Developing Leaders for K-12 Family and Community Engagement
Abstract
In New York State, K-12 school and district leaders seek effective, realistic methods for engaging families and communities in schooling and student success — but there are barriers to success. As three experts in education and equity, we designed and ran a six-session seminar series for the next generation of school leaders: current, in-service teachers, teacher leaders, and assistant principals with ambitions for higher leadership. Goals of the series included greater acumen and innovation in creating family and community partnerships for K-12 school improvement — an important goal at this time of shifting culture and policy in education and equity in the country. Participant feedback on the series informs adjustments to a possible next round and a proposal for a toolkit-style book aims to expand the reach of this work.
Parents’ lack of involvement in their child’s education is a common complaint among educators, the majority of whom spend time and effort on engaging families in school (Carter, 2013). These educators know that bridging gaps between school, home, and community is key to student success. In fact, research shows that when parents are engaged in their child’s education — regardless of income or background — students tend to:
- Adapt well to school and attend regularly;
- Demonstrate social skills and behave cooperatively;
- Earn higher test scores and grades;
- Take higher-level classes and pass them;
- Graduate and pursue higher education (Henderson & Mapp, 2002, p.7).
In short, when schools reach families and communities, students enjoy learning more, stay in school longer, and perform better. With this essential knowledge in mind, our team tackled how educators can more effectively engage families and community members in powerful partnerships.
Table of Contents
- Seminar Series: Leadership Development in Family and Community Engagement
- Planning and Design Process
- Implementing the Session Plans
- Participant Feedback
- Next Steps: Crafting a Book Proposal
- Appendix A: Annotated Resources
- Reference
Relevance and Context
Expectations for K–12 school leaders increasingly extend beyond instructional leadership to include building strong, authentic partnerships with families and communities. Shifting policy priorities, changing school demographics, and a renewed focus on equity have amplified the need for leaders who can engage families as partners in student learning and school improvement. Yet many aspiring and early-career leaders report limited preparation for this aspect of leadership, particularly in translating research and theory into practical strategies. This seminar series was developed to address that gap by positioning family and community engagement as a core leadership competency. Designed for in-service teachers, teacher leaders, and assistant principals, the series provided participants with structured opportunities to reflect on beliefs, engage with scholarship and practice, and apply concrete engagement strategies within their own school contexts.
Seminar Series: Leadership Development in Family and Community Engagement
As a cross-functional, inter-organizational team of education experts from The City College of New York, Bank Street College of Education, and New York City Public Schools, we recruited and guided a diverse group of over twenty assistant principals and teacher leaders for collaborative study. These educators formed a cohort invested in building their practice of family, community, and partnership engagement in K-12 schools. Over the fall and winter of 2024, we facilitated six seminar-style virtual sessions of foundational learning with curated content and collaboration opportunities for the cohort for CTLE credit.
What?
Six data-driven seminar-style sessions
Who?
A tight-knit cohort of over 20 educational leaders from New York State, prioritizing
diversity amongst the group and its team members within schools
How?
Virtual meetings with curated content and whole- and small-group work
Goals: Deepening Community Engagement Acumen Among K-12 Leaders
Broadly, we aimed to emphasize family and community engagement as a central component of effective school leadership. In practice, this means connecting aspiring leaders to the impact that family involvement has on students. It also means sharing realistic, actionable methods that participants can grab onto and implement in their schools.
As such, we designed the seminar series to:
- Widen the pool of educators who navigate school-community partnerships with confidence and impact.
- Share strategies for how to improve schools through stakeholder engagement (parents, community partners, etc.).
- Empower participants to turnkey effective methods to their teams for implementation.
- Challenge traditional thinking by increasing the pool of school personnel who hold community engagement as central to their professional practice.
Through intentional sessions and honest discussions about ways to navigate barriers to success, the cohort pursued each goal during the six-seminar series.
