22 Jul2024
By Margaret Caspe
Over the past four years, the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) has partnered with AACTE to understand the landscape of educator preparation for family and community engagement and to develop a framework to bring together educator preparation programs, families, schools, and policymakers to create systemic change in this space. This partnership prepares educators to develop the competencies to reflect on their work with families and to connect, collaborate, and lead alongside them is one of the most important ways to impact students in classroom settings positively.
Continuing this work, Reyna Hernandez and I are honored to provide the commentary for the upcoming special issue of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) focused on family, school, and community partnerships and edited by Valerie Hill-Jackson, Ed.D. In our commentary, we share the cumulative findings of nine collaboratives working to enhance how educators are prepared to engage families. These collaboratives linked educator preparation programs nationwide with families, communities, and school partners. The collaboratives then carried out and collected data on short-term projects that enhanced family engagement in educator preparation through changes to coursework, clinical experience, and other programmatic areas.
26 Jul2022
By Margaret Caspe and Reyna Hernandez
Last summer, the National Association for Family School and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) released, in partnership with AACTE and other vital partners, findings of our national survey of educator preparation programs. We thank many of the AACTE members who responded to the survey the purpose of which was to investigate how educators are prepared to engage families and communities in their practice. Results of the research showed that only half of educator preparation programs have a standalone course on family and community engagement and nearly all struggle to embed family and community engagement topics throughout their curriculum meaningfully. This is unfortunate, particularly in light of the teacher shortage crisis, given that strong respectful relationships with families and communities are key reasons that educators choose to stay in the profession.
21 Jun2021
By Margaret Caspe and Weade James
“Teacher education programs need more guidance on how to include family engagement.” Department Chair, Early Childhood/Elementary Education, Public University
“We have recently hired faculty for whom family engagement is a focus. We will be incorporating more family engagement activities and opportunities for learning more about how to engage families.” Department Chair, General Education, Public University
“Graduates feel moderately prepared [for family engagement]. They remark that more focus in this area would be useful. Employer surveys confirm this.” Department Chair, Early Childhood and Special Education, Private University
These are just some of the many ideas and insights that higher education faculty and department chairs shared with the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) via its National Survey of Colleges and Universities Preparing Educators for Family Engagement. Our thanks to everyone who completed the survey, which was designed to understand how educator preparation programs are preparing education candidates to engage and work with families and communities. The survey was conducted in partnership with AACTE, CAEP (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation), MAEC (Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium), NEA (National Education Association), and faculty and state leaders who are part of NAFSCE’s Pre-service Family Engagement Consortium.
23 Oct2020
By Margaret Caspe
Decades of research confirm the importance of families, schools, and community working together to launch students on successful trajectories. Yet, teachers attribute lack of preparation as one of their greatest barriers to building relationships with families and their greatest fear for failure. As a result, in January of 2020, the National Association for Family School and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) partnered with AACTE, CAEP, MAEC, the NEA, and selected faculty and state leaders to form the Pre-Service Family Engagement Consortium to enhance how educators are prepared to engage families and communities.
21 Sep2020
By Margaret Caspe
The National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) is delighted to join with AACTE and an array of partners—the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium (MAEC), and the National Education Association (NEA)—to expand our understanding of how educators are prepared for family engagement. As part of this project, we are inviting department heads and chairs of colleges of teacher education to complete our National Survey of Educator Preparation in Family Engagement by October 31. The goal of the survey is to map how educator preparation programs are preparing education candidates for effective family engagement, identify promising practices, and learn and share innovative ideas.
Preparing Educators for Family Engagement
Engaging families and communities in learning has always been foundational to student success. Yet, as our nation sets a path forward for education this school year, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the reinvigorated movement for racial justice, family and community engagement is more important than ever before. Many educators, however, are not well-prepared to engage families and communities meaningfully.
