The School-Family Connection: Looking at the Larger Picture, A Review of Current Literature

In SEDL’s latest review of family involvement literature, The School-Family Connection: Looking at the Larger Picture, A Review of Current Literature surveys thirty research reports and meta-analyses published between 2005 and 2008. These studies explore a wide range of family involvement programs, challenges, needs, strategies, and contexts—ways to get out of the box and increase school-family connections. This review of the literature provides greater clarity about creating partnerships among schools, families, and community groups. Most importantly, these studies provide insight into the how and why of programs adopting contextually driven approaches rather than limiting efforts to those activities that are convenient to school staff, time, and facilities. The document contains

1. an overview of new literature,
2. a matrix of the trends across the studies,
3. an explanation of the types of research studies included in the review, and
4. detailed descriptions of each of the included reports.