“Madison School District opens schools to students’ parents as way to engage families”

Madison School District opens schools to students’ parents as way to engage families is a nice article about what schools in Madison, Wisconsin are doing to promote family engagement.

It’s a good size piece. Here’s an excerpt:

Anne Henderson, a consultant for the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, helped develop family engagement standards for the National PTA, from which Madison modeled its standards.

She said what makes a school inviting is communicating what’s happening in the classroom and why. She said going beyond things like fundraisers, and linking activities for families to academics is crucial to seeing family involvement produce better academic achievement. A teaching staff that reflects the school’s demographics helps, too, as does using culturally sensitive teaching strategies, she said.

“If families don’t feel they belong in the school, or the schools don’t invite them, they’ll stay away,” she said.

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