Opinion
Families & the Community Opinion

Community Engagement: Has Its Time Finally Come?

By David S. Seeley — March 01, 2011 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Recent decades have been frustrating ones for education reformers who have long urged greater family and community engagement in public education. Research increasingly shows its importance, and educators give it ever wider lip service. Yet, too often it remains only lip service, and public schools fail to make the changes needed for really effective collaboration between home, school, and community.

Even when school systems finally do put family and community engagement on the agenda, they tend to see it as an “extra” rather than an essential system change. Too often, the result is that school authorities—and even community leaders—conclude: “The parents we need to reach aren’t interested,” or “People only want to complain and criticize, not help.” So efforts to shift to a collaborative approach remain a low priority at best.

But the situation is changing. Not only is there more research supporting the importance of family and community involvement for student success, but several highly visible pilot projects in major cities, such as the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York and the Children’s Aid Society’s community-based programs, demonstrate that serious family engagement and the mobilization of out-of-school resources are possible, even in difficult urban situations.

The question is how to implement this student-family-community model, given that these days schools are so distracted by a narrowly conceived “hard-nosed accountability” that is driving them into increased top-down bureaucratic control instead of collaboration, and almost insane low-skills test prep instead of high-quality learning.

Educators are right to complain about this misconceived type of accountability, and they have a point that low achievement is affected by out-of-school factors such as poverty, poor parenting, and health problems.

However, the positive side to this new pressure for achievement is that more policymakers now realize that many of our failing students simply are not getting the supports they need for success, and that something has to be done.

This could be the most important mobilization for America in the 21st century: communities all over America, working intensively together to ensure the success of all their children."

This puts us at the cusp of a crucial change in our basic attitude toward education that will make all the difference in our success: a shift from the current common assumption that education is a responsibility delegated to schools alone (the way firefighting, policing, and defense have been delegated to specialized agencies) to the concept that education must be accepted as a shared responsibility of home, school, and community.

Many—not all—parents and teachers already instinctively know this. But our institutional relationships for more than a century have moved in the opposite direction, toward bureaucratic schooling that de-emphasizes responsible roles for students, parents, and communities. Changing basic attitudes and assumptions is difficult, since they are often unconscious and invisible. But this particular change is one I believe our society is ready to make. Actually, it is common sense in many ways—an idea that only needs to be brought into the open to be widely accepted. And shifting to this mind-set will reduce the unfairness of holding schools solely responsible for children’s successful education, which should make it easier for almost any teacher or fair-minded parent to accept.

Although common sense can be impeded by deeply entrenched relationships and mental habits, I believe we are finally at the edge of realizing that, without a much more powerful and successful approach to education, our society will fail its future, and that ultimately education will advance only if we accept it as a shared responsibility and stop expecting schools alone to “deliver” it for us.

Joyce Epstein’s Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University has been working on this issue for many years. The center has demonstrated not only that this approach can greatly increase student success, but also that the time, training, and community development needed to implement the approach are less costly than most other reforms and have a far greater multiplier effect in increasing student success. What’s most needed now is the leadership in schools and communities to help people make this shift and implement these new collaborative relationships.

Education Week recently ran a back-page Commentary with the headline: “Volunteers Are Ready—All Schools Need to Do Is Ask.” It told a heartwarming story of successful volunteer recruitment at one of Indianapolis’ lowest-performing schools; the outcome was impressive results for poor and minority students. (“Volunteers Are Ready—All Schools Need to Do Is Ask,” December 8, 2010.)

Even so, most school systems are not asking for the help that they and their students need and that may be available. Too often, school leaders have not yet recognized the enormous potential of beginning to work together in what is essentially a new kind of partnership.

This could be the most important mobilization for America in the 21st century: communities all over America, working intensively together to ensure the success of all their children to the levels of learning and citizenship needed for today’s world, but unattainable by the schools alone.

Without such a mobilization, America’s educational reform efforts will never succeed at the levels this country needs. And, if we fail, a very large shadow will continue to hang over our nation’s future.

A version of this article appeared in the March 02, 2011 edition of Education Week as Parent and Community Engagement: Has Its Time Finally Come?

Events

Student Well-Being Webinar After-School Learning Top Priority: Academics or Fun?
Join our expert panel to discuss how after-school programs and schools can work together to help students recover from pandemic-related learning loss.
Budget & Finance Webinar Leverage New Funding Sources with Data-Informed Practices
Address the whole child using data-informed practices, gain valuable insights, and learn strategies that can benefit your district.
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
Classroom Technology Webinar
ChatGPT & Education: 8 Ways AI Improves Student Outcomes
Revolutionize student success! Don't miss our expert-led webinar demonstrating practical ways AI tools will elevate learning experiences.
Content provided by Inzata

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 New Campaign Tries to Convince Parents That Their Kids Have Fallen Behind
A new advertising campaign in six cities aims to dispel parents' perceptions that their kids are performing at grade level.
3 min read
Photo of parent and child working on homework.
E+ / Getty
Families & the Community 3 Signs That Schools Are Sending the Wrong Message About Attendance
How schools communicate attendance policies can affect how parents report absences and whether students are motivated to show up.
3 min read
Empty desks within a classroom
iStock/Getty Images Plus
Families & the Community Some Students Are Less Likely to Have Absences Excused. Why That Matters for Schools
Schools' punitive responses to unexcused absences can be counterproductive, a new analysis suggests.
5 min read
Image of a conceptual dashboard that tracks attendance.
Polina Ekimova/iStock/Getty
Families & the Community Q&A How One High School Became a Model for Intergenerational Learning
School and community leaders say “there’s no down side.”
5 min read
Swampscott High School students and Senior Center members hold a quilt they made together for Black History Month at Swampscott High School, which is collocated and shares space with the senior center in Swampscott, Mass., on March 8, 2023.
Students and senior center members display a quilt they made together for Black History Month at Swampscott High School, in Swampscott, Mass, on March 8, 2023. The high school and senior center were designed and built to be part of the same complex, providing opportunities for teenagers and senior community members to collaborate and learn from one another.
Sophie Park for Education Week