ESEA Reauthorization Needs Stronger Family Engagement Provisions
More than 40 years of research shows - no matter a family's income or socioeconomic background - family engagement in education is essential for student success. Students whose families are involved attend school more regularly, earn better grades, enroll in higher-level programs and have higher graduation rates. Research also shows that family engagement is critical for school improvement as well as plays a key role in helping communities grow strong and thrive.
Despite strong evidence of the important role families play in student achievement, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind (ESEA/NCLB) does not include critical improvements that prioritize family engagement.
ESEA/NCLB has been up for reauthorization since 2007. Currently, the U.S. Senate has a bipartisan reauthorization bill, the Every Child Achieves Act (S. 1177), that is expected to be debated and voted on in the next few weeks. At this time, the bill does not incorporate stronger family engagement provisions.
Recent reports have found that states and districts across the country are increasingly prioritizing family engagement and adopting systemic and sustained efforts to integrate families into the fabric of their schools - recognizing the important impact of family engagement on student learning.
California, for example, has developed a Family Engagement Framework to help districts meet requirements in the state's new school funding law to include families in the school budget decision-making process. Districts such as Washoe County School District in Reno, Nev. and Springfield, Mass. School District have created positions and departments specifically geared toward implementing long-term, integrated and high-impact strategies to bolster family engagement.
At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Education released the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships in 2014 to encourage schools to link student learning to family engagement through meaningful activities that are tied directly to curriculum or student achievement efforts.
While progress is being made, all states and school districts need additional capacity ESEA Reauthorization Needs Stronger Family Engagement Provisions | Otha Thornton: