In partnership with Colorado Education Initiative (CEI), we customized resources for their new Future Ready Families website including our Team Up For Success suite of tools to help strengthen school-home partnerships.
Our Work in Action
We help state and local education agencies and community organizations strengthen their family engagement strategies by sharing research-based communication insights, resources, and best practices.
We’ve listened to thousands of parents, teachers, students, and educators in 25+ states through more than 200 focus groups, more than 15 national quantitative surveys, as well as ethnography sessions and in-depth interviews. We provide research-based support on effective, clear, and action-oriented communications with parents.
This includes:
- Technical Assistance: Research-based communications support to help build organizational capacity around family engagement (e.g., improved school performance reports, student score reports, parent portals).
- Customized Campaigns and Resources: Ready-to-use or customized family engagement resources with your logo and highlighting local programs (e.g., webpages, take-home flyers, social media content).
- Professional Development and Workshops: Training and workshops to share research insights, actionable best practices and resources.
Short list of technical assistance and partnerships:
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1
New Standards of Learning (SOL) Parent Report
We supported the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) on their new Parent Report designed to provide families with clear and accessible information about their child’s grade-level achievement. This included a customized version of our Parent-Teacher Planning Tool.
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2
School Report Card template
Based on parent research, we created an ESSA-compliant school report card template. We’ve partnered with South Dakota, New Mexico, Texas and Massachusetts to incorporate our findings into their state’s school report cards.
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3
Log In and Learn More campaign
We partnered with Texas Education Agency to create a robust family engagement campaign and resources to help parents access and use the STAAR state test score results in support of their child’s grade level progress.
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4
Starting Smarter website
We worked with Smarter Balanced and the California State Department of Education to create an interactive bilingual website that helps parents understand their child’s state test score report and how to use it to better support learning at home.
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5
NWEA
We worked with NWEA to create a parent friendly MAP Growth Family Report as well as a customized Parent-Teacher Planning Tool.
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6
NJPTA and We Raise New Jersey
We partnered with the NJPTA and We Raise New Jersey to conduct research with parents across NJ that informed the coalition and PTA’s efforts and state level communication with parents about supporting learning and engaging with schools during COVID-19. We also customized the Parent-Teacher Planning Tool for them.
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7
Massachusetts
We partnered with The Learning Accelerator’s Parabola Project to conduct research with MA parents that informed a statewide COVID-19 communications toolkit. We also supported the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to create a parent communications toolkit shared with district leaders across the state and “Good Question!” featuring experts answering parents’ most frequently asked questions about reopening.
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8
NYC Department of Education: Office of Family and Community Empowerment
We created an NYC Summer ReMix Workshop for Parent Coordinators to engage with families at the end of the school year and throughout the summer to support learning and development.
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9
Education Initiative Design Sprint: Helping Districts Power Family-School Partnerships
Our Family Engagement Resources: Customized Examples
A Principal's Guide to Leading in the Time of Change
Customized for The Leadership Academy, this school leader's guide provides effective and equitable family engagement strategies and resources.
Go Beyond Grades
In addition to our national Go Beyond Grades campaign, we conducted city specific research and customized the campaign in 7 cities/counties including New York City, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Sacramento County, Washington D.C., St. Louis and Tarrant County, TX.
Paths to Success
Customized for organizations in DC and San Antonio, this interactive webpage and tip sheet helps parents set their child up for success in high school and beyond.
90%
*B-Flation: How "Good Grades" Can Sideline Parents, Gallup 2023 October 2023 National Gallup Poll
**School Pulse Panel 2022-2023, Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
Parents Want to Know
Almost 9 in 10 parents think their kids are at or above grade level*.
What percentage of students are at grade level**?
Contact Us
For more information, contact us. »Be a Learning Hero!
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