Dive Brief:

• During Tuesday's National Family Engagement Conference in Cincinnati, the U.S. Department of Education unveiled the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships, which is aimed at creating strong family-school partnerships in districts and schools nationwide.
• The framework was developed by Harvard Graduate School of Education senior lecturer Karen L. Mapp in collaboration with federal officials over the past three years.
• Under the framework, schools are expected, among other things, to "honor and recognize families' funds of knowledge" and to organize meaningful school-community events directly related to curriculum or achievement.

Dive Insight:

With this model, the education department is reinforcing parental involvement as a crucial component of a child's education. Encouraging parents to become more involved in their child's education facilitates school and district success. As Arne Duncan says in the above video, that involvement improves attendance and grades while also encouraging those kids to take challenging courses, graduate, and move on to college.

This is a two-way street, though, as educators must also become more involved in, and develop a greater understanding of, the communities in which their students live.