Developing a plan for family engagement may be the first step, but sooner rather than later, you also need to ensure that there are family-friendly tools and resources provided to families to ensure equitable and meaningful access to their students’ learning.

This guide will equip you with lots of tools and resources and ideas to meaningfully and continuously engage families in their children’s learning and development.

So you’re familiar with community schools. You’re interested. But getting started can feel like the hardest part. While your own school/district’s path may ultimately differ from Anaheim Union School District’s, their example can help you begin mapping out where to start.

Since the end result may not be realized for some time, it’s especially important to celebrate efforts—along with successes— throughout transformational journeys. And when it comes to family and community engagement initiatives, be sure to recognize and highlight everyone involved. When effort is directly recognized for making a positive impact toward larger goals, it can help motivate people by showing progress is being made and that the “little things” really matter when it comes to achieving loftier goals; it also helps solidify and empower our sense of community and unity.

What are community schools? Why should I consider this model? This resource provides an overview of the Four Pillars of Community Schools framework, so you can start reflecting more specifically on your own school’s approaches to supporting students in and out of the school building and connecting the school and its community.

What are community schools? Why should I consider this model? This resource provides an overview, so you can start reflecting on your own school’s approaches to supporting students in and out of the school building and connecting the school and its community.

During a Crowdsource on March 16, 2023, Anaheim Union High School District shared strategies for effectively engaging parents and family members. How can you create more authentic connections with and supports for your greater school community?

When students are struggling with literacy, consider teaching it schoolwide during every period of every day. This is what Valley High School implemented with outstanding results. This resource goes over the literacy playbook.

Do Something performance tasks ask students to demonstrate their anti-bias awareness and civic competency by applying their literacy and social justice knowledge in an authentic real-world context. The Identity Artifacts Museum activity provides students with the resources, time and strategies necessary to reflect upon and better understand aspects of their own identities and those of others.

Do Something performance tasks ask students to demonstrate their anti-bias awareness and civic competency by applying their literacy and social justice knowledge in an authentic real-world context. Truth to Power: Writing Letters for Change is an effective advocacy tool with the potential to create change while building student confidence. Writing for social change encourages writers to use their own voices and promotes literacy skills.

Create opportunities for the human-centered designer to notice and reflect on the identities, experiences and biases they bring to a design opportunity by using a card deck created by Standford d.school’s K12 Lab Network and The National Equity Project.

Using these techniques in daily interactions with educators, students, and parents can shape a shared respect for critical thinking that’s accessible to every student.

To support her school staff, a principal developed a weekly newsletter called Monday Morning Wins where she ties what’s happening in the school to a new schoolwide initiative.

Block scheduling is better for fostering and nurturing relationships for both teacher to student, as well as student to student relationships. 

The practice of mindfulness is a combination of awareness and acceptance. When you practice awareness, you focus your attention on your current—present—thoughts, feelings, and experiences. When you practice acceptance, you observe and accept—rather than judge or avoid—those thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

The Novice–Expert Continuum is a unique framework that captures the evolution of students’ learning processes as they progress from following procedural rules to generating novel and creative products and responses to problems.

Your SEL team will need to consider several factors prior to the adoption of an evidence-based program for SEL. This activity will assist your team to clarify the needs and priorities and chose a program best suited for your school.

Schoolwide norms are a set of agreed-upon expectations of how all students and staff will behave and interact to contribute to a positive school climate. This activity helps define what your schoolwide norms will be.

Reflect on SEL Competencies for School Leaders and Staff – an activity of self-awareness.

This tool will help the SEL team develop and document goals for schoolwide SEL implementation and outcomes using the SMARTIE goal-setting process.

Assembling the right team to lead a school-wide effort is key to success. This checklist will provide insight into the many stakeholders you should be keeping in mind.

This activity is designed to make you think about what matters to your students when it comes to leading for change. What do they feel empowered to do as leaders? Consider what schoolwide initiatives you would like to see your students leading.

It doesn’t need to be in the news for us to know: hiring and retaining teachers and school staff is an increasingly difficult task. And it’s also the most important for our students. Yes, there are larger, more complex problems that need to be resolved, but there are also changes you can make now that will help you start hiring and retaining the talent your students need and deserve.

An effective master schedule is so much more than making sure the bells ring on time. It not only sets the pace for the school and community, but it can directly impact students’ access to equitable learning, opportunities, and holistic well-being. It also impacts the well-being of your staff as well as their opportunities for meaningful collaboration, preparation, and professional development. An equitable and effective master schedule can lead to a healthier school community overall.