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Join the conversation as we partner with communities to design and implement culturally responsive school change.

In This Week’s Issue

• NEW! White paper focuses on successful strategies for family engagement in elementary settings
• Apply by March 3 for our Community Educator Network funded partnership
• Celebrating Black History Month: Rest

4 Successful Strategies for Family-Teacher Partnerships

White Paper focuses on Getting on the Same Page at the Elementary Level

The time leading up to February break is often ideal for reflection, prioritizing, and fresh starts. At Highlander Institute, we have found compelling reasons to redesign parent engagement strategies with the schools we support. Research shows that strong family-school partnerships positively impact student grades, test scores, student perceptions of their own competence, and student motivation to learn, while lowering drop-out rates (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). However, many parent engagement approaches fall short of a “partnership” — where student learning and school improvement are viewed as a shared responsibility between parents and teachers.

Our Culturally Responsive School Change model explores the conditions that help produce strong partnerships between families and schools. Within our elementary school projects, we have found that getting on the same page around four key elements sets the stage for success:

1. Help students manage difficult emotions
2. Develop persistence in students
3. Focus on core learning objectives
4. Communicate as a partner

For more information about these strategies, check out our new blog post and download our full white paper: Getting on the Same Page: 4 Ways to Promote Successful Family-Teacher Partnerships at the Elementary Level (February 2023).

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Are you interested in building more inclusive human capital solutions? We’re currently recruiting 5 innovative school and district partners in the Northeast to explore how community educators can support multiple school goals. Project work includes funding to support partners as they design, implement, and evaluate customized community educator strategies, helping them build sustainable solutions to current staffing challenges.

Apply by March 3

Celebrating Black History Month: Rest 

Amidst another challenging school year, stress and feelings of burnout are natural. Education is one layer of a system designed to be inequitable, and the work of disruption can be both inspiring and draining. We recognize that this work places a particular burden on Black minds and bodies. Who in our society can access the privilege of rest and recovery? How can we meet this moment in ways that fill us up and renew our sense of purpose?

This Black History Month, we’re turning to the work of Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry. In her book, Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto, Hersey encourages us to reframe our relationship to productivity, reassess what makes us feel whole, and embrace the revolutionary power of rest as we work toward a more just world. For this week’s theme, join us by exploring the resources below from Black creatives, activists, and speakers. Please reach out to share any ideas we might have missed:

• Try the “Rest then Rise” Guided Meditation for Revolution from LobaLand x The Nap Ministry

• Read The Elemental Guide to Napping, a three-part special report available on Medium

• Listen to the Practice Episode of the Healing Justice Podcast with featured guest Tricia Hersey

• Hear from author and rest coach Octavia Raheem in recent video segments on Your Relationship With the Pause and the capacity of stillness to help us Remember Our Joy

• Watch Saundra Dalton-Smith’s TEDx talk about the difference between sleep and rest and ways to overcome rest deficits