Following an established REL Northeast & Islands research protocol, we conducted a search for recent research on how to build and sustain relationships with communities, families and caregivers. We focused on identifying resources that specifically addressed research on how to build and sustain relationships with communities, families and caregivers. The sources searched included ERIC and other federally funded databases and organizations, academic research databases, and general Internet search engines (For details, please see the methods section at the end of this memo.)

We have not evaluated the quality of references and the resources provided in this  response and we offer them only for your reference. Because our search for references is based on the most commonly used resources of research, it is not comprehensive and other relevant references and resources may exist.

Research References

1. Garcia, M., Frunzi, K., Dean, C., Flores, N., Miller, K. (2016). Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education. Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific.
   https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?projectID=4509
   https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED569111
   From the abstract: “The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and Community as Partners in Education provides resources for school staff to build relationships with families and community members and to support family well-being, strong parent-child relationships, and students’ ongoing learning and development. Originally developed for the Guam Alliance for Family and Community Engagement in Education, the Toolkit is based on information from a variety of sources that address engagement in diverse communities. As a result, the Toolkit is applicable in a variety of contexts—and wherever school staff are interested in enhancing engagement of families and community members. The Toolkit is divided into four parts, and each includes a series of activities that can be used with family and community members, as well as other diverse cross-stakeholder groups. The Toolkit offers an integrated approach that helps school staff understand how their own cultural experiences and backgrounds influence their beliefs and assumptions about families and community members, and consequently influences their efforts to engage others in support of student learning.  It also addresses how to build a cultural bridge through cross-cultural communication and how to use strategies that build trust between families, community members, and schools. In addition, the Toolkit helps school staff understand how to use two-way communication with families to gather and share data about student interests, progress, and outcomes. The four parts of the Toolkit are:
   Part 1: Building an understanding of family and community engagement; Part 2: Building a cultural bridge; Part 3: Building trusting relationships with families and community through effective communication; Part 4: Engaging families and community members in data conversations”
2. Baker, T., Wise, J., Kelley, G., Skiba, R. (2016). Identifying Barriers: Creating Solutions to Improve Family Engagement. School Community Journal, 26(2) 161-184.
   https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1124003
   From the abstract: “Reframing notions of parent involvement (being present in the school building) to parent engagement (viewing multiple constructions of how parents are involved) is the purpose of this paper. The authors highlight the knowledge gained from data collected from a series of family and staff focus groups regarding parent and staff perceptions of barriers to family involvement and from families’ suggestions as to what could be done differently to increase engagement. Using applied thematic analysis, five themes common to both families and staff are discussed:  providing opportunities for involvement, improving communication, welcoming families into the building, making time, and moving from involvement   to engagement. Findings show that, generally, parents and school staff agree on barriers to parent involvement but offer contrasting solutions. While parent solutions directly address the barriers identified and support parent engagement, staff frequently offered disconnected solutions, reiterating parent involvement--the necessity of parents being present in the building, rather than parent engagement--multiple constructions of how parents are involved.”
3. Stefanski, A., Valli, L., Jacobson, R. (2016). Beyond Involvement and Engagement: The Role of the Family in School-Community Partnerships. School Community Journal, 26(2) 135-160.
   https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1124001
   From the abstract: “Research indicates that partnerships between schools and neighborhood communities support student learning, improve schools, and strengthen families and neighborhoods. These partnerships expand the traditional educational mission of the school to include health and social services for children and their families and to involve the broader community. School-community partnerships typically arise out of a specific need in the community and, as such, differ across a range of processes, structures, purposes, and types of family involvement. In previous work, we developed a typology to more closely examine various school-community partnerships (Valli, Stefanski, & Jacobson, 2013). From that review of the literature, we identified four increasingly complex and comprehensive partnership models. In this article, we reexamine the literature, focusing on the role of the family in those partnership models, and discuss implications for productive family-school-community relations.  Our analysis of the literature indicates that the role of parents and families differed considerably across the four models. In contrast to the simple family “involvement” versus family "engagement" dichotomy found in much of the current literature, we found eight distinct ways in which family roles were envisioned and enacted. This article provides a detailed picture of those roles to guide policies and practices that strengthen the family's role in school-community partnerships.”
4. Barr, J., Saltmarsh, S. (2014). “It All Comes down to the Leadership”: The Role of the School Principal in Fostering Parent-School Engagement. Educational ManagementAdministration & Leadership, 42(4), 491-505.
   https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1031758
   From the abstract: "Parent-school engagement is widely understood to be an important factor in children's school experience and educational outcomes.  However, there is considerable variation in the ways that schools manage their relationships with parents, as well as variation in what parents themselves view as important for engagement with their children’s schooling.  In a qualitative study conducted with parents in urban, outer metropolitan, regional and rural areas of the Australian state of New South Wales, we found that parents considered the attitudes, communication and leadership practices of school principals to play a crucial role in fostering and maintaining relationships between parents and schools. These findings suggest that despite policy rhetoric’s positioning schools and parents as "partners" in the educational equation, parents are more likely to be engaged with schools where the principal is perceived as welcoming and supportive of their involvement, and less likely to be engaged where the principal is perceived as inaccessible, dismissive or disinterested in supporting their involvement.”
5. Mutch C., Collins, S. (2012). Partners in Learning: Schools’ Engagement with Parents, Families, and Communities in New Zealand. School Community Journal, 22(1) 167-187.
   https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ974691
   From the abstract: "The Education Review Office (ERO) conducted an external evaluation in over two hundred New Zealand schools to find out more about the engagement between schools and the parents and "whanau" (families and extended families) of their students. This paper provides some historical background and key findings from the relevant literature before expanding on the six key factors which the evaluation found were critical to enhancing and strengthening this engagement: leadership, relationships, school culture, partnerships, community networks, and communication. The paper concludes with recommendations for ways in which all parties can strengthen this vital relationship. (Contains 1 table and 3 endnotes.)”

