National Principals Month: FEP School Leader Talks Effective Family Engagement

October 16, 2016 01:17 PM
by / Topics: Improving Family Engagement
Washington, DC, USA - February 12, 2016: Van Ness Elementary educator portraits and student candids. Photo by Ian Wagreich / © Ian Wagreich Photography

Cynthia Robinson-Rivers: Head of School, Van Ness Elementary School

During National Principals Month, Flamboyan Foundation is taking a moment to acknowledge some of the principals and school leaders who have partnered with us to lead the charge in family engagement. We know that when principals, school leaders, and educators engage families as partners, strong trusting relationships among teachers and families are built and student performance improves. Without a doubt, our partner principals have a number of competing priorities. Yet, they remain committed to creating a school culture that improves student outcomes through high-impact family engagement strategies.

In this Q&A, Cynthia Robinson-Rivers, Head of School at Van Ness ES, opens up about why family engagement is important.

FF:
As school principal, there must be a lot of competing priorities that you manage daily and strategically. Tell us more about why family engagement is one of those top priorities and why you’re committed to it.
Ms. Robinson-Rivers:
At school, we can make sure we are using the best curricula and ensure lessons are engaging, but we need the support of our families to close our gaps in achievement. It’s helpful to understand that family engagement is not a competing priority with other initiatives, but rather complements our other school goals.  With academic achievement, our parents’ involvement in goal setting and assistance with lessons at home helps us meet ambitious learning goals for students.  With socio-emotional learning, our parents’ ability to nurture their children and cultivate confidence and curiosity helps us create a safe and loving school environment.  And in terms of healthy lifestyles, our parents’ investment in good nutrition, appropriate sleep habits, and exercise helps set our students up for success at school. 

FF:
Give an example of how you’ve personally seen the impact of family engagement benefit a teacher-parent relationship? How did the student benefit?
Ms. Robinson-Rivers: Building positive relationships with families can really improve students’ success in school, especially those students who may be having a hard time acclimating to the routines of the school environment. One student in our school was having difficulty with self-regulation, getting along with others, and completing work during lessons.  While the teachers used strategies at school, they also were sure to stay in touch with the child’s parents frequently through texting and calling, to take many opportunities to highlight positive behaviors during those conversations, and to work with the family to set specific, achievable goals for the child.  With the establishment of a strong relationship between teachers and family, we quickly saw improvement in behaviors that would have otherwise prevented this child from being successful in school.  It was clear that the frequent communication and focus on the positive helped the parents to become invested and not discouraged and they were therefore able to positively contribute to their child’s growth and development.

FF:
Specifically, what family engagement high-impact strategy/strategies do you think are having a lasting impact in your school community and why? Home visits? Student-Led Conferences? Ongoing Communication? Academic Parent-Teacher Teams? Parent-Teacher Conferences?
Ms. Robinson-Rivers:
Home visits have been enormously valuable to us. So far, we have visited 90% of families in our school.  We set a goal last spring to visit 50% of families during the summer before school started and the teachers exceeded this goal.  This made the start of the year much smoother for both students and families since they were familiar and comfortable with the teachers, understood what to expect of school, and had an introduction to our family engagement mission.  Home visits have given teachers opportunities to understand much more fully the wishes of parents and also the concerns that make them feel anxious.  Teachers are then able to cater the information they communicate to parents to meet their different needs.  With early childhood, the home visits were very useful in reducing separation anxiety in our youngest learners and we noticed much less upset feelings during the first few days of school, which can be difficult for children in our early childhood classrooms.

FF:
We know that family engagement is most effective when the whole school believes in its impact and connection to student achievement. How do you get every member of the faculty and staff excited about and motivated to do family engagement? Tell us more about how you make it part of the school culture.
Ms. Robinson-Rivers:
Our teachers are awesome. They are completely invested in the importance of family engagement and understand the value of involved parents.  One aspect of how we introduced the concepts of home visits and ongoing communication to staff that helped us to be successful was the first meeting our family engagement leadership team facilitated with the staff.  Teacher leaders presented compelling data about the importance of engaging families, showed videos that highlighted the impact of this work, and shared information about how we can mitigate challenges like implicit bias.  The quality of this first introduction really helped convince our staff of the value of this initiative.

FF:
What would you tell a principal who’s on the fence about implementing family engagement high-impact strategies within his/her school? How would you get him/her on board?
Ms. Robinson-Rivers:
If you leverage strong teacher leaders and take time to thoughtfully introduce family engagement initiatives to your staff, it will be easier to get ‘buy in’ and you’ll be more likely to succeed in your efforts. While this may seem like an additional thing to add to your already-full plate, it really is inter-related with all of your other school goals, including student achievement, culture and climate, and community engagement.  Building strong relationships with families will make all of your other goals more easily attained.

FF:
What are your long-term goals for Van Ness and what elements of family engagement will help you achieve those goals and why?
Ms. Robinson-Rivers:
We would like to cultivate students who will be empathetic, compassionate, critical thinkers with the skills to be successful in a global economy. We also want to ensure our students are achieving academically, regardless of race or socio-economic status.  Family engagement helps achieve all of these goals.  When we get to know our families and let them understand how much we truly care about them and their children, we are able to model the caring and empathy we hope they will have for one another.  When we take time to share data and set goals with families, we help our children to learn and understand concepts covered in school.  Engaging families who may not have had the skills needed or may not have felt empowered is critical as we aim to ensure achievement results for all of our learners.

FF:
In reflecting on National Principals Month, tell us a little about your journey to a school leader and how you’ve navigated the education sector.
Ms. Robinson-Rivers:
I taught Pre-K to first grade in public and private schools in California and Washington, DC before transitioning to a role at central office. In central office I worked on human capital initiatives that would improve and retain our teachers before returning to a school setting as an assistant principal.  It was during my time as an AP at a school that introduced Flamboyan as a partner that I learned the immense value of family engagement.  The school saw improvement on test scores, school culture, and parent satisfaction.  When starting as a founding Head of School at my own school, I knew I wanted to use the family engagement strategies I learned and three months into the school year we are already seeing its many benefits.