School, Family and Community Collaboration

Introduction

Collaboration between family, school and community is crucial for success of any student. This is something that is recognized in the Hong Kong schooling system and other systems across the world. It is important for the family, community and school to work together to support and help develop a child’s development. This requires one to come up with an action plan that will link different areas to support the development of a child. Schools need to strengthen their relationships between with families as well as the entire community (S.W., 2000) . The following is an action plan for the Hong Kong education system. It will show the different roles that each stakeholder needs to fulfil in this case being the specific roles played by the family, community and school respectively.

Unfortunately, according to the traditional trend, parents have had to stay away from education issues when it comes to their children. This has been an ongoing practice for the past few years as residents of different countries believe that educating a child is a professional teacher’s mandate. The trend has also been observed in Japan, as the role of parents in a child’s education has been a supportive one and less of an active involvement in the child’s curriculum for the longest time. However, most governments have effected reforms in past few decades prompting parents and the community at large to collaborate with schools in educating their children (Deslandes, 2006) . The reforms were pushed and inspired by the specific need to tackle a number of problems that come up regularly. Some of the issues of concern that pushed for such positive reforms include a perception that certain harmful societal practices affect the academic performance of these students. It is believed that certain happenings in the community could be a major attributing factor towards problematic behaviors in children and young people hence hinder their effective learning (Minke, 2000) .

Roles and activities played by the three different stakeholders

From this, it is mandatory to develop a framework that works for all the involved stakeholders. The framework should include steps of actions to follow, tools of assessment and strategies that the school and community as well as family have to follow to strengthen the connection between home and school. This plan will involve a number of things starting with the identification of the need for family engagement. The engagement of a family is crucial for the success of a student and his or her academic progress and improvement. In this step, it is important for a decision framework to be involved. This means that the school needs to conduct a survey on the parent family involvement. For the family engagement, process to commence it is important to identify the specific engagement needs in your school or district. This then calls for an analysis of the family engagement data. It is an in-depth analysis that looks beyond the number of parents that attend meetings. When concentrating on these choices your focus should be on the needs and choosing appropriate family engagement goals. Needs should be listed according to their order of priority. For instance, communication should rank first if one plans to tackle this area. This plan should include the student performance and the school climate, which have to be identified during school improvement planning (Pang & Watkins, 2000) . To understand how this works then we need to look at the different actions that each participating group takes. The following action plan shows exactly what needs to happen for proper execution of goals.

Action plan for School, Family and Community Collaboration.

Action Step(What needs to be Done)	Responsible Person(Who should take the action)	Deadline(When should this step be Completed)	Necessary Resources(What do you need to complete this action)	Potential Challenges(are there any challenges that may impact completion? How do you overcome such?	Results/Remedies. Are there new steps to be identified and were the steps completed successfully?
Enroll children to school at the beginning of every year especially when they transfer schools	Family/ Parents	Within the first two weeks of opening school	Registration forms. It is during these meetings that all questions regarding the school and community should be answered. Parents are invited to make full participation as community and school resources new families will be oriented all year round to assist new students and families to feel comfortable. They will be able to share new information	Understanding how to fill the forms	Trained staff at the reception should assist new parents with the process to smooth the process. New families and students should be welcomed to the school with a package including useful contact information, a directory for community service, coupons linked to local business as well as the annual school calendar. In order to effect the welcome, the front desk staff of the school and other administrators also need to get appropriate training in customer service development and family engagement education (Epstein, 2001) .
Attend meetings	Family and community members	Every time they are organized…monthly or annual basis		Getting correct information on the dates and understanding what is being communicated	Giving brochures at the end of the school term and following up with calls. The school should also organize for a translator if need be.
Remedial class organization	School and family	When a student’s weakness is realized	Extra classes/lessons	Identifying a struggling students needs	Monitoring academic progress regularly.
Annual open day	Family and community members	Mid-year	Getting enough competent tour guides	Learning everything about the school in a few hours	Regular visits to the school can reduce the pressure on the open day. The school should also hold an open house at the beginning of the year to allow for teacher, parents and community member interactions. Families can meet teachers and have a tour of the school to connect with the school in a free environment (Evans, 2013) .
Distribution of school program	school	Beginning of the year	Stationary	Preparing the program effectively	Getting the right experts to do it
Home visits	School and staff(Counsellors)	Monthly basis	transport	Moving families	Improve communication channels
Regular system checks i.e. communication channels	Community	All year round	Trained personnel	Lack of funds	Mobilize fundraising dinners
Leadership meetings	Family, school and community	Every two weeks	Appropriate venue	Availability of members	Scheduling the meetings on dates where most members are available since their input is crucial for the school’s progress.

