Moving Towards Meaningful and Significant Family Partnerships in Education

Background: Partnerships with families in education settings should emphasize their roles as active and engaged co-equal partners. However, common practices in schools are to involve families at school-based events and share information with them about their child’s education in a manner that does not promote two-way interactions. Objective: The objectives of this paper are to describe relevant background on familyschool connections; approaches to promote academic performance and mental and behavioral health; and a framework to organize family partnerships that support all youth across a continuum of support intensity. Methods: A review based on the relevant family-school partnership and systems change literature was conducted. The review focused on prevention, tiered approaches that provide a continuum of support to students, and partnership-centered family engagement. Results: Research supports family-school partnerships in a tiered prevention framework. A theory of change was developed to depict the impact of family partnerships on proximal and distal outcomes. Conclusion: Implications suggest a need for partnership-centered approaches to school reform in state and federal policy to support investments in school and district initiatives. Initiatives should embed culturally sensitive practices so that all children can thrive. Future directions for investigating effective approaches for family partnerships are described.

Policy at the Intersection of Curriculum and Music Teacher Agency

Music teachers seek imaginative openings to expand the reach and scope of the music curriculum, particularly by engaging more students in creative production and culturally relevant offerings. This article describes the work of a high school choral music educator who implemented new courses in Hip Hop Production by strategically navigating the policy process for course approval in his school district, informing the proposal with readily available data, consulting with colleagues, and aligning the purposes of the courses with district initiatives. As a case of music teachers’ curricular agency, this story illustrates valuable orientations and principles of change that open up avenues for the expansion of music programs in the context of district-level policy environments.

School District and Researcher Collaboration: A School Administrator’s Practice and Perspective

The author, as a school administrator, wrote this article to describe an effective collaboration with several universities on research projects that benefit both institutions. The outcomes described here focus on the process involved in such collaborations and the benefits to the school district these collaborations can create. Directed toward other school administrators, the article outlines processes employed to encourage similar partnerships between other school districts and universities. Based largely on the collaborative partnership between Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) and the College of William & Mary, the author shares a framework for initiating and planning such collaboration from a school administrator’s perspective. Within this framework, she describes approaches for obtaining administrative support, methods for planning proactively, suggestions for allocating time and resources, and the importance of integrating projects into existing structures and aligning them to district initiatives. The outcomes discussed describe what schools can expect from these collaborative partnerships. These outcomes can include professional learning opportunities with leading experts in the field, free curriculum and other resources, and access to school or district research-based data that have been analyzed by the higher institution’s researchers.

Relationships, instruction, understandings: one district’s implementation of rounds

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how instructional rounds contributes to shared understandings and facilitates the development of relationships among administrators. Design/methodology/approach – This mixed methods study draws on three years of data in a district engaged in rounds. Administrators annually completed a social network survey, which focussed on how often they interacted around instructional issues. Additionally, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with a purposeful sample of administrators. Findings – Administrators have increased their participation in and understanding of instructional rounds, as well as their understanding of district initiatives. However, results are mixed when looking at the quantitative data. While the theory of rounds suggests that the process would lead to increased interactions, the authors found a statistically significant decrease. Research limitations/implications – Implications include examining rounds as part of a district’s set of formal and informal structures. Also, results suggest further examination of how turnover impacts networks. Finally, expanding the number of interviews may present a more mixed qualitative experience of rounds. Practical implications – As districts adopt initiatives based on observations, rounds can be used to support administrators’ growth in understanding these initiatives. Simultaneously, districts need to consider the purpose for both central office and building administrators and how those purposes align with protocols, norms, and practices they use. Originality/value – This paper advances the empirical knowledge on instructional rounds, which has been gaining popularity, though little empirical analysis exists of the process, how its theory of action is enacted, and how administrators experience rounds.