Teacher Professional Development Toolkit:

High Expectations Parental Service offers family engagement professional development for the teachers and staff at the school site. The trainings will equip teachers and staff with the skills, tools, and resources needed to build effective partnerships with families, particularly with those who have been traditionally disengaged. Teachers will discuss how building relationships with families is a prerequisite for their engagement and will receive strategies for building these essential relationships.

Program Outcomes:

• Staff will have the skills, tools, and resources that teachers need to partner with all families for academic success.
• Staff will understand the impact that partnerships with families have on student achievement.
• Staff will have an increased capacity to create partnerships with traditionally disengaged families in a way to lead to increased academic success.
• Staff will feel more confident that partnerships between home and school are directly linked to increased academic achievement.

Professional Development Topics:

1. Family Engagement Core Beliefs:

   In this training, teachers and staff are introduced to the Family Engagement Core Beliefs developed by Dr. Karen Mapp. Once schools evaluate their commitment to the beliefs, they identify strategies for improving partnerships with families.

2. Family-School Action Planning:

   In this training, teachers understand how to work with families to develop an individualized Family-School Action Plan that identifies strategies to address the needs of underperforming students.

3. Preparing for Parent-Teacher Conferences:

   In this training, teachers understand how to engage families in an academic discussion during parent-teacher conferences that builds relationship and supports shared responsibility.

4. Partnering with African-American Families:

   In this training, teachers and staff understand how to successfully partner with African-American families to ensure the success of their children.

5. Using Common Core Backpack Activities to Build Partnerships:

   In this training, teachers and staff will be introduced to our Common Core Backpack Activities, which are a set of learning at home activities for families with students in grades Kindergarten-5^th. Participants will understand how to use the activities to engage families of underperforming students in their child’s academic success. They will also receive strategies for using these activities to build trusting relationships with families who have been disengaged from the school. (See description of our Common Core Backpack Activities on page 5.)