Families and Teachers as Partners

What can families do to work better with schools?

All parents and family members want to help their young children succeed in school. By working together with schools and teachers, families can help their young children succeed. Below are some questions that family members can ask themselves to begin to meet teachers halfway:

• What is my relationship like with my young child's teacher or caregiver? To strengthen your relationship with your child's teacher, call to plan a meeting or to set a time to talk on the phone. Be sure to share what you expect your child to learn. Ask about your child's schoolwork and behavior in preschool or school.
• How do I find out what the school expects from me and share what I want for my child from the school? Families and teachers often come from different cultural backgrounds, which can make it hard to know what to expect from each other. Let your child's teacher know what you do at home to help your child learn and what you want your child to learn in school. Also ask what the teacher expects you to do in the school or with your child.
• How can I help my young child at home? You can ask your child's teacher for suggestions about learning activities that you and your child can do together at home.
• What can I tell my young child's teacher about my child? You are an expert about your child. Think about your child's interests, talents, and challenges. Share this information with your child's teacher so that the teacher can help your child learn.
• How can I be most helpful to the school or early childhood program? Let your child's teacher know what your interests and skills are, such as sewing, cooking, woodworking, or computers. Also let the teacher know when and where you are available to help. Ask about the kinds of help that are most needed.
• How can I help educate teachers? Think about how you can help teachers learn to work as partners and become better teachers. For example, you could form a committee to help new teachers learn about your community. You could also help change school policies and practices by joining the Parent Teacher Association.

How can teachers and families work together?

To work well with families and help young children learn, teachers need to know several things. The following skills are ones that parents can look for in their child's teacher. These are also skills that parents can help teachers learn.

Teachers need to know:

• About families--who they are and what they want for their young child.
• How to involve families in their young child's learning.
• How to talk with families.
• How to support families in helping their young child learn at home.
• How to involve families in the classroom and school.
• How to support families' interests and needs.
• How to share decision making with families.
• Respect and value different cultures.

Research on how teachers learn to work with families shows good examples of families and teachers as partners and the important role that families play. For example, in an early childhood center in Napa, California where the preschool teachers are mostly non-Hispanic and the families are mostly Hispanic, the teachers invited the families to the center to learn from them about their culture and their goals for their young children. In this way, the parents and teachers helped each other gain important knowledge about what the families and teachers valued, how to communicate with each other, and how to work as partners.

In an early childhood center in Fort Worth, Texas, teachers and other staff members have helped busy parents save time and have more time to spend with their young children. Parents can drop off their dry cleaning at the center when they bring their children there in the morning. They can also buy snacks for the ride home when picking their children up in the evenings. Many of these time-saving ideas came from parents who returned a survey about what they needed help with most from the child care center.