Type 2 Research Brief

Leaders of Colleges and Universities Report the Need to Prepare
Educators for School, Family, and Community Partnerships

How well are teachers, principals, and counselors prepared to conduct school, family, and community partnerships? Researchers Joyce L. Epstein, Mavis G. Sanders, and Laurel A. Clark of the National Network of Partnership Schools conducted a national survey of educators in 161 Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education (SCDE) in the United States. Questions asked about present course offerings; leaders’ attitudes and perspectives about school, family, and community partnerships; and readiness to change courses and content of required and elective courses. Respondents also provided open-ended comments on these issues.

Highlights

Results supported the following conclusions:

• The survey reveals a dramatic gap at most SCDEs between leaders’ strong beliefs about the importance for educators to conduct effective partnerships and current low preparedness of graduates to work effectively with students’ families and communities.
• Most SCDEs offer at least one course and some coverage of topics on partnerships, but not enough to prepare all teachers, counselors, and administrators to effectively conduct practices and programs of school, family, and community partnerships. Most offerings are in early childhood and special education, as in the past.
• Leaders in SCDEs are aware of the need to better prepare new educators to conduct school, family, and community partnerships. They express a readiness to change. Almost equal numbers recommended improving the curriculum for those preparing to be teachers at the preschool (51.3%), elementary (46.7%), middle (41.9%), and high (42.1%) school levels.
• Most leaders at SCDEs are aware of growing pressure and explicit mandates to improve partnerships from state departments of education, accrediting organizations, and from school and district educators who hire SCDE graduates. However, too many leaders (over one fourth) "do not know" what the state and accreditation requirements are about partnerships.

Institutional change in higher education is possible, but requires effort and action. "If you put something in, you must take something out," wrote one survey respondent. This comment acknowledges that it will be necessary to set new priorities to prepare teachers and administrators with essential skills for working with families and communities. As another leader wrote, "This should be taught, and not just expected to occur by accident."

From: Joyce L. Epstein, Mavis G. Sanders, and Laurel A. Clark. (1998). Preparing Educators for School-Family-Community Partnerships: Results of a National Survey of Colleges and Universities. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco.

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