Steven B. Sheldon

IMPROVING STUDENT BEHAVIOR AND SCHOOL DISCIPLINE WITH FAMILY AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

This study reports the results of efforts of school officials to implement family and community involvement activities to reduce the number of disciplinary actions and to ensure a school climate focused on learning. Using longitudinal data from elementary and secondary schools, analyses indicate that regardless of schools’prior rates of discipline, the more family and community involvement activities were implemented, the fewer students were disciplined by being sent to principals’offices or given detention or in-school suspension. Activities for two types of involvement, parenting and volunteering, were most predictive of reducing the percentages of students who were subject to discipline. Also, schools that improved the quality of their partnership programs reported fewer students in need of discipline. The results suggest that creating more connections and greater cooperation among the school, family, and community contexts may be one way for schools to improve student behavior and school discipline.

Improving Student Attendance With School, Family, and Community Partnerships

Researchers and policy makers have questioned the efficacy of family-involvement interventions. They believe that more studies are needed to compare outcomes of students whose families received a partnership intervention with those who did not. The author used data from the state of Ohio to compare student attendance in elementary schools that developed school-wide programs of school, family, and community partnerships with the attendance of students in schools that did not develop the programs. Analyses showed that in schools working to implement school, family, and community partnerships, student attendance improved an average of .5%, whereas in comparison schools, rates of student attendance declined slightly from 1 year to the next. Further analysis suggested that school outreach to families was the driving mechanism that caused this effect.

Partnership Programs in U.S. Schools: Their Development and Relationship to Family Involvement Outcomes.

This study examined data from over 300 U.S. schools on their efforts to develop high quality programs of school, family, and community partnerships. Analyses show that elementary schools, schools with greater support from parents, teachers, and the community; and schools that evaluated progress reported higher quality partnership programs over time. Higher quality programs were associated with wider implementation of parent-child interactive homework, higher levels of parent volunteering, and more parents on school decision-making committees. Results identify factors that could help schools develop quality partnership programs and suggest that these programs translate into higher levels of family involvement in students’ learning.

Levels of Leadership: Effects of District and School Leaders on the Quality of School Programs of Family and Community Involvement

Purpose: This study tests key constructs of sociocultural and organizational learning theories with quantitative methods to better understand the nature and impact of district and school leadership and actions on the quality of programs of family and community involvement. Research Design: Survey data from a “nested” sample of 24 districts and 407 schools are used to measure theoretical constructs of district assistance to schools and shared work on partnership program development. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses explore the independent and simultaneous contributions of district leadership and school teamwork on the implementation of basic structures and advanced outreach in partnership programs. Also, gap analyses compare supplementary data from 220 schools that had consistent district leadership for 3 years to 106 schools without this support. Findings: HLM analyses show that principals’ support for family and community involvement and schools’ reports of district assistance contribute significantly to schools’ basic program implementation and to advanced outreach to involve all families in their children’s education. Over and above school measures, district leaders’ direct facilitation contributes to the quality of the school programs. Gap analyses indicate that schools with consistent district leadership take more basic and advanced actions to establish and improve their partnership programs. Conclusions: This study—with a large sample of districts and schools, appropriate quantitative methods, and a content focus on partnerships—provides strong empirical support for the importance of sociocultural and organizational theories in studying school improvement. Implications for improving district and school policy and practice are discussed.

Engaging Families to Support Students' Transition to High School: Evidence from the Field.

This exploratory study addresses the challenge of declining family engagement at the critical transition to high school. We use data from a survey of schools to examine whether and how middle grades and high schools engage families when their students transition to high school. Findings indicate that there is a significant negative relationship between the proportion of students who struggle during the first year of high school and the quality of high school outreach to families in the transition period, even after school poverty level is controlled. The study also shows that, even among a group of schools actively implementing a systematic approach to engage families, considerable work remains to enable educators to engage families during the critical transition to high school in ways that help improve student outcomes in the ninth grade.

Moving Beyond Monitoring: A District Leadership Approach to School, Family, and Community Partnerships

Schools currently operate in a highly public, policy-oriented system rooted in the notion that schools and teachers will respond to the rewards and sanctions outlined in government policies. This chapter argues that schools can improve student achievement and attendance through strong school, family, and community partnerships, and that school district support for partnerships is critical to the development of these programs. Drawing on research about school district support for instructional leadership, the author argues that central office leadership needs to move beyond policy compliance and describes an alternative district leadership framework for partnerships. The chapter provides definitions and examples of District Leadership and Direct Facilitation across six strategies: create awareness, align program and policy, guide learning and program development, share knowledge, celebrate milestones, and document progress and evaluate outcomes. The chapter concludes with a discussion of next steps for research using this leadership framework, as well as additional research topics related to the role and impact of school districts on family and community engagement.

Mentoring Students Back On-Track to Graduation: Program Results from Five Communities.

This quasi-experimental study examines the impact of a mentoring program for low-income and minority middle and high school students displaying early warning indicators of dropping out on attendance, behavior problems, and course passing. The study was conducted over 3 years in five districts throughout the country and used a comparison group identified through propensity score matching. Although students reported positive experiences with mentoring in surveys, significant program effects on student attendance, behavior, and course passing were not found. Such interventions may have little demonstrated effect not only due to implementation issues but also because they do not address school experience variables that influence student outcomes.