Many districts need to provide programs and services for families from a variety of racial, ethnic, educational, and linguistic backgrounds. Schools are striving to meet diverse families where they are to provide a range of opportunities for involvement that reflect their backgrounds, needs, and interests. But certain populations – including families of color, those experiencing poverty, and non-English speakers – have been historically disenfranchised and may feel unwelcome in schools. Many districts are struggling with how best to reach, engage, and impact marginalized groups. School staff and teachers need strategies and support to build welcoming relationships, mitigate the effects of stereotype threat, and provide culturally-relevant opportunities for diverse families.
“The [families living in poverty] reaching out to us for help, want to feel welcome in school. They haven't always had a good schooling experience themselves, and so, walking into this building can be a very scary thing, even though we're an elementary school. It can still be scary to walk in when it draws up some of their own emotions and fears of bad experiences.”
“When you're dealing with a district as diverse as ours with over 100 languages, family engagement is always a challenge, because people engage in different ways. There's plenty of barriers that we need to overcome, so I think it's constantly trying to meet families where they are and do things differently.”
Best Practices in Engaging Diverse Families - From Hanover Research, this report examines literature and case studies on engaging diverse families in public, K12 settings. It focuses in particular on the experiences and needs of large, urban public school districts, and on the experiences and needs of African-American and Hispanic families.
Engaging Parents as Coteachers - From ASCD, this article describes that guiding parents to co-teach STEM lessons shows one way to address increasing diversity in classrooms.
Resources on Diverse Families - From NAEYC, a set of articles exploring research related to supporting diverse families.
Recasting Families and Communities as Co-Designers of Education in Tumultuous Times - From the National Education Policy Center, this report shares learnings and policy recommendations for system, school, community and foundation leaders committed to racial equity and engaging families in co-design work
Challenge Map