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Connecting with parents from the beginning of the year is crucial to building and connecting with students within the community. Once you get the relationship going from the start, parents will come to you all throughout the year. Make an effort to be supportive in your students' lives outside of what they're involved in school. When they see you genuinely care about them, they will make an effort in the classroom.

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As the teacher, it is important to support students outside of the classroom. By getting involved and going to sporting events, performances, etc. This allows you to create relationships with students and parents. This will show parents that you care and want to make connections.

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When you're new to an environment and are unaware of ways to take on the dispositional issues, the best way to build on this is by getting involved. As a teacher, we need to be role models that provoke the value of community and everything we can do to influence. There are hundreds of ways to support our students through their extracurricular activities, as well as even create our own.

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A great way to understand the values of a community is to immerse yourself in that community. As teachers we are now a part of the community and we can communicate that through our actions. Shopping at the grocery, supporting local business, and attending local events shows the community that you are committed to being a part of the community. Through this you will have authentic interactions with parents and other community members. If they know you they may be more inclined to meet with you if needed or communicate.

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I think that doing your research can help when assessing dispositions, but I think there are more ways that we can go about it. Putting yourself out in the community and talking with parents to figure out where your students stand will help you as a teacher see students' cultures and how to improve your teaching.

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One way to gauge community involvement and interest is to make oneself as present as possible in the community. Showing up to students sports games, recitals, performances or what have you allows you to gain access to important community contacts and information. Something Storey Mecoli suggested in one of my classes with her recently is to ask at the beginning of the year or semester for students to give you their sports/performance schedules and try to go to some of those important activities. This also allows a teacher to make connections with parents who may need to know how much you really care about their child to encourage their student to do better in school or what have you.

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One way a teacher can get a understanding of the community they are working in, is to volunteer through local organizations. Seeing the community in its raw form gives us a better understanding of what the community is like. It is also important that we are present in the community at events and school events. While parents might not always be present as school meetings, the majority of times, parents are present at games

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We should be respectful of the diverse cultures that will make up our classroom . The best way to respect the cultures is to know them. We can be aware of the cultures of our community by attending sporting events, and taking part in community activities outside of school. We should also try to establish regular communication with the families at our school.

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If you want to better understand the community in which you are teaching then you need to do your research and be active in that community. If your students have sporting events go to them and interact with parents. Interacting with parents will give you a good insight into their dispositions. Also if you get to know the parents a little you will have a better understanding of where the child comes from so you will be able to better assess them. You also need to create your own community in the classroom that can foster learning and good behavior.

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When it comes to understanding the values of a community, we must go beyond the classroom. Making trips to local sports events, fundraisers, after school clubs, etc. are great ways to not only become part of the community but to see how it functions. Also, this is another great way to make personal relationships with the students, parents, and community leaders. They will be the key to your success in the long run.

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A great way to understand community when assessing dispositions is to connect with parents, letting them know who they are, and getting to know them. Becoming familiar with their homeliness, their culture, and the way they live is a good way to grow community in the classroom.

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I love the idea of going to a PTA meeting to hear what the parents have to say, but I think this can also be problematic because they do not represent the entire community. I think sending out "get to know me" surveys to parents, just like we do with our students, would be beneficial.

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I agree that researching the community values is important, but also getting involved with parents can help you understand the values directly relating to your students. Inviting parents to answer a few questions about certain goals they may have for their students, their experiences in school, etc., can impact your ideas on the community. I also think as a teacher it is important to be involved in your students' lives outside of the classroom - ask for sport schedules, band or choir concerts and show your support to your students.

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A good way to understand the values of a community when we are assessing dispositions is to be involved in the community and see how it functions. It is also important that teachers get to know parents and their students. Knowing your students cultural background can help you understand students thoughts and ideas and how these impact their achievement in the classroom.

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A good way to understand community when assessing dispositions is to become aware of the current events that are directly affecting the students. This could be a matter of their sports, clubs, theaters, products they use, and so forth. Being mindful of this can genuinely tap into the source of their motivation, while easily making real-world applications. This is inherently important because it essentially "brings the content to life" where they see that their lives have value as well as how it can be incorporated into mastering the standards and beyond. Students could even benefit by learning how to become involved themselves through political, environmental, and other means.

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I believe that immersing yourself in the community that you plan to teach in is really important. If you talk the talk about serving an underserved community, but then don't walk the walk and invest in student support and success both in and outside of school, your inconsistency will be obvious to students and parents. When you have a strong understanding of the community and culture of students, you will be better able to understand their dispositions in the classroom.