In order to develop a focused family engagement plan, strategies and action steps need to be chosen in the next stage. It helps to note that of all the action plans and steps chosen not all of them will reach or meet all family engagement needs as anticipated (Pang & W, Perspectives and challenges, 2004) . However, a comprehensive family engagement plan will have a combination of intensive, universal and targeted approaches for engaging all students’ families’. In this case, families of students are given programs and services whose aim is to offer a foundation of engaging and creating correct partnerships with families. First is the universal program whose target is families of all students since they form the foundation of engaging and creating partnerships with families. The targeted services are given to students and families that require more in terms of practices. These students need more than they are getting from the universal programs. 

Usually the families of such students need to have an early intervention in academics as well as behavioral interventions not forgetting other useful outreach programs. The intensive programs on the other hand are very effective for unsuccessful students. These works for students where targeted programs failed. These students have individualized intensive intercession if there is a chance to increase their effectiveness and hasten their progress. There is also the possibility that families and schools will require extra and continuous support from the school and communities. The intensive program combines the other two strategies with a few more things as well (Epstein & Voorhis, 2002) .

Strategies to be used and what each entails.

Universal program	Intensive program	Targeted program
Recommends for a teacher-parent meeting or conferences where families get to attend. In addition, teachers are responsible for sending home daily communication as long as student agendas come up. It is also possible to develop electronic grade booklets to allow families and parents to monitor a child’s progress. All student’s progress are then communicated to families through newsletters and website posts. The best home language is used to communicate effectively to families and the community	, schools form partnerships with families that are homeless or those that are always on the move. The community partners and school staff move to shelters to connect with them through invites to the school in order to welcome them to the school and help them in filling out the forms. Schools also make home visits to families that are unable to come to schools during meetings (Henderson & Mapp, 2002) .  When implementing the intensive strategies for a few students and families, staff members visit homes in order to build relationships and establish trust. It is important to share information with such families hence the need to work on the best family interventions (Bryan, 2005) .	For targeted strategies, before one’s year begins, students should receive a home visit by a mentor or a community or family coordinator. A special education teacher can also visit or a parent mentor can take the position of visiting the student. 2. Staff members should hold teacher parent meetings. The staff members also make frequent calls and weekly notes to update parents of the child’s progress. There is also need to explain the progress of a child’s academic performance based on the specialized and technical as well as behaviors.

Regardless of the strategies used, communication is crucial to guarantee success. If this is followed, the school, family and community at large will support the general learning at home. Communication is crucial, as it is the foundation of successful partnerships. Schools must thus establish effective two-way communication with all community members and families. All forms of communication should be available in a language that is understood by all community members and families. Families should be willing to share information because they feel safe to do so. This means therefore that families should have effective communication strategies that are a reflection of the communication strategies preferred by the community. Channels such as television, blogs, emails and face-to-face meetings should be used as long as families are reached efficiently.

Challenges and Recommendations Discussion

In the process of collaborating with the community and families, schools face a number of challenges. The barrier in communication where families and communities may interpret information from the school as they should not is common. There is also the challenge of families not being involved in the active operations of the school. 

To resolve such challenges communities and families need to feel loved and welcomed. Involvement in crucial decision-making is important. Schools should supply all the relevant information in a timely manner. Selecting the right strategy is also important. A good action plan is what will keep the collaboration going.

