The importance of evaluating programs of school, family and community partnerships

Educators know that “What gets measured gets done.” Historically, however, they have avoided evaluating programs and practices of school, family, and community partnerships. They focused, instead, on evaluating other components of school organization (e.g., curriculum, achievement test scores), and weakened programs of family and community engagement. Studies indicate that when school-based partnership teams take time to evaluate their efforts, they demonstrate a seriousness of purpose that leads to more equitable outreach to engage all families in their children’s education, and more goal-linked engagement activities that contribute to student success in school. This article presents information on no-cost, low-cost, and costly ways to evaluate the quality and progress of plans and practices of family and community engagement. We discuss the difference between evaluating program implementations and evaluating program results. We identify more than a dozen tools and templates that make it possible for all schools to organize, evaluate, and continually improve their partnership programs.