Beyond the bake sale: the essential guide to family-school partnerships

Why partnerships are important

Introduction: why bother to read this book?

What is a family-school partnership supposed to look like?

Getting started : building the relationship

Ready, set, go! how do you know if you're really open to partnership?

Developing relationships : how can you build trust instead of blaming each other?

Checklist : how family-friendly is your school?

Guidelines for action from research

Linking to learning : how will involving parents help your test scores?

Checklist : how closely is your school's parent involvement program linked to student learning?

Addressing differences : how can you relate to families who don't share the same culture and values?

Checklist : how well is your school bridging class and cultural differences?

Supporting advocacy : how can you transform pushy parents into partners you can work with?

Checklist : how well does your school support parents as advocates?

Sharing power : who's in charge here?

Checklist : how well is your school sharing power and practicing democracy?

Scaling up : why can't all schools create strong partnerships with families?

Checklist : how well does your district practice family and community engagement?

Resources and tools

Help! where can you find useful resources to build your partnership?

Chapter topics

Selected resources

Recommended reading from the San Diego Pals book club

Tools : where do we start?

Attitude check exercise

Code of conduct for your school - tips

Conference checklist

District policy on family-school partnerships - elements to

Include

Family involvement coordinator - sample job description

Family welcome questionnaire

Homework survey

Needs assessment survey

Parent review

Parent survey

School climate survey

School family involvement policy - tips

Welcoming letter sample

Appendix 1: recommendations from the Boston task force report on family and community engagement.