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May 1, 2018

Members, Partners and Stakeholders,

In this issue of NAFSCE News, we are debuting a new section, Strategies that Work, to highlight  new charts, infographics and to-the-point articles that provide evidence-based tips, resources and tools being offered by experts in the field of family engagement. We hope you find these "bookmark-worthy" resources helpful.

We are also excited to tell you about a very special event being hosted by NAFSCE on Monday, May 14. In our next Effective Practices Webinar,   The State of Family Engagement: A Conversation with Karen Mapp and Anne Henderson, Karen and Anne will reflect on the current state of family engagement and its future as an increasingly essential educational strategy. Attendees will have the the opportunity to ask questions of these two pioneers in the field. This is a NAFSCE Members-Only event. See details about this event  below. 

The NAFSCE team will be at the Community Schools National Forum in Baltimore later this week. If you are attending, please stop by to say hello. Of course we hope to see many of you at the National Family and Community Engagement Conference in Cleveland this July. This capacity-building convening is a highlight of the year for the family engagement community. Learn more below.

Best regards,
  
Vito Borrello
NAFSCE Executive Director

Monday, May 14, 2018, 3:00 ET
Effective Practices Webinar Series
The State of Family Engagement: A Conversation with Karen Mapp and Anne Henderson 

This is currently a NAFSCE MEMBERS-ONLY EVENT. NAFSCE Members, register now to secure your spot. 

We encourage all NAFSCE members to join us for this truly unique event. Karen Mapp and Anne Henderson will share their insights into how the family engagement landscape has changed in recent years, and how it affects practitioners, administrators, families and students. As with all of our webinars, attendees will be encouraged to submit their own questions for Karen and Anne.

Not yet a NAFSCE Member? Try NAFSCE now to attend the webinar, access archived webinars, tap into our resources for professionals and more. Nonmembers may also join the waitlist for this event. Note: Waitlist registration does not guarantee admittance.

Our presenters:
Karen Mapp, Ed.D.
Senior Lecturer and Faculty Director, Education Policy and Management Master's Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education
 Anne T. Henderson
Senior Consultant, National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement
 

IEL 2018 National Family and Community Engagement Conference

Date: July 11-13, 2018
Location: Cleveland, OH
The 2018 National Family and Community Engagement Conference, hosted by NAFSCE partner, the  Institute for Educational Leadership,  is an excellent capacity building opportunity for educators, other professionals, parent leaders and a range of stakeholders to learn strategies and best practices that focus on solutions that enhance and expand engagement through family-school community partnerships. With 3 pre-conference sessions, 6 site-visits and over 75 workshops covering six strands, participants are sure to walk away with new skills and strategies that they can immediately apply to their work.  

 

These programs, hosted by NAFSCE partner, the Harvard Graduate School of Education Professional Education department, address an urgent challenge or priority - from narrowing achievement gaps and postsecondary success to modeling courageous conversations and leading inclusive schools - and provide educators with important context and data, as well as concrete solutions for expanding opportunity and achieving excellence with equity. Download the brochure.
Families in Schools: Free Transition to College Facilitator Trainings
Date/Location: 
May 16-17 - Providence, RI
June 28-29 - Redwood City, CA
July 24-25 -  Colorado Springs, CO
August 2-3 - Lincoln, NE
Families In Schools, with funding from The Kresge Foundation, is offering free facilitator curriculum trainings on Transition to College for school and organizational staff. Transition to College is a six-week program that helps address the transition of low-income and immigrant students from high school to college. The program is designed to enhance parent's ability to support their child's last year in high school and the transition into college. Click here to find out more.
Free Webinar: Team up for Attendance: Working Together Matters
Date: Tuesday, May 8, 2pm ET, 11am PT
Location: Register here for this online webinar.
What are the secret ingredients that strong schools use to improve  attendance ? And how do their districts and community partners support their work? Join NAFSCE partner, Attendance Works and 70 Attendance Awareness Campaign partners for this free webinar: Team Up for Attendance:  Working Together Matters. You'll hear from principals and educators from New Mexico, California and New York who have reduced chronic absence in their schools, and how their districts and community partners support their work.
Free Webinar: Health Equity and Youth: Understanding the Disparities
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 11am PT
Location: Register here for this online webinar.
Following April's  National Minority Health Month , NAFSCE partner, the Center for Education Equity is hosting a webinar to provide information and resources to educators on health disparities in youth. According to the CDC, "Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations...Health disparities are inequitable and are directly related to the historical and current unequal distribution of social, political, economic, and environmental resources." This webinar will explore the ways in which health disparities hinder youth achievement and academic outcomes.
Volunteer Opportunity: Serve as a NAFSCE Ambassador
"If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever." - Kofi Annan

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.

Emergency rule to give Nevada teachers more time to pass family engagement course
Governor of Nevada, Brian Sandoval, filed an emergency regulation last Thursday to provide relief for Nevada teachers who are in jeopardy of losing their jobs by failing to complete a state-mandated course.   Affected employees will have two more years to fulfill the requirement, which is to take and pass a state-approved college-level course on parent and family engagement . Read more about the teachers' experiences of the law.