It is also important to engage families in leadership of the school (Sanders & Harvey, 2002) . When families participate in the leadership of their kids school they become advocates for these children and ensure that they are treated fairly. Families need to be representative of students council. Real change comes about when both families and schools realize that they have shared goals that need to be met only if they work together. Families should be included in decisions that involve coming up with appropriate programs for their children. More schools are realizing with each passing day just how powerful families can be as far as providing the right resources for families. It is especially more crucial if the payments volunteering are trained and supported as this will help increase the value. There should be more opportunities for volunteering leadership. From the universal strategies, the school needs to support organizations led by the parents. These includes the PTA meetings. Families are also confirmed when seeking to improve school. Both school and parents should support anything that seeks to improve students’ performance. The community volunteers should guide and help students plan for their future even if it means preparing for college and future careers. Families in this case are equipped with knowledge and information about the procedures and policies of the school, which is essential for planning (Hands, 2013) .

It is necessary to build supportive learning environments. This means that schools should partner with communities to build a safe and supportive home for rearing a child and teaching them academically. Children that are brought up in supportive homes grow to be better individuals as they are built for better learning environments. All families should purpose to get as much information as they can on how to raise families that are happy and with focused children. For the universal strategies, schools should collaborate with local the agencies to ensure that topics on nutrition, discipline and communication are addressed. These should be offered frequently for all families. In addition, the school should provide all families with a directory of community support family services. For the targeted strategies, the school offers families as well as students taking special education workshops and support groups as well as other resources to increase their understanding and skills to support their children’s learning needs with all its uniqueness. This is the strategy where teachers have to be in constant communication with parents to ensure that they understand and respond to emergencies and stressful situations as they occur in one’s life (Bemak, 2000) . For the intensive strategies, the school should get a social worker whose mandate is to coordinate and link families to services such as safe housing (Nelson & Berns, 2007)

In conclusion, the importance of collaboration among the three groups involved in a child’s development is important. If you want a child to succeed academically then the family, school and community as a whole must be included in the progress. This is why it is important for families and schools to work together as this guarantees success (Grant & Ray, 2010) . 

References:

Bemak. (2000). Transforming the role of the counselor to provide leadership in education reform through collaboration. Professional School Counseling, 3(5) , 323.

Bryan. (2005). Fostering educational resilience and achievement in urban schools through school-family-community partnerships. Professional School Counseling , 219-227.

Deslandes. (2006). Designing and implementing school, family, and community collaboration programs in Quebec, Canada. School Community Journal, 16(1), , 81.

Epstein. (2001). School, family and community partnerships. preparing educators and improving schools. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. .

Epstein, S. S., & Voorhis, V. (2002). School, family, and community partnerships. Your handbook for action . Corwin Press.

Evans. (2013). Educating pre-service teachers for family, school and community engagement. Teaching Education, 24(2), . , 123-133.

Grant, & Ray. (2010). Home, school, and community collaboration. Culturally responsive family involvement. Sage.

Hands. (2013). Including all families in education: School district-level efforts to promote parent engagement in Ontario, Canada. (2),. . Teacher Education, 24 , 134-149.

Henderson, & Mapp. ( 2002). A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement. Annual Synthesis 2002. National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools.

Minke. (2000). Preventing school problems and promoting school success through family-school-community collaboration. Preventing school problems–promoting school success: Strategies and programs that work , 337-420.

Nelson, & Berns. (2007). Child, family, school, community: Socialization and support. Thompson Higher Education. .

Pang, & W. (2004). Perspectives and challenges. Education Research for Policy and Practice.School-family-community partnership in Hong Kong , 109-125.

Pang, & Watkins. (2000). Towards a psychological model of teacher-parent communication in Hong Kong primary schools,. Perspective. Education Journal 25(1),Educational Studies, 26(2 , 141-163, pp.82-105.

S.W. (2000). Effectiveness and School Improvement(Netherlands). The Impact of Social Class Difference on Parent Involvement in Hong Kong, , 551-560.

Sanders, & Harvey. (2002). Beyond the School Walls: . Teachers college record, 104(7). A Case Study of Principal Leadership for School-Community Collaboration , 1345-68.