Spring, 1998 No. 4 National Network of Partnership Schools
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DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund Supports Expansion of Network
The DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund (DWRD) awarded a three-year grant to the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University to help educators develop closer connections and stronger relationships with families and communities. The project—Creating School Communities: Linking Title I and the National Network of Partnership Schools—enables the Center to expand the National Network of Partnership Schools, which now includes 843 schools, 77 districts, and 9 states. The new project focuses primarily on Title I sites which are federally mandated to involve low-income families in their children's education.
The project at Johns Hopkins extends DWRD's ongoing efforts to help parents overcome barriers that prevent them from becoming more involved in helping their children succeed in school. "Schools need to take steps to show that they are interested in having parents as partners," said M. Christine DeVita, president of DWRD.
Many educators in schools, districts, and states need help integrating family involvement activities in categorical and other programs," says Dr. Joyce L. Epstein, director of the Center. "The legislation passed in 1994 challenges every school that receives Title I funds to create one school community that includes all families, and to involve families in ways that help students succeed in school and school subjects."
This project will assist schools, districts, and states to attain these goals. In 1998, researchers and educators in Maryland will begin developing tools and strategies for more effective coordination of Title I and the National Network of Partnership Schools. Other Network sites will be involved in future years.