Partnering with newcomer families: Strategies for working across language and cultural differences to make families feel at home in new schools
When a student comes to school with limited English skills, or arrives midyear from another country, she's not the only one who's feeling out of place. Her parents or other caregivers at home are no doubt feeling disoriented as well. This article from the Harvard School of Education highlights strategies for partnering with parents amid cultural differences.

Five ways to master family engagement this Spring
During the Spring, teachers and school leaders have the opportunity to partner with families in dynamic ways that may be different from how they partnered with families in the beginning of the school year. In this article, the Flamboyan Foundation highlights how teachers and school leaders can use the Springtime season to engage families.
A new resource to decode school jargon
The education news site, The 74, has launched a new channel, 4fams,  designed for families who want to better understand their children's school system.  Through a mix of articles, commentary, research analysis, first-person parent essays, and rapid-fire explainer videos (in both English and Spanish), 4Fams will make it easier for parents to search and share resources. Check out this new family resource here.
Two tips for building family engagement through communication and trust
"Parent involvement in education used to be defined quite narrowly. Over time, though, the relationship between families and schools has become more meaningful, customized, and inclusive.
Yet, successful partnerships between schools and families are challenging to implement. Logistical issues such as demanding work schedules, transportation difficulties, and trouble finding child care can make it hard for families to get involved.  Below we share two research-based ways schools are engaging families." - Babe Liberman, Research Project Manager, Digital Promise.
Seven research-based ways families promote early literacy

Global Family Research Project's handy infographic that highlights ways families can promote early literacy is now available in English and Spanish.  View both versions as well as the  research-to-practice brief  the infographics are based on, published in 2017, here.

Four evidence-based parenting tips: How to deal with aggression, tantrums and defiance
Over the past decade, a research team at the The University of Sydney's Child Behaviour Research Clinic has treated aggression, non-compliance, rule-breaking and excessive tantrums in children aged two to 16. The researchers used these insights to develop a free online program of evidence-based strategies for parents, called ParentWorks, and here are four of their tips to help manage aggression in young ones.

Black students with disabilities miss significantly more instructional time due to suspension than their white peers, according to a new report released Thursday by Harvard University law professors and The Civil Rights Project at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The researchers argue that some of the student behaviors leading to suspension could be a result of their disability, such as emotional disturbance - calling this the "equivalent of denying that student access to education."  Read the brief. Download the report.
Over the past decade, the rate of enrollment in higher education for Latinos ages 18 to 24 years old has increased from 24% to 39%. During this same time, the average annual cost of college has more than doubled. To provide context to existing data regarding higher education and its impact on the finances and wealth-building abilities of Latinos and their families, UnidosUS partnered with the UNC Center for Community Capital to conduct 30 in-depth interviews across six different cities.    Read the article.  Download the study.
Child mental health problems are now recognized as a key public health concern, and the development of parenting programs have been used as one solution to reduce children's risk of mental health problems. However, the potential for widespread dissemination is hindered by low parental engagement in such programs. To increase parental engagement in preventive parenting programs, there needs to be a better understanding of the predictors of engagement, and the strategies that can be used to enhance engagement. Read about the predictors of engagement here. Download the study.
Even excellent developmental behavioral interventions are limited in their ability to help toddlers with  autism spectrum disorder  communicate in everyday situations. Coaching parents to use language-supportive activities in naturalistic settings can supplement formal interventions, research suggests. According to Victoria Chen, MD, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at Cohen's Children Medical Center, it is well established that children younger than 3 years will not progress well if they do not have their family's external support. Learn more.

The new lesson plan for elementary school: Surviving the Internet
Between their math and literacy classes, these elementary school kids were studying up on perhaps one of the most important and least understood school subjects in America - how to protect their privacy, save their brains and survive the big, bad Web. Classes such as these, though surprisingly rare, are spreading across the country amid hopes of preparing kids and parents for some of the core tensions of modern childhood: what limits to set around technologies whose long-term effects are unknown - and for whom young users are a prime audience.
A school is redesigned with family engagement in mind
The Meadowlark elementary school in Kansas is keepingfamily engagement at the core of it's redesign. Family engagement, according to Meadowlark teacher Gricelda Estrada, is extremely important for the students.   "One of the things we want to do is make sure to get more parents and families into our school so we can get to know them. We want to keep that in mind especially since we're a newer school and don't really know all the students' families, so we want to do more with that."
Newark "Cool Cat" Family Pass provides a free gateway to local arts and culture
The "Cool Cat" family pass provides families with access to over 100 free events in Newark, including local arts and culture events.  "For me personally, as a Newark preschool mom, I wanted Newark families to take advantage of the cultural and arts scene that has grown tremendously over the last 10 years," Tamara Remedios, founder of Cool Cat, noted.  "The events also help strengthen parent-child bonds and engage the parent - this is important to empower parents as we take on local control and need to expand parent involvement."

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. 


Fatherhood Engagement Specialist
Providence Connections is currently seeking a Fatherhood Engagement Specialist that will create, plan and implement various programs and activities to engage fathers in programs that will enhance their well-being, strengthen their parenting skills and provide opportunities to meet other dads and find support among their peers.
Research and Program Assistant, Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium
MAEC is looking for a detail-oriented and dynamic individual who is comfortable prioritizing multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment.  Learn more. 
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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