Planning and Design Process
Three main factors shaped the content planning for the seminar series: the unique professional positioning of our audience and the socio-political context in which they’re working; academic frameworks that orient a specific approach to teaching and learning; curated knowledge from the brightest minds in the discipline. We planned the series collaboratively and holistically with these factors front-of-mind and dove deep into the details of each session through operational practices.
and
Context
Frameworks
Content
Focus on Audience and Context
Seminar participants were uniquely positioned as K-12 assistant principals and teacher leaders with ambitions for higher leadership in their schools and/or New York State’s school districts. With these aspiring leaders in mind, every question, resource, and activity was curated to give participants opportunities to wrestle with real-world circumstances pertaining to community engagement in K-12.
When crafting development content for these in-service educators, it was essential to be cognizant of the broader culture in which they work. In the present case, that culture is linked to socio-political upheaval in the country. While many districts or constituents may reward efforts at community building and partnership during a time of conflict, the opposite is possible, too. Seminar planning reflected a recognition of this socio-political context and how it may impact school leadership.
Academic Frameworks
Pedagogical underpinnings provided cohesion and clarity to planning, as we built content based on the following four concepts and tools:
- All students can learn. This essential understanding shapes leaders that believe every family, parent, and student is reachable through the right practices. It’s key to authentic, effective outreach and partnership.
- It takes a village. Similarly, this classic idea is a backbone to family and community engagement practices. It suggests that students succeed best in an educational paradigm that pairs school and family together for student well-being and success.
- Professional Standards for Educational Leadership (PSEL). The National Policy Board for Educational Administration’s (NPBEA) standards acted as a guide for planning and discussion and framed professional goal posts for seminar participants.
- Equity lens. Planning with an equity lens allowed us to analyze common barriers to family and community engagement, look inquisitively at policies and programs, and be aware of headwinds or tailwinds that different types of school districts and their communities face.
Curated Content From the Discipline
Together, we gathered essential knowledge from the discipline across authors, organizations, and mediums for participant study and exploration. The following are top resources, organizations, and thinkers in matters of K-12 education, equity, and community partnership:
- The National Equity Project
- Courageous Conversations About Race
- Somatic Abolitionism
- Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
- The Anti-Racist Educator Blog
- Rita Pierson
- Mellody Hobson
- Dr. Floyd Cobb
- Dr. Hazel M. Carter
- National Education Association
- Bob Peterson
- Paolo Freire
- Blue Ribbon Commission
- Dr. Gloria Rosario Wallace
- National Center for Education Statistics
See Appendix A: Annotated Resources for more details about these resources and their application in the seminar series.
In considering our audience, socio-political context, academic frameworks, and curated content from the discipline, we designed a seminar series for aspiring K-12 leaders to build holistic and real-world know-how to improve schools by engaging families and communities.
Implementing the Session Plans
To implement our plans with ease, we created a consistent, streamlined format for the seminars and held frequent operational meetings to discuss, reflect, and make facilitation decisions. Team operations included:
- Collaboration: Virtual meetings; asynchronous working sessions; asynchronous feedback loops; in person meetings.
- Content creation: Collaboratively creating, designing, and refining learning materials in a shared Google Drive folder.
- Administrative organization: Discussing and assigning in-session roles and responsibilities for smooth facilitation as well as pre- and post-session administrative duties — sharing links, feedback surveys, updates, and resources with the cohort.
In addition to these operational practices and tools, a consistent format for the sessions helped us execute our vision for the seminar series.
Format of Sessions
With so much to practice around leadership in K-12 family and community engagement, we created a predictable, consistent environment and routine for participants. This way, the richness of discussion, collaboration, exploration, and reflection on tough topics and real-world scenarios held center stage
The format of each seminar session included:
- Session objective(s) – Aims for each session focused on essential knowledge and skills for successful, effective leadership. Namely, targets included leading with a clear purpose; messaging initiatives with clarity and nuance; analyzing school needs and resources through an equity lens; securing funding and partnerships; deepening connection to the community; building collaboration across school teams.
- Standards (PSEL) – Each session targeted three to six leadership standards, with an emphasis across sessions on standards one, three, five, and six. Together, these define successful leadership as attuned to mission, vision, practices of equity, inclusion, and cultural responsiveness, and focus on student achievement and well-being.
