Teamwork and partnerships are inextricably related. They are the critical elements necessary for any institution pursuing its vision, achieving its goals, and accomplishing its objectives. For schools, this is especially true, and the makeup of a school's team must include those members of the educational community who are impacted by outcomes resulting from decisions made by the team. While conventional wisdom has the school's principal playing the role of the school team's leader, in fact, the leadership of a school's team is shared by the principal and distributed throughout the educational community, which includes parents. This chapter focuses on the concept of family/school partnerships and the inclusion of parents who are essential members of the leadership team. And, while this applies to parent representatives throughout the school's general population of families, it is critical to ensure that the parents of CLD children are included among the leadership team.
TopThe Importance Of School/Family Partnerships
Educationally speaking, a school/family partnership can be defined as “mutually supportive interactions between families and professionals that focus on meeting the needs of children and families” (Summers et al., 2005, p. 66). In terms of CLD families and their educational partners, it is essential for CLD parents to stay connected to the framework of their child’s education.
While researchers, such as Ferrel (2012) identify the teacher/parent partnership the most effective way to maintain a child’s academic interest and assist in their achievement, the difficulties associated with being a CLD family still emerge. While discussing the breadth of issues a CLD or CLD with disabilities child could be facing, and in creating an Individualized Education Program (IEP), communication barriers still occur. In fact, there is a large disconnect between parents’ participation in IEP because so much information goes without translation. Information about policies, school schedules, and U.S. educational systems is either miscommunicated, or not completely understood. Therefore, an incorrect vision of what the child needs comes to surface, and CLD families become lost (Chu & Wu, 2012).
Wenner (2012) pointed out that the demographics of the U.S.landscape have been changing rapidly and substantially, with marked rises in immigrant and minority populations, including Southwest Asian, North African, or Middle Eastern groups in many states. Moreover, culture and family demographics play a significant role in determining the level and type of involvement in childhood education, where White middleclass parents are typically more visibly active in their children’s school and their educational experiences than their minority and non-English proficient counterparts (Smith et al., 2011; Stufft & Brogadir, 2010; Turney & Kao, 2009).
Researchers have pointed out that a family/educator relationship is a positive way to assist in the improvement of special education services and student academic achievement (Sheldon, 2003). Currently, the CLD training that is given to teachers leaves much to be desired. There are large portions of the CLD population being overlooked. Murawski (2012), states, “[c]ollaboration and communication increased and improved during the 1990s and moved the family-professional partnership more toward one of “collective empowerment” however, there are still many challenges in creating a positive, results-driven partnerships between families and schools (Harry, 2008)” (p. 61).
The obstacles for CLD families and their partnerships with educators is even greater due to lower English language proficiency, access to resources, and time (Harry, 2008; Lo, 2008; McLeod, 2012; Olivos, Gallagher, & Aguilar, 2010; Rodriguez, Blatz, & Elbaum, 2014). There is also a varied degree of understanding what the concept of a parental role within a child’s education looks like (Barnard, 2004; Diken, 2006; Harry, 2008).
These are among the reasons why there is such a struggle to implement a successful school/CLD family partnership. Special education services in schools must be reimagined to address these children by being inclusive and more understanding (Morgan et al., 2015), or else the children will continue to drop out of the education system. Those who drop out of school and fail to graduate have a higher rate of homelessness, incarceration, drug abuse, depression, and dependency on social welfare systems (Schargel & Smink, 2014).