Running Head: FOCUS ON THE ROLE OF A READING AND LITERACY SPECIALIST 1

Focus on the Role of a Reading and Literacy Specialist:

Family Engagement
Nicole Cross
University of Nevada, Las Vegas










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As a knowledgeable literacy leader in my school, I plan to assist a small group of
interested teachers learn more about family engagement and assist in creating a committee to
jump start family engagement within my school over the first three months of the school year. I
believe that all educators have one commonality, regardless of the location of the school, type of
school, age group, or ethnicity they serve. Educators all have students with families. All schools
serve children and their families. Engaging those families is essential when fostering a successful
school literacy program. Staff development will be composed of four parts over the course of
three months, as outlined below.
Staff and Family Development Plan
Staff Development Part I: Define family engagement. Discuss traditional views of
family involvement and replace with modern definitions of family engagement. Provide
evidence for why family engagement is important. Conduct surveys about family
engagement as relates to teachers classrooms, school.
Staff Development Part II: Discuss solutions through viewing success stories in schools
with similar demographics. Problem solve for ways to increase and cultivate family
engagement in individual teacher classrooms and as a school.
Staff Development Part III: Conduct whole staff development led by professional
development focus group. (60-90 minutes).
Staff Development Part V: Create family- teacher group. Follow up with classroom
teachers on successes and pitfalls. Meet once a month following this to sustain and
continue to increase engagement and communication between families and staff.

Staff Development Part I: Define family engagement. Discuss traditional views of family
involvement and replace with modern definitions of family engagement. Provide evidence for
why family engagement is important. Conduct surveys about family engagement as relates to
teachers classrooms, school. (3 morning sessions over a one month period):
I would begin by discussing the schools situation with teachers involved in morning
professional development group. Dean Petersen Elementary, houses a low-income, high
English Language Learner population, located right off The Strip in Las Vegas. All students
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qualify for the federal free breakfast and lunch program. In my experience most of my students
came in speaking little-to-no English. Some students live with two parents, others have one, and
some are in foster care. Many students are raised mainly by an older sibling, an aunt, uncle, or
grandparent. Several parents work during the day, others work the swing shift from 4:00 P.M. to
4:00 A.M., and some are unemployed. Most speak Spanish, but several speak English and a few
families even speak another language such as Tagalog. There is a lot of variety within my own
classroom of 21 students and I am certain there is a variety in their classrooms as well.
Regardless of the demographics, all students have families and as a staff we need to remember
that about our population of close to 1000 students who attend Dean Petersen Elementary.
After discussing our school I would discuss traditional roles of parent involvement
and then replace those with modern outlooks on family engagement. I would also discuss
why family engagement is important. All families come with their children to school. Even if
they are not there physically, families come to school in students minds and hearts, in their
hopes and dreams, and in their problems and promise (Epstein, 2009). Whether implicit or
explicit, educators have contact with each students family every day.
All families live in a community. Each community comes with its own characteristics,
culture, and history. Acknowledging the communities and the possible contributions
communities can make to a school is significant. With this, it is also important to understand the
contexts in which students live. Without understanding, we work alone (Epstein, 2009). We must
work together, in partnership with other important people in students lives. Without
partnerships, we partition our students into a home child and a school child mentality. Without
partnership, we are ignoring the whole child (Lareau, 2003). Acknowledging and supporting the
whole child can be accomplished through acknowledging the importance of family engagement,
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the types of family engagement, engaging in proper attitudes towards families, and lastly
figuring out what family engagement can look like in schools.
Importance of Family Engagement
Family engagement has been shown to result in medium-to-high overall positive impact
on student achievement (Hattie, 2009). Research supports that academic achievement improves
when families are engaged in the process especially for students from diverse cultural
backgrounds (Hendersen, Mapp, Johnson, & Davies, 2007). Mapp (2006), stated that regardless
of the student demographics, students who had families as partners were more likely to earn
higher grades and test scores, attend school regularly, have better social skills, and graduate and
go on to post-secondary education. Family engagement also benefits families by fostering self-
efficacy and empowerment (Garcia, 2012). Engagement amongst families can also increase
school communication, collaboration, ability to solve problems, and staff morale (Garcia, 2012).
Evidence suggests that school policies, teacher practices, and family practices are more
important than race, parent education, family size, marital status, or grade level in determining
whether parents continue to be a part of their students education (Epstein, 2009). In turn, Lucus
(2010), places the significance of parent engagement at home as having the greatest influence
on students achievement. What educators do to build family engagement in schools, could be
the most important actions taken to increase student success. Family engagement is paramount in
schools, regardless of students backgrounds.
Types of Family Engagement: Traditional vs. Modern View on Engagement
Family engagement has evolved dramatically over the last couple of decades. In 1986,
Family engagement was labeled as Parent Involvement and was separated into five categories
by Hendersen:
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1. Parents as Partners
2. Parents as Collaborators and Problem Solvers
3. Parents as Audience
4. Parents as Supporters
5. Parents as Advisors and/or Co-decision Makers
Prior to this definition parent involvement had not included Parent as Partners, which
acknowledged that most parents are involved in school by fulfilling basic obligations for their
childs education and social development (Hendersen, 1986). While these roles were thought to
be revolutionary at the time, the roles still looked at parent involvement through the lens of
middle-class, white America. Hendersens (1986) research mentions how divorce or both
parents working may affect a family; however, different socio economic statuses or cultural
backgrounds were not cited.
Epstein, et al. (2009), broke family engagement into six categories:
1. Parenting
2. Communicating
3. Volunteering
4. Learning at Home
5. Decision Making
6. Collaborating with the Community

