Week 3 Journal Epstein's Six

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Week 3 Journal Epstein’s Six
Using the Journal tab, reflect and respond to the following question:
Thinking about the readings and your authentic personal experience, based on Epstein’s six types of involvement interactions, which ones have you observed?
Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your journal entries.
INSTRUCTOR GUIDANCE
WEEK THREE

*Special thanks to Dr. Patrice Jones for sharing her original guidance in this document.

Over the past two weeks, you’ve read about the positive educational benefits of a family, community, and school partnership. Involvement from all stakeholders has been shown to help overcome learning obstacles both inside and outside the classroom (Blank, Jaobson, & Melaville, 2012; Peters, 2012).  Begin Week Three by watching the two minute video
CNN: Why Parents Matter in Education (Links to an external site.), where correspondent Carl Azuz asks students about their perspective on parental involvement in education. While you’re watching this video, think about your own education, the education of your children, and the parents who are involved in the school where you are teaching. Can you relate to what these students are saying?  Is this interview an accurate representation of your personal and/or professional experiences?
This week, you will read chapter five in your textbook which discusses some of the barriers of parental involvement in the areas of support, engagement, and participation. According to Hjalmarson (2011), placing parents in different tiers, and differentiating strategies related to the tiers, allows school members to be more successful in getting parents engaged. She believes that, like students, parents fall into categories depending on their individual needs. Once the categories are created, they can then be tailored with specific communication and engagement strategies for parent involvement success. Tier I, for example, is what she labels “the ideal parents.” Those who fall in this category are committed to being involved in their child’s education.  They volunteer at school events, attend PTA meetings, and have open lines of communication. To what extent should parents who are involved in the Tier 1 category, take on the responsibility of getting other parents involved?  What obstacles might they face if taking on this role?
Dr. Joyce Epstein, author of School, Family and Community Partnerships, designed a framework similar to the tier system to help educators create differentiated school-family-community programs. This one and a half minute video, Six Types of Parental Involvement and Practices (Links to an external site.), provides a brief summary for each type of involvement. The framework includes the following information in each category:

  •  A brief definition of the parents who fall into each category
    •    Sample activities to engage each category
    •    Challenges educators may face with families who fall into each category
    •    Defining challenging terms to making them meaningful to parents
    •    Results and benefits for students
    •    Results and benefits for parents
    •    Results and benefits for teachers

(Epstein, 2009)
Consider about how Epstein’s framework and Hjalmarson’s tiers are similar. How are the different?  How can they work together to maximum parental involvement and student success?
Week 3 Discussion Guidance
Begin this week’s first discussion response, Partnerships, by reading chapter five in your text. This chapter begins by discussing some of the barriers to parent involvement in their child’s education. The author begins to discern the varying categories that parents can be placed in according to their needs. Based on parents’ needs, a variety of different strategies are suggested for developing partnerships with parents. For your initial post, think about how the following quote resonates with your personal and professional experiences: “Rather than expecting parents to adapt to us, we need to create a parent involvement system that meets parents’ diverse needs” (Hjalmarson, 2011, p. 45).  Do you recall, as a K-12 student, certain educators who provided leadership in partnership activities?  Please give specific examples about those partnerships. Describe those partnerships. How did they impact your educational experience?  How does the role of each faculty and staff member tie into in the school? We have explored counselors, and, based on our experiences as students, we know that teachers also have an active role in getting parents involved. The principal, of course, is the leader of the school, but does this individual also lead the parent partnership endeavor?
The second discussion, Leadership Roles, addresses the concept of school-based leadership. What role should each member of the school’s faculty and staff assume when reaching out to parents and community members?  Who should spearhead these connections and relationships?  How should these responsibilities be allocated?  Keep in mind the role of school counselors last week and misperceptions of their role within the school.
Please review the discussion board rubric prior to your initial post to ensure you are fully meeting each of the set criteria to earn full credit. Your initial post should include relevant professional, personal, or other real-world experiences in a manner that is rich in thought and provides valuable insight into the topic. Additionally, all elements of the discussion board prompt should be thoroughly addressed with strong and precise connections to previous and/or current course content, or to real-life situations. When substantively replying to your peers’ post, be sure to provide a thorough and constructive analysis relating the response to relevant course concepts that incorporates pertinent follow-up thoughts or questions about the topic, and demonstrates respect for the diverse opinions of fellow learners.
Week 3 Assignment Guidance
Effective parent-school relationships begin with classroom teacher and individual parents. While parents clearly know their children best, as education professionals, classroom teachers need to take the lead in establishing and maintaining these relationships. The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher (Links to an external site.)  set out to answer the question to what extent do teachers, principals, and students work and learn together to increase overall academic achievement. Among the major findings, “nine in ten teachers (88%) and principals (89%) believe that strengthening ties among schools and parents is very important for improving student achievement” (Metlife, 2010, p. 25).  The study also found that teachers (88%) and principals (85%) believe that the key to improving the future of education and student achievement requires strengthening ties between schools and parents.
For this week’s assignment, Exploring the Role of Parents, you will describe the necessary steps and individual roles in establishing, utilizing, and maintaining an effective parent-teacher relationship. You will also explain how each party knows whether or not the relationship is effective, including criteria used to determine this. Make sure to use the grading rubric as a self-checklist before submitting the final copy of your assignment to confirm you have met or exceeded each required expectation. The highest level of achievement on the rubric is “distinguished,” which is only earned through exceeding posted expectations at the proficiency level. Please remember you are in a masters-level program. Therefore, your writing, research, and content are held to graduate-level expectations.
References and Resources
Aridnerb. (2012). network0001_aridne (Links to an external site.) [photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/824341
Blank, M., Jaobson, R., & Melaville, A. (2012). Achieving results through community school partnerships. (Links to an external site.) Center for American Progress. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2012/01/pdf/community_schools.pdf
CNN. (2010, September 3). Why parents matter in education (Links to an external site.). Retrieved from

Epstein, J. (2009). Six types of involvement: Keys to successful partnerships (Links to an external site.).  Retrieved from http://nnps.jhucsos.com/nnps-model/school-model/six-types-of-involvement-keys-to-successful-partnerships/
Hjalmarson, F. (2011). Differentiated parent support: Engaging parents in unique ways to increase their involvement in school. San Diego, CA: TurnAround Schools Publishing.
Jones, P. (2015). Week 1 instructor guidance [EDU617: School, Family & Community Partnership]. San Diego, CA: Ashford University
MetLife. (2010, April). The MetLife survey of the American teacher: Collaborating for student success. (Links to an external site.)Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED509650.pdf
S0135604. (2014, May 8). Six types of parental involvement and practices (Links to an external site.) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKezcODxcpI
Unicef. (n.d.). Epstein’s framework of six types of involvement. (Links to an external site.) Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/lac/Joyce_L._Epstein_s_Framework_of_Six_Types_of_Involvement(2).pdf
Required Resources

  1. Read from your text, Differentiated Parent Support: Engaging Parents in Unique Ways to Increase Their Involvement in School:
    • Chapter Five – Barriers of Parent Involvement
    • Chapter Six – Tier One: The Ideal Parent
  2. Griffin, D. & Steen, S. (2010). School-Family-Community Partnerships: Applying Epstein’s Theory of the Six Types of Involvement to School Counselor Practice. Professional School Counseling, 13(4), 218-226. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
    • This article investigates involvement in partnerships using Epstein’s six types of school-family-community involvement interactions (i.e., parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community).