Leading Frameworks

FHI 360’s Connected & Engaged: Supporting Family and Community Collaboration with School Districts provides educators with actionable steps to overcome barriers to sustainable partnerships with families and communities. Three family engagement frameworks guided this study: the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships, the Family Leadership Design Collaborative and the School-Family-Community Partnership Model. These frameworks share central components, including capacity building, empowerment and interdependence, yet each framework has a distinct approach. District leaders can choose the framework that makes the most sense for their context to strategically plan family and community collaboration (FCC) initiatives.  

Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships

The Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships outlines challenges and identifies process and organizational conditions necessary for successful partnerships. The 4 Cs of the Framework (Capabilities, Connections, Cognition and Confidence) describe a pathway for building educators’ and families’ capacity in improving student achievement.  

Family Leadership Design Collaborative

Four principles are central to the Family Leadership Design Collaborative Framework:

1. Creating ongoing transformative possibilities,
2. Enacting solidarities in collective change-making,
3. Refusing and disrupting normative power dynamics, and
4. Beginning with family and communities ecologies.

These principles address the isms (e.g., racism, colonialism) that reduce educational inequities, center family and community needs, and focus on placing the power between communities and schools.  

School, Family, and Community Partnerships

The School-Family-Community Partnership Model, also known as the Framework of Six Types of Involvement, emphasizes the idea of interdependence between schools and families in service to students. The six types of involvement include Parenting, Communicating, Volunteering, Learning at Home, Decision-Making and Collaborating with the Community.  

References

Epstein JL, Sanders MG, Sheldon SB, Simon BS, Clark Salinas K, Rodriguez Jansorn N, et al. School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action. 4th ed. Dallas: Corwin Press; 2019. 

Ishimaru A & Bang M. Toward a transformative research and practice agenda for racial equity in family engagement. 2016. Family Leadership Design Collaborative. Retrieved from: https://familydesigncollab.org/2016/11/30/toward-a-transformative-research-and-practice-agenda-for-racial-equity-in-family-engagement/  

U.S. Department of Education. Partners in education: A dual capacity-building framework for family-school partnerships. 2013. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/documents/family-community/partners-education.pdf