ENGAGING Families and Communities in Student Success
Strengthen your community-based approach to student preparation for college and careers.
Top Community Engagement Resources
Culture
College, Career & Military Readiness In Deep South Texas
Video case study on CCMR initiatives at Rio Hondo ISD
Culture
Bridging the Family-School
Engagement Gap
Tips to promote family engagement for CCMR goals
Sharing Is Succeeding
Involving caregivers and trusted mentors — including teachers and coaches — alongside workforce and higher education partners in planning for students’ futures is integral to effective CCMR advising.
The Opportunity
Ensuring all students have a postsecondary plan and the ability to make that plan a reality takes more than just counselors or advisors. When districts work with employers and higher education partners to co-create pathways to high-wage, in-demand, and high-skill occupations, the whole community benefits. When families and students are equipped with the resources and information they need to make informed decisions, students are more likely to succeed.
The Challenge
The greatest obstacle to community and family engagement is the sheer scope of CCMR and the lack of systems and structures to enable collaboration. Counselors and advisors with high caseloads have less capacity to involve caregivers and other trusted adults in a student’s college and career planning.
No matter where you are in the process of creating partnerships that strengthen pathways, you’ll find resources here to suit your school system’s needs.
Watch and Learn
Looking for creative strategies to spark community and family engagement? Take a cue from these three districts.
San Antonio ISD is creating specific courses on CCMR subjects to inform and empower parents.
Aldine ISD sends written invitations to the families of students who are good candidates for advanced coursework.
Explore Community and Caregiver Engagement Planning Tools
Strengthen Partnerships Between School Systems and External Organizations
Effective advising integrates services between school systems and external partners aligned to an overall strategic plan with measurable outcomes. Having this kind of community coalition depends on clear communication between stakeholders to create greater transparency and trust.
Highly functional, effective community partnerships can provide a variety of services and opportunities for students. Partnerships with employers can offer work-based learning; partnerships with community-based organizations can offer more advising touch points with knowledgeable adults. Ultimately, these partnerships should build the district’s capacity to demonstrate to students how their K-12 coursework connects with future aspirations.
To build a strong foundation for external partnerships, consider these three priorities described within the Texas Education Agency’s Effective Advising Framework:
Strong Partnership Leadership and Planning
The first step toward a collaborative community infrastructure is to develop and implement data-driven goals, along with grade-level student expectations and an organizational implementation structure. That way, as students move through their K-12 journeys, they receive consistent information to ensure they are on track to graduate and prepared for what comes next.
Key players:
- Campus leaders
- School system leaders
Effective External Partnerships
Schools and districts can connect with strategic partners to improve student performance or give schools and districts tools or capacity to drive improvements and decisions.
Key players:
- College access providers:
Note: this is not an exhaustive list.
Explore Community and Caregiver Engagement Planning Tools
Communicating about CCMR initiatives and opportunities strengthens school and community investment. For someone to become an active participant in CCMR support — whether they’re a teacher or a parent — they have to understand the “why.”
Share information across two main channels to keep educators, advisors, families, and community stakeholders advised of student progress and aware of how they can help.
Internal School and District Communication
- Provide training and general guidance on best practices to create a culture of CCMR success
- Provide specific insight to support the execution of CCMR goals and initiatives
External Community Communication
- Report out on progress against CCMR goals and initiatives to the wider community to build trust and celebrate gains
- Make parents and families more aware of CCMR resources such as advanced courses and work-based learning, leading them to encourage students to take advantage of those opportunities
Case Study
[TBD Case Study on Brownsville ISD]
At Parent’s Night, the school would post CCMR point scorecards with students and how many CCMR points they had earned listed. This gave the parents an example of the tangible outcomes and helped create buy-in. Meanwhile, the school incentivized students with fun rewards for earning CCMR points.