Schools across Northern Kentucky are listening, building relationships and acknowledging parents’ or guardians’ importance in their strategies to help children succeed.
“If we want true partnerships between families and schools, we have to redesign systems that invite families in on their own terms,” said Cheye Calvo, president of EducateNKY. “That means shifting from doing to families to doing with them – and that begins by recognizing and addressing the power dynamics at play.”
Educate NKY is a two-year-old nonprofit created to bring together a broad range of organizations, schools and families to learn more about how children in the region are performing – and how to increase their chances of success.
One of those organizations is the Pritchard Committee for Academic Excellence, an education advocacy agency that runs the Family Friendly Schools program, certifying schools that go “above and beyond” in partnership with families in a “strong and authentic way.”
Brooke Gill, director of family engagement at Pritchard, said Educate NKY is connecting the dots to make sure pressing issues are discussed – that someone is “tasked with making us all talk.”
“It’s just being intentional about having a person designation to help this group, talk to that group, find out what this group has, what that group needs,” Gill said. “You hit a couple of magic moments in these conversations, and the momentum just goes from there.”
The momentum at Lincoln Elementary in Dayton is going strong.
‘Keep them on track’
Jordan Furnish’s kids, Aria, 10, and Oliver, 8, attend Lincoln Elementary, and Furnish said he particularly likes the quarterly meetings between his family and the children’s teachers. The 30-minute meetings started during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they proved so popular that they continued after in-person classes resumed, taking the place of traditional open houses.
The individualized meetings allow Jordan Furnish and his wife, Alesha, to talk about their children’s goals, achievements and challenges, and the teachers’ plan for their education.
“It’s a chance to connect with them and kind of learn what my kids are going to learn throughout the school year,” Jordan Furnish said. “Kind of keep them on track and see what we can do at home to help better their education as well.”
The meetings have made such a difference, said Lincoln Elementary Principal Heather Dragan, that the entire district now uses them. Every school now dedicates two days right before the academic year starts for family engagement.
During the pandemic, students had to be assigned certain entrances to the school so staff could take their temperature. Lincoln kept that up, as well, just without the temperature checks: They now station 15 administrators and staff members at the entrances to welcome students into school each day.
Dragan said the school also has a well-oiled car line, giving parents a chance to interact with staff as they drive through.
Another way Lincoln Elementary staff connects with its students and their families is through summer Parties in the Park, which started a few years ago. Staff grill out, offer popsicles and play games with the kids and families.
“It was a chance for us to get to know the families better and for the kids and families to get to know each other better,” Dragan said. “I feel like they’ve very much appreciated us coming to them.”
The outreach is proving so effective that Lincoln Elementary has notched a 100% attendance rate at parent-teacher conferences, a key metric of family engagement.
Educators and advocates are quick to point out, though, that not every child’s parent or guardian can show up to such events. Many are working, and some hold two or even three jobs.
There is a concerted effort to give those parents opportunities to get involved by “meeting them where they’re at.” And the effort can begin well before the children reach school age.
Access and opportunity
The Brighton Center has a program called Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, which sends mentors into homes to teach activities for children that can help their language and cognitive skills grow. The center also participates in Every Child Succeeds, which starts working with women on educational strategies while they are still pregnant until the child is 2.
Melissa Hall Sommer, Brighton Center’s senior vice president, said parents and other caregivers want their children to be happy, healthy, kind and ready for school. She said the center works under the premise that “everyone has inherent worth and dignity, that people are the experts in their own lives, that families know their situations best.”
“When we start not just thinking about what makes a child successful, but also understanding that, in order for a child to be successful, families have to have success, and they have hopes and dreams for their kids, we have to ask ‘How are we responding to those hopes and dreams?’” Sommer said.
Learning Grove CEO Shannon Starkey Taylor said it’s important to recognize parents are a child’s first and most influential teachers, but many face barriers such as food insecurity, lack of reliable transportation, unsafe neighborhoods or schedules that don’t align with school activities.