These categories made family engagement less about what the parents should do and more about
what school can do in communication with families.
Instead of focusing on what parents were doing wrong in parenting, Epstein (2009),
focused on the parenting aspect of family engagement as an opportunity to help families create
homes that get children ready to learn. This included assisting families with parenting and
child-rearing skills, understanding child and adolescent development, and setting home
conditions that support children as students at each age and grade level. Parents as
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communicators, under Hendersens definition, meant What are parents doing to support what
teachers need them to do? Epstein (2009), expanded this to mean communicating with families
about school programs and student progress through effective, school-to-home and home-to-
school communications. Instead of choosing audience as a means of parent engagement
which is a job of an observer, Epstein (2009), used volunteering as a type of family engagement
which included improving recruitment, training, work, and schedules to involve families as
volunteers and audiences at the school or in other locations to support students and school
programs. Epstein also added learning at home as a category. Instead of expecting parents to
just do whatever teachers send home, Epstein suggests involving families with their children in
learning activities at home, including homework and other curriculum-linked activities and
decisions, as well as allowing families to participate in student goal setting. The last two
types, decision making and collaborating with the community can sometimes be the most
difficult to obtain in schools, unless your school exhibits a culture rich in family involvement.
Though difficult, decision making and collaborating with the community are very important for
transforming a school community. Decision making in the hands of families has the ability to
develop families as leaders within the school community. This can be done by including,
families as participants in school decisions, governance, and advocacy through PTA/PTO,
school councils, committees, and other parent organizations (Epstein, 2009). All potential
resources available for schools and families cannot be reached without accessing and
collaborating with the community. Epstein (2009) suggests coordinating resources and services
for families, students, and the school with businesses, agencies, and other groups, and provide
services to the community.