- Norms — Seven consistent expectations and ways of being for participants fostered their agency, engagement, and connection. The norms were: speak your truth; share your wisdom; lean into discomfort; own your learning; stay engaged; accept and expect non-closure; sustain the work in between sessions.
- Opening — Each session began with a whole-group discussion on a trending cultural issue and its intersection with the education system, called “Hot Topic Conversation.” Some openers also included a chance for participants to wrestle with real-world scenarios in a segment called “Connections.”
- Core learning activities — We curated core learning experiences by gathering and presenting materials and content from influential thinkers, associations, organizations, publications, policy, and frameworks related to the state of education and family engagement therein. Participants had opportunities to work individually, in pairs, and in small groups for personal reflection, discussion, creative collaboration through digital tools, and real-world problem-solving challenges.
- Homework — Between certain sessions, participants sustained the work by practicing newfound knowledge and skills in guided ways in their school teams. This effort was one method in empowering participants to turnkey methods to their teams for implementation.
- Closing — We closed each session with an opportunity for simple, meaningful reflection with the following guiding questions, which helped participants connect the big ideas and challenges of community-facing work to themselves and their daily work in schools:
- What are we walking away with today?
- How are we implementing the concept of community and community schools into our practice?
- What do we need to research or learn more about to fill out our understanding?
This consistent format helped participants dive into learning, reach goals, discover connections in the cohort, and achieve real growth towards K-12 leadership. Though this environment was key to success, the heart of the series came through the curated content in each session.
Session Norms
truth
wisdom
discomfort
learning
engaged
non-closure
in between sessions
Sessions In Action
Combining our consistent format, high-quality material from the discipline, and space and time for participants to engage with one another, session plans came to life. Below is a sketch of each session’s objectives, standards, opening, learning activities, and closing.
Session 1: Overview of Issues Facing Educators
September 29, 2023
Objectives
- Explore the gaps in learning experienced by underserved students.
- Appraise the instructional needs of school faculty that are connected to the gaps in learning.
- Support learners in developing a dynamic and responsive equity lens for leadership using resources from The National Equity Project, Courageous Conversations About Race, and Somatic Abolitionism.
Standards
- 3: Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
- 5: Community of Care and Support for Students
- 6: Professional Capacity of School Personnel
Opening
Hot Topic Conversation: A “ripped from the headline” full group conversation on the following statements:
- Schools alone cannot keep at-risk students in school or equip them for success in work or postsecondary education.
- “Migrant Crisis”: As a school leader, what is the crisis?
- New York Mayor Adams discusses migrant crisis he says could ‘destroy’ the city | PBS News
(Note: Participants used the Compass from the Courageous Conversation Protocol as a strategy for engaging in complex and controversial discourse.)
Learning Activities
- Individual reflection: Are there any additional skills that students need to have? (5 mins)
Explain the following excerpt from a letter written by Dennis Van Roekel, President National Education Association, in 2014.
“Dear Members and Educators,
As many of you know, NEA is at the forefront of the 21st century education movement
in this country. As educators, we are determined to help all students reach their
full potential. This is no small challenge, and it is our responsibility to prepare
our young people for the unique demands of a 21st century world. As a founding member
of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, NEA is extraordinarily proud of our partnerships
with leaders in education, business, and policy circles to forge a common vision for
education that will prepare our young people for college, work, and life. We all believe
that every child should possess strong content mastery, as well as the “Four Cs”:
critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.”
Source: National Education Association. (2014). Preparing 21st Century Students for a Global Society: An Educator’s Guide to the “Four Cs” (Washington, D.C.: National Education Association).
- School Needs Assessment Activity (30 mins)
The purpose of this activity is to create a School Needs Assessment Profile which provides a picture of the needs of your school as it pertains to students, parents and teachers. In this workshop, you are divided into groups, each representing a key component of a Needs Assessment profile. Share with your colleagues how you would best describe your school in the selected category. You can draw upon data provided on your school’s website, reports, and from your experiences at your school.
