Family Involvement for Culturally & Linguistically Diverse ...

Family Involvement for Culturally
and Linguistically i i Diverse/
Exceptional Learners
Amy Mazur, EdD
Tara Courchaine, MA
Patricia Rice Doran, MA
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR BILINGUAL
EDUCATION
SPECIAL EDUCATION
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP MEETING
FEB. 4, 2010
DENVER, CO

Objectives
By the end of the presentation, ,participants p will:
• Describe the importance of family involvement for
culturally and linguistically diverse and/or
exceptional (CLD/E) learners
• Identify issues impacting family involvement for
diverse learners
• Suggest schoolwide strategies to increase
involvement for families of various backgrounds
• Identify strategies for family involvement in the
process of educational service delivery

Importance of family involvement for diverse
learners
• Family involvement has been shown to be key to
educational success
• Students who are CLD/E may need additional family
support and advocacy to be successful in school
• Family involvement essential from PK-12 and
beyond
• Students must pass high-stakes assessments and
often benefit from family support

Family constellation
• The meaning of “family” has changed dramatically in
our society.
• Rather than focus on “parent involvement,” schools
must focus on involving significant adults in a child’s
life, including extended d family members, caregivers,
and even neighbors who provide support to students,
whether their family constellation is traditional or
nontraditional.

Family involvement: What the research says
Research indicates:
• Family involvement requires a partnership among
families, schools, and communities (Epstein, 2008)
• Family involvement can make a significant
difference in academic achievement (Henderson and
Mapp, 2002)
• Schools must do a better job of responding to the
needs of diverse learners and families (Snow, Barnes,
Chandler, Goodman and Hemphill, 1991)

Funds of knowledge: a new way to look at
family involvement
• Funds of knowledge concept (Amanti, Moll, and
Gonzalez, 2005): Schools should strive to see the
student in the context of the varied experiences, life
skills, and types of knowledge/ resources that t the
student’s family can provide.
• Example: A student’s s prior experience and family
may provide him or her with: community support,
resiliency, ability to make connections within the
community, caring, strong intergenerational
relationships. Each of these can impact school
success positively. ii

Cultural context of family involvement
• Educators must keep in mind that different cultures
have different perceptions and norms for family
involvement
• Family involvement should not be viewed through a
deficit model but through a cultural lens
• Education happens in all aspects of a child’s life—so
we should be wary of saying parents are “not
involved in education” simply because they are not
physically present at school
• (Harry and Kalyanpur, 1999)

Issues impacting family involvement for diverse
learners
• Economic challenges
• Family separation and reunification issues
• Cultural differences and expectations for school
environment
• Linguistic differences and language acquisition
• Immigration and legal issues
• Geographical barriers (some districts send ELLs to
cluster programs far from their neighborhood
schools)

Increasing involvement on a schoolwide level
• Strategies for increasing involvement on a
schoolwide level must be responsive to the needs of
the population of that particular school, at that
particular time, given the economic, cultural, l and
political realities of the moment.
• Educators must rethink the concept of “parent
involvement” or “family involvement” and, rather,
value the involvement that family members already
have
• Family involvement may “look” different for diverse
learners

Suggestions for teachers and administrators
• Rethink your concept of family involvement
• Get to know your school’s students and families
• Be sure that communication is culturally and
linguistically accessible and appropriate
• Ensure family communication goes two ways
• Provide venues for families to give feedback: open
forum nights, surveys in backpacks, assignments for
students to interview i parents, etc.
• Consider new ways to reach out to family members.
(Some suggestions follow!)

Suggestions for reaching out to families
• Develop a community resource list, providing names, contact
information, i and brief descriptions i for local l resources, social service
agencies, and advocacy/ education organizations, and make it available
in hard copy or online, in multiple languages .
• Ak Ask students (or teachers) to put together a booklet, series of posters, or
even a short video depicting a “day in the life” of the school, Such a
resource could be used to share information with families, who may not
be familiar with school expectations, routines, and academic demands.
• Ask students to work with their families to create a brochure, booklet,
poster, oral retelling, or (if feasible) video depicting a “day in the life” of
their family. Much like the school poster or video, this only allows
students to develop fine arts, critical thinking, and storytelling skills,
but it also provides a way for students and families to make school staff
aware of their backgrounds. Children and families can make heritage
boxes containing artifacts that represent their heritage and
background.

