By Guerschmide Saint-Ange

Families bring a rich variety of individual and collective experiences, knowledge, and perspectives that are essential to the success of any school community. Too often, as school leaders and authorizers, we fail to create systems and frameworks that invite families to share these valuable assets in ways that can improve school culture and quality. 

School leaders who work hard to ensure families show up to conferences, back-to-school nights, and basketball games, may feel like they are excelling at “family engagement.” But actually, this is simply “family participation.” And while it’s an important element of any school community, it’s not engagement. Engagement must go deeper.

This past October, I had the chance to sit down with Tricia Noyola, CEO at Rocky Mountain Prep, to talk about the importance of engaging families and how authorizers and school leaders who are parents can leverage their experience to create better schools for kids. Tricia described family engagement as a “passive” term that positions families in service of the school. Instead, at her school, they’re thinking about family empowerment: giving families a true seat and stake at the table and empowering them with knowledge and resources. 

Family empowerment only works when it’s undergirded by a fundamental belief that families have assets. When we start by recognizing families’ assets—knowledge, perspective, and skills—rather than focusing on deficits, we set the stage for a more effective and inclusive school culture.

Families are rightly demanding a reimagining of how education moves forward. Charter schools and authorizers are uniquely positioned to meet the needs of students and families by holding schools to high standards, ensuring all students have access to quality schools, and operating at the intersection of accountability and innovation. At the core of this work is a fundamental belief that all families have assets—and they must be identified and prioritized.

Small actions can have a big impact. Consider these:

• Recognize the individual and collective power of families. Recognizing these allows you to meet families where they are and differentiate how you engage them.
• Engage in inclusive decision-making with families. Instead of making decisions and seeking buy-in afterward, involve families early and often in the process.
• Share knowledge and resources with families. Provide families with the tools and resources necessary to make informed and meaningful decisions.

Let’s not just rethink how we engage families—let’s act on it. By activating families with real decision-making power, we create a stronger, more inclusive educational system that benefits everyone.