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Attitudes towards Families
Educators have to stop looking at family engagement as what parents are not doing. If
mindsets shift instead to what families are already doing, and how teachers, schools,
communities, and families can work together, existing resources could be more fully utilized.
Effective family engagement begins with a core set of attitudes and beliefs about families.
Beliefs and values must reflect that all parents have dreams for their children and want whats
best for them (Hendersen, Mapp, Johnson, and Davies (2007). Educators and administrators
must believe that all families have the potential to support their childrens learning if given the
proper supports to do so. Families and schools should have an equal partnership. The school staff
must be primarily responsible for reaching out and helping to foster these relationships between
family-and-school and school-and-home. Research supports high-performing schools maintain
strong communication with families, but low performing schools are weak in communication
and family engagement (Bridgeland, J. M., Dilulio, J. J., Streeter, R. T., & Mason, J. R. (2008).
When examining the population of my school, which as aforementioned, identifies
predominantly as low-income and Latino in origin, there are many strengths that students bring
to school with their backgrounds. With a true asset-based approach towards families, I can
recognize that low-income students may come from a background that supports innovative ways
of thinking and solving problems. Students from low-income backgrounds also may have closer
familial ties to both extended family and siblings than their more affluent peers. In addition,
students from low-income families may be more autonomous in their thinking and cooperate
better with classmates their own age than peers from a different socio-economic background
(Lareau, 2003).
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The second set of benefits to acknowledge many of my students bring to school is those
of the Latino culture. Latino immigrant families have high aspirations for their children. Just
because it may not look like the traditional parent involvement of Hendersen (1986) does not
mean that family engagement is not there. Auerbach (2006) explained that when she began
interviewing immigrant parents, she noticed that they didn't refer to "involvement"; they spoke
instead of apoyo (support) and the many ways they supported their children's education with
verbal messages and consejos (narrative advice). In the Latino culture, the parents or families
job is to motivate the student, so that the student continues education and becomes something
(Auerbach, 2006). Latinos often offer moral and emotional support to help their children to
succeed in schools. We must recognize these strategies and supports parents have already in
place for their children so that we can build from these strengths.
The concept of Educacin, common especially in low-income immigrant Latino
families, is just as important to understand. This concept is separate from academic education
experienced in schools. Instead, educacin refers to respectful behavior, good manners, and
moral training, which parents and families instill in their children to give them the foundation
for academic learning and buen camino (the right path) in life (Delgado-Gaitan, 2004; Valds,
1996). This was eye-opening to me personally, as I never understood why behaviors at school
often felt superior to academic performance to families at my school. Having asset-based
attitudes, as well as beginning to understand the background and benefits students enter school
with, helps me as a teacher to begin to form true relationships with families and work from
families strengths instead of focusing on weaknesses. Spending time getting to know where
students come from and what their families and culture have to offer has the potential to pay
important dividends.
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Two articles would help guide our discussions and would be assigned after first
meeting to discuss during second meeting. The articles would be as follows:
Auerbach, S. (2011, May). Learning from Latino families. Educational Leadership, 68(8), 16-21.
Gillanders, C., & Jimnez, R. (2004). Reaching for success: A close-up of Mexican immigrant
parents in the USA who foster literacy success for their kindergarten children. Journal of
Early Childhood Literacy, 4(3), 243-269.
After breaking down barriers to see what family engagement can look like in a
school with our socioeconomic background, through changing our definition and our
attitudes, as well as understanding why we should invest in family engagement, we would
conduct surveys about family engagement as relates to our classrooms and our school.
This would occur during the third meeting of the month. We would use Hendersons
survey from in his 2007 version of Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-
School Partnerships.
Staff Development Part II: Discuss solutions through viewing success stories in schools with
similar demographics. Problem solve for ways to increase and cultivate family engagement in
individual teacher classrooms and as a school. (3 morning sessions throughout second month):
Theory to Practice: Suggestions for Engagement in School Based off Own Classroom
It would be imperative that this session was not spent with me simply sharing ideas
for practice. Each teacher is different and so are the families within their classroom. I also
am not the sole expert on what to try at our school. Hopefully, teachers would have many
of their own ideas to contribute after the lucrative meetings and discussions that occurred
throughout the professional development sessions. The third session of part two would
include planning a way to share out what we have learned to help develop family
engagement amongst the rest of our staff and for Dean Petersen as a school.
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The family demographics at schools and their communities impact how family
engagement can be fostered. Looking specifically at our demographics of low-income students,
from predominantly Latino backgrounds, there are several steps I can take to help foster
Epsteins six types of family engagement (2009) within my classroom.
1. Parenting: When I worked at Head Start, home visits helped families to create a home
environment that fostered learning. While some school districts such as St. Paul,
Minnesota (Koumpilova, 2014), currently have or are in the process of adopting the home
visit model, this is currently not an option in my school district. I am considering setting
up family-teacher conferences at a local library next year before the start of school. If
able to meet with families before school starts, it would enable me to understand more
about the families background, the childs interests, and allow a safe environment for
discussing practices necessary (such as home routines) to help their children be
successful in school.
2. Communicating: Because many of my families have difficulty physically getting to
school, it is important that I still find ways to communicate with them. School created
flyers in English and Spanish have been largely unsuccessful. Perhaps this is because
they are sent home multiple times and all look similar. During winter break I tried to
reach parents by creating a website that had links to YouTube videos and songs we use in
school. While a few families looked at it, I believe it only reached a couple of families
and was ineffective. One success I have found for several families is texting. Although
there is a language barrier (because I am unable to speak Spanish), when texting it seems
a lot easier for us to communicate. Personalized, handwritten notes about a students
successes or what they need to work on have also seemed successful based on response in
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my own classroom. Garcia (2012) supports writing personalized notes to families and
even suggests having journals for each student to send back and forth from home to
communicate with families (p.134). I am considering attempting this next year but am
apprehensive when thinking about parents who are illiterate or the likelihood these
journals may get displaced.
3. Volunteering: Recruiting and organizing family help and support can be a challenge.
One way I have been able to encourage family involvement is by going beyond asking
parents. I have had siblings, grandparents, and uncles in my classroom because I make
sure to include all families.
4. Learning at Home: In my experience, families often want to help but do not know
what the expectation is or how to do so. When I made the expectations clear such as
Students need to be able to count to 100 and then sent home a 100 Chart and a CD with
a couple songs that practiced counting to 100, the response was much more positive and
successful than when my grade level sent home a piece of paper with all the Common
Core State Standards that had listed K.CC.A.1.
Another way I was able to link learning to home is by taking activities that were already
happening in their homes and pairing them with activities at school. For example, after
reading a book that talked about a girl baking, we made cupcakes as a class. As a home
connection I had students ask their parents about cooking or baking. Many students
brought in recipes written in Spanish or empty boxes that had directions on them (ex.
mac-and-cheese, cake, etc.) to share with the class. In class we also wrote recipes and
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created a class cookbook. This approach allowed me to take something that was already
happening at home and validate it as a school experience.
5. Decision Making: Developing parent leaders and including them in school decisions
is something I could improve on. Research such as Houk (2005) suggests that taking the
parents who are the ones to get angry about something small, are often the best parents or
family members to redirect for a positive purpose (p.69). Although parents may not share
the same opinion as me or my staff, it is important that they have a real voice in the
school in which their children are a part (Houk, 2005).
6. Collaborating with the Community: Seeking out community resources is something
else I need to improve on within my own classroom. Making contact with community
organizations such as the Community Center, nearby churches, a University close by, and
the Boys and Girls Club are all easy contacts to make. Access to these organizations
could help my classroom by providing resources and assistance to my school and families
(Epstein, 2009). There may be English classes or Immigration services offered if I were
to simply explore opportunities and make them visible to families so they could be
utilized. Being a school in Las Vegas, close to The Strip may offer its own
opportunities if I were to contact the casinos individually or have parents contact the
casinos in which they work.
Staff Development Part III: Conduct whole staff development led by professional development
focus group. (60-90 minute workshop during third month):
This staff development would be an opportunity to share our groups findings and
discoveries with the whole staff. It would also create a platform for us to create a buy-in for other
teachers at our school. It would be important to prove the benefits of family engagement in terms
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of academic achievement as well as define a modern definition of family engagement for staff.
Lastly, we would want staff to feel engaged and involved in the process. If we were able to get
staff on board, family engagement would be a true success at our school. Staff involved in the
professional development group would help plan this development for the staff as they
believed would best fit our schools needs.
Staff Development Part V: Create family- teacher group. Follow up with classroom teachers on
successes and pitfalls. Meet once a month following this to sustain and continue to increase
engagement and communication between families and staff.
In the service of the whole child mentality, recognizing that family engagement is an
important first step to supporting students is critical. Regardless of the students backgrounds,
students who have families engaged in school are more likely to perform better academically,
attend school regularly, have better social skills, and graduate and go to college (Mapp, 2006).
Once there is understanding of the significance of family engagement, attitudes towards
engagement and families can began to evolve. When educators have asset based, can do attitudes
towards students and families they can began to recognize that family engagement is not uniform
from school to school. Our school, and community will manifest itself differently than any other
school environment, and thats okay. By recognizing that family engagement can transpire in
different ways and having asset based attitudes towards our school community, educators can
began to devise practical ways to help cultivate a classroom, and school, rich in family
engagement and as resultstudent success. This last step would take place after the three
month period, in which I would have returned to my place in the classroom. At this point I
would become a participant rather than the leader. If the professional development was
successful teachers within the school would feel ownership of the project and have efforts in
place to get families more involved in their classrooms and the school as a whole. Together
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families and teachers could take on important issues and help advocate for their childs
success in school.
















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References
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Auerbach, S. (2011, May). Learning from Latino families. Educational Leadership, 68(8), 16-21.
Bridgeland, J. M., Dilulio, J. J., Streeter, R. T., & Mason, J. R. (2008). One dream, two realities:
Perspectives of parents on Americas high schools. Washington DC: Civic Enterprises,
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Epstein, J., Sanders, M., Simon, B., Salinas, K., Jansorn, N., & Van Voorhis, F. (2009). School,
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Early Childhood Literacy, 4(3), 243-269.

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