Designing parent engagement strategies
In addition to engaging students, your team should consider how to engage and involve parents and guardians.
Questions to ask:
- How will your team encourage parents to be active in the classroom and throughout the
school? - What structures will be put in place to engage parents in meaningful, two-way interactions
about student learning? - Will your team ask parents to participate meaningfully in teacher interviews and evaluation
and/or to serve on the school governance council (as existing teams have done)? - Will your team reach out to parents through culturally inclusive activities? Some teams ask
parents to plan activities related to the cultures of their families in order to gain their trust. For
example, in one school with a high percentage of students whose families are immigrants from
Mexico, teams ask parents to plan celebrations for holidays like Day of the Dead.
Resources
Sample family handbooks
Boston Arts Academy Handbook, 2021-2022
Handbook. This family handbook is a means for the team of teachers to communicate with families about the pathways for becoming an artist, scholar, and citizen at Boston Arts Academy.