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I think a good way to establish community values is to first gauge student understanding of what community means to them. This can include engaging in the creation of a classroom contract or word wall that is representative of each student's community values.

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We all probably have an idea of the kind of community that we want to create for our classrooms, but what we don't think about is that our students 9/10 will already be from a community that is separate from our own. I think becoming familiar with the culture of our students and the area they live in can help us build a successful classroom community.

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I would suggest that even before starting at a school, you get familiar with the community. Go to popular restaurants, go to games, craft fairs etc. Make yourself a presence in the community to show that you care and get familiar with the type of environment your students are living in. This will help you to understand your population of students better.

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The best way to understand the values of the community is to involve yourself in the community. Attend local events, eat at local restaurants.

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A great way to understand the values of a community is not only doing research but getting yourself involved in events or programs in that area. If you could understand where your students are coming from this could open your eyes on why exactly they view school the way they do. Maybe being able to relate to your students in some type of way could get them to look at schooling in a brighter light.

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I think it is important to involve yourself in the community. Go to community events, go to sporting events, go to music events. Let the students know that you are their to support them. It can also help you understand what is important to them, and better connect with your students.

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Ask students, ask parents, ask school faculty, or other community members. Once the teacher is knowledgable about the community around their school, they will be better equipped to teach their students. Knowing about a students' background gives insight to their dispositions towards school. Talking with these individuals on a level below the surface is important to gaining this knowledge.

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Connect with the parents right away and make yourself available to them. Students with more involved parents tend to do their work and attend school more regularly.

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Getting involved in the community and taking the initiative to learn about that community is an important part of our job as teachers. Therefore, taking the time to learn about our students and where they come from will help us fairly assess dispositions in the  classroom.

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I feel that it is important to understand the values of the community that your students are in, every community is different and knowing where your students come from can be an easy way to connect with them. Knowing what programs are available to your students within the community is also an important factor.

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I feel the best way to gain a better understanding of a community's values in order to assess dispositions is to build strong relationships with your students and their parents/legal guardians. Being aware of events and key factors that play large roles in the community will show students and their families that you are making an effort to become part of the community. Becoming involved in community events and promoting change in the community will also help you to build lasting relationships and understand the values of a specific community.

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I think that being apart of students communities is good. This can look like going to their sports events, art shows etc. This will not only being to build rapport with your students families, it will also give you an insight to what students enjoy, who their friends are, what the issues are.

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A way to understand the values of the community is  to just get yourself involved in the community. Do not just be the teacher who goes to school and leaves urhool is over.  Go to events in the area, talk with the parents, talk with community leaders.  Make
your presence known. Also, talk with your students. They can be a wealth of information. Do not waste that opportunity.

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One way to understand the values of the community that you are working in is to immerse yourself in that community. Eat in their restaurants, go to the games, shop in their stores. Also just spending time talking to students about their home lives and their own personal values is really important too.

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Leah Hammer I think a good way to address this finding ways to incorporate the school into the community and vice versa. This article has some good advice and it is a short read. Schools could find opportunities like guest speakers or a community gardens to prepare students of all ages to integrated into their community. Showing students that they are not isolated in the world or academia will help make those real world connections.   https://www.edutopia.org/blog/school-community-collaboration-brendan-okeefe

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One way to understand the values of the community is to research and immerse yourself into the community in order to see how they operate. Try to get involved in student's outside lives, go to games or other extracurricular events. Teachers can try to build relationships with partners and guardians as well.

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It is important to have an understanding what those values of the community are to begin with. Being involved in that community  will help you create those understandings of those values. Be involved, go to local community events, go to their games, their plays, their concerts. Being supportive and just showing those community members that you are a part of the community as well will go a long way. You will start making those connections and build those relationships from there.

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One way to understand the values of a community is through developing a strong initial relationship with each of your student's parents or caretakers. This is done through building rapport, interviewing parents at the beginning of the year asking question both about their students and their families' interest in playing a role in their children's education. This will allow the educator to learn what the student has interest in, learning needs outside of 504s and IEPs, and much more.

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I think a way to understand the values of communities is to do some research on the social programs that are in place in the community. What does the socioeconomic status look like? Finding ways to incorporate important community events or values in the classroom can be helpful and you can find them on community websites or getting involved in social events.

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An adapted excerpt from Parents & Teachers Working Together
One of the enduring truths about teaching is that to teach children well, we have to know them: what they're passionate about, what worries them, where they are in their development.

