Parent Resources (Search Our Database) Helpful Tips for Parents: Discussing Your Child’s Report Card (pdf) Academic Development Institute, Solid Foundation Resources These tips will help the parent (or caregiver) talk about the report card with the student so that you can work together as a family to help the student succeed in school. Also available in Spanish. Published Date: Dec 2008 Making Data Work: A Parent and Community Guide (pdf) The Education Trust "An easy guide to collecting and analyzing school data in order to improve student achievement." Published Date: Jan 2004 School Resources (Search Our Database) Breaking New Ground: Data Systems Transform Family Engagement in Education Weiss, H. B., Lopez, M. E., & Stark, D. R. Data can serve as a catalyst for home–school communication! This brief describes the impact of investments in student data systems on family engagement and student achievement and includes policy recommendations. Published Date: Jan 2011 New Visions for Public Schools: Using Data to Engage Families Harvard Family Research Project This case study shares how high schools in New York City have begun to engage families in students’ academic success and college readiness by helping parents understand achievement data. Published Date: May 2010 School Community Journal Resources (Search Our Database) Sources of Confidence in School Community Councils Nygaard, Richard “Jackie” Vol 20, No 2 - Fall/Winter 2010 Three Utah middle level school community councils participated in a qualitative strengths-based process evaluation, including examining sources of council members’ confidence. Each school had unique themes that emerged; sources of confidence included the opportunity to appropriate money, the investment of time and energy, the witness of program impact, the principal’s support of the process, members’ full engagement in the school improvement process, and involvement in the hiring of a new principal. Three principal practices that increased SCC member confidence were (a) the principal shared data, (b) the principal supported the SCC even when he did not initially agree, and (c) the principal respected the SCC members as leaders. Across schools, building confidence depended on the level of involvement in the school improvement process, and confidence resulted as an appropriate balance was achieved between democracy and professional expertise. Training School Professionals to Engage Families: A Pilot University/State Department of Education Partnership Bartels, Susan M.; Eskow, Karen G. Vol 20, No 2 - Fall/Winter 2010 This article presents initial findings from a study that examined how most teacher preparation programs do not teach skills necessary to engage families in a thorough or systematic manner. The current project addressed this training deficit by offering a program that included a sequence of three graduate courses to a cohort of school professionals in a high-need school district. Projects were designed to address the needs of the community in which the participants were employed. School professionals enhanced their ability to collect data about and engage families and experienced positive changes in attitude toward family–professional collaboration. Importantly, participants were able to articulate specific ways in which they planned to utilize new skills in the school setting. A unique aspect of this study was investigation of continued use of new knowledge and skills and implementation of action plans six months post-training.