Families & the Community

Children & Families

By Linda Jacobson — September 12, 2001 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Partnership Kudos: The National Network of Partnership Schools has again picked the schools, districts, and other organizations it believes have forged the best partnerships between schools and families and communities for improving learning.

For the second year, the group, based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has made the choices from its network of 1,400 schools, 130 districts, 19 state departments of education, and more than 50 other organizations.

Schools and districts applying for the special recognition, which does not include monetary awards, are judged on such elements as teamwork, leadership, plans for action, and how well they carried out those plans.

Joyce L. Epstein, the director of the network, said the winners “confirm that research-based approaches can be applied in practice to help all families become more productively involved in their children’s education at school and at home.”

The winners this year are: the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction; Local School District B, Los Angeles Unified School District, along with Families in Schools; Local School District F, also in Los Angeles; Naperville (Ill.) Community Unit School District 203; Baltimore City Detention Center School; Colerain High School, Cincinnati; Cottonwood Elementary School, Cincinnati; Highlands Elementary School, Naperville, Ill.; Kennedy Junior High School, Naperville; Magnet Middle School, Stamford, Conn.; Mount Logan Middle School, Logan, Utah; and Westlake Elementary School, New Carlisle, Ohio.

Adoption Education: Celebrate Adoption, a nonprofit group based in Bennington, Vt., is offering educators across the country a new resource to help them talk with students about adoption.

“An Educator’s Guide to Adoption” explains basic information about the adoption process, reviews some research about adopted children, and gives the names of famous people who were adopted or had adopted children. For instance, the singer Nat King Cole and Apple Computer founder Steven Jobs were adopted.

What’s more, the handbook offers suggestions for how educators should address the questions children may ask about adoption, from “Why did your real mother give you away?” to “Why can’t you speak Chinese if you’re from China?”

Information on ordering the guide is available online at www.celebrateadoption.org.

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Student Achievement Webinar
Student Success Strategies: Flexibility, Recovery & More
Join us for Student Success Strategies to explore flexibility, credit recovery & more. Learn how districts keep students on track.
Content provided by Pearson
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
Shaping the Future of AI in Education: A Panel for K-12 Leaders
Join K-12 leaders to explore AI’s impact on education today, future opportunities, and how to responsibly implement it in your school.
Content provided by Otus
Student Achievement K-12 Essentials Forum Learning Interventions That Work
Join this free virtual event to explore best practices in academic interventions and how to know whether they are making a difference.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Families & the Community An Unusual Consequence for Late School Pickups: Fees for Tardy Parents
School and district leaders struggle when parents are regularly late to the pickup line.
4 min read
Photograph of a sign that says this is the student drop off and pick up area at a school.
KaraGrubis/Getty
Families & the Community Q&A Family Engagement Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All. Here’s How to Do It Right
This Kentucky district leader emphasizes meaningful family engagement training for educators.
4 min read
Miranda Scully, Director of Family and Community Engagement (FACE) for Fayette County Public Schools, stands for a portrait outside the Family Connection Center northern facility on Dec. 12, 2024, in Lexington, Ky. The Family Connection Center offers programs like ESL classes, college preparation, and household budgeting and money management classes.
Miranda Scully, the director of family and community engagement for the Fayette school district, Public Schools, stands outside one of the district's family connection center's on Dec. 12, 2024, in Lexington, Ky. The center offers programs like ESL classes, college preparation, and household budgeting and money management classes.
Michael Swensen for Education Week
Families & the Community Leader To Learn From From Haircuts to Home Language, One District’s Approach to Family Engagement
Miranda Scully takes an all-hands-on-deck approach to parent engagement in her Kentucky district.
8 min read
Miranda Scully, Director of Family and Community Engagement (FACE) for Fayette County Public Schools, assists students during a ACT prep class held at the Family Connection Center on Dec. 12, 2024, in Lexington, Ky. The Family Connection Center offers programs like ESL classes, college preparation, and household budgeting and money management classes.
Miranda Scully, the director of family and community engagement for the Fayette school district in Kentucky, helps students during an ACT prep class held at the Family Connection Center on Dec. 12, 2024, in Lexington. The Family Connection Center offers programs including English classes for non-native speakers, college preparation, and household budgeting and money management classes.
Michael Swensen for Education Week
Families & the Community Parents Think Their Kids Are Learning a Lot at School. What Do Students Say?
The perception gap between parents and their kids widens as students get older. Does it matter?
5 min read
A student sits quietly, contemplating life while others chat nearby in a bustling school hallway.
iStock/Getty