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September 27, 2018

Good afternoon NAFSCE Members, partners and stakeholders,
 
NAFSCE is pleased to announce that the US Department of Education has awarded eleven organizations the first Statewide Family Engagement Center (SFEC) grants, as follows: 

Organization Name:

Capitol Region Education Council		 State Served:

CT
EdVenture Group, Inc WV
The Federation for Children with Special Needs MA
National Center for Families Learning AZ
National Center for Families Learning NE
The Ohio State University OH
PACER Center, Inc. MN
Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence KY
University of Hawaii HI
University of South Carolina SC
West River Foundation SD

Congratulations to each of the awardees! NAFSCE looks forwarding to working with each of you!

In total, $10 million was appropriated for these grants, and $9.7 million was disseminated to grantees. The remaining $200,000 is being utilized for technical assistance and $100,000 being utilized for administration within the Department. The announcement can be viewed here.

Dr. Barbara Boone of The Ohio State University's Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE) wrote  "We're thrilled to be stewards of this award because it allows us to continue to contribute to local and national progress towards improving schools and communities." Tom Capretta, Family and Children Community Coordinator at Ohio Department of Education, told us that  "this is a real opportunity to coordinate Ohio's family engagement supports and ensure that the voices of families from all backgrounds are represented." 

While we are pleased to see these eleven awards, the work is just beginning, not only for our grantees, but for all of us in supporting their success. It is essential that we support these awardees in their efforts to achieve best-practice statewide family engagement, and provide platforms for sharing their successes, as another step in advancing the overall field. To be clear , $10 million to advance Statewide Family Engagement is a small fraction of what is necessary. The former Parental Information Resource Center (PIRC) initiative, the evolution of which is now SFEC's, was a $40 million initiative and that was woefully underfunded.

That said, today is a step forward. These grants are for five years, even though the funding is only guaranteed for 2018-2019. NAFSCE will advocate for continued funding, and through what I expect to be the great work of these SFEC's and our other stakeholders and partners, we will utilize this as a platform for increased funding and for increased numbers of states receiving resources in the future.

We hope you enjoy this edition of NAFSCE News which includes several important professional development opportunities as well as an excellent article by Education Week regarding increased philanthropic support for our field.

Best regards,

Vito Borrello
NAFSCE Executive Director


CoP NAFSCE Members: Join our monthly Community of Practice
Next Convening: October 2nd, 2018
2:00p m ET

Join your fellow family engagement practitioners as they discuss strategies, obstacles and creative solutions to family and community engagement challenges in this virtual gathering.

NAFSCE Members: Please sign in to receive the Zoom call-in information.

Not yet a member? Join today, then view our Calendar of Events for information, or contact Georgia Decker at (703) 739-1344, deckerg@nafsce.org for assistance.

Volunteer Opportunity: Serve as a NAFSCE Ambassador
NAFSCE is seeking volunteers for several different roles in our new NAFSCE Ambassador Program including Group Leader, Resource Librarian, Engagement Liaison and New Member Welcome Ambassador. Find out what it means to be a NAFSCE Ambassador. Complete our interest form today.

Philanthropists are championing the flow of more money to family engagement initiatives
A recent survey of 150 foundations conducted by the Carnegie Corporation of New York found that, collectively, foundations are contributing over $230 million into family engagement programming and research -- a confirmation that support for the work is real. "We want to help the school system move away from looking at family engagement as a one-time program or collection of random events, like fundraisers such as a bake sale, and focus more on looking at sustainable ways in how parents and families are constantly incorporated in every aspect of the learning settings within the school," said Jenefer O'Dell of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which has given about $25 million over the last five years to support family-engagement efforts. Read the article in Education Week.

Free Webinar: Using Data Inquiry to Advance Equity
When: September 28, 2018 11:00 am PT
Where: Virtual webinar
Cost: Free
Engaging in data inquiry through an equity lens can help us better understand
problems of practice - and identify
solutions - that make schools more
equitable. This webinar will demonstrate the benefits of putting equity at the center of data use in schools and share the publication that the Center for Education Equity (CEE) created to support districts and schools to engage in data inquiry. Presenters will include members of a data inquiry team in Massachusetts who are using CEE's Data Inquiry Guide for Exploring Equity Issues and Solutions in their school district. 
Family Involvement Conference, Harrisburg, PA
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Dates: October 14-17, 2018
Fee: $210 for individuals, $180 group rate, $125 day pass

The Family Involvement Conference is presented to you by the Pennsylvania Coalition for Parent Involvement Ltd. in collaboration with the    National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE). The conference's goal is to bring together, in a common forum, school administrators, teachers, community members, and parents, to interact and address issues that are vital to academic success and the well being of our children. Join with colleagues and parents to share ideas about how to make this partnership a reality in your school.  The first 50 registrants receive a complimentary  NAFSCE membership!   Learn more about the conference or register.
Developing and Sustaining Effective Parent Advisory Committees Training, Cleveland, OH
When: October 15, 2018
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM EDT
Where: Cleveland State University
Cleveland, OH 44115
Cost: $85-100
How can an active Parent Advisory Committee enhance a Program's work with families?  What steps are needed to create and sustain an effective Parent Advisory Committee?  How can Programs prepare to share leadership with Program participants?  The National Family Support Network has developed this training to address these challenges and maximize the great potential of Parent Advisory Committees.   Learn more or register.