Learning Grove’s senior director, Kathy Burkhardt, said it’s all about “access and opportunity.”
“Every single parent wants what’s best for [his or her children],” Burkhardt said. “They may or may not have the resources to do what they need to do, or there may be other barriers in their lives, but it needs to start with a conversation. So creating a nonthreatening environment where you’re listening to families and offering them, not suggestions, but asking ‘What do you want?’”
Starkey said it’s about allowing families to be co-creators in the solutions and honoring the knowledge they have.
One of the key players in these conversations is the schools’ Family Resource and Youth Service Centers. Marshelle Blackwell is the group’s coordinator at Newport Intermediate School, where about 90% of the families are living at or below the poverty line.
She believes building trust and making families feel welcome and included goes a long way toward overcoming educational barriers. Blackwell regularly surveys families to get their thoughts on everything from whether they prefer contact via text message or phone call to how the school is handling diversity issues.
“My last survey was on family togetherness. I just really wanted to know ‘What does that look like to you?’ because that may look different from family to family,” she said.
Earlier this year, Blackwell hosted a family game night. Children and their parents played education-themed versions of Wheel of Fortune and The Price is Right. There was even a human slot machine.
She also instituted a practice called Notes of Encouragement. Parents and guardians send letters to be read to their child in class or at lunchtime. Blackwell said many of the letters leave her in tears and leave the students feeling good about themselves.
“Encouraging your child is something that is a universal theme that I think every parent wants to do,” she said, “and I was so happy with the participation.”
‘You gotta come’
Holmes High School parent Shia Englemon said that school has sponsored game nights and other activities to bring parents into the educational mix. “I’ve been invited to a little bit of everything Holmes has,” Englemon said. “It’s just about coming. You gotta come.”
She said her involvement has helped her sons Shawn Clifford, a senior, and Ryce Clifford, a junior, succeed.
“Someone’s always going to be in the stands clapping, or, if the office calls or if a teacher calls, someone is going to answer and be receptive,” Englemon said. “They’re comfortable knowing someone’s going to hear each side out. Like, I trust my children, but I trust the staff, too.”
As for engaging parents, she said the school needs to keep its “foot on the gas.”
“Let’s believe that someone is at home and wants to show up for this child,” Englemon said. “It may not be mom or dad, it may be a sister or brother or grandparent, but that’s who’s in charge. Overall, community- and institution-wise, we just have to believe that there’s good people at home for our kids, too, and they want success as much as someone like me or you does.”
Family engagement efforts extend across the state.
In Hopkinsville, about 70 miles east of Paducah near the Tennessee border, parents at Freedom Elementary have formed a working group to bring more people to the table and to keep a collective eye on how their children are doing. Ben Watkins says it’s making a difference for his son Eric, 9.
“I feel he’s engaged more because we’re engaged more of what he’s doing,” Watkins said. “You know, if you’re showing interest in his work, and he’s able to talk to you and explain. I think that helps him do better in school.”
He believes involved parents are among the best ambassadors for family engagement, spreading the word to other parents.
“I think the excitement in somebody’s voice and seeing the expression on their face, and you know, how they’re in tune with it, will make other parents in the community join in,” Watkins said.
Educate NKY’s Calvo calls it a “virtuous cycle.”
“When families are genuinely at the table, they show up more, speak more freely and begin to see the school as theirs,” Calvo said. “Over time, that shifts the culture – schools feel more welcoming, families feel more interested and the outcomes start to change. It’s not easy, but, when it takes root, it’s transformative.”
Calvo said he is optimistic all the effort will pay off.
“Something I love about Northern Kentucky is the openness to truth and the willingness to act,” Calvo said. “When we put hard facts on the table, people don’t get defensive. They ask ‘What do we do about it?’ There’s a real spirit here, a drive to do better for kids and families, and that gives me tremendous hope.”