Searching for equity-centered change agents: An investigation of family and community engagement in teacher evaluation frameworks

Abstract

Federal legislation in the United States granted states freedom to alter formerly test-based teacher evaluation systems and situate family engagement as a key component in school improvement efforts. Concurrently, theorizing on family engagement has moved away from deficit characterizations and school-based involvement to an asset-based approach focused on equitable stakeholder collaborations committed to driving systemic change. Seeking to understand how states are characterizing exemplary teaching in terms of family and community engagement, the current study uses directed qualitative content analysis to examine 15 teacher evaluation rubrics or standards. The findings indicate that many evaluation systems were narrowly focused on the procedural aspects of teaching and teacher engagement with families was too often viewed merely as a mechanism to yield academic gains and meet legal requirements. The rubrics that explicitly stated that teachers should be culturally responsive provided a semblance of hope for pushing evaluative practices through the engagement barrier and into a space of collaboration that departs from dominant school-based approaches. These results have implications for the design of teacher evaluation policy and the furthering of equity-centered partnerships with families and communities.

Parental participation and parents’ support: effects on mathematics achievement, 2018 national assessment of learning, Mexico

“…Despite the evidence highlighting the importance of parental involvement, as previously noted, the definition of the term has been ambiguously conceived and presents several inconsistencies ( Fan and Chen, 2001 ; Durand, 2011 ; Bazán et al, 2014 ; Wilder, 2014 ; Miranda-Carvajal and Castillo-Armijo, 2018 ; Nygreen, 2019 ; Mayger and Provinzano, 2021 ). With the term family involvement, various actions on the part of parents have been characterized with respect to the academic development of their children and the relationship of the family with the school.…”

“…In this approach, parental involvement is framed as an educational policy issue ( Kim, 2020 ) and is also framed within the activities included in the initial approaches to parental involvement ( Epstein, 1995 ; Hara and Burke, 1998 ; Epstein, 2001 ; Akmal and Larsen, 2004 ). Thus, the participation models contemplated the participation of parents as part of school-centered processes ( Nygreen, 2019 ; Mayger and Provinzano, 2021 ). In research on the subject, the term family participation is commonly used as a component of parental involvement ( Epstein, 2001 ; Jeynes, 2005 ).…”