Additional Organizations to Consult

Center for the Study of Social Policy: https://www.cssp.org
From the website: “The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CCSP) works to secure equal opportunities and better futures for all children and families, especially those most often left behind. Underlying all of the work is a vision of child, family and community well-being. It’s a unifying framework for the many policy, systems reform and community change activities in which CSSP engages.”

Growing and Sustaining Parent Engagement: A Toolkit for Parents and Community Partners: https://cssp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/growingandsustainingparentengagementtoolkit.pdf
From the Introduction: "The toolkit is a quick and easy guide to help support and sustain parent engagement. It provides how to’s for implementing three powerful strategies communities can use to maintain and grow parent engagement work that is already underway: Creating a Parent Engagement 1) Roadmap 2) Checklist 3) Support Network.”

National Education Association: http://www.nea.org
From the website: “The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education.  NEA’s 3 million members work at every level of education- from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States.”

Family-School-Community Partnerships 2.0: Collaborative Strategies to Advance Student Learning: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/Family-School-Community-Partnerships-2.0.pdf
From the Executive Summary: “In local communities across the county, NEA affiliate members and leaders are working closely with parents, families and community members to close achievement gaps improve low-performing schools and transform relationships between schools and their communities. This report identifies and describes key partnerships that Association members have forged in 16 communities and includes the Association perspective on these efforts.”

Keywords and Search Strings

The following keywords and search strings were used to search the reference databases and other sources:

Building and sustaining school relationships with families

Building and sustaining relationships

Building relationships with parents, families and caregivers

Family engagement

School and family relationships

Databases and Resources

We searched ERIC for relevant resources. ERIC is a free online library of over 1.6 million citations of education research sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences. Additionally, we searched Google Scholar, EBSCOhost, and the Institute of Education Sciences.

Reference Search and Selection Criteria

When we were searching and reviewing resources, we considered the following criteria:

Date of the publication: References and resources published for last 15 years, from 2002 to present, were included in the search and review.

Search Priorities of Reference Sources: Search priority is given to study reports, briefs, and other documents that are published and/or reviewed by IES and other federal or federally funded organizations, academic databases, including WWC, ERIC, and NCEE.

Methodology: Following methodological priorities/considerations were given in the review and selection of the references: (a) study types – randomized control trials, quasi experiments, surveys, descriptive data analyses, literature reviews, policy briefs, etc., generally in this order; (b) target population, samples (representativeness of the target population, sample size, volunteered or randomly selected, etc.), study duration, etc.; (c) limitations, generalizability of the findings and conclusions, etc.