EALA

Topic Area: Building Partnerships with Families

  • Advocating for the Literacy Needs of Children

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    This tutorial includes a self-advocacy and family track. In the family track, parents and family members will learn why advocacy is important, how to advocate for their child’s literacy needs, and what to do when advocacy is difficult, all in an interactive online experience. In the self-advocacy track, students will learn about self-empowerment, understanding their…

  • Prioritizing Community and Belonging in Distance Learning: The Oakland REACH’s City-Wide Virtual Hub

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    This case study describes the Oakland REACH’s City-Wide Virtual Hub, a distance learning program launched during COVID-19. Chief Program Officer Michael De Sousa illustrates the potency of shifting power to families and prioritizing a sense of belonging and cultural identity while gaining political traction at City Hall. The Oakland REACH’s individualized approach has been transformative…

  • Engaging Parents in Productive Partnerships

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    IEP teams are intentionally composed of parents, educators, and service providers who bring different expertise to the development of effective educational programs. This resource from the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education (CADRE) includes suggestions on how educators and service providers can effectively collaborate with parents including specific recommendations for IEP meetings.

  • Prioritizing Community and Belonging in Distance Learning: The Oakland REACH’s City-Wide Virtual Hub

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    I came to the Oakland REACH as Chief Program Officer in August 2020, backed by 18 years working in the public school system. The youngest child of Azorean immigrants, I was the first in my family to attend college (my parents had a third-grade education). Though I majored in molecular biology, my passion for social…

  • How can educators engage these families?

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    To successfully achieve family engagement, educators must get to know, build positive relationships with, and meaningfully involve families. Establishing positive relationships creates an atmosphere conducive to family involvement. This is vital in improving outcomes for students, families, and the school, as well as in the greater community. Let’s look at a number of actions educators…

  • Neurodiversity: What you need to know

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    For kids with learning and thinking differences, the idea of neurodiversity has real benefits. It can help kids (and their parents) frame their challenges as differences, rather than as deficits. It can also shed light on instructional approaches that might help to highlight particular strengths kids have . One such approach is Universal Design for…

  • Anxiety in people who learn and think differently

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    Many people have anxiety at some point in their lives — including kids. But people who learn and think differently are more likely to have anxiety than other people.

  • Equity and ESSER: How Schools Can Embrace a Participatory Approach to Amplify Family Voices in Budget Planning

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    The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund represents a once-in-a-generation surge in federal education funding. Created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has transformative potential for schools across America. It could support more teachers in classrooms, higher staff pay, tutors, improved technology, and enrichment activities that never reached enough students before the pandemic.

  • A Second Grade Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills

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    The information in this Second Grade Teacher’s Guide is designed to assist teachers in supporting out-of-school literacy activities that are aligned to classroom instruction, informed by student need, grounded in evidence-based practices, and facilitated by ongoing parent-teacher communication. The Teacher’s Guide provides a framework for literacy support activities presented during schools’ family literacy nights and…

  • A First Grade Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills

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    Each grade-specifc Teacher’s Guide provides a framework for literacy support that you canpresent during your school’s family literacy nights and parent–teacher conferences.