www.preknow.org

Engaged Families: Effective Pre-K A national campaign for family engagement

in early education

Deborah Roderick Stark

Project Director

drs889@aol.com

January, 2009

www.preknow.org

A project of:

Pre-K Now,Pew Center on the States

Grounded in the belief that:

All children need quality early learning experiences so that they can realize their full potential;

All families need meaningful opportunities so that they can be fully engaged in their child’s early learning at home and at school; and

All pre-k teachers and administrators need the support, training and resources so that they can build relationships with families that are grounded in trust, respect, two-way communication and a reciprocal partnerships.

Family Engagement:

“Family engagement is an on-going, reciprocal, strengths-based partnership between families and their children’s early childhood education programs. When implemented effectively, family engagement enhances both child and family-well being.”

Six Factors of EffectiveFamily Engagement

1. Early childhood programs encourage and validate family participation in decision making for their child’s education.

2. Consistent, two-way communication is facilitated through multiple forms and is responsive to the linguistic preferences of the family.

3. Families and early childhood education programs collaborate and exchange knowledge.

4. Early childhood education programs and families place emphasis on creating and sustaining learning activities at home and in the community to extend the teachings of the program.

5. Families create an environment that values learning and supports programs.

6. Early childhood education programs ensure that program leadership and teachers are dedicated, trained and receive the supports they need to effectively engage families.

The project will:

Bring attention to the importance of family engagement in early learning;

Identify promising practices and policies that advance meaningful family engagement; and

Advance policy at the state level that will measurably increase family engagement in state-funded pre-k.

Short-Term Goals:

1. Conduct focus groups to ground the project’s work in the real world of parents and families;

2. Assemble a national advisory committee to develop a comprehensive understanding of the research and develop a framework of recommendations for state policy;

3. Produce a report summarizing the framework, comparing existing state policies to the framework, presenting best practices and case studies;

4. Disseminate the report, including distribution, media outreach, and presentations at state and national conferences; and

5. Develop a plan to educate state leaders and education officials about the recommendations regarding sound family engagement in state pre‐k programs.

Recommendations for State Policy:

Are there particular state policies (or actions) that facilitate meaningful family engagement?

Are there particular state policies that are barriers to achieving meaningful family engagement?

From your perspective, what are the top three action steps that states could take to facilitate meaningful family engagement during the preschool years?