May: Disrupting the Daily Dialogue Around Learning
Welcome to the May Monthly Learning Series, dedicated to exploring pivotal topics in education that drive student success. This month, we're diving into an under-leveraged yet crucial aspect of education: the role of families in their student’s learning journey.
Our theme, Disrupting the Daily Dialogue Around Learning, emphasizes the transformative power of family engagement in education. The challenge of integrating family engagement into daily routines and practices demands a shift in how we involve families in the learning process. In this edition, you'll find a curated selection of resources to inspire and equip you to foster stronger family-school partnerships.
📚 What we're reading
Role of families in math success
An area we are keen to explore further is the essential role that families play in supporting their child’s success with math. A recent post exploring the role of families in supporting black and Latino student engagement with math caught our attention. Their findings suggest that black and Latino students thrive when; families hold students to high expectations for math success, schools connect teachers and families with cultural and language supports, and students have access to supports outside of school time.
Family engagement strategies in the spotlight!
Increasingly, district and school leaders are recognizing the essential role that family engagement plays in improving schools. We’re excited to see EdWeek shining a spotlight on family engagement.
Earlier this month, Elisabeth attended an event hosted by DREME and the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. A big thank you to the Heising-Simons Foundation for making this event possible! The event celebrated the progress made in the last decade in research and practice related to early math learning. Here are few of the important implications for math-focused family engagement:
🍎 Families are experts in their child’s needs and interests. We need to find ways to elevate and celebrate what families know and do, regularly.
🍎 Families are living mathematical lives. There is an opportunity to help families make math visible and relevant for students by enabling them to connect math to everyday activities (even at the grocery store!).
🍎 Families are an essential part of the research process and we must ensure their voices and input are centered in the research process.
Disrupting the daily dialogue about learning
What did you learn at school today? Nothing. The opportunity to engage with their child around learning stops before it even begins. Elisabeth O’Bryon explores how this after-school conversation often plays out and how a few small tweaks can meaningfully shift the dynamic. The results are surprising.
The latest research on Family Engagement and Academic Achievement
A growing literature base demonstrates that family engagement promotes wide-ranging positive student outcomes, including second language learning, motivation, and academic achievement, as well as increased on-time high school completion and lower rates of high school dropout. This blog provides a summary of the latest research and the benefits of implementing learning-focused family communication strategies.
🎉 Thank you Teachers! 🎉
Teachers are a trusted academic resource and an essential part of a student’s learning experience. They also wear a multitude of “hats.” We have the honor of working alongside high caliber teachers across the country who are meaningfully engaging families in learning on a daily basis. This year, for Teacher Appreciation Week, we had the opportunity to spotlight 5 incredible teachers and FASTalk users.
📣 Give us a window into your world
Family Engagement Lab is a research organization and we’re committed to continuous learning. An area that we’re actively exploring are the day-to-day practices and routines of Teachers and Principals around family communication. Would you be open to sharing your experiences?
