To improve outcomes for students in a high school alternative-education program, Jamel Adkins-Sharif knew he needed tap parents' knowledge and support. Doing this, he says, has required ramping up communication, repurposing parent-engagement events, and being honest about the fluid and often inconclusive nature of working with struggling learners.

Partnering with families in ways that support children's learning is a skill that is central to high-quality teaching. Parent-teacher conferences are a key site for teachers to learn how to leverage family resources in service of instruction. To know how to support the development of well-started beginners, teacher education (TE) programs must…

This article examines the determinants of private school choice for elementary school students in India with emphasis on school characteristics. We also analyze the gender differences in the demand for private schools among the households, a relatively less explored issue in the school choice literature in India. We find that private schools are…

Standardized testing is widely utilized to determine the levels of children's learning achievement. There has been a constant debate on how accurately standardized tests reflect children's achievement. Many practice teachers struggle with teaching to the test to meet the national criteria. An elementary teacher questioned the accuracy of the…

This article describes an innovation in an elementary mathematics education course called SEE Math (Support and Enrichment Experiences in Mathematics), which aims to support teacher candidates (TCs) as they learn to teach mathematics through problem solving while promoting equity during multiple experiences with a child. During this 8-week…

This article, based on a deep ethnography in schools located in a disadvantaged multicultural context in Geneva (Switzerland), questions the way in which the local school system and teachers comprehend the cultural diversity of students and their parents. Oscillating between recognition and assimilation, teachers publicly adhere to discourses that…

Teachers regularly communicate with families, yet few candidates are well-prepared for this professional activity. This gap can hinder family-school partnership and pupils' success. Given that candidates' opportunities to learn about family engagement (FE) depends on the decisions and values of individual teacher educators, we illustrate how FE…

"Connecting for High Potential" sheds light on questions from teachers and parents on many subject matters, however, rarely is there an opportunity to explore how the "other side" might be facing the issue. An ongoing goal of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) is for teachers and parents to develop a broader…

In this study we shall examine parent-teacher meetings in the technological era, i.e., whether parent-teacher meetings are still relevant, how they should be conducted, whether it is necessary to change the structure of the parent-teacher meeting or its conception by parents, students, and teachers. For this purpose, identical questionnaires were…

This report presents data on students in the United States attending kindergarten through grade 12. The focus of the report is on parent and family involvement in the students' education during the 2018-19 school year, as reported by the students' parents. It includes the percentage of students who participated in selected family activities.…

Particularly in urban schools, school-family partnerships can contribute to a student's academic achievement and reduce educational disadvantage, regardless of the family's socioeconomic background. Based on the recommendations of a former explorative field study (also published in this issue), conventional school-family partnership procedures…

This study reports on the design of a video-based instrument to assess student teachers' parent-teacher communication competences (PTCC) in a reliable and valid way. PTCC refer to the competences needed to communicate successfully with parents during conversations such as parent-teacher conferences. Taking into account both conceptual and…

Interactive simulations allow preservice teachers to connect education theory and pedagogy in scaffolded environments. We created digital simulations with scenarios from in-person simulations and used them to prepare novice teachers for conversations with parents. Using a design-based approach we implemented the simulations in an education class,…

Teachers' attitudes towards parental involvement play an important role in the ways they approach children's families. This study examined Hong Kong pre-service early childhood teachers' attitudes towards different types of parental involvement strategies and investigated whether these attitudes were related to the quality of relationships within…

This meta-analysis examined the effects of family-school interventions on children's social-behavioral competence and mental health. One hundred and seventeen group design studies yielding 592 effect sizes constituted the current sample. Random effects models were estimated when calculating each pooled effect size estimate, and mixed effects…