What Successful Schools Do to Involve Families: 55 Partnership Strategies

"Partnering with parents is a missing link in efforts to improve student achievement. This book offers teachers specific and practical suggestions to capitalize on this extraordinary untapped resource."
―David Freitas, Professor of Education
Indiana University, South Bend

Watch performance levels climb when students are supported by teachers, families, and the community!

Emphasizing that students learn best when families and schools work together to promote student achievement, What Successful Schools Do to Involve Families offers teachers and administrators 55 practical strategies for forming effective partnerships with every type of family group.

From traditional forms of communication―such as open houses, parent-teacher conferences, and fundraising efforts―to hot-button topics such as bullying and discipline, this book helps educators bridge the gap between school and home by providing:

• Solidly researched strategies with relevant how-to applications, tips, precautions, and additional resources
• Strategies for reaching out to non-mainstream or non-traditional families
• A chapter on the role of non-parental caregivers
• Proven methods for including families in discussions about homework, literacy, mathematics, and students with special needs

Nurture academic success and resiliency in students by strengthening the bond between families, educators, and the outside community!

Neal A. Glasgow′s experience includes serving as a secondary school science and art teacher both in California and New York, as a university biotechnology teaching laboratory director and laboratory technician, and as an educational consultant and frequent speaker on many educational topics. He is the author or coauthor of ten books on educational topics: What Successful Schools Do to Involve Families: Fifty Research-Based Strategies for Teachers and Administrators (2008), What Successful Literacy Teachers Do: 70 Research-Based Strategies for Teachers, Reading Coaches, and Instructional Planners (2007), What Successful Teachers Do in Diverse Classrooms: 71 Research-Based Strategies for New and Veteran Teachers (2006); What Successful Teachers Do in Inclusive Classrooms: 60 Research-Based Strategies That Help Special Learners (2005); What Successful Mentors Do: 81 Researched-Based Strategies for New Teacher Induction, Training, and Support (2004); What Successful Teachers Do: 91 Research-Based Strategies for New and Veteran Teachers (2003); Tips for Science Teachers: Research-Based Strategies to Help Students Learn (2001); New Curriculum for New Times: A Guide to Student-Centered, Problem-Based Learning (1997); Doing Science: Innovative Curriculum Beyond the Textbook for the Life Sciences (1997); and Taking the Classroom to the Community: A Guidebook (1996).

 

Paula Jameson Whitney has been an educator for 21 years. During that time, she has been a middle school teacher of language arts, ESL, and social science; middle school vice principal; elementary school principal; and central office director of learning support and categorical programs. Her master’s of education is in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and her expertise is in instructional practices for English learners, gifted and talented students, and leadership strategies for school improvement.