Powerful Partnerships: A Teacher?s Guide to Engaging Families for Student Success

by Karen Mapp, Ilene Carver, Jessica Lander

Teachers and administrators will learn how to create the respectful, trusting relationships with families necessary to build the educational partnerships that best support children’s learning. The book will cover the mindset and core beliefs required to bond with families, and will provide guidance on how to plan engagement opportunities and events throughout the school year that undergird effective partnerships between families and schools.

Genres: Education, Teaching

144 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2017

Reviews

[Cody MacKay · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, like most quasi-textbooks, is fairly lacking in content - large print, copious empty white space. What writing is in the book can be categorized as one of four things:

1. The explanation of resources or ideas that can be implemented. I especially liked that, unlike other similar books, this one clearly set aside time to talk about secondary schools as well as primary.

2. Testimonials from teachers (sometimes the authors themselves) that have implemented these resources or ideas, as well as from parents of children who experienced these resources or ideas in action. These were sometimes useful, but oftentimes read a little like product reviews on Amazon.

3. Meandering and repetitive elaboration of resources or ideas, often times after a testimonial and rarely adding much of value other than rote concluding of sections.

4. Outright advertisements for other books or resources, sometimes for the authors' own work. 'Beyond the Bake Sale,' 'A New Wave of Evidence,' 'Partners in Education,' and 'From private citizens to public actors' in "The Power of Community Engagement," all co-authored by Mapp, recieve a mention on the references page. That's over 25% of the referenced material. In the middle of page 129, there's literally a box that looks a lot like a billboard advertising "Beyond the Bake Sale." Another one, for the same book, is on page 20. There are a handful of other billboard-esque asides for books by other authors as well - still, seeing such self-referential and seemingly money-grubbing work felt a little...blegh.

I don't know what else to expect from books like this anymore. Expensive for no good reason other than to ream poor college students, soon to become poor teachers. Seems like such a racket, but then, what are you going to do?

[Carinna Tarvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring and reasonable, but seriously geared towards elementary teachers.

[Katie Iman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick read filled with great ideas about connecting with families in the classroom.

[Amanda Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated that while they were giving lots of strategies to help with family engagement and partnerships, they did so with the knowledge that teachers already have a lot on their plates and adding some of these may be overwhelming. There were a variety of strategies and ideas that I felt could be easily implemented into my classroom for the upcoming year and some I’d like to start working on over time. A quick and easy read that is primarily targeted to those who work in Elementary schools.

[Cato Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books gives many tangible things you can do to create a partnership with parents in order to do what is best for your students. I believe there are many best practice approaches in this book that may be difficult to enact simultaneously with success, but wonderful ideas that many teachers already do. Nevertheless it is a great reminder that as teachers our students will learn best if we have parental support.

[Christin Edge · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It takes a village.” This statement is often used when describing education, but this book takes it a step further by asking the reader to examine core beliefs. The Five Process Conditions for family-school framework are very insightful. Finally, readers are given ample examples, videos, and resources to accompany this book.

[Jessica Corkum · Rating 4 out of 5]

For teachers out there wondering how to effectively engage families and make them feel welcome, this Scholastic title offers great ideas and a variety of strategies to use or adapt to your needs from teachers working towards this same goal. Affirming and enlightening for this 18-year veteran.

[Lori Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful

[Cori · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has good ideas, but few practical ones that would work in most schools. It almost comes off as pushy sometimes, too.

[Adelaide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical and full of real-life teacher examples.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great ideas in this book on how to effectively engage families.

[Abby Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided concrete and effective ways to build partnerships with families. I was hoping to find more creative ways to engage high needs families.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Zach]

Decent refresh book a'la a "School and Community" course. I did appreciate the "School as a Fortress" categories and breakdown.