- a. Demographic data: school location, Size of student population, Teacher: student ratio, ELL population, attendance rates, eligibility for free lunch
- b. Afterschool and supplemental education offerings
- Academic performance
- d. Parent engagement
- e. Professional development opportunities for school staff
- f. Community partnerships
Participants can continue this exercise at their schools using all the categories to determine a full profile of their school needs. This complete activity is also part of the final assignment.
Homework
As we look at our role as educators, it is imperative that we become more in tune with the changing demographics of New York City and the impact on education institutions. The community is not static; it comes into the classroom whether we like it or not.
The purpose of this activity is to enable you to become acquainted with the community in which your school is located. Through a walking tour of the neighborhood, participants can make observations and speak with community residents about locations of interests. Through photographs or Power Point, share with your colleagues your interpretation of this community. The following “clues” can be used as a guide, but not limited to:
- Families – number of children under school age
- Feeder schools
- Religious organizations
- Local businesses
- Parks
- Houses and apartment buildings
- Transportation
- Entertainment
- Other
Source: Carter, 2013
Session 2: Building a Partnership Team
October 13, 2023
Objectives
- Begin the foundational work of building a team for success, and leading with a clearly defined purpose.
- Develop their public narrative regarding leading for equity.
Standards
- 1: Mission, Vision, and Core Values
- 3: Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
- 6: Professional Capacity of School Personnel
- 7: Professional Community for Teachers and Staff
- 8: Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community
Opening
Hot Topic Conversation: A “ripped from the headline” full group conversation on the following statements:
- James Madison High School Dress Code for parents and families: How do you make sense of this as a future school leader?
Learning Activities
Create a vision and share it with potential partners. Begin by individually identifying your core beliefs about schooling by completing the following statements:
- I believe that schools should teach…
- I believe that a good school is one that…
- I believe that a successful student is able to…
- I believe that a quality instructional program includes…
- I believe that an effective school faculty is one that…
Complete the exercise below individually for building shared vision, then share with the class:
- Reviewing exemplary practices
- Identifying key stakeholders and their roles
- Creating Human-Centered Systems to Address Racial Disparity in Schools
- Dysfunctional Equity Implementation
Closing Activity
Start with the self when responding to these questions on Jamboard.
- What is the greatest “-ism” impacting the current state of education and our students? What is the greatest “-ism” impacting your life? (If none, write n/a.)
- Consider: How does my lived experience impact what kind of leader I’ll be?
- The impact of Race on my life activity
- The “3Cs”
- Introduce Six Conditions (1, 2, 3, 4)
- What does it mean to “Lead with Equity”? Equity for whom? For what?
Session 3: Creating Structures for Community Involvement
October 27, 2023
Objectives
- Describe the programmatic needs and principles of a collaborative program.
- Engage with the foundational understanding of community-led leadership.
- Engage with the foundational understanding of community-led leadership under the work of Paulo Freire, Agosto Boal, and Charlene Carruthers.
Standards
- 1: Mission, Vision, and Core Values
- 3: Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
- 6: Professional Capacity of School Personnel
- 8: Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community
- 9: Operations and Management
Opening
Hot Topic Conversation: A “ripped from the headline” full group conversation on the following statements:
- What meaning am I making of this event?
- What policy is undergirding this issue?
- How is this impacting the lives of the students within this district?
Connections
Participants will connect with what they learned and discussed in previous sessions.
- What is resonating with you?
- What questions are coming up for you?
Learning Activities
- Whole group discussion: What does community mean?
- Individual Reflection (5 mins)
- Virtual Gallery walk (25 minutes): Reach each quote and identify which you agree with most. Each quote will have its own breakout room for small groups to discuss why they selected this quote and why it resonates with them.
“Some people think they are in community, but they are only in proximity. True community
requires commitment and openness. It is a willingness to extend yourself to encounter
and know the other.”
– David Spangler
“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the
most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of
loneliness can be cured.”
