c, Washington DC 20208-5521 · fax 202-219-2030. The report is also available at 877-433-7827] Parent Report Card is a self-assessment tool for parents that was developed by the Citizen's Committee for Parental and Community Involvement at Hampton Oaks Elementary School, VA. The report card helps parents focus on how much they are doing to help their children learn and succeed in school. [For a copy, contact Student Services Div., National Assoc. of Elementary School Principals, 703-684-3345]
Family Center Guidebook by Vivian R. Johnson is filled with information and examples on getting started, communications, sharing resources, creative strategies, and developing/sustaining partnerships.
Organizing a Successful Family Center in Your School discusses advantages, planning, funding, staffing, activities, barriers, and more. [On-line at <http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/pubsales/> or for $6.00+$5.00 s & h, pre-paid, from Publications Sales, Wisconsin DPI, Drawer 179, Milwaukee WI 53292. Make check payable to Publications Sales.]
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INVOLVING FAMILIES