New Report Highlights Practices to Engage Families and Communities as “Co-Designers”
The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) and the Family Leadership Design Collaborative (FLDC) recently released a report.
The report “Recasting Families and Communities as Co-Designers of Education in Tumultuous Times” offers insights for family and community engagement.
NEPC and FLDC offer multiple policy recommendations organized to: (1) “build and set the co-design table”; (2) “engage in co-design”; and (3) “sustain co-design.” These recommendations prioritize social justice and racial equity and offer implications for economic equity as well. According to the report, parents and communities have “lived knowledge” necessary to solve the challenge of equitable well-being for all. Therefore, NEPC and FLDC view parents and community members as well positioned to contribute to educational re-design
Some of the recommendations (outlined next) are already in practice at odds-beating high schools in New York State.
#1 – Build and Set the Co-Design Table
NEPC and FLDC Report: “Partner with community-based organizations and public agencies to enact educational change. School systems alone cannot foster and sustain transformation, and many community organizations already provide learning opportunities beyond the traditional system.”
At Crown Point Central School, partnerships are key to meeting student needs. Like other odds-beating schools, community is a site for career or college preparation. Crown Point utilizes connections to businesses and other entities in the community for student internship placements.
#2 – Engage in Co-Design
NEPC and FLDC Report: “Begin processes with the priorities, experiences, concerns, and issues that already exist in the communities that school serves, rather than with the agendas of schools, funders or policymakers. Policies and funding should aim to strengthen work that is already happening in communities, rather than impose a new program.”
At Sherburne-Earlville Senior High School, educators spoke about enhancing curricular offerings based on the needs and interest of the community. Given the community’s historical agricultural roots, new courses in the Agricultural Sciences have been offered. Such courses and other experiences (like maple syrup farming on school grounds) are intended to engage students and give them skills to stay in the community to take advantage of new agricultural business opportunities like organic beef and alpaca farms and yogurt making.
#3 – Sustain Co-Design
NEPC and FLDC Report: “Redesign key educational decision-making processes to ensure that those directly impacted by racial inequalities have influence, not just token input.”
At odds-beating schools, practices to sustain co-design are just emerging. Though there is some evidence that these schools are also moving toward processes that incorporate key stakeholders. For example, across odds-beating schools (including those in racially and ethnically diverse communities, as well as those in rural communities with economic inequality challenges), young people are engaged in goal setting and helping plan their own educational experiences. At schools such as Port Chester High School and Maple Grove Junior/Senior High School, students play a role in designing their own pathways to graduation and post-graduation.
