Fall, 1998 No. 5  National Network of Partnership Schools

Research Briefs

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.

Home, School, and Community Effects on the Academic Achievement of African-American Adolescents

To determine the effects of gender on the relationship between school, family, and community support and academic achievement, survey and interview data from 826 African-American urban adolescents in the southeastern United States were analyzed. Results suggest that the school, family, and church simultaneously influence students’ academic achievement through their effects on academic self-concept and school behavior. These effects remain constant even after controlling for student background characteristics.

However, differences exist in the effects for males and females in the study. These differences are primarily related to the attributes female African-American adolescents bring to school compared to males. Female adolescents in the study perceive more family and teacher support, and are more active in the black church than are male adolescents. It is not surprising, therefore, that African-American females also report more positive academic self-concepts and achievement ideologies, less disruptive school behavior, and higher achievement than the male students surveyed.

The study’s findings highlight the importance of: (1) student affiliation in stable adult-supervised, community-based organizations like the black church; (2) the family’s support of and high expectations for school achievement; and (3) teacher support for student learning for the academic success of both male and female African American urban youth. Support from the home, school, and community can be enhanced through well-designed and implemented partnership programs. The study further suggests that such programs may be especially important for African-American male and female students who live below the poverty level, and for students who are older than average for their grade level.

From: Mavis G. Sanders and Jerald R. Herting. (In press). Gender and the effects of school, family and church support on the academic achievement of African-American urban youth. In Mavis G. Sanders (ed.), Schooling Students Placed At Risk: Research, Policy, and Practice in the Education of Poor and Minority Adolescents. New Jersey: Lawrence-Erlbaum Publishers.

Return to Top

Choose another edition of Type 2