Preparing Educators for Partnerships with Families. Report of the Advisory Task Force on Educator Preparation for Parent Involvement

This report presents the consensus of the Assembly Bill 1264 Task Force. The task force conducted a statewide review of standards and requirements pertinent to the preparation of teachers and other educators to serve as active partners with parents and guardians in the education of California's public school students. The report includes: an introduction to the issue; a review of California initiatives instituted to encourage greater home-school collaboration; a rationale for linking family involvement to educator standards; a review of current educator standards and requirements regarding family involvement in national teacher education reform projects; a discussion of desired outcomes and features of educator partnership preparation; a framework of activities illustrating an expanded definition of family-school partnerships, and 10 recommendations for improving the ways in which educators are prepared to work productively with families; including a suggested standard for various credentialing areas and several steps to immediately assist and reward efforts to improve the readiness of educators for school-family collaboration. An appendix presents the recommended standard of program quality and effectiveness for educator preparation in home-school partnerships. (Contains 40 references.) (SM)