Families and Schools in a Pluralistic Society


Book Description

Recent research identifies increased parent involvement in education as a promising method to bolster student achievement. Statistics show that while many traditional white, middle class families have found ways to be involved with their children's schooling, our nation now needs to find ways to include more minority parents in their children's education. Most educators and parents would agree that minority parent involvement in education is essential; the mechanics of developing sensitive, realistic, and workable home-school relationships are more elusive. It requires a concerted effort by all involved to understand more about the complex parent-school relationship and to develop specific plans to help families. This comprehensive volume features substantial material from the nation's most renowned research projects on parent involvement--Stanford University's Center for the Study of Families, Children and Youth, the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Research on Elementary and Middle Schools, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, and the National Catholic Education Association. In addition to a section on research, the book includes a section on practice that presents research-tested strategies on working with minority parents (Asian, American Indian, Hispanic, African American, and other minority groups). The book concludes with a section on future challenges that educators must confront and appendices on promising national programs and helpful resource materials.




Families and Schools in a Pluralistic Society


Book Description

Recent research identifies increased parent involvement in education as a promising method to bolster student achievement. Statistics show that while many traditional white, middle class families have found ways to be involved with their children's schooling, our nation now needs to find ways to include more minority parents in their children's education. Most educators and parents would agree that minority parent involvement in education is essential; the mechanics of developing sensitive, realistic, and workable home-school relationships are more elusive. It requires a concerted effort by all involved to understand more about the complex parent-school relationship and to develop specific plans to help families. This comprehensive volume features substantial material from the nation's most renowned research projects on parent involvement—Stanford University's Center for the Study of Families, Children and Youth, the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Research on Elementary and Middle Schools, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, and the National Catholic Education Association. In addition to a section on research, the book includes a section on practice that presents research-tested strategies on working with minority parents (Asian, American Indian, Hispanic, African American, and other minority groups). The book concludes with a section on future challenges that educators must confront and appendices on promising national programs and helpful resource materials.




Parent-School Collaboration


Book Description

Examines in close detail public schools' relationships with their parents and communities.




The Impact of School Choice and Community


Book Description

This book examines ways in which school structures can change to increase parental involvement.




Schools and Families


Book Description

"This is a resource for school-based practitioners, including psychologists, counselors, social workers, and special education consultants; clinical child psychologists; inservice and preservice teaches; and school administrators. It will serve as a text in courses on school consultation, building home-school partnerships, parent counseling, and parent education."--BOOK JACKET.




Handbook on Family and Community Engagement


Book Description

Thirty-six of the best thinkers on family and community engagement were assembled to produce this Handbook, and they come to the task with varied backgrounds and lines of endeavor. Each could write volumes on the topics they address in the Handbook, and quite a few have. The authors tell us what they know in plain language, succinctly presented in short chapters with practical suggestions for states, districts, and schools. The vignettes in the Handbook give us vivid pictures of the real life of parents, teachers, and kids. In all, their portrayal is one of optimism and celebration of the goodness that encompasses the diversity of families, schools, and communities across our nation.




The Encyclopedia of Middle Grades Education (2nd ed.)


Book Description

The second edition of The Encyclopedia of Middle Grades Education has been revised, updated, and expanded since its original publication in 2005. The Encyclopedia is a comprehensive overview of the field; it contains alphabetically organized entries that address important concepts, ideas, terms, people, organizations, publications, and research studies specifically related to middle grades education. This edition contains over 210 entries from nearly 160 expert contributors, this is a 25% increase in the number of entries over the first edition. The Encyclopedia is aimed at a general audience including undergraduate students in middle?level teacher preparation programs, graduate students, higher education faculty, and practitioners and administrators. The comprehensive list of entries are comprised of both short entries (500 words) and longer entries (2000 words). A significant number of entries appearing in the first edition have been revised and updated. Citations and references are provided for each entry.




Rethinking Family-school Relations


Book Description

This book addresses the complications and implications of parental involvement as a policy, through an exploratory theoretical approach, including historical and sociological accounts and personal reflection. This approach represents the author's effort to understand the origins, meanings, and effects of parental involvement as a prerequisite of schooling and particularly as a policy 'solution' for low achievement and even inequity in the American educational system. Most of the policy and research discourse on school-family relations exalts the partnership ideal, taking for granted its desirability and viability, the perspective of parents on specific involvement in instruction, and the conditions of diverse families in fulfilling their appointed role in the partnership. De Carvalho takes a distinct stance. She argues that the partnership-parental ideal neglects several major factors: It proclaims parental involvement as a means to enhance (and perhaps equalize) school outcomes, but disregards how family material and cultural conditions, and feelings about schooling, differ according to social class; thus, the partnership-parental involvement ideal is more likely to be a projection of the model of upper-middle class, suburban community schooling than an open invitation for diverse families to recreate schooling. Although it appeals to the image of the traditional community school, the pressure for more family educational accountability really overlooks history as well as present social conditions. Finally, family-school relations are relations of power, but most families are powerless. De Carvalho makes the case that two linked effects of this policy are the gravest: the imposition of a particular parenting style and intrusion into family life, and the escalation of educational inequality. Rethinking Family-School Relations: A Critique of Parental Involvement in Schooling--a carefully researched and persuasively argued work--is essential reading for all school professionals, parents, and individuals concerned with public schooling and educational equality.




Family-School Partnerships in Context


Book Description

This volume focuses on context considerations in family-school partnership research. The book examines how cultural diversity, including differences in parenting (e.g., race, education, family history) and diverse school variables (e.g., location, population, organization,) can affect family-school partnerships. Its bio ecological perspective pinpoints critical areas that studies need to address for real-world utility, such as parental commitment and developmental considerations. Although the book’s focus is research, chapters present program designs and evaluations along with ideas for community involvement and policy. The authors also explore the changing landscape for home-school partnerships resulting from the impact of technology, which is rapidly becoming a central player in organizing research and bringing interventions to life. Topics covered include: Complexities in field-based partnership research. Family-centered, school-based interventions. A district leadership approach to school, family and community partnerships. Research issues to forward a policy agenda supporting family-school partnerships. Testing statistical moderation in research on home-school partnerships. Integrating current and evolving knowledge toward future directions for research. Contexts of Family-School Partnerships is a valuable resource for researchers, professionals and graduate students in child and school psychology, educational policy and politics, family studies, developmental psychology, sociology of education, sociology and anthropology.




Pluralism and American Public Education


Book Description

This book argues that the structure of public education is a key factor in the failure of America's public education system to fulfill the intellectual, civic, and moral aims for which it was created. The book challenges the philosophical basis for the traditional common school model and defends the educational pluralism that most liberal democracies enjoy. Berner provides a unique theoretical pathway that is neither libertarian nor state-focused and a pragmatic pathway that avoids the winner-takes-all approach of many contemporary debates about education. For the first time in nearly one hundred fifty years, changing the underlying structure of America’s public education system is both plausible and possible, and this book attempts to set out why and how.