EDU 547: Building Relationships: K-12 Schools and Families

Overview

In this course, you will investigate the relationship of the school with families and the larger community. You will explore how and when to adapt the instructional program to meet the community needs, utilize resources from the community to support instructional goals, and plan for programs that build school community relationships.

The course will focus on the role of parents in the school community. You will acquire strategies for engaging parents in the work of the school and for addressing difficult situations with parents. You will also examine the potential of home-school partnerships in the realization of student achievement goals.

This course will also explore a range of community partnerships including business partnerships, partnerships with non-profit organizations, and university partnerships.

This course is designed to prepare potential school administrators to successfully evaluate the broader community context of a school and the school's needs in order to develop a plan for partnering with the community.

This course will utilize a range of instructional techniques to provide you with multiple opportunities to reflect, plan, discuss, and practice new skills and strategies.

Introduction

The course will be structured around the framework of the six standards for parent and community involvement established by the National PTA (Communicating, Parenting, Student Learning, Volunteering, School Decision Making, and Advocacy and Collaborating with the Community). While these standards provide the structure for six of the eight modules, students will explore a range of additional resources that complement the PTA standards.

Students will examine their current school environment to assess the quality of the current parent and community partnerships. They will then use that assessment to select one standard on which to focus for the course project.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge and application of effective strategies for speaking, writing, and communicating with families and the larger community in a variety of settings.
• Demonstrate an understanding of effective communication, decision-making, and interpersonal problem-solving strategies related to interaction with diverse families.
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate information related to school policies, student achievement data, and the instructional program to families and other interested members of the school community and general public.
• Develop strategies for the development and maintenance of partnerships, involvement and volunteer opportunities with families and the larger community.
• Demonstrate the ability to establish partnerships that include collaboration for the support of student achievement, accountability, family literacy, and contextual and service learning.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the decision-making strategies related to school site decision making.
• Develop an analysis of the current family and community involvement practices at your school site based on research.

Course Requirements

PowerPoint

Required Texts
EDU 547 texts are available from the JIU/MBS bookstore