Teaching the Teachers: Preparing Educators to Engage Families for Student Achievement is a new report from the Harvard Family Research Project and the National PTA on how teacher education programs can better prepare teachers for family engagement.

This is how they describe the report:

Teaching the Teachers highlights those promising strategies through five case studies, and examines how teacher education programs can create the foundation for meaningful and effective family engagement. This brief describes five core elements necessary for a system of teacher training and professional development in support of family engagement, distilled from the case studies of existing teacher preparation programs. The brief also addresses the policies needed to support this type of teacher preparation system. The five core elements in the system are:

•Standards for family engagement
•Curriculum that advances the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that teachers need to engage families
•Collaborations among various stakeholders
•Continuing professional development around family engagement
•Evaluation for learning and continuous improvement