The Challenge Many states, districts, and schools struggle with how to execute partnerships and cultivate and sustain positive relationships with families. A common refrain from educators is that they have a strong desire to work with families from diverse backgrounds and cultures, and to develop stronger partnerships of shared responsibility for children’s outcomes between home and school, but that they do not know how to accomplish this.

 

If effective cradle-to-career educational partnerships between home and school are to be implemented with fidelity and sustained, engagement initiatives must include a concerted focus on developing adult capacity, whether through pre- and in-service professional development for educators; academies, workshops, seminars, and workplace trainings for families; or as an integrated part of parent-teacher partnership activities. When effectively implemented, such opportunities build and enhance the skills, knowledge, and dispositions of stakeholders to engage in effective partnerships that support student achievement and development and the improvement of schools.