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About the Carolina Family Engagement Center


CFEC logoWho does CFEC serve?

The work of CFEC is focused primarily on underserved families and their students (low income, English learners, those with disabilities, those in foster care, migrants, homeless, and marginalized communities). Housed within the SC School Improvement Council (SC-SIC) at the University of South Carolina College of Education, CFEC will make its tools, trainings, and materials available to all stakeholders statewide through its website and other venues.

Capacity-Building Training and Technical Assistance

CFEC’s regional liaisons will deliver training and technical assistance in family engagement directly to identified districts, schools, families, educators and communities. The University of South Carolina College of Education Research Institute and members of the College of Education faculty will work with CFEC’s leadership team and liaisons to ensure all training and technical assistance is culturally responsive and grounded in the most current research.

CFEC’s liaisons will work with approximately 24 identified school communities across the state, providing ongoing, intensive training and technical assistance for development, implementation, and evaluation of school-wide family engagement plans. Additionally, CFEC will provide up to 40 qualifying teachers with $1,000 stipends over the next four years for their development, implementations, and evaluation of classroom-level family engagement plans with ongoing technical assistance from CFEC liaisons.

Build a Statewide Infrastructure Supporting Family Engagement

CFEC will serve as a hub connecting families and schools with CFEC community partners and others who provide a broad range of services and resources addressing students’ academic and developmental needs. CFEC will also assist schools and communities to engage families from cradle-to-career by facilitating growth of new networks between the early childhood and K-12 education systems.

Organizational Readiness and Getting To Outcomes™ for Improved Results

CFEC will use the implementation science framework Getting To Outcomes™ (GTO) to provide schools and families with a roadmap to plan, implement, and evaluate their family engagement work. With GTO, they will assess needs; identify goals and outcomes; use evidenced-based practices; plan and implement with quality; engage in ongoing evaluation and continuous improvement; and take steps to sustain successful activities. CFEC will also use an organizational readiness tool developed by the Wandersman Center to measure levels of school readiness to implement family engagement practices. Results will be used to identify effective interventions for building readiness in areas where needed.

Why Invest in Family-School-Community Partnerships?

Over four decades of research have found that increased levels of family engagement are associated with many desired outcomes for students, such as improvements in academic achievement, behavior, attendance, and graduation rates.

The Carolina Family Engagement Center pledge is to deliver high-quality parent education for family engagement by providing training and technical assistance in family engagement to districts and schools, and working with partners to develop the reach of family engagement services across South Carolina. We do this by offering high-quality parent education for family engagement, supplying training and technical assistance in family engagement to districts and schools, and collaborating with partners to develop the reach of family engagement services across our state. We aim to boost student achievement, foster school improvement, and build the ability of all stakeholders to develop robust partnerships through stronger family engagement.