School And Community Partnerships Are Vital

I interviewed both a teacher and a parent regarding school and community partnerships. School and community partnerships are vital because taxpayers have a vested interest in what their dollars are being used for, effective communication contributes to public confidence in schools, and students benefit when all stakeholders play a role in education. The teacher I interviewed is a Kindergarten teacher in a school that is very diverse and works with many students and families that live in poverty. The parent I interviewed is the mother of five children, but I asked her to focus on her youngest son who is in fourth grade when answering the questions. The school he attends is a small private school.

When I interviewed the Kindergarten teacher she was very eager to share all of the partnerships that her school is participating in. She stated that the biggest challenge facing schools today is the increasing class size, poverty, and cuts in funding. As a result, “sage funding” was put into place to help with smaller classes, but is now being cut from the La Crosse School District. In regards to poverty, she says that schools can help get families in touch with community organizations that can provide them with some of their needs.

The school that she teaches at engages families through a variety of activities and volunteer opportunities. The school has family nights, which include healthy cooking demonstrations, dance and exercise classes, and other family building activities. She also shared with me that in the school there are a lot of volunteering and field trips taken throughout the year that gets the students out in the community. However, one of the challenges families are encountering is that more families are having to have ...

... middle of paper ...

...rs, e-mail, phone calls, parent meetings, and parent-teacher conferences. As a result, she believes that the school her child attends is doing an effective job of communicating with parents and families because the resources are available to parents and families to use, it is just a matter of them wanting to use what is available to them.

She believes some of the challenges contemporary families are facing are the economy, healthcare, loss of employment, lack of basic necessities, and broken homes. Despite these challenges, schools and families can work together to make schools stronger by creating a positive learning environment and show the student that they are there to help the student in any way possible. She also states that it is important for the teacher and parent(s) to be on the same page and support each other in regards to learning styles and techniques.