The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Shelley Svidal

The ultimate goal of any school, family or community partnership is to "maximize chances for children's success." That's what Joyce Epstein, director of the Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University, told teachers assembled for the Greater Edmonton Teachers' Convention in Edmonton March 2.

Maximizing chances for children's success is the purpose of everything done in, by and for schools, Epstein said. "It's the purpose of revising curricula. It's the purpose of improving instructional approaches. Sometimes, whether you believe it or not, it's the purpose of new tests and assessments."

Joyce Epstein

The Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships includes a National Network of Partnership Schools, consisting of more than 1,300 schools, school jurisdictions, departments of education, universities and organizations in the United States and abroad committed to developing and maintaining strong partnership programs. The center also includes an international network of some 170 scholars who study partnerships in 30 countries, including Canada. Epstein pointed out their findings are remarkably similar, regardless of the country in which their research is based.

For example, while parents vary in terms of how involved they are in their children's schools, they are all concerned about their children's success in school.

"Programs and practices, what we do in the schools, make the difference in whether, how and particularly which families become involved in their children's education. If we want everyone to be involved and not just some, then we have to put in place those practices that will welcome, encourage and guide families . . . to do those things that will be helpful to the children, to the school, for their families, for the community, for the future," Epstein said.

She told her audience students need multiple sources of support to succeed at high levels. Not only teachers but also parents, employers and others with whom students interact must stress the importance of attendance, homework, behaviour and other ingredients of success.

Epstein acknowledged teachers and school administrators initially tend to resist partnership programs. But that resistance does not have to be permanent, she said.

"[When] teachers and administrators … gain inservice and advanced education, preservice courses, and begin to see that their schools must take the responsibility to reach out to parents, this initial resistance begins to dissipate, disappear in many cases. We have seen measurable change in some schools within three months, palpable change from real resistance, weary, caution, careful worry, to quite remarkable welcoming and enthusiasm and acceptance and appreciation of good partnership programs."

Epstein identified six major kinds of involvement, which she described as the keys to successful school-family-community partnerships:

• Parenting, which entails assisting families with parenting and child-rearing skills, understanding child and adolescent development and setting home conditions that support children as students at each age and grade level and assisting schools in understanding families
• Communicating, which entails communicating with families about school programs and student progress through effective school-to-home and home-to-school communications
• Volunteering, which entails improving recruitment, training, work and schedules to involve families as volunteers and audiences at the school or in other locations to support students and school programs
• Learning at home, which entails involving families with their children in learning activities at home, including homework and other curriculum-related activities and decisions
• Decision making, which entails including families as participants in school decisions, governance and advocacy through school councils, committees and other parent organizations
• Collaborating with the community, which entails coordinating resources and services for families, students and the school with businesses, agencies and other groups and providing services to the community.

Epstein pointed out Alberta is one step ahead when it comes to establishing successful school, family and community partnerships. It already has the policy statements in place and is ready for the personnel, funding and training needed to activate them.

"That's why my hope is that, in the short term and in the long term, with a good understanding of how this can help your schools, Alberta will take the Canadian national leadership and establish the equivalent of our national network of partnerships schools to create an Alberta network of partnership schools and then perhaps we can affiliate across borders," she said.

Alberta Teachers' Association president Larry Booi welcomed Epstein's visit to Alberta. He points out her belief in the importance of partnerships was reflected in her schedule of appearances in Edmonton. During her visit, she met with a coalition of groups attempting to establish a Centre for School/Family/Community Partnerships at the University of Alberta, with staff from Alberta Learning and Alberta Children's Services and with the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. She also made a presentation to parents at the convention.

"Her major impact has been in the area of action. Through her work, she has fostered the development of sustainable and effective programs of partnership throughout North America and has been the single, most important inspiration for the early development of such partnerships in Alberta. She is unfailingly helpful, optimistic and supportive," Booi says.

"We look forward to working with her over the next few years to ensure that these vital programs are in place throughout Alberta's school communities, and we are most grateful for her contributions so far."

An audiotape of Epstein's presentation to the Greater Edmonton Teachers' Convention is available for loan from the ATA Library, tel: 447-9400 (in Edmonton) or 1-800-232-7208 (from elsewhere in Alberta).

Teachers who are interested in learning more about the Center for School, Family and Community Partnerships are encouraged to visit its website at www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/center.htm .