Suggestions for reaching out to families
• Students and families could also do a “heritage recording” using an
audio or video recorder, recording a family member telling a story,
videotaping a family event, or recording themselves discussing their
heritage. Schools may wish to consider requesting support from a local
merchant or foundation for purchasing cameras to lend to families.
• Families can help children do family heritage timelines, using chart
paper or sentence strips sent home from school. These, like the
heritage box, would provide an opportunity for families to discuss their
cultural background and heritage together and to identify particularly
important events to be included on the timeline.

More suggestions for involving families
• Families can record (or illustrate) their favorite fairy tale,
poem, or song. The stories can be housed in the school media
center or in each classroom. This activity, like the preceding
ones, could easily be integrated into a language arts or social
studies unit.
• Develop “communication journals,” using pictures as well as
words (or in place of words), in order to document
improvements or report concerns or accomplishments at
home.
• Rather than asking families to support the school financially,
which may be difficult for families of diverse students, schools
can request that families contribute time to refurbishing the
school facilities: paint, clean, replant/plant, sand tables, sew
curtains, do light construction, and other activities which help
to maintain the physical plant.

Further suggestions
• To ensure all families are aware of the opportunities that are open to
students at the school, school personnel can design and send a large
post card home with information about extracurricular options.
Consider putting the words “For Free,” printed in different languages,
on the postcard, and then including photos or graphics that illustrate
the opportunities available in drama, music, sports, leadership
positions, service, and other areas at the school. Consider including a
contact number or email for a person who can put families in touch
with the facilitator or coach for each activity.
• Ask families where they would like to meet with school staff. Some
families feel more comfortable meeting on “neutral territory, ” or, in
other words, in a location where they feel safe: where authorities are
not present and where they know they will not be asked for
identification. Consider using a church center, community
organization, mall, or community room in a local housing complex.

Model for helping provide teachers with skills
to involve families
• 18-credit and 45-credit professional development (PD)
programs for teachers of CLD students
• Coursework leads to MA or certificate
• Family involvement themes and issues integrated
across all courses
• Practical assignments require teachers to create
materials and resources that can be used to
communicate with families
• Project personnel available to support teachers in
integrating ideas into practice

Ideas in Practice
• Roberto Clemente High School, a school serving a
highly diverse student body (including ELL students
as well as those from other minority groups who
were native speakers of English), decides to sponsor
a “family night” to increase involvement of ELLs.
The following steps were taken to ensure family
attendance:
• Pre-event consultation between ESOL, special
education, and administration.
• Dinner and childcare provided

Ideas in practice, continued
• Survey of ESOL students and parents beforehand to
determine topics
• Agenda and flyers disseminated in advance in
multiple languages
• Tables at event with interpreters (staff present to
guide attendees to appropriate table based on
language spoken)
• Follow-up meeting among all stakeholders to debrief
and make future plans (parents included in this
group)

School-based Scenario
• Luis is a second-grade teacher concerned about one
student, Rosa, a second-language learner. Rosa
misses school at least one day a week (or comes late).
Based on her attire, Luis guesses her family is living i
in poverty, and Rosa qualifies for the FARMS
program. Her homework completion is infrequent
(once a week on average). Luis has tried to send
notes home and to call home, using the interpreter
service available through the school, but has not
been successful in getting through to a family
member.

Questions to Consider
• What next steps would you suggest as he seeks to
increase involvement of Rosa’s family
• How might Luis seek to involve Rosa and her family
as equal partners in the educational process
• What “funds of knowledge” might Rosa’s family
bi bring to enrich ih her educational experience
• How could Luis integrate family involvement themes
into classroom activities without marginalizing those
students who have nontraditional family structures
and/or barriers to family involvement

References
• Gonzalez. N., Moll, L. and Amanti, C. (eds.) (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in
households, communities and classrooms. New York: Routledge.
• Henderson, A. T., & Berla, N. (Eds.). (1994). A new generation of evidence: The family is critical to
student achievement. Columbia, MD: National Committee for Citizens in Education. (ERIC Document
No. ED375968) Retrieved September 15, 2006, from
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/23/60/0b.pd
f
• Henderson, A. T., & Mapp, K. L. (2002). A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and
community connections on student achievement. Austin, TX: National Center for Family and
Community Connections with Schools, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Retrieved
September 15, 2006, from http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/evidence.pdf
pdf
• National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2002). Building parent-teacher
partnerships. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved September 15, 2006,
fromhttp://www.naeyc.org/families/PT
• Snow, C., Barnes, W., Chandler, J., Goodman, I., and Hemphill, L. (1991). Unfulfilled expectations:
Snow, C., Barnes, W., Chandler, J., Goodman, I., and Hemphill, L. (1991). Unfulfilled expectations:
Home and school influences on literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press