– Kurt Vonnegut
“Well it seems to me, that all real communities grow out of a shared confrontation
with survival. Communities are not produced by sentiment or mere goodwill. They grow
out of a shared struggle. Our situation in the desert is an incubator for community.”
– Larry Harvey
“\We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough toinclude the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for ourown.”
– Cesar Chavez
Share out: How do we define community now?
Video
Play NEA video: What is a community school? (10 minutes)
- a. What did we hear?
- b. What questions do we have?
- c. Any connections to our lives?
Small Group Work (30-45 minutes)
Each participant will select one of the resources below:
- Big City Superintendents: Dictatorship or Democracy? Lessons from Paulo Freire
- Energizing Change: A Conversation Between Charlene Carruthers and Adrienne Maree Brown
- Exploring School Exclusion and Oppression with Agosto Boal
Participants will then explore their resources in small groups with the definition of community and community schools that we created earlier. They will create a resource guide for their fellow classmates that:
- Highlights the key information about this document;
- Delineates important theories, concepts, or theorists;
- Makes 3-5 connections to real-world practice.
Session 4: Using External Funding to Develop School/Community Partnerships
November 17, 2023
Objectives
- Develop a vision for equity while exploring funding and partnerships.
- Use partnerships and equitable funding to deepen the relationship and connection with the community they serve.
Standards
- 1: Mission, Vision, and Core Values
- 5: The Community of Care and Support for Students
- 9: Operations and Management
Opening
Hot Topic Conversation: A “ripped from the headline” full group conversation on the following statements:
- As a future school and/or system leader, what do you see are the issues presented in this case?
- How do you lead with equity?
Learning Activities
- Facts about Education funding in 2021.
- “Never underestimate the power of an idea”: Private and public funding innovative practices in education.
Small Group Activity
Share your notes to the following scenario on the Jamboard.
You’re a high school principal who has recently received a school-community partnership $600,000 grant to improve student achievement at your school. The grant guidelines require the school to implement in-school and after-school activities for students, teachers and parents. You’re planning the first meeting of the Action Team — what are your considerations regarding:
- Time of meetings;
- Who’s invited;
- Location of meetings and events;
- Platform(s) used;
- Sustainability of overall project plan;
- Determining the plan’s purpose;
- Budgeting — what will you spend money on?
Session 5: The Collaborative Leader — Professional Development and Portfolio Building
November 17, 2023
Objectives
- Explore how professional learning enhances the vision for equity within their school or district.
- Build a collaborative culture in the school building.
- Build collaborative relationships with stakeholders and policymakers.
- Develop professional learning that creates a community driven by public learning.
Standards
- 1: Mission, Vision, and Core Values
- 3: Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
- 7: Professional Community for Teachers and Staff
- 8: Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community
- 9: Operations and Management
- 10: School Improvement
Opening
Hot Topic Conversation: A “ripped from the headline” full group conversation on the following statements:
- What meaning am I making of this event?
- What policy is undergirding this issue?
- How is this impacting the lives of the students within this district?
Connections
Participants will connect with what they learned and discussed in previous sessions.
- What is resonating with you?
- What questions are coming up for you?
Learning Activities
Individual Reflection: Think back to the most powerful professional learning that you’ve ever experienced:
- What was it like?
- Why did it resonate with you?
Participants will share out on Jamboard or Padlet. Key points will be shared out whole-group.
Whole Group Discussion:
- What surprised you about what you read?
- What do you agree with?
- Anything you disagree with?
- Anything missing?
Mini-Lecture: The White Privilege of It All
- DEI and Anti-racist pedagogy have become hot topics in professional learning.
- Collaborative Culture — why does it matter?
- Creating the conditions for difficult conversations:
- CCAR 6 conditions
- DEEP spectrum
- Whole-group and individual systems for support:
- Professional Portfolio
- Peggy McIntosh — brief history and grounding.