We also have to understand something of their family culture-that world outside the school that has such a huge effect on how well children do in school.

As many teachers know, the U.S. school-age population is becoming increasingly diverse. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2000, 3.4 million U.S. children ages five through seventeen (about one in fifteen) spoke little or no English. And by 2020, nearly half of all U.S. children will be of color; about one in four will be Hispanic. This increasing diversity means that more than ever, we need to be attentive to how students' family cultures can be very different from the dominant culture of the school.

No doubt this can be hard work. It takes time and effort to learn about unfamiliar cultures. It takes stretching our powers of empathy and creativity to adjust teaching practices to fully include families of different cultures.

But this hard work can also be exhilarating. As teachers, we come into the profession because we find joy in seeing children learn. When we build bridges to families of non-mainstream cultures, we're making sure that their children, not just the children of mainstream cultures, can do well in school. We're also opening up exciting new worlds of learning for all children. Just think of how much children can grow socially and academically when our teaching reflects the traditions and contributions of all the cultures in our schools. In the words of parent Bekki Lee, "To have a teacher affirm and embrace all cultures, especially those that our society most under-represents or misrepresents, is incredibly powerful. Teachers shape how our children see the world and each other, and it's never too early to begin."

Many resources-books, websites, community groups, and families and children themselves-can suggest practical ways to welcome families from diverse cultures (see end of this article). Rather than adding more such ideas, this article offers instead one overarching goal and one fundamental belief to keep in mind while taking those practical steps to reach out.

The goal: helping children learn

The goal in working with parents-all parents, no matter what their culture-is to enable them to support their children's learning. It sounds simple, but in the process of finding innovative ways to include all the cultures of our students, it's sometimes easy to lose sight of this goal.

Educator Sonia Nieto observes that many schools believe they're offering multicultural education when they're actually implementing "little more than ethnic additives and cultural celebrations." She writes, "Curiously missing from discussions in most schools that claim to 'do' multicultural education are statements having to do with student learning." Nieto recalls telling a friend about a multicultural education initiative in a nearby school system. The friend's reservations about the project were evident when she asked, "But are the kids learning?" During a similar discussion, another friend asked impatiently, "But can they do math?" (Sonia Nieto, The Light in Their Eyes, page xvi).

"Are the children learning?" needs to be the question that we continually keep in the forefront as we work with all parents. Activities such as celebrating holidays from various cultures and decorating a bulletin board to reflect diverse cultures are worthwhile. But we need to ask whether such efforts, by themselves, help children learn math, reading, science, cooperation, responsibility, empathy-all the things they're supposed to learn in school.

In addition to keeping the classroom focus on learning, we can have practices that enable the children's parents to help them learn. That means making the small but critical everyday efforts to reach out in ways that help parents understand and be part of their child's classroom. For example, we could look for people at school or in the community to translate letters and other school-to-home communications. Whenever possible, we could invite interpreters to join meetings with families. These efforts can help parents feel heard, welcomed, and comfortable asking questions and voicing opinions about their children's education.

A fundamental belief: differences, not deficits

How we view families from cultures different from our own deeply affects how we work with them. All families have had different sets of experiences. We can best help students learn if we believe their family experiences are neither better nor worse than our own, but simply different.

Literacy professor Victoria Purcell-Gates writes about this "difference" versus "deficit" view of family backgrounds. As teachers know, children come to school with widely varying experiences in reading, writing, and other literacy activities at home. Even English speakers come speaking different dialects. But, Purcell-Gates point out, if the family is poor, undereducated, or speaks a "nonstandard" dialect, we're more likely to interpret a child's uniqueness as an inherent deficit or flaw rather than a mere difference in experience.

When we do this, Purcell-Gates says, we risk lowering our expectations for the child and writing the child off as less teachable or even unteachable. By contrast, when we truly believe that all children can learn and that they vary only in their experiences, we're more likely to maintain high expectations of all children and nonjudgmentally build on the experiences they have had to help them learn at their best. (Lisa Delpit and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, eds., 2002, The Skin That We Speak, New York: The New Press, pp. 121-139).

The "difference" versus "deficit" view also comes into play in areas beyond language and literacy. Early in her career, Bonnie Baer-Simahk, a teacher of K-6 English language learners in Massachusetts, was surprised to learn that many Southeast Asian students didn't like to take their completed schoolwork home because their parents would throw it away. "I was so upset, thinking that the message the parents gave their children was that their schoolwork was not valued," she recalls. "Later I saw that I was quite wrong." The same parents who never displayed schoolwork welcomed Bonnie into their home to talk about their children's progress in school, came in to help out whenever invited, and urged Bonnie to tell them if their children weren't doing good work in school. Clearly, these parents valued their children's school efforts. Why, then, didn't they display their children's schoolwork?

