Discover how family engagement can boost your English learner's success!
Family engagement in increasingly being used as a strategy to support student achievement and to close opportunity gaps. Increase your knowledge of how to build rewarding relationships with your school community. This is Part 1 of 2, which is then followed up with a course on parent leadership to complete the Pathway.
How will it help you to enroll in the course?
Immigrant Family and Community Engagement in Schools
Course Outcomes
In this course, participants will:
* acquire information on the Dual Capacity Building Framework and other theories from the field of family engagement;
* gain awareness of the journeys, strengths, and challenges of immigrant families, particularly in regards to their interactions with schools; and
* increase knowledge of how to welcome and provide language access for immigrant families.
English Language Learner (ELL) departments typically have expertise in the cultural backgrounds of their students and families and how to best communicate with them, but may not have expertise in family engagement. This can also be said for those working in immigrant and refugee organizations. ELL, immigrant, and refugee professionals may not be aware of national and state frameworks and initiatives for family engagement in schools nor evidence based strategies that are most known to impact student learning.
There is a great need for the family engagement and ELL/immigrant fields to come together in order to learn from each other and improve immigrant family and community engagement efforts. There are very few resources at the local, state, or national level that bring together these two fields and none that specifically looks at the Dual Capacity-Building Framework in terms of immigrant families. This online course seeks to fill this gap.
Get proven strategies to put in place
Acquire information on the Dual Capacity-Building Framework and other theories from the field of family engagement. Discover strategies for increasing the capacity of immigrant families and school staff for engaging in partnerships.
Understand what your students are experiencing
Gain awareness of the journeys, strengths, and challenges of immigrant families, particularly in regards to their interactions with school staff
Feel better prepared to welcome English language learners
Increase knowledge of how to welcome, orient, and provide language access for immigrant families.
I have a Master's in TESL and learned a few things from this course! Particularly on the differences between interpretation and translation, and how important family engagement is. I am hoping to implement some of these best practices at my school!
Educator in Massachusetts
How will family engagement help my students academically?
Family engagement is increasingly being used to support student achievement and close opportunity gaps.
Research shows the positive impact of family engagement on student achievement. The family engagement field has exponentially grown in the past few years with the development of the Dual Capacity-Building Framework (which we'll address).
More and more school districts are recognizing the importance of family engagement and are hiring district- and school-level leaders to facilitate this work. You'll learn what it takes to make family engagement purposeful and impactful in the school setting.
This class was so interesting, enjoyable, and immediately relevant to my current work. I complete the course with a ton of valuable resources to share with fellow teachers, staff, and families! Thank you SO much!!
Will I get credit for taking this course?
Yes! Upon completion of Part 1, all participants will earn a certificate of participation that states the number of professional development hours completed (5 hours). Completion of all three courses in the Family Engagement Pathway earns 15 hours and qualifies you for graduate credit.
If you need graduate credit, this is also an option! For a small additional fee ($75) and the completion of a final project, you will receive one (1) graduate credit through Brandman University. Brandman University is based out of California, but specializes in online education. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and is a member of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL).