Family and Community Engagement

Family participation is one of the most important factors in a child’s success at school. The Generation Schools model includes a multifaceted approach to partnering with families. Substantial resources are dedicated to creating strong and supportive links between home and school.

Multi-year Relationships with Teachers
Consistent meaningful relationships between students and teachers will improve academic achievement and family engagement, which are fundamental to drop out prevention. To support the development of ongoing and meaningful home/school relationships, students work with the same teachers for multiple years. Home base advisors are partnered with the same students for up to three years. The Foundation Course lead teachers typically work with students for two consecutive years.

Staggered Family/School Conferences
Rather than scheduling family/teacher conferences for the entire school at one time, formal conferences at a Generation School are staggered throughout the year all year long. The Foundation Course teachers carefully reflect upon and assess three or four students per class per week, scheduling family meetings the following week. This enables the teachers to reflect thoughtfully and thoroughly about each child and to spend more time with parents. In-depth conferences are scheduled annually with the family of each student.

Home Language Support
Parents and teachers are far more likely to work together if they can speak to each other. We will work to recruit staff who speak the home language of the students in their home base.

Community-Reflective Curricula
People learn more effectively when they can connect life and family experiences to the curricula they are learning. The curriculum framework in both the core courses and in the enrichment programs, called studio courses, provides flexibility to adapt to the local school communities. The electives will be customized to reflect the varied cultural influences of each school’s constituencies.

Community Partnerships
Schools partner with community resources including cultural and other educational organizations, physical and mental health facilities, and nutritional services. These partnerships create a synergy that serves the students in the school and the people in the community, leveraging budgets and each other’s resources.

Family and Community Partnership Director
As the school grows, a fulltime director ensures that families remain connected to the school and their voices are heard. This director facilitates and coordinates evening and weekend programs for parents and students and promotes volunteerism both within the school and the broader community.