"I suspect it was a combination of things," says Bonnie. Maybe the parents didn't understand the significance of the papers or the teacher's comments on them. Maybe they expected their children to work hard and thought that positive efforts didn't require any special acknowledgment. Whatever the reason, the point is that the parents' behavior reflects a difference in experience and norms, not a lack of concern for their children.

A further point is that once we recognize differences, we need to respect them. Children from diverse cultures and their families can succeed in American schools without surrendering the customs of their home cultures. For example, Bonnie didn't try to change the Southeast Asian families' customs around taking home and displaying school- work. She simply accepted that these families had other ways of showing pride in educational effort.

Whatever we're trying to understand about students from other cultures, we can teach best when we hold fast to the "difference, not deficit" mentality. In doing so, we're more likely to see intelligence, talent, and caring, even if these are expressed in ways that we're not used to. We can then build on these assets to teach the children what they need to learn in school.

For more about working with families, see our book, Parents & Teachers Working Together.

Resources for Learning about Different Cultures

The children and their parents: Ask parents for help in learning about their culture. Most parents are happy to help if they feel respected.

Colleagues: Teachers of English language learners, other teachers, home liaisons, instructional assistants, and office or other staff may have ideas or skills to offer.

Your school: If possible, talk as a whole staff about cultural and language issues in working with families. Staff teams could learn about a particular issue and share the information with the rest of the school community.

Other schools: See what's worked for other schools serving the same family populations as you do.

Community organizations: Libraries, cultural and social service organizations, churches, other religious organizations, civic groups, and local universities may offer books, pamphlets, and other kinds of help.

The Internet: Here you'll find a wealth of information and practical strategies for working with families from diverse cultures. You'll also find misinformation, so rely on credible sources. A few sites to check out:

Educator's Reference Desk

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs

Teaching Tolerance

Tags: Family Connections, Working with Families

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Welcoming Families of Different Cultures | Responsive Classroom

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An adapted excerpt from Parents & Teachers Working Together One of the enduring truths about teaching is that to teach children well, we have to know them: what they're passionate about, what worries them, where they are in their development.

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Part of getting students engaged and involved is getting parents invested. "When schools, families, and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more" ( source ).

Studies have shown that students with more involved parents are more likely to:

Attend school regularly

Demonstrate better behavior and social skills

Enroll in more advanced courses

Earn higher scores and grades

Graduate and continue their education

So how do we get parents more involved? It's optimal to start the conversation at the beginning of the school year, but really, anytime is a great time to connect with parents. New students come into classrooms through the year, and parents always want to know what's happening in your classroom.

As long as you're making yourself available to parents and keeping an open communication line, you're setting yourself up for success. Check out with these 4 questions teachers should ask parents so that you can learn how to better help your students in the classroom.

How and when would you like me to be in touch with you this year? What are the top two things that you care about communicating?

Getting this information up front means that every parent has the opportunity to provide the most effective contact information and to request a certain amount of communication. With modern technology, it's easier than ever to communicate with parents no matter what their schedules look like. From a simple email to a scheduled video chat, teachers have plenty of options when it comes to keeping in touch with parents.

By keeping in touch with parents, you can help the students by relaying any problem areas or just sending general progress information from time to time. Many parents will want to work on some particularly difficult subjects at home, so an open dialogue with a teacher can be really valuable.

How would you like to be involved with your child's education?

Many parents want to be involved in their children's educations beyond the yearly parent-teacher conferences. Ask them how they would like to be involved, and give them some options if you already have a plan for activities where volunteers are needed. All teachers know the value of teamwork, so make sure you use parents as one of your valuable team players when planning learning activities.

Talking to parents about their level of involvement is key to planning ahead, both so you can gauge the amount of help and support you can expect and so you can allow parents to help shape their children's education.

What would make this classroom an inviting and comfortable place for you and your child?

We've reached out to parents via their preferred method of communication, we've talked to them about their involvement, and now we just need to know how we can make our environment better for them and-more importantly-the students.

Especially for new students and young students, an inviting classroom can make all the difference in comfortability and engagement. Having comfortable, engaged students is key in facilitating learning. And it's difficult to get new parents involved if they don't feel welcome in the classroom. Work with parents to create an inviting environment for everyone and maximize engagement.

