Twelve D.C. Schools Chosen for the Family Engagement Partnership

June 2, 2016 02:50 PM
by / Topics: Improving Family Engagement

The Flamboyan Foundation has announced that 12 D.C. schools have been selected as new Family Engagement Partners for SY16-17 from among 28 applicants. Flamboyan will work with these schools to build educators’ capacity to forge trust and work in partnership with families so that students do better. These schools will join the 32 elementary, education campus and secondary schools already in the partnership, bringing the total number of Family Engagement Partner schools to 44. Nine DCPS and three public charter schools make up the new cohort.

The D.C. schools chosen as partners are: Apple Tree Parklands PCS, Brightwood EC, Democracy Prep PCS, Drew ES, E.L. Haynes PCS (elementary school), H.D. Cooke ES, Marie Reed ES, Patterson ES, Savoy ES, Turner ES, Van Ness ES, and West EC.

With the announcement of the new partners, Kristin Ehrgood, Flamboyan’s President and Board Chair, said, “We are excited about the growth of this work and to partner with this new group of DC schools. We support their belief that family engagement will change their student outcomes and community for the better and will help them realize that vision.

Flamboyan Foundation’s Washington, D.C. Executive Director Susan Stevenson added, “This has been an intensive and rigorous process, and we congratulate the newly selected schools on being chosen from among many applicants for their commitment to improve how they partner with families. Family engagement plays a pivotal role in successful schools, and this year’s cohort is proof that this conviction is spreading across D.C.”

The Flamboyan Foundation’s Family Engagement Partnership strengthens schools’ family engagement practices with the goals of improving student learning, attendance and behavior, school enrollment, teacher satisfaction and retention, and parent confidence and satisfaction.  The partnership focuses on helping teachers build positive relationships with parents and share information with parents so they can better support their child’s success.

Family Engagement Partnership schools implement high impact family engagement strategies such as home visits, ongoing communication and academic meetings with support from Flamboyan. Flamboyan’s support includes: training, coaching, data analysis and progress reports; teacher network meetings; and funding.

Last year, Johns’ Hopkins University researchers released the results of an evaluation that linked improvements in the performance of D.C. public elementary school students with Flamboyan’s Family Engagement Partnership. The study covered 12 D.C. public elementary schools and more than 4,000 students in the 2012-2014 school years. It found that students whose families received a home visit, one of the core strategies in the Family Engagement Partnership, had 24 percent fewer absences and were more likely to read at or above grade level compared to similar students who did not receive a home visit.