Building the Foundation for Student and School Success through Effective Family Engagement
Carolina Family Engagement Center is proud to announce that we are officially taking applicants for the CFEC School Partner Program beginning in Fall 2024! Twenty spaces are available for:
- any South Carolina public school with a poverty index of 60% or higher
- schools with a commitment to enhance family engagement in education for all students
- schools with a commitment for a 2-year period beginning Fall 2024, with the opportunity to renew
School Partner Program is offered FREE OF CHARGE to participating schools
Read more about the CFEC School Partner Program
Three Pillar Program
The CFEC School Partner Program incorporates three pillars: (1) the Schoolwide Stakeholder Partner program, (2) the Teacher Partner program, and (3) the Parent Leadership Partner program. These three program “pillars” support family engagement capacity-building for both educators and parents. Specific strategies within each pillar will be selected in collaboration with individual schools to ensure that they align with priority academic and school climate goals and coordinate with the school’s Title I or other applicable family engagement initiatives. All work is grounded in the SC Family Engagement K-12 Framework (SCDE 2019) and is culturally responsive, evidence-based, and informed by research and practice.
The focus of the Schoolwide Stakeholder Partner Program is on school-level capacity-building to support the development of effective family-school-community partnerships that support student achievement and school improvement. This is a collaborative process between CFEC and the school that is accomplished through several activities:
- High-quality coaching and technical assistance for a schoolwide stakeholder team from one of our CFEC Liaisons.
- The schoolwide stakeholder team plans and supports implementation and evaluation of family engagement initiatives across the school, learning to use a planning tool developed by the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS; Epstein, 2019) to ensure that its work aligns with the school’s existing improvement plan goals. School membership in NNPS is encouraged but not required to participate in the CFEC program.
- Implementing and evaluating at least one family engagement practice selected by the stakeholder team that involves personnel from throughout the school in maintaining a welcoming environment for all families, and (2) all school personnel completing at least one annual one-hour CFEC professional development session designed to meet the school’s capacity-building needs.
Read more about our Schoolwide Stakeholder Partner Program (PDF)
The CFEC Teacher Partner Program aims to enhance the capacities of teachers to design, plan, implement, and evaluate family engagement initiatives for their classrooms, using evidence-based and practice-supported strategies to strengthen parent-teacher partnerships to improve student learning and development.
The approach to family engagement strategies is relationship-based, collaborative, inclusive of all families and students, linked to student learning and development outcomes, and recognizes the key role of the community in supporting successful family-school partnerships. See SC Framework for K-12 Family Engagement (SCDE, 2019) and Dual Capacity Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships (Version 2, Mapp et al., 2019).
Participating teachers meet monthly over a two-year period with their CFEC Regional Family Engagement Liaison (liaison) to
- plan and implement at least one classroom family engagement goal/strategy using a tool based on the Getting To Outcomes® strategic planning method
- evaluate results using data gathered during implementation
- submit a summary of evaluation data and results to CFEC at the end of the program
- use evaluation data to continuously improve results and sustain successful strategies over time
Read more about the Teacher Partner Program (PDF)
CFEC’s Parent Leadership Partner (PLP) Program is a uniquely designed engagement-focused curriculum that aims to increase and improve parental engagement within our local school communities. The curriculum can be utilized by any parent group, but it is especially tailored for use among parents of students enrolled in Title I schools or schools with a poverty index greater than 60%. In this context, parents include any adult who is serving as the primary caretaker or guardian for a student.
The goals of the program are to:
- increase parent capacity to advocate for their own children’s educational needs, as well as advocacy for school improvement for all students
- increase parent awareness about available tools and resources beneficial to them and their children.
In PLP, groups of up to approximately 15 parents increase their knowledge, skills, confidence, and connections in a supportive environment with other parents. PLP sessions are built around 7 research-based modules developed by Yasha Jones Becton, Ed.D. that have been incorporated into a parent workbook and cover topics related to leadership skill development and navigating the special education system as well as providing understanding about how parents can become parent leaders within their local school community.