What is your child passionate about? What do they have a hard time with?

Knowing the passions and struggles of each of your students is a lot of work, but it's probably the most important information that teachers can get from parents. You can nurture passions and inspire your students to get excited about learning and exploring! Teaching isn't about getting students to memorize facts and pass tests; it's about creating a spark and helping each student find their passion and pursue it.

Often parents can see things in children that the children can't see in themselves. Ask the parents about these passions and struggles so that you can equip your students with the tools for a truly meaningful education.

Start each school year with these questions and you might be surprised by the results! Let us know in the comments if you have some other good questions teachers should ask parents!

Want some more tips on getting parents involved? Check out this free ebook from Ving!

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6 Questions Teachers Should Ask Parents To Improve Classroom Engagement

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Part of getting students engaged and involved is getting parents invested. "When schools, families, and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more" ( source ).

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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While increased family involvement is linked to improved student performance, it is not always fully understood and examined within schools. Different types of involvement may include parenting, communicating with schools, volunteering at schools, supporting learning at home, participating in school governance and decision-making, and taking part in school-community collaborations. In order to encourage and foster this comprehensive involvement with all families, school administrators and teachers must develop mutual trust, consider the different cultural attitudes some families may have towards schooling, and be diligent in reaching out.

This report is one in a series of "hot topics" reports produced by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. These reports briefly address current educational concerns and issues as indicated by requests for information that come to the Laboratory from the Northwest region and beyond. Each booklet contains a discussion of research and literature pertinent to the issue, how Northwest schools and programs are addressing the issue, selected resources, and contact information.

One objective of the series is to foster a sense of community and connection among educators. Another is to increase awareness of current education-related themes and concerns. Each booklet gives practitioners a glimpse of how fellow educators from around the Northwest are addressing issues, overcoming obstacles, and attaining success. The goal of the series is to give educators current, reliable, and useful information on topics that are important to them.

During the past several decades, the benefits of parents' and other family members' involvement in children's education have been well-documented. Although it isn't the only factor in improving student learning, 30 years of research has consistently linked family involvement to higher student achievement, better attitudes toward school, lower dropout rates, and increased community support for education, as well as many other positive outcomes for students, families, and schools (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). When families are involved in learning, the research shows, "students achieve more, regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnic/racial background, or the parents' education level" (Antunez, 2000).

Despite these findings, many schools struggle to actively engage high numbers of parents and other family members in children's schooling. Of those families who do get involved, the majority are white and middle income, typically those whose home culture most closely matches the norms, values, and cultural assumptions reflected in the school. Minority, lower-income, and families who speak limited English, on the other hand, are often highly underrepresented in school-level decision-making and in family involvement activities - a phenomenon that speaks far more often to differing needs, values, and levels of trust than it does to families' lack of interest or unwillingness to get involved (Antunez, 2000; Goddard, Tschannen-Moran, & Hoy, 2001; Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, Greenfield, & Quiroz, 2001; Young, 1998).

This booklet examines issues of trust and family involvement, focusing specifically on relationships between diverse families and schools. After providing a brief introduction to three core concepts - trust, culture, and family involvement - we offer a summary of relevant research and a discussion of common obstacles to school-family partnerships. Tips for reaching out to diverse families, profiles of several current family involvement efforts in Northwest schools, and additional resources are provided at the end.

In context: Family involvement and No Child Left Behind

"In the best of all possible worlds," write Adams and Christenson (2000), "the family-school relationship would be based not only on two-way communication, cooperation, and coordination, but also on collaboration" (p. 478). The 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), No Child Left Behind (NCLB), signals a move in that direction. The inclusion of several new provisions related to family involvement reflect the gradual shift in U.S. educational policy and practice from viewing parents as important players to full partners in the formal education of their child.

The new provisions under NCLB, particularly those under Titles I and III, expand schools' obligations to inform parents and to reach out to families who have traditionally been underrepresented in school activities and decision-making, such as parents of English language learners. Schools that receive Title III funding, for example, are required to:

implement an effective means of outreach to parents of limited English proficient children to inform such parents of how they can:

1. be involved in the education of their children; and

2. be active participants in assisting their children:

1. to learn English;

2. to achieve at high levels in core academic subjects; and

3. to meet the same challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards as all children are expected to meet (Title III, 3302(e) cited in Gomez & Greenough, 2002, p. 4).

