Connecting Families, Schools, & Communities

IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools and partners came together on September 25-29 for the first Coordinators Appreciation Week. There were almost 1,000 #CoordinatorsRock tweets that reached over 700,000 people—from funny gifs and ice cream socials to flowers and heartfelt handwritten notes—that celebrated and thanked their community schools coordinators. READ MORE…

IEL’s Family and Community Engagement (FCE) Network Spotlight is an opportunity for the FCE community to learn from their peers’ successes. In this interview, Allison Buzard, Equity and Diversity Coordinator at Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), talks about her work with Equity and Diversity University (EDU), a professional development program for school professionals. Sessions cover

District Leader Landon Mascareñaz discusses his Family Empowerment Team in the Office of Family and Community Engagement in Denver Public Schools (DPS). He shares their mission of developing engaged and empowered parents who are academic partners at three levels, including the home, school, and district, and how they carry out their mission at each level.

IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools (CCS) highlighted evidence and inspiring stories of opportunity and support at its bi-annual Community Schools Awards for Excellence Symposium on June 5, 2017 at the National Press Club. This year’s community school initiative winners are Community Achieves (Nashville, Tenn.), and NYC Community Schools Initiative (New York). For the first time

IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools is working with community school initiative leaders to enhance local capacity to make schools and communities healthier places for all by bridging the gap between the health and education sectors. Leveraging Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) support with a focus on creating a Culture of Health, the goal of our

Now that states have the authority under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to determine how to improve struggling schools, many state chiefs are looking for a whole-child approach with deep community engagement to counter the more technical models required under the previous School Improvement Grants program. In response, the IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools released

Sometimes you need to see strong healthy living partnerships in action. IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools recently organized site visits for members of its Community Schools Leadership Network. Participants visited two Bay Area community schools to see how their partnerships focused on physical and mental health have positive impacts on students. These schools were Cherryland

IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools is working in conjunction with Communities in Schools and StriveTogether to leverage our national networks to better enable every student to thrive. This growing partnership will help us align our assets and expertise across networks, school districts, and communities. We are better together when we coordinate efforts to support children

IEL President Martin J. Blank reflects on the moving words of Khalil Bridges. The Renaissance Academy High School student from West Baltimore spoke at the 2016 National Forum for Community Schools. Khalil’s is the story of too many young people of color in disinvested communities across the nation. Blank reminds us that our society often

IEL’s District Leaders Network on Family and Community Engagement and the Family Engagement State Leaders Network convened a Learning Lab in Washington, D.C. A professional development opportunity for district family and community engagement leaders, the event featured a federal policy debriefing and listening session in conjunction with officials from the U.S. Departments of Education and Health