Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement
Helen Westmoreland, Heidi M. Rosenberg, M. Elena Lopez, Heather Weiss
Harvard Family Research Project and the National Parent-Teacher Association
July 2009

Abstract:

Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement spotlights how six school districts across the country have used innovative strategies to create and sustain family engagement “systems at work.”  The findings point to three core components of these successful systems: creating district-wide strategies, building school capacity, and reaching out to and engaging families.

Drawing from districts’ diverse approaches, the brief highlight promising practices to ensure quality, oversight, and impact from their family engagement efforts. We also propose a set of recommendations for how federal, state, and local policies can promote district-level family engagement efforts that support student learning.