Past provisions of the ESEA related to family involvement, "such as school-parent compacts, parental involvement policies, and the parental involvement funding formula," also remain in effect (Gomez & Greenough, 2002, p. 1). In short, NCLB establishes that:

Parents have the right to be informed of the content and quality of their children's education

Parents have the right and responsibility to participate in decisionmaking and learning at the school

Parents have the right to make educational choices in the best interest of their children¹

Although the legislation provides guidelines and provisions for schools to follow as they develop family involvement policies, schools may also face challenges in complying with the law, especially in how to strengthen relationships with families whose needs and concerns have not been addressed. Clearly, if families and schools are to form partnerships that work, there must first be a foundation of mutual trust, confidence, and respect. The goal of this booklet is to provide some starting points for schools to address these challenges.

Trust is an individual's or group's willingness to be vulnerable to another party based on the confidence that the latter party is benevolent, reliable, competent, honest, and open. (p. 189).

a way of life, especially as it relates to the socially transmitted habits, customs, traditions, and beliefs that characterize a particular group of people at a particular time. It includes the behaviors, actions, practices, attitudes, norms and values, communications (language), patterns, traits, etiquette, spirituality, concepts of health and healing, superstitions, and institutions of a racial, ethnic, religious, or social group. It is the lens through which we look at the world (Edwards, Ellis, Ko, Saifer, & Stuczynski, in press, p. 11).

These two orientations of individualism and collectivism guide rather different developmental scripts for children and for schooling; and conflicts between them are reflected daily in U.S. classrooms. Keener awareness of how they shape goals and behaviors can enable teachers and parents to interpret each other's expectations better and work together more harmoniously on behalf of students (p. 6).

Members of the same culture vary widely in their beliefs and actions.... We all have unique identities that we develop within our cultures, but these identities are not fixed or static. This is the reason that stereotypes do not hold up: no two individuals from any culture are exactly alike.... Because individual differences within cultural groups are far greater than differences between cultural groups, it is both particularly crucial and particularly challenging to operationalize understandings of culture and avoid stereotyping in diverse classrooms (Ahearn et al., 2002, pp. 8-9).

Each individual school, in cooperation with the community in which it serves, must reflect on its current educational program and its relationship with the community in which it is embedded. Based on this self-reflection, the school and the community must jointly determine which strategies are likely to be the most effective in creating a sense of trust...(p. 17).

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getting involved in your child's education

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Building Trust with Schools and Diverse Families

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While increased family involvement is linked to improved student performance, it is not always fully understood and examined within schools. Different types of involvement may include parenting, communicating with schools, volunteering at schools, supporting learning at home, participating in school governance and decision-making, and taking part in school-community collaborations.

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Strong communication between school staff and families is important in any school and has special relevance for schools committed to anti-bias education.

Communication built on misinformation, assumptions or stereotypes can create distance between schools, families and students. If handled with respect and cultural sensitivity, however, school-family communication provides an opportunity to live out the values of inclusiveness and equity, which are at the heart of anti-bias education. The following guidelines can help schools avoid communication pitfalls and support teacher-family relationships built on respect:

Assume good intentions, and approach all families as partners who want the best for their children.

Invite parents or guardians to share knowledge about their students' lives, interests, hopes and struggles.

Invite parents or guardians to share information about family cultures and traditions.

Recognize and respect differences in family structures.

Recognize the role that identity and background may play in shaping relationships between teachers and families.

Bring a sense of self-reflectiveness and cultural humility to all conversations and interactions.

View linguistic, cultural and family diversity as strengths.

In addition to setting a tone of respect and inclusivity, strong communication with families also offers teachers an opportunity to invite family involvement and share curricular goals, materials and resources.

Connection to Anti-bias Education

Attending to culturally sensitive communication supports two of the four anti-bias domains: Identity and Diversity. Culturally relevant family engagement strategies communicate to students that their family identities are understood and valued. It also demonstrates respect for families with a diverse range of backgrounds and structures.

Strategies

Inclusive Terminology and Materials

Positive communication can be as simple as using inclusive language when writing and speaking to families. For example, instead of sending home a note that opens, "Dear Parents," use a greeting such as "Dear Families." All communication should be checked for assumptions about household resources, family traditions, cultural practices, political affiliations or other life circumstances. For instance, instead of asking for "mother's name" and "father's name" on a form, have a space for "names of parents/guardians."