Small Group Work (30-45 minutes)
Each participant will select one of the resources below:
- The Origins of “Privilege” – The New Yorker
- White Privilege Test (The Anti-Racist Educator Edition)
Then, in small groups, participants will explore their resources along with their notes from our mini-lecture. They will create a resource guide for their fellow classmates that:
- Highlights the key information about this document,
- Delineates important theories, concepts, or theorists
- Makes 3-5 connections to real-world practice
Session 6: Collaborative Projects
December 8, 2023
Objectives
- Participants are to share their projects and provide feedback on seminar series.
Opening
Hot Topic Conversation: “My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.” – Dr. Maya Angelou
Learning Activities
- A Look Back: Facilitators share student collaborative artifacts from the seminar series and discuss what the cohort has explored and learned.
- Facilitators share a model of leading with vision in service of their students.
- Participants share their projects with the whole group and provide feedback on the seminar series.
Participant Feedback
Each session closed with a request for feedback to better understand what was resonating with the participants and what should be reviewed or included in the follow-up session. Participants shared their concerns, questions, and connections.
(Across All Sessions)
hear today?
- Our need to dialog and make sure we are not operating out of our “norms.”
- Although I’ve done vision work previously in different roles, being in a new district this year means that it is time to do new vision work within my new school community.
with you?
- Community school includes all stakeholders, parents, organizations, business leaders, student voices, community members.
- Different ideas and experiences. Location makes such a difference.
- I loved hearing from other educators around NY state, and I’m so glad that we’re thinking about difficult situations together.
- It is very important to hold equitable practices in education. What is resonating with me is [this idea of] What does equity look like in different settings?
- We need to inform/educate parents regarding the application process for school.
do you have?
- I wonder how we as a district can be better prepared if there is ever an influx of migrants? What are other schools doing?
- How do you ensure that your school community also shares the same mindset around equity?
- Do you have further tips for navigating and sharing vision with school boards?
- How [does administration] gather information to understand who students are holistically?
are you making
to your lived
experiences?
This can be personal
or professional.
- The gallery walk made me think about how interconnected the topics were and how our district is striving to help students adapt after COVID.
- I liked establishing an ethos to begin the class.
- I now understand the value of equity in education and often ruminate thinking about how my experience may have been different if there were more equitable practices during my childhood.
- Being a parent to an elementary student, I have a different view of the school-community relationship, and what it means to communicate well with parents.
- I have had experiences where my administration did not accept students b/c of their academic records…It made me wonder…would they have thrived at our school if given the opportunity.
- Thanks for the little breaks!
- A chance to hold valuable conversations with people of the same mindset!
- The space works for me currently.
- Contacts so we are able to ask questions as we transform our school settings in case we need guidance.
At the end of the series, we asked for feedback on the experience as a whole. Those responses provide insight into what worked well and what can be improved for next time; that is, our lessons learned.
Lessons Learned
The implications from this work are clear. Through formal feedback and informal discussion, participants shared their appreciation and hopes for more:
- Time with K-12 family and community-building learning content;
- Resources to support community work in their districts;
- Opportunities to learn from peers across New York State;
- Collaborative learning environments similar to the seminar series.
Similarly, participants shared constructive criticism. Running the series a second time, we would consider:
- Day and time of sessions: Friday mornings were a challenging time to host sessions for participants. Life in a school is dynamic and requires all that staff can offer — a feeling that intensifies as the week comes to an end. As such, our scheduled time and length of session (two hours) impacted attendance. In subsequent series, we would poll participants to find the most optimal time — likely in the three to five p.m. range or later.
- Schedule and span of sessions: We would move from six to five sessions to accommodate busy schedules and fit the series within the span of a semester — September to December or February to May.
- Learning content: We would expand the topics covered, namely disproportionality and disability, as requested by participants.
Running the series again would give opportunity for growth and impact, as would exploring new mediums to expand the reach of this important work.
Next Steps: Crafting a Book Proposal
We know there are gaps between best practice and how school leaders manage community engagement. This seminar series was a meaningful step towards improvement. In designing and delivering content, engaging with participants, and learning about their school communities, we understand there’s more work to do.
Our seminar series aimed to provide school districts with a place to start, a place
to grapple with real-world leadership issues before being the responsible party for
the outcome — but more support is needed. That’s why we’re crafting a proposal for
a toolkit-style book with resources, strategies, and real-world scenarios for educators,
policy makers, and aspiring and in-service school and
district leaders.
