Resources and Tools

A place to start!  There are many comprehensive and practical resources for supporting school community building. This listing is not comprehensive but is offered as a starting point for related resources. Café encourages the sharing of your experiences with using these resources along with suggestions of quality resources that may be a catalyst for taking action.

Epstein, J. and Associates, (2009)  School, Family, and Community Partnerships, Your Handbook for Action, Corwin Press. This user-friendly handbook guides school, district, and state leaders to organize and implement positive and permanent programs of school, family, and community.

Landsver, R. (2002), Families, Schools, and Communities, The Action Team, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. A state-wide initiative to integrate the action team approach proposed by J. Epstein et al, and the consolidated research of the National Network of Partnership Schools.

Shueler, B., (2013), A New Tool for Understanding Family–School Relationships: The Harvard Graduate School of Education PreK-12 Parent Survey, The Evaluation Exchange, V1), 1.

Harris, E.,  Wilke, S. Partnerships for Learning: Community Support for Youth Success, Harvard Family Research Project.

Coalition for Community Schools, (2011), Scaling up school and community partnerships; The Community schools strategy.

Barbour, Barbour, Scully, (2010), Families, Schools and Communities: Building Partnerships for Educating Children – 5th ed. Pearson Education

Anderson, B., Welcoming Schools Quick Assessment, an inventory for parents and community to assess the level of openess and enagement in the school community.

Alberta Education’s (2011)  Alberta Education’s collaborative conversation guide... Introduces 11 principles of a wraparound approach adapted from the National Wraparound Initiative, Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health, Portland State University and case studies in Alberta schools .

Epstein, J., and B. Sheldon, (2006) Moving Forward: Ideas for Research on School, Family and Community Partnerships, from SAGE Handbook for research in education: Engaging ideas and enriching inquiry,  C. F. Conrad & R. Serlin (Eds.), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

The Search institute offers professional development opportunities around the developmental asset framework that now include a focus on relationship and community assets.  http://www.search-institute.org/our-workshops

Starkman, Scales, Roberts (1999) Great Places to Learn, How Asset-building Schools Help Students succeed, Search Institute, MN

Warren, M., Mapp, K. (2011) A Match on dry grass, community organizing catalyst for school reform. Oxford University Press, USA Case studies highlighting role of parents and students in school improvement efforts.