New Report: Diversity: School, Family, and Community Connections

Posted by on January 23, 2004

[posted from Public Education Network newsblast]

DIVERSITY: SCHOOL, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

No matter their race, ethnicity, culture or income, most families have high aspirations and concerns for their children’s success. This is one of the findings included in the latest research synthesis from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory’s National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools. Another finding states that families from racial, ethnic and cultural minorities are actively involved in their children’s schooling, although their involvement may differ somewhat from those of white, “mainstream” U.S. families. The synthesis discusses 64 research studies on the roles that families can play in improving academic achievement among minority, immigrant and language minority students and students from low-income families. In compiling this synthesis, the center’s staff looked for recent research studies that met basic standards for quality and rigor of research methodology and that discussed the relationships between student achievement and school, family and community connections among diverse populations. The report says that the findings are limited as to whether minority and low-income families’ high aspirations for their children have a positive impact on students’ school achievement. Further, the synthesis states that more rigorous, high-quality research needs to be done to draw firm conclusions about the complex interactions among families, communities and schools in seeking to close the achievement gap. Focusing on only one of these factors is not enough. The synthesis also offers the following recommendations for building relationships among schools, communities and families: (1) Adopt formal school- and district-level policies that promote family involvement, including an explicit focus on engaging families who reflect the full diversity of the student population; (2) Demonstrate active and ongoing support from the school principal; (3) Acknowledge both commonalities and differences among students and families; (4) Provide supports to help immigrant families understand how schools work and what’s expected of both families and students; and (5) Recognize that it takes time to build trust.

http://www.sedl.org/connections/research-syntheses.html