Promising Practices for Family and Community Involvement during High School (HC)

This volume focuses on family and community connections with education during the high school years. Incomparison to the wealth of attention that has been focused on involving parents with schools during the earlychildhood and elementary school years less attention has been directed to parents of high school students andfewer educational programs have been developed to forge connections between family community studentsand educators at the high school level. Researchers have found that family and community have a verysignificant impact on student achievement and on post secondary attainment despite the considerable declinein parental involvement by high school. Educators know that family and community factors are important forstudent success in high school while at the same time they identify working with families and connecting thecurriculum to the community as difficult.Currently scholars from various fields are involved in conducting research to better understand how schoolscan best enhance the education of the young through interactions with students' families and communities.Educational practitioners also are pioneering efforts to involve and serve families as well as to connect withcommunities in order to enrich the educational environment and enlarge opportunities for students teachers families and community members. Thisvolume which will be of interest to both researchers and educators reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the field. The contributors were recruitedfrom diverse fields and workplaces.Chapters are organized into two sections to reflect whether the genesis of the work described is from theory and research or from practice and policy.Chapters originating from theory and research address: adolescent development and family involvement; the role of family and community inextracurricular activity participation; and the evolution of trust relationships in school community partnership development. Chapters originating frompractice and policy address: transition to high school using the community as a text for learning; career education partnerships with businesses postsecondary institutions and community organizations; as well as state policies and programs that support parental involvement in postsecondaryplanning.