Foundational Aspects of Family-School Partnership Research

This volume focuses on how family-school partnerships are conceptualized, defined, and operationalized as well as the research that is needed to advance these foundational issues. Each chapter integrates prevailing approaches into a research-based framework for supporting learning from pre-K through high school. The book incorporates structural and relational methods into the larger context of educational processes to promote research about collaboration and to improve the academic and behavioral development of students. Diverse theories and models of family-school alliances demonstrate approaches and interventions that are goal-directed and strengths-based, respectful and responsive. In addition, the book analyzes cognitive, behavioral, and interpersonal aspects of partnership and discusses different methods of assessing parental involvement and student outcomes.

Included in the coverage are innovative, agenda-setting discussions on:

• Definitions and conceptual frameworks of family-school partnerships.
• Need-satisfying partnerships.
• Diverse parent perspectives and participation.
• Measurement of family-school partnership constructs over time.

Foundational Aspects of Family-School Partnership Research is an essential resource for researchers, professionals, and graduate students in child and school psychology, educational policy and politics, family studies, developmental psychology, sociology of education, sociology, and anthropology.

Susan M. Sheridan, Ph.D., is a George Holmes University Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, well known for her research on family-school partnerships and family engagement. She has managed numerous significant federal grants investigating the efficacy of a consultation-based partnership model, which have resulted in several publications and professional presentations. She has received several professional awards and has served in many leadership positions in the fields of school and educational psychology.

Elizabeth Moorman Kim, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Developmental Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently co-principal investigator of a federally funded research project examining the effects of interventions targeting parental involvement in children’s learning and family-school partnerships housed at the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research interests include family-school partnerships, parenting, and children’s motivation and achievement in school.