District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and the Flamboyan Foundation will expand their successful family engagement work to six new elementary schools in the 2014-2015 school year in addition to the fifteen schools where the program is already in place. The model, called the Family Engagement Partnership, builds school leader and teacher capacity to engage families in ways that accelerate student learning. Schools taking part in this partnership have seen significant academic growth, along with more active and engaged school communities. 

 “The Flamboyan Family Engagement Partnership is one of our most successful partnerships to date,” said DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson. “The work to empower families  and teachers and build real relationships truly makes a difference. The progress we have seen in these schools with this model has been tremendous and I’m so excited that more schools will get to benefit from this partnership.” 

 

Specifically, the partnership teaches school leaders and teachers how to implement strategies including home visits where teachers and parents form trusting relationships which then can be used as the basis for collaboration to support student learning. The partnership also supports a new style of parent-teacher conferences called Academic Parent Teacher Teams(APTT) that equip families with the information and strategies they need to support student achievement at home. School staff also learn how to build relationships with families and enable them to better set high expectations around academics, monitor their child’s progress, and support learning at home. Participating schools receive training, resources and support in effective family engagement strategies.  

 

Schools were selected through a competitive process. Interested principals attended an informational session, submitted a paper application, and participated in an in-person interview. The schools selected for the upcoming school year are Burrville, J.O. Wilson, Kimball, Ketcham, Maury and Langley Elementary Schools. 

 

In the 2011-2012 school year, the four pilot schools engaged in the partnership, Garfield and Stanton Elementary Schools, Wheatley Education Campus and Oyster- Adams Bilingual School, improved on the DC CAS by more than seven percentage points, compared with a two percentage point increase for non-participating schools. Attendance also improved at double the DCPS average. In the 2012-2013 school year, six new schools implemented the program. Seven new schools were added in the current school year. 

 

In the current school year, 86% of all partner school teachers have voluntarily conducted at least one home visit and 3,202 families have received a home visit from their child’s teacher.  Through Academic Parent Teacher Team Meetings 2,220 parents across participating schools attended the first data sharing conference in the 2013-2014 school year.