Dissertation in Practice Award Winner June 2013 CPED Convening

1. Academic Parent-Teacher
Teams:
Family Engagement as an
Instructional Strategy
Maria C. Paredes

2. What We know From
Research
Students who benefit from having highly engaged parents:
 Do better in school
 Have a positive attitude toward learning and achievement
 Enjoy greater academic socialization at home and in the
community
 Possess more developed social skills
 Have higher rates of high school completion
 Are more likely to enroll in college and obtain a degree

3. Dissertation in Practice
Problem of Practice:
1. Schools lack a formal system or structure to
facilitate parent-teacher collaboration
2. Lack of opportunity for teachers and
administrators to build capacity to meaningfully
engage parents in student learning

4. Theoretical Framework
 Concerted cultivation
(Annette Lareau, 2003)
 Self-efficacy model for engagement
(Hoover-Dempsey, 1995, 1997, 2005)

5. Intervention
Academic Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT)
APTT is a classroom-based systematic
approach to parent–teacher collaboration
focused on student academic development.
Objective:
Every parent acquires the necessary
information, skills and confidence to
support student learning at home.

6. APTT
Two Components
1. Three 75-minute team meetings (All
parents in the class come together)
2. One 30-minute individual session (The
teacher, the student, and the students’ family)

7. The APTT Process
 Welcome and icebreaker
 Review foundational grade level skills
 Review student progress data
 Teacher demonstrates practice activities
 Parents practice activities and take home
practice materials
 Parents set 60-day SMART goals

8. Participants
 Nine first grade classrooms in nine schools in
Phoenix, AZ.
 Objective: improve reading fluency
Demographics:
92% Free or reduced lunch
80% Hispanic
45% ELL

9. Results
Quantitative
 DIBELS in August averaged 17 WPM
 DIBELS in November averaged 46 WPM
 End of the year standard for 1st grade 62 WPM
Qualitative
 Increased quality and quantity of parent-teacher communication
 Parents welcomed teachers invitations to participate and to be
held to a higher standard of engagement
 Increased teacher efficacy to engage parents
 Many students met or exceeded academic expectations
 APTT provided additional time and structure teachers needed

10. Implications
 With proper training and support teachers can take
action at the classroom level to engage families in
the teaching and learning process
 Teachers can incorporate family engagement as a
key component of effective instruction
 The results also validate previous research results
which showed that parents value the academic
success of their children, regardless of social class,
race or academic attainment

11. APTT Impact to Date
 In three years, APTT has grown to include about
2,000 classroom and about 65,000 families in six
states and Washington DC.
 APTT has set a new standard for sharing actionable
student data with families
 APTT was used as a key resource in shaping the
national Family Engagement Capacity Building
Framework, released by USDE in 2012

12. Thank you