School-Family Partnership

The discussion on whether family involvement is crucial towards improving students’ academic achievement has had diverse opinions. This paper explains the importance of school-family partnership in promoting academic excellence. Despite their willingness to cooperate, many are the time parents and family members have filed complaints on the bureaucratic and unfriendly nature of schools in matters that require family involvement. This paper tends to explore whether schools have set a conducive platform where school stakeholders and family members can interact and define the best approaches to bridge the existing academic gaps. Family members also have a role to play in ensuring that they cooperate with schools with the aim of satisfying student’s social and academic needs while outside the school compound. The end results show that family involvement is pivotal in supporting learning where parties assume a shared responsibility of motivating learners. Various hitches may arise due to outdated school policies, but the state through Elementary and Secondary Education Act has vowed to impose reforms on the school policies. Successful school-family partnerships call for allocating time and tapping external support fro various academic stakeholders.
The partnership between the school, parents, families and the community is pivotal in providing students with the necessary academic resources and support they need to achieve academic excellence. The school-family partnership encompasses family members and all school stakeholders who have a shared goal of improving student performance and the overall school achievement.

All these parties assume a collective responsibility to support learning by motivating learners to pursue education by attending school continuously. More emphasis should be placed on the crucial roles that families assume in their quest to raise student performance.
A successful school-family relationship integrates various activities such as parenting, communication, decision making, home learning and volunteering. All these activities are incorporated into the school’s overall mission, motto and vision. There have been efforts by both the state and federal government to implement family involvement policies in schools. According to section 1118 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), schools should use a portion of their Title I funds to foster bonding between the school and families (Van Roekel, 2008).
Educational reforms should consider the long-term effect of fostering school-family partnership by avoiding possible hitches that might hinder family involvement. Educational reforms should, therefore, consider restructuring outdated school policies and adopting contemporary strategies which are more accessible, less personal and more involving. Schools have a role to play in providing necessary support for involvement by creating a conducive environment for partnership. Family members should be given an opportunity to pinpoint issues that need to be addressed. However, they should also be included in decision-making especially on matter addressing the social and academic needs of students.
Schools and families can build stronger partnerships by avoiding the limiting factors of family involvement. The element of time and resources has been a hindrance but can be addressed by creating more time where parents and family members can interact with school officials to define the best approach to achieve academic excellence. Various school-family gaps such as language and cultural differences should be bridged to assure smooth communication and cooperation (Gonzalez, 2004). Schools may also consider tapping external support from the local community, local businesses, health care agencies, and institutions of higher learning.
References
Gonzalez, R. (2004). International perspectives on families, schools, and communities:
Educational implications for family–school–community partnerships. International Journal of Educational Research, 41(1), 3-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2005.04.003Van Roekel, N. P. D. (2008). Parent, family, community involvement in education. Policy Brief.
Washington, DC: National Education Association.