Recognition of Key Relationships

Teachers should make a point of learning the central figures in each student's life-including those who may not be legal parents or guardians-and involving them as appropriate. This may include welcoming stepparents, parental partners (regardless of gender) or extended family members.

Use of Home Languages

Because language plays a crucial role in families' lives, teachers should communicate with parents in their home languages as much as possible. Whenever possible, family materials should be provided in students' home languages. When translation is needed, a school-provided translator should be employed, as asking students to translate can put them in an awkward position.

Beginning-of-the-Year Questionnaires or Conversations

Teachers can gather valuable information about students by connecting with parents and guardians early in the school year. Asking family members about students' strengths, challenges and lives outside of school-as well as about their own hopes and fears- provides important background, sets a collaborative tone and allows classroom practice to reflect student identities.

Incorporating family and community knowledge enhances student learning. Students possess tremendous experiential wisdom on issues related to identity, culture, history and justice. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, cousins, neighbors and community leaders frequently have stories to share about their lives and perspectives.

Family and community wisdom can put a personal face on historical or sociological material and help demystify unfamiliar topics, such as LGBT identity or living with a disability. Hearing from real people who have lived through eras of change or participated in social justice movements can provide inspiration as well as information.

Students also carry knowledge of their families and communities inside themselves. Making room to share this knowledge supports the development of student identities.

Family assignments must be envisioned and explained in a culturally sensitive manner. A seemingly harmless activity, such as creating a family tree, can marginalize students whose biological relations are distant or unknown. Such assignments can be modified to recognize the key relationships in students' lives. Other ways to incorporate family and community wisdom into the curriculum include community surveys, student conversations with family members, interviews, guest speakers, video projects, art projects, memoir or other family-based writing, oral histories, learning from family members' professional experiences, and incorporating family or cultural perspectives into the analysis of texts.

Connection to Anti-bias Education

Drawing on students' family and community wisdom supports two of the four anti-bias domains: Identity and Diversity. By listening to the stories of their own families and communities, students can deepen their sense of self and make personal connections with historical, literary and sociological material. Hearing about different classmates' families and communities can also foster new perspectives on their own experiences and expand their understanding of other groups, cultures and communities.

Strategies

Family Interviews

Students can interview family members on a variety of issues such as historical events or eras, family experiences of justice or injustice, evolving cultural norms, social movements and identity. Interview format, questions and reporting practices should be customized based on grade level and educational goals.

Guest Speakers

Family and community members can visit the class to speak about a range of topics. Their connections to these issues may be personal, professional or both.

Community Research

Conducting community-based research can deepen students' understanding of social justice issues. This research might include opinion surveys or needs assessments, community interviews, visits to local sites or Internet research about community history.

As students learn and grow together over the course of weeks, months and years, parents and guardians can learn along with them. Strong connections give families the opportunity to support one another in nurturing their children's identities and values, adding richness to the work of anti-bias and social justice education.

There are lots of ways to bring families together, including in-school or community-based events, group email lists and social media. Teachers, school administrators, students, or parents and guardians can coordinate appropriate family connections based on the students' age and the composition of the community. Elementary school students, for example, may be more likely than high school students to enjoy attending events with their families. A given activity may resonate with some cultural communities more than others (though it might be good to offer "stretch" events as well). And some communities will have access to the technology and skills needed to support online interaction, while others will not.

Connection to Anti-bias Education

Building connections among families supports two of the four anti-bias domains: Identity and Diversity. This practice deepens students' awareness of the personal and cultural contexts that shape personal experience. It also provides a "learning lab" for introducing different family structures and traditions. Making the curriculum more visible to classroom families helps generate support for anti-bias education work and provides opportunities for families to work with their children on social justice issues. These connections can also foster diverse relationships that echo and strengthen key messages from the curriculum.

Strategies

Family Events

Events that bring students and families together include family potlucks or picnics; family affinity events (e.g., for families from a certain cultural or ethnic group, for LGBT families, for families of color, for adoptive families); showcases of student work; student or community performances; film nights; game nights; and cultural or multicultural events.

Parent/Guardian Education Programs

Educational programming supports community building and engages family members. Possible programs include films, speakers or discussions for parents and guardians on topics such as bullying prevention, identity development, racial experiences, gender expression, sexuality, learning differences and family diversity. Events may stand alone or be part of an ongoing series.

Family Service/Engagement Projects

Service projects can include family action days at the local food bank, working together on neighborhood political and social issues, attending community events such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations or LGBT Pride events, and fundraising projects for community causes.

