1998), however most of the parental involvement literature relies on the deficit model; either parent’s participate in school-sanctioned ways or their children’s education growth may suffer (Gutman & McLoyd, 2000). In order for educators and schools to build a relationship …show more content…
Before family involvement can be deemed effective, schools must first address and meet the “…social, economic, and physical needs of their students’ families” (Lopez, Scribner, and Mahitivanichcha, 2001, p.26). This requires schools to be aware of community programs and businesses that can assist the school in meeting each family’s needs. Once these basic needs are met, only then can true and successful family involvement take place. Educators must be sensitive to this and think about these struggles when thinking about family involvement. Teachers must know the language spoken at home and ensure that all communication is translated into the families “home” language. This will allow for less miscommunication and have the parents informed with their student’s schooling. Also, schools must make an effort to seek out parents by traditional means of communication such as flyers and handouts, as well as by nontraditional means of communication such as a school website and via email. Another aspect of forming a relationship with the families of CLEED students are that educators must also be willing to connect …show more content…
Educators must become culturally receptive by making connections with their students as individuals while also understanding the cultural frameworks that influence their interactions and previous connections. An important concept to understand is that “not all children of any given age have learned the same things; they cannot all be taught in the same place, much less the same things, at the same time” (Kauffman et al., 2005, p.3). Every teacher should meet each of their CLEED students at their area of need. To do this, teachers need to implement culturally responsive instruction, which is a teaching style that incorporates each student’s cultural background, history, and current societal interests into the daily curriculum within the classroom. Ladson-Billings (1994) describes culturally responsive, standards based instruction as a way of thinking that empowers students’ academically, socially, emotionally, and politically by implementing cultural and historical references to communicate the appropriate curriculum into the classroom. There are five components to CRSBI and each component must be an equivalent part and work together in order to be truly effective. The five components include caring for the needs of the students, communication with student and their families, curriculum, and also standards-based instruction. “The teacher must