Comprehensive analysis of the federal budget shows how much federal spending on children has declined
First Focus released the  Children's Budget 2018, which captured and analyzed historical funding data and spending trends across a wide range of policy areas including child welfare, early childhood, education, health, housing, income support, nutrition, safety and training tracking federal investments in nearly 200 different programs. The report calls attention to the fact that c hildren receive a smaller piece of the Federal pie today than they did four years ago. Read the report.
Title 1 funds are shrinking in New York City, despite growing need 
More New York City public schools have qualified for federal funding to support low income families over the last decade, but the government dollars have dwindled, according to a   new report from the city's Independent Budget Office.  "You have a smaller pot of funding on the city level that needs to be dispersed around to a larger group of schools," said Erica Vladimer, who authored the report. 

Former Teacher of the Year gives five strategies for effective family engagement
"Over the course of eight years, my Title 1 school went from being one of the lowest performing in the state to one of the highest performing in the country. Parent participation led to better attendance, more school-home communication, increased parent-requested meetings about academic support, and more homework completed and returned," writes Meghan Everette.  Learn five strategies Meghan used to effectively engage families.
During in-school workshops, parents learn what their kids are studying and how to support it at home
Several years ago, school leaders in Poway Unified School District put out an open call to educators to "change the way we do school." A big part of that change was the creation of parent workshops in which families connect with one another and build a learning community. Watch the video here.
Parent involvement at the college level --  a psychologist's perspective 
"My experience with clients over the past 30 years suggests that a lack of involvement is usually wrong. Even if your child is what's typically described as a 'good child,' your active involvement in your college child's career first steps can, done right, not only enhance his or her career prospects but help ensure a solid relationship with your child." - Marty Nemko Ph.D. Read more.
Sonoma County schools combat chronic absenteeism with family engagement
"The state has obviously taken a different emphasis and this is going to be a change in mindsets for many families," said Steve Mizera, Santa Rosa City Schools assistant superintendent of student and family services. Matt Marshall, Cotati-Rohnert Park's director of student services, said his district has doubled the number of caseworkers brought in from Keeping Kids in School, a county program.  "The family might have an issue we're not aware of, which is often the case. We want to intervene before it's a problem" Marshall said.  
Parent University kickoff was rooted in family engagement
"Partnership" was the key theme at Mississippi's Columbus Municipal School District's annual Title I meeting at Brandon Central Services this past week.  The meeting also served as a kickoff to the district's new Parent University initiative, which aims to encourage parent involvement in schools and keep them updated about issues related to their child's age group throughout the year. Read more.
Berea City Schools' family engagement initiative gets under way
Work is proceeding in the Berea City School District to create what Berea resident and National PTA Fellow Heather Losneck envisions as a way to enhance student achievement through greater family engagement. The first step will be the creation of a Family Engagement Team. "You have to introduce people to the idea, help them understand what they're currently doing that could be tweaked, and use more innovative strategies to get to that point of higher impact," Losneck explained. "It takes a lot of trust, a lot of collaboration and innovation, and a lot of building relationships." Learn more.
Exploration and discovery for youngest students gets parents involved in the education journey from the beginning
An important part of the new Creative Curriculum for Jamestown Preschool students curriculum is to encourage family involvement. Teachers will use family engagement surveys to find out if anyone can help out with a "wow" experience. "Wow" experiences will help students bring their studies to life. For example, if a student's parent is an architect, he or she can help talk about the "building" study.  If another student's parent works in a retail store, he or she and can talk about how clothing is sold as part of the  "clothes"  study. The goal is to get families involved in their child's education from the beginning. Read more.

New digital tool offers parents a voice in schools
Possip, so named from a mashup of positive gossip, was created by a former educator and public school parent based in Nashville, Tenn. Shani Dowell, whose own children are in kindergarten and third grade, realized that parents often talk amongst themselves, but that the information rarely makes it back to the administration, unless an issue balloons into a major problem. The new tool  allows parents to communicate constructive feedback to schools in the form of a text message.
Ready4K delivers family engagement via text message
Developed by Stanford-trained educational researchers, Ready4K is proven to increase family engagement and children's development over the course of a school year. Families receive 3 text messages a week with easy tips on how to boost their child's learning by building on existing family routines - like pointing out the letters on shampoo bottles during bath time and naming their sounds, counting the number of steps as you walk to the car or bus, or making feeling faces in the mirror after you brush your teeth. The Ready4K curriculum covers birth through 3rd grade and is available in English, Spanish and Arabic.  Learn more.

Become a Member. Join a Movement.
When you support NAFSCE, you are supporting initiatives that have the potential to change the way our country thinks about the family's role in our children's education. From our partnership with the NEA to develop higher-education training for future teachers, to our work with the Frameworks Institute to create a fundamental shift in the way people think about engaging parents and caregivers, NAFSCE's work will have a profound effect on how we all think about family engagement.

Learn more about our membership benefits for individuals and organizations. 


Program Director, Make Caring Common (MCC), Harvard Graduate School of Education
The Program Director is a key member of MCC's leadership team. With broad oversight from the Faculty Director, this role will lead our new "Caring Families" parenting initiative, which, in 2018-19, will primarily focus on identifying and developing effective parenting strategies for promoting empathy, gratitude and diligence. In subsequent years, the Program Director  will oversee MCC's portfolio of school-focused programs, including our Caring Schools Network; our Caring Schools #CommonGood campaign to deepen the impact of our college admissions work with high schools; our Empathy Strategies Initiative; and our national Youth Advisory Board.
List your job opening or resume in NAFSCE's Career Center
NAFSCE's Career Center features a searchable job bank focused solely on family engagement opportunities. Posted positions are promoted in NAFSCE News, reaching thousands of family engagement professionals each month. 

Members can also post their resume in our searchable Resume/CV database.

NAFSCE Members receive one free job or resume posting. Organizational members receive five postings. Not a NAFSCE member? Join today to enjoy this exclusive member benefit.

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