he Early Childhood Digest is a quarterly report on ways that families and schools can work together to help young children learn. The information for this Digest is based on research conducted by the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP), which studies programs and policies in education and child care that support families.
An audience filled with parents broke into applause as the kindergarten class finished its play, "The Little Red Hen." Parents came up to the teacher, Claudia Gomez,* in tears, telling her how moved they were by the children's performances. Don Barnes, an African-American father of a kindergarten student, wrote the music for the play.
Don was not always so involved in the school. At first, he wasn't very involved at all. But when Claudia, his child's teacher, visited his home, she discovered that Don had many talents: he was a gardener, singer, writer, and composer.
Each time she visited the family, Claudia learned new things about them. After a few visits from Claudia, Don began to feel more comfortable and agreed to plant a garden for the children. As time went on, he started doing more things with the students. First he sang with them in the classroom and then he wrote the musical.
Everyone was excited about the play. Claudia called other parents to help arrange the choreography and sew costumes. The play was a big success. But more importantly, the children, the teachers, and the families all learned from working together and everyone had fun while they learned.
Families and Teachers as Partners
Children, families, and schools all benefit when families and teachers work together. However, many families do not know how to work with teachers, and while teachers need to know how to work with all families, most do not get enough training. It is not surprising then that many teachers and families don't know how to reach out to each other. Some teachers do not know how to talk with families or how to invite them to help in the classroom. Likewise, many families feel ill at ease with teachers or are afraid to talk to them or to enter the classroom.
What can families do to work better with schools?
All parents and family members want to help their young children succeed in school. By working together with schools and teachers, families can help their young children succeed. Below are some questions that family members can ask themselves to begin to meet teachers halfway:
How can teachers and families work together?
To work well with families and help young children learn, teachers need to know several things. The following skills are ones that parents can look for in their child's teacher. These are also skills that parents can help teachers learn.
Teachers need to know:
Research on how teachers learn to work with families shows good examples of families and teachers as partners and the important role that families play. For example, in an early childhood center in Napa, California where the preschool teachers are mostly non-Hispanic and the families are mostly Hispanic, the teachers invited the families to the center to learn from them about their culture and their goals for their young children. In this way, the parents and teachers helped each other gain important knowledge about what the families and teachers valued, how to communicate with each other, and how to work as partners.
In an early childhood center in Fort Worth, Texas, teachers and other staff members have helped busy parents save time and have more time to spend with their young children. Parents can drop off their dry cleaning at the center when they bring their children there in the morning. They can also buy snacks for the ride home when picking their children up in the evenings. Many of these time-saving ideas came from parents who returned a survey about what they needed help with most from the child care center.
This Digest was prepared by Holly Kreider of the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP). A recent report published by the U.S. Department of Education and the Harvard Family Research Project, called New Skills for New Schools: Preparing Teachers in Family Involvement, looks at what teachers need to know to be partners with families. To order a copy of the report call 1-800-USA-LEARN. For more information on HFRP reports call 617-496-4304 or write to them at 38 Concord Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138.
This Digest was sponsored by the National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. It may be reproduced at no cost. For copies contact Carol Sue Fromboluti at (202) 219-1672.
* This story is based on fact but names have been changed.
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