A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

5. Parent and Community Involvement

Canter, L., & Canter, M. (1991). Parents on your side: A comprehensive parent involvement program for teachers & Parents on your side: Resource materials workbook. Santa Monica, CA: Lee Canter & Associates.

This workbook of resources and information can help teachers meet specific parent involvement goals. The seven sections reflect the types of home-school communications needed at different points throughout the school year. The workbook contains reproducibles, classroom aids, organizational ideas, charts, and checklists. Specific examples include conference planning sheets, letters and notes to parents, home-school contracts, phone call planning sheets, communication tracking sheets, and back to school night activities.

Rich, D. (1992). MegaSkills. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

This book describes MegaSkills, a comprehensive approach to helping families teach children values, skills, and attitudes that improve achievement. The program is based on the assumption that students will perform best in school if both the family and community join with the school in delivering the message that education is important.

U.S. Department of Education. (1997). A compact for learning: An action handbook for school-family-community partnerships. Washington, DC: Author.

This handbook highlights key issues of interest to teachers, parents, and principals who want to improve the home-school-community partnership through developing a Title I compact, a written commitment for sharing responsibility for student learning. The handbook guides the school compact development team through the steps of building a compact, and includes information, examples, strategies, checklists, and activity sheets.

U.S. Department of Education. (1997). Overcoming barriers to family involvement in Title I schools: Report to Congress. Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.

This report to Congress identifies and describes common barriers to effective parental involvement in their children's education and successful local practices and programs to improve parent involvement. Specifically, the report includes profiles and examples detailing the experiences of 20 Title I schools and districts that have been successful in engaging parents in their children's education and illustrates strategies for moving schools, families, and communities beyond the common barriers to getting involved in their schools.

Additional Publications about Parent and Community Involvement

Berla, N., Garlington, J., & Henderson, A.T. (1993). Taking stock: The inventory of family, community, and school support for student achievement. Washington, DC: National Committee for Citizens in Education.

Cartwright, M., & D'Orso, M. (1993). For the children: Lessons from a visionary principal. New York: Doubleday.

Epstein, J., Coates, L., Salinas, K., Sanders, M., & Simon, B. (1996). Partnership 2000 schools manual: Improving school-family-community connections. Baltimore, MD: Center on Families, Communities, Schools and Children's Learning and Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk, Johns Hopkins University.

Epstein, J., Coates, L., Salinas, K., Sanders, M., & Simon, B. (1997). School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Funkhouser, J., & Gonzales, M. (1997). Family involvement in children's education--successful local approaches: An idea book. Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.

Fruchter, N., Galletta, A, & White, J.L. (1992). New directions in parent involvement. New York: Academy for Educational Development.

Kailin, S. (1997). Parent involvement in schoolwides: Communication is the key. CC-VI Forum, 2(2), 15-17.

Moles, O. (Ed.). (1997). Reaching all families: Creating family-friendly schools. Washington, DC:
Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.

Rioux, J.W., & Berla, N. (1993). Innovations in parent and family involvement. Princeton, NJ: Eye on Education.

Rogers, M. (1995). Planning for Title I programs: Guidelines for parents, advocates, and educators. Washington, DC: Center for Law and Education.

Rutherford, B., Billig, S., & Kettering, J. (1996). Family/school partnerships: A review of the research and practice literature on parent and community involvement and literature related to the middle grades. Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.

Swap, S.M. (1987). Enhancing parent involvement in schools. New York: Teachers College Press.

U.S. Department of Education. (1994). Strong families, strong schools: Building community partnerships for learning. Washington, DC: Author.

U.S. Department of Education. (1996). Putting it together: Comprehensive school-linked strategies for children and families. Washington, DC: Author.

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