Pooling Resources and Sharing Support

In addition to organizing or publicizing formal events, teachers can encourage families to connect informally to share information and resources and to support one another in times of need (e.g., the birth of a new baby or a death in the family). The school can foster this type of support by naming it as an explicit priority and creating a user-friendly contact list or online directory.

All local communities have valuable resources that can enhance teaching and learning on social justice topics, even if these resources are not always explicit or obvious. They include events, people, places and organizations.

Events. Cultural and community celebrations, commemorations, political actions, artistic events, performances, student conferences and community education events.

People. Elders, artists, musicians, researchers, community leaders, policymakers, journalists, advocates, local historians, cultural workers and everyday people who have experienced and worked on social justice issues.

Places. Museums, cultural centers, libraries, neighborhood landmarks, and sites of historical interest or struggle.

Organizations. Formal or informal groups engaged in relevant cultural, artistic, social or political projects.

Connection to Anti-bias Education

Drawing on local resources supports all four anti-bias domains: Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action. Witnessing marginalization, power dynamics and activism in their own communities strengthens personal connections with these curricular concepts. At a broader level, schools benefit from community connections and partnerships, and communities benefit when citizens are educated in matters of equity and justice.

Strategies

Classroom or School Presentations

Individuals or organizational representatives can be invited to speak about how their life or work experiences relate to social justice themes.

Neighborhood Explorations

Social-movement-based history and cultural knowledge often connect to specific cities and neighborhoods. For example, certain New York City neighborhoods offer windows into the lives of different immigrant groups during the 19th and 20th centuries. Montgomery, Ala., houses landmarks and monuments from the civil rights era. Visiting sites like these can add richness to students' curricular experiences. Neighborhood explorations can also be paired with classroom or school presentations.

Connecting with Community Organizations

Most cities and towns have local organizations that engage in cultural activities, community service efforts or social justice advocacy. Many of these organizations are happy to partner with schools, provide students with information and offer opportunities for students to participate in their projects.

A core component of anti-bias education is learning to take action against exclusion, prejudice and discrimination; it can be especially powerful for students to do this in their own schools and local communities.

Consider the following tips for ensuring that community engagement efforts reflect anti-bias values:

Create a community action project that addresses real needs. Community organizations can help articulate these needs and suggest ways to maximize students' time and talents.

Draw on students' knowledge of and personal connection to the issues involved. The more specific the project, the better.

Include a strong research component that ensures students' efforts to increase their knowledge and understanding are not simply based on what they already know.

Incorporate reflection about student attitudes to ensure the project doesn't reinforce assumptions or stereotypes about specific people or communities.

Provide writing prompts to help students consider personal changes they can make to challenge bias, exclusion and injustice.

Study the broader social context surrounding the community problem. Intervene if students "blame the victim" for challenges beyond individual control.

Use texts to spark student reflection about community challenges and issues.

Work "with," not "for," individuals or groups the class wants to support.

Connection to Anti-bias Education

Expecting students to engage directly with community issues and problems supports two of the four anti-bias domains: Justice and Action.

Strategies

Personal Action Plan

After reading about prejudice or discrimination, the Personal Action Plan assignment asks students to reflect on these issues in their own surroundings and explore how they might help make their school and community more welcoming, inclusive and equitable. The Personal Action Plan can focus on one particular topic (e.g., name-calling and bullying, peer culture, diversity of gender expression or LGBT issues), or it can be more general. Plans should focus on acts of personal change, and students should share their plans with classmates to build accountability for implementation.

"Fighting for Fairness" Letters

The Fairness Letter Project (Live Oak School, San Francisco, Calif.) asks students to identify an instance of unfairness in their school or community, research the issue and write an advocacy letter to a person or organization with power to change the situation. In addition to developing issue-based analysis and critical writing skills, this project requires students to evaluate how change happens and where they can best channel their efforts for maximum impact.

Student-Designed Community Projects

Any social justice issue could inspire an individual or group project designed to support local people. Possible projects include designing a public service announcement, conducting a survey or opinion poll, providing direct service through a community agency, creating a workshop or event or hosting a justice-themed art show.

Ongoing Partnerships with Community Organizations

Semester- or year-long community partnerships offer students a chance to establish continuity and deeper connections with particular issues, populations or projects. A partnership spanning multiple years gives each class a chance to build on previous classes' work, multiplying the impact.

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Strong communication between school staff and families is important in any school and has special relevance for schools committed to anti-bias education. Communication built on misinformation, assumptions or stereotypes can create distance between schools, families and students.