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The Importance of Family Engagement in CCSD Acceleration Schools

Colleen Carr
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week’s Acceleration School’s Blog, where our focus is community and family engagement.  As the saying goes, “It takes a whole village to raise a child!” Therefore, one of our Acceleration School’s Strategic Plan levers is Domain 4: Climate & Culture. We aim to enhance marketing and communications efforts that create partnerships with diverse stakeholders to support student and family well-being. Research has proven that when students and their families feel supported, we see improvements in student outcomes on many measures, including attendance, discipline, and academic achievement. Schools that help families understand educational goals and strategies can better support student learning inside and outside the classroom.

Similarly, schools that can engage families and communities in meaningful ways benefit as the staff gains access to new and essential areas of knowledge that can support teaching and learning efforts and deepen engagement and community-building actions. The school system gains influential advocates for more buy-in so that families and community members understand and support strategic goals and see themselves as vital partners in schools’ success. With the support of a village, a child will succeed in school by being more confident and increasing positive social interaction; family-school-community partnerships promote family and community involvement in children’s schooling, with districts encouraging parental assistance with homework, providing leadership opportunities, forming partnerships with local organizations, and more. When families and community members participate in student learning, students improve their academic performance and gain advocates that promote their success, helping them feel more confident at school and taking on more rigorous classwork.

Therefore, CCSD Acceleration Schools aims to open all lines of communication through our parent town hall meetings, student forums, and teacher forums. Additionally, we plan and organize activities and events that allow students and their parents to link performance tasks from the curriculum in class to events such as the plays The Lighting Thief, Septima Clarke, and our poetry showcase.

Another area of community support and engagement at CCSD Acceleration Schools is our parent advocates. Our parent advocates assist with parent concerns at the school and provide community resources that connect to outside agencies to support our families best. We hope that the connection between our parent advocates and our families aids in not only ensuring that families have a voice and that wrap-around service builds a collaborative relationship with the school site and the District. 

Social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have become a way of life. Therefore, in Acceleration Schools, we utilize various modes of communication to build communication between families, the District, communities, organizations, and school sites.  Through social media, we hope to inform parents and guardians of their child’s success and the successes occurring across Acceleration SchoolsSchool Sites.   Therefore, to keep the flow of communication between Accelerations and our families, we ask that you follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ccsd_accelerationschools/