The Center for Family Engagement

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Family Engagement News

AASA and National PTA Honor Superintendent with Inaugural “Excellence in Family Engagement Award”

Jan. 28, 2025

AASA, The School Superintendents Association and National PTA are pleased to celebrate excellence in family engagement by honoring a leader dedicated to family-school partnerships.

Alex Marrero, superintendent of Denver Public Schools, has been selected among district leaders across the country to receive the inaugural Excellence in Family Engagement Award in addition to $5,000 to support family engagement initiatives. Candidates for the award were judged on their commitment to equity, transformative engagement, capacity-building and results.

Marrero has implemented best practices and integrated family engagement across strategic plans, budgets and district infrastructure. He also continually demonstrates a commitment to equitable student outcomes and encourages other school system leaders to contribute to national efforts to sustain public and private funding for family-school partnerships.

Register for AASA and National PTA's Excellence in Family Engagement Award Breakfast at the National Conference on Education

Join AASA, The School Superintendents Association and National PTA in honoring our inaugural Excellence in Family Engagement Award winner-a superintendent who has shown a commitment to improving and driving equitable student outcomes by engaging families and investing in family-school partnerships.

Recognition will occur at AASA’s 2025 National Conference on Education (NCE) in New Orleans, La. during our Excellence in Family Engagement Award Breakfast Thursday, March 6, 2025.

Announcing Season 3 of The Transforming Family-School Partnerships with PTA's National Standards Webinar Series!

Jan. 28, 2025

Join PTA’s Center for Family Engagement and the Institute for Educational Leadership for a continuation of our webinar series on strengthening family-school partnerships through the National Standards for Family-School Partnerships.

This year’s series will highlight best practices for building partnerships, the importance in collaborating with district administrators to strengthen partnerships with families and steering through the changing policy and funding landscape for family engagement through panel discussions with leading practitioners, researchers and policymakers who are improving family-school partnerships so that all children can reach their full potential.

The first hour will be a moderated conversation with our featured speakers and the last 30-minutes will be for attendees to engage in guided breakout room conversations about the webinar topic.

Webinar 1: "Strengthening Family Engagement through Collaborative Partnerships"

Wednesday, Feb. 19 from 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. EDT

Join us to discover best practices for building partnerships with evidence-based family engagement programs, PTAs and parent groups and others to strengthen family engagement capacity in your schools and districts.

New Episodes of 10 Minutes to PTA the Transformative Way!

Dec. 20, 2024

National PTA's YouTube learning series is BACK with more episodes dedicated to helping leaders make their family engagement more transformative! Tune in to learn from PTA leaders and experts in the field!

In these initial new four episodes, learn from National PTA's Principal Fellows for Family-School Partnerships about how they strengthened family-school partnerships through PTA's National Standards.

Make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so you know when new episodes arrive in the new year!

After watching each video, be sure to check out the reflection questions and related resources attached to each episode.

Watch Now

Introducing Family Engagement Solutions!

Sept. 26, 2024

National PTA and the Center for Research and Reform in Education (CRRE) at Johns Hopkins University have teamed up to launch Family Engagement Solutions, a free online tool to help district and school leaders, educators and advocates find evidence-based programs that strengthen family-school partnerships and improve student outcomes.

Learn More

Four Principles of Transformative Family Engagement

Parents know that they play an important role in their child’s success. But traditional family engagement practices don’t always meet the needs of each and every family, nor treat them as equal partners in ensuring their child’s success. Family-School partnerships often focus primarily on academic success, but whole child development is also an essential part of the conversation.

The solution? Transformative Family Engagement.

Transformative family engagement is a shared effort of families, schools and community leaders to advance programs, practices and policies that empower families to make their child’s potential a reality.

The Four 'I's of transformative family engagement outline how your PTA can become more inclusive, individualized, integrated and impactful in its approach to family engagement.