A Community Engaged Framing: Building Successful Community Engagement for Schools and Families of Bilingual Students Through Inquiry
Senior Program Associate Julie Webb was part of a research team exploring ways to nurture family-school partnerships in service of student learning. This article summarizes the team’s work on developing and testing a framework for schools to utilize in their family engagement efforts, particularly with bilingual families. The framework outlines user-friendly guidance and tools for teachers and administrators to engage in regular communication with families and caregivers, provide meaningful opportunities for families and caregivers to advocate for student learning, and build mutual trust and support with families. This article provides insights into the team’s testing of the framework with elementary educators in California through an inquiry process that honors local contexts and needs.