Family Partnership Matrix
Last month, during a conversation of possibilities, I asked a school leader about his practices for family engagement.
“Would you be interested in expanding your practices to build stronger partnerships with your families?”
His response no longer surprised me, since I’ve heard it so many times. “No, we have too many areas that we need to improve. When we get our act together, then we’ll want to bring the families in.”
I’ve written two books, several chapters and professional articles about family engagement, which have summarized research about the impact of family engagement and partnerships on student achievement, attendance, behavior, motivation, and post-school outcomes. So why are administrators so resistant to initiating practices that could improve family engagement? I’ve continued to ponder this question for years.
Recently, I awoke with great new insight. I raced to grab some paper to sketch out the Family Partnership Matrix.
Last week, I presented the Matrix at the Delaware Pathways Conference. I explained that my Matrix is based on the U.S. Department of Education’s Dual Capacity Building Framework, which says that school-family partnerships are grounded in approaches that build dual capacity – of both professionals and families – to work together in support of youth success.
My Matrix explores what happens if a school or organization has (or doesn’t have) professional capacity and what happens if a school has (or doesn’t have) family capacity. The participants started brainstorming the implications of truly building dual capacity that could contribute to powerful partnership.
My talented web designer, Richard Wright, added cartoons to illustrate each of the four quadrants. I can’t wait to see what new possibilities are generated from our discussion!
Stay tuned for some exciting work that is under discussion to transform how schools and organizations work in partnership with families! Together we can improve our systems and improve outcomes for all youth, but especially those with disabilities!
