The English Language Learner KnowledgeBase for Administrators

Engaging ELL Families: 20 Strategies for School Leaders

This April 2017 AdLit article offers 20 strategies for school leaders who wish to engage ELL families. As a school leader, you are in a unique position to make ELL success a priority, to create a culture of respect for ELLs and their families, to allocate resources—even if limited—on behalf of ELLs, to mobilize and empower your staff to become teacher leaders, to encourage the staff to keep trying creative approaches until they find what works and to lead the community in creating a school-wide action plan for engaging ELL families.

Best Practices for Parent Involvement of Immigrant Secondary Students

The "Compendium of Best Practices for Immigrant Students in Secondary Schools," from the Council for Chief State School Officers, identifies practices aimed at parent involvement. This document lists those practices.

Communication Strategies in English as a Second Language (ESL) Context

Communication is important for people around the world. People try to communicate to other people around the globe using language. In understanding the differences of some languages around the world, people need to learn the language of other people they try to communicate with, for example Indonesian people learn to acquire English. In the context that English in Indonesia is considered as a foreign language, it causes the learners of English in Indonesia understand not only the language, but also the culture. Foreign language learners may encounter various communication problems when their inter-language is limited. In order to convey their messages and remain in a conversation until their communication goal is achieved, ESL (English as a Second Language) learners need to employ communication strategies, which have been defined generally as devices used by second language learners to overcome perceived barriers to achieving specific communication goals (Færch & Kasper, 1983). In order to avoid certain miscommunication, the teacher of English in Indonesia should also give their learners the understanding of communication strategies.

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Epstein's Six Types of Involvement: Type 1 Parenting

This UNICEF website offers Joyce L. Epstein's Framework of Six Types of Involvement, (Type 1: Parenting), in the publication Reforming Primary and Secondary Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, an IDB Strategy and Basis for Debate on Child Participation in a Local Context.

Tips for ELL Parent Involvement

The content and thoughts for this document were derived from interviews conducted with ELL practitioners from several Nebraska school districts. The article offers practical ideas for encouraging ELL parents to be involved with their child's school.

Awareness of Cultural Differences in Parental Involvement

This Department of Education archived documents focuses on Bridging School-Family Differences.

Family Involvement in Children Education

Thirty years of research confirms that family involvement is a powerful influence on children's achievement in school (Eagle, 1989; Henderson & Berla, 1994; U.S. Department of Education, 1994; Ziegler, 1987). When families are involved in their children's education, children earn higher grades and receive higher scores on tests, attend school more regularly, complete more homework, demonstrate more positive attitudes and behaviors, graduate from high school at higher rates and are more likely to enroll in higher education than students with less involved families. For these reasons, increasing family involvement in the education of their children is an important goal for schools, particularly those serving low-income and other students at risk of failure. Increasing family involvement in children's education is also an important goal of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which is designed to enable schools to provide opportunities for low-income and low-achieving children to acquire knowledge and skills contained in challenging standards developed for all children. Title I is the largest federal program supporting elementary and secondary education.

Family/School Partnerships

This link to National Parent Teacher Association's website provides information on family/school partnerships.

Getting Started

Developing an effective parent involvement program requires planning. This document offers a series of steps to guide such development effort.

Promoting ELL Parental Involvement: Challenges in Contested Times

Promoting ELL Parental Involvement: Challenges in Contest Times analyzes factors related to the implementation of effective parental involvement with ELLs.

Reaching Out to Diverse Populations

This strategy brief identifies approaches schools can use to promote involvement of families from diverse cultural backgrounds from the National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools.

Available in Spanish

The Impact of School, Family and Community Connections on Student Achievement

The resource "is a synthesis of 51 studies about the impact of family and community involvement on student achievement and effective strategies to connect schools, families and community." The document offers links to the complete report, a summary of key findings and a self-assessment tool. It provides a compilation of relevant research studies on the impact of school, family and community connections on student achievement.

The Power of Collaboration: Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sánchez

Over the past 12 years, as the Director of Education at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Dr. Shelle VanEttten de Sánchez learned indispensible lessons about the power of collaboration in situations of limited fiscal resources, staffing and time. Collaboration, although rarely the easiest way to accomplish a goal, can turn a small idea into something that far surpasses its original potential.