Our Toolkit for Improving Schools Through Family and Community Engagement will cover best practices in how to:
- Engage stakeholders in school improvement;
- Increase the pool of personnel who see school-community partnerships as vital to their professional practice;
- Achieve a balanced approach to community engagement work;
- Complement and enrich (rather than replicate) school-community partnerships;
- Lean into a “schools can’t do it alone” ethos with positivity;
- Select appropriate external agencies for work in a school building;
- Study the best material in this discipline (see Appendix A for “Annotated Resources”).
These topics are more important than ever as we see the face of public education changing at an accelerated rate. This shift in culture and policy will have wide-ranging impacts on multiple systems — teacher education programs and students in public schools, in particular. Schools and districts that aspire to provide culturally relevant pedagogical practices for their student body will need to create alternative opportunities to support their staff in doing so. It takes time and practice to develop the knowledge and skill to provide students with the learning experience they need and deserve. Often, the need is identified without the time necessary to generate a thoughtful solution.
Students will ultimately benefit from this work, which takes an intentional and thoughtful approach to collaborative public learning. It puts school teams in the center and helps them lead and engage with families, community members, and other stakeholders for more powerful partnership.
"Students show up with incredible strengths and assets. Kids are capable of much more than we think."
— Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings
Appendix A: Annotated Resources
A list of resources used to create seminar series learning content and a description of their application to the learning experience for participants.
Courageous Conversations About Race
Singleton, G. E. (2022). Courageous conversations about race: A field guide for achieving equity in schools and beyond. Corwin.- Glenn Singleton’s book, professional development series, and most notably the Courageous Conversations Protocol are excellent for practitioners wanting to center populations that are often neglected and marginalized in their strategic work.
- Singleton’s Compass from the Courageous Conversation Protocol was used as a strategy for engaging in complex and controversial discourse.
/page-turner/the-origins-of-privilege.
"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" first appeared in Peace and Freedom Magazine, July/August, 1989, pp. 10-12, a publication of the Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom, Philadelphia, PA.
The Anti-Racist Educator. (2020, July 3). White privilege test (the anti-racist educator edition). The Anti-Racist Educator.
https://www.theantiracisteducator.
com/post/the-anti-racist-educator-white-privilege-test
Mellody Hobson
Key Constituency Chart
Carter, H.M. (2013). Creating Effective Community Partnerships for School Improvement: A Guide for School Building Leaders. London and New York: Routledge
School Needs Assessment
Carter, H.M. (2013). Creating Effective Community Partnerships for School Improvement: A Guide for School Building Leaders. London and New York: Routledge
Walking Tour of Your School’s Community
Carter, H.M. (2013). Creating Effective Community Partnerships for School Improvement: A Guide for School Building Leaders. London and New York: Routledge
Rosario Wallace, G. (2020). Creating human-centered systems to address racial disparity in schools. VUE (Voices in Urban Education), 49(2), 24–28.
Virtual Gallery Walk Quotes
Spangler, D. (n.d.). David Spangler quotes about community. David Spangler Quotes About Community
Vonnegut, K. (1981). Palm Sunday: An autobiographical collage. Delacorte Press. Harvey, L. (n.d.). Larry Harvey quotes about community. A-Z Quotes. Quotes by Larry Harvey
Chavez, C. (n.d.). Cesar Chavez quotes about community. A-Z Quotes. Cesar Chavez Quotes About CommunityThese quotes comprise the virtual gallery walk that participants engaged with in order to bolster their concept of what community means for them as a future leader and how they would nurture the community they want to grow in their future school.
National Center for Education Statistics Digest of Education Statistics(NCES 2020a)
Wechsler, H. (2001). Access to success in the urban high school: The middle college movement. New York City: Faculty College Press.References
-
-
- Carter, H. M. (2013). Creating effective community partnerships for school improvement: A guide for school leaders. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Epstein, J. L. (2001). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
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