Published Version to Share With Colleagues: 
NNPS Partnership Awards Recognize
19 Excellent Programs in 2007
Seven schools, seven districts, two organizations, and three state departments of education won 2007 Partnership Awards from the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) at Johns Hopkins University. This is the largest number of winners since the start of the awards program in 2000...
100 Promising Practices in New Collection
• Learn about effective involvement activities to improve your partnership program.
• See what parents say about excellent involvement activities.
• Read what teachers and administrators say about interactions with parents in
well-planned partnership activities...
Issues and Insights: Stop Blaming Parents!
Start Building Partnerships!
Some people want to blame parents when their children fail in school. Whether it is a column by Bill Cosby in the Detroit News (6-13-04) or his speech in Los Angeles (10-28-06), an editorial in the San Diego Union Tribune (8-19-07), or other commentaries, blaming parents, alone, for their students’ academic and behavioral problems is old and easy thinking...
Elementary School Report: Picture This: Family and Community Involvement in the Arts
The arts make student learning visible. The visual and performing arts may captivate even the most disengaged youngsters by stimulating creativity, curiosity, imagination, and self expression. Research studies point to strong relationships between learning in the arts and increasing students’ cognitive skills...
Meeting the Challenge: Conduct Effective Family Reading Nights
How can you involve families with limited English language skills, who are unfamiliar with schools and curricula, who are employed during the day, or who are otherwise “hard to reach?” One strategy that many schools use to involve families – including those who were not engaged before – is to conduct a Family Reading Night...
Middle and High School Report: Type 6 – Collaborating with the Community Helps Strengthen Secondary Programs
Family involvement is a challenge, but continues to be important for the success of students in middle and high schools. Secondary school administrators and Action Teams for Partnerships (ATP) are discovering thrifty and effective ways to support teenagers and their parents as they plan and implement goal-linked partnership programs using the framework of Six Types of Involvement...
Research Brief: Latino Parents’ Involvement:
Effects on Students’ Math Achievement in Kindergarten
In the U.S. educational system, many Latinos are educationally disadvantaged. Compared to non-Hispanic White students, Hispanic students enter kindergarten with lower math and reading skills. Among Hispanic subgroups, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Central American students’
disadvantages persist at least through third grade...
Leadership Line: District Leadership on Partnerships:
Connect and Communicate
Effective communication is a key ingredient in the recipe for partnership program success. However, communicating important information to all appropriate recipients can be a daunting task for NNPS district-level leaders. District leaders for partnerships in NNPS shared ideas about successful communication strategies in the new edition of Promising Partnership Practices 2007...