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In this assignment, you will review your school’s current levels of family involvement with diverse communities and identify possible gaps where family and community support would be beneficial, propose programs to fill the need, and design a communication document to invite participation.
As an equity-centered leader, you will have the opportunity to utilize your communication and advocacy skills, practice building relationships, serve as a school ambassador, and put into practice all you have learned so far about bringing diverse voices to the table.
Step 1. Research
Conduct research on best practices for building and maintaining family/community relationships and engagement with diverse stakeholder groups that are associated with improving academic and social success for students.
Step 2. Plan
Construct an agenda for the kickoff meeting of the task force. Base your agenda on the presentation you will develop in Step 4.
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Step 3. Create
Create a 10- to 12-slide presentation to guide the team meeting to communicate the charge to the team. The presentation should include:
Presentation of the research regarding best practices for building and maintaining family/community relationships and engagement with individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Discussion of the student and school community diverse demographics, vision, and goals.
Review of the school climate survey results from Module 4.
Review of current family/communication relationships and engagement programs at the school. (What are we doing?)
Analysis of current school alignment with best practices in serving diverse populations. Include results from the equity audit. (How does what we are doing fit with best practices?)
Brainstorming activities to determine additional relationship building and engagement opportunities aligned with best practices. (What could/should we be doing?)
Activity to achieve consensus on one or two schoolwide practices from the brainstorming activity to develop.
The presentation should include 10-12 slides (not including the title or reference slides) and other visuals. Use APA format for the reference slide. Access the resource linked on the Learning Objects page for suggestions.
Step 4. Communicate
Draft a letter or email that you would use to initiate contact with the prospective task force members to invite them to participate. Include a brief overview of the current state/needs, the anticipated process, the desired outcomes, why they were selected, and how to participate.
Step 5. Submit
Submit the agenda, the presentation, and the letter/email.
Optional Internship Activity for Self-Selected Hours
Collaborate with your mentor to identify 2-3 parents/legal guardians and community members and 2-3 teachers/staff to form a team. Assure the team represents the diversity of your school community. Hold either an in-person or virtual meeting with the team. Either keep or ask a team member to keep minutes for the meeting for submission in this assignment.
Introduce the meeting by reviewing the agenda. Share the slide presentation, pausing the presentation for questions, the brainstorming activity, and the consensus-building activity.
Build consensus around one possible parent/community engagement program that could be implemented at the school.
With the team, develop an implementation and communication plan for one new engagement program identified by the team for diverse stakeholders that:
Provides an overview of the program/partnership and how it supports the school mission or vision and at least one of its goals.
Provides a detailed descriiption of the selected engagement program activities/events.
Describes how it meets the needs of the diverse student population.
Describes how it utilizes the knowledge, skills, and assets of the family/community partners.
Identifies communication strategies for: 1) informing stakeholders about the program, 2) promoting the program, 3) eliciting participation from diverse individuals/groups, and 4) gathering feedback on the program effectiveness.
Identifies resources needed for implementation (human, fiscal, technology, and other resources) and timelines.
Too Tired? Too Anxious? Need More Time? We’ve got your back.