Every year, districts, schools, states, and organizations in NNPS must complete an UPDATE survey to assess the quality of their partnership programs. Why is it important to evaluate progress?
Dr. Steve Sheldon, Director of Research at NNPS, conducted a study of 470 schools that completed UPDATE surveys in 2006 and 2007 to see if and how evaluations affected the partnership program development and results for students. The schools in the study were highly diverse, including elementary (76%) and secondary schools (24%) in large urban (39%), small city (21%), suburban (24%) and rural (17%) areas, serving white (44%), African American (12%), Latino (12%), Asian (5%), and other groups of students.
Evaluations Affect Program Quality
Analyses showed that conducting evaluations is a strong predictor of the quality of schools’ partnership programs. After statistically controlling for prior program quality, school characteristics, and level of support from the principal and district leaders, schools that conducted stronger evaluations had higher quality programs of family and community involvement.
This study also confirmed that principals play important roles in strengthening partnership programs. Longitudinal data permitted analyses of the impact of a change in principals on the quality of schools’ partnership programs. The initially negative effects of principal turnover disappeared if the new principal strongly supported family and community involvement. This tells us that new leaders who value partnerships can keep their schools moving forward in implementing and evaluating family and community involvement.
Quality Affects Family Responses and Student Attendance
Other analyses indicated that high-quality programs affected parent involvement at school, and that this was associated with higher levels of student attendance from one year to the next. After controlling for school and partnership program characteristics, schools with stronger partnership programs had greater percentages of families involved, which resulted in higher rates of student attendance over time.
Implications for NNPS
The results of this study support NNPS requirements for district and schools to use UPDATE each year to assess program strengths and needed improvements. The study shows that the better the program, the better the results for students.
In addition, the study reinforces NNPS directives to plan and implement goal-linked partnerships. Good partnerships helped schools in this study improve attendance in a relatively short period. With time, practices to involve families with students in reading, math, science, writing, and other subjects should contribute to student success in those subjects.
From: Sheldon, S. B. (In press). Using evaluation to prove and improve the quality of partnership programs in schools. In Rollande Deslandes (Ed.) International perspectives on contexts, communities and evaluated innovative practices: family-school-community partnerships. New York: Routledge.