Overview
This lecture covers Joyce Epstein's School-Family-Community Partnership Model, explaining its two core components and the six types of involvement that foster effective partnerships among schools, families, and communities to support student success.
The Partnership Model: Overlapping Spheres of Influence
- The model visualizes schools, families, and communities as overlapping spheres with shared influence on a child's education.
- Overlap depends on the child’s age, time spent in school, and experience; more overlap occurs when children are younger.
- Interactions can be within organizations (e.g., school newsletters) or between individuals (e.g., parent-teacher conferences).
- The model emphasizes mutual interests, mainly ensuring the child’s success.
- "School-like families" integrate educational activities at home; "family-like schools" treat students with individualized care.
Six Types of Educational Involvement
- Type 1: Parenting—Parents are given information to support child development and learning at home.
- Type 2: Communicating—Two-way exchanges between families and schools (notes, emails, websites) inform and involve both.
- Type 3: Volunteering—Family or community members help at school, in events, or as audience/supporters.
- Type 4: Learning at Home—Parents assist with homework, enrichment, or remote learning, directly impacting academic skills.
- Type 5: Decision-making—Parents participate in school governance and parent organizations.
- Type 6: Collaborating with Community—Partnerships with businesses, nonprofits, and civic groups provide resources and mutual benefit.
Implementation and Challenges
- Barriers include socioeconomic and language differences, work schedules, and lack of technology access.
- Schools must actively overcome barriers to involve all families, especially in diverse or high-needs communities.
- Effective programs require leadership, teamwork, action plans, funding, collegial support, evaluation, and networking.
- Principal and district support are crucial to partnership program quality and sustainability.
National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS)
- NNPS supports schools in implementing the model through action teams, one-year plans, and program evaluations.
- Programs like TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork) foster interactive, curriculum-connected homework.
- Success stories, like Brooklyn City Schools’ preschool concert, demonstrate diverse, inclusive family engagement.
Policy and Broader Impact
- Federal policies such as NCLB and Head Start have adopted the language and framework of the Partnership Model.
- Mandates require parental involvement policies, family partnership agreements, and opportunities across the six types.
- The model is now a common reference for effective school-family-community partnerships in educational policy.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Action Team — A committee guiding partnership activities in a school.
- Action Plan — A written strategy to implement and evaluate partnership activities.
- Family-like Schools — Schools acting with individualized care, mirroring a supportive family environment.
- School-like Families — Families fostering academic skills and valuing education at home.
- No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) — 2001 law requiring parental involvement policies in schools.
- Head Start — Federal program for early childhood education and family support in low-income communities.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review the six types of involvement and examples for each.
- Reflect on barriers to family engagement and brainstorm possible solutions.
- Prepare for discussion on how your school or local community applies the Partnership Model.