Title I and School--Family--Community Partnerships: Using Research to Realize the Potential

Title I's requirements for parent and community involvement in both schoolwide programs and targeted assistance schools, along with requirements for funding such involvement, challenge Title I schools to think seriously about and to plan for involvement that will help make a difference in children's learning. In this article, we (a) review the requirements and how they may be interpreted (especially the requirement for school-parent contracts); (b) briefly summarize recent research on the effects of school-family partnerships on students, teachers, and parents; and (c) discuss two major research-based comprehensive programs for building school-family-community partnerships that provide a foundation upon which Title I schools could develop, in conjunction with parents, their own comprehensive and effective programs.