Survey: National Survey of Colleges and Universities Preparing Educators for Family Engagement

In the fall of 2020, NAFSCE partnered with the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), the Council on the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), the Mid-Atlantic Equity Center (MAEC), the National Education Association (NEA), and its Pre-Service Family Engagement Consortium, to administer the National Survey of Colleges and Universities Preparing Educators for Family Engagement.  The survey was designed to expand understanding of how educators are currently prepared for effective family engagement in educator preparation programs across the country, to identify promising practices, and to learn and share innovative approaches. Please find the key findings from the survey below:

1. Family Engagement Courses Offered: 51% of educator preparation programs offer at least one standalone course in family and community engagement. This finding is similar to earlier national surveys on this topic suggesting little growth in the number of courses offered in the past 20 years (e.g., Epstein & Sanders, 2006; Shartrand, et al., 1997).
   
   
2. Courses Including Family Engagement: Family engagement topics are most frequently embedded into courses on teaching children with special needs, classroom management, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. However, the rates with which family and community engagement topics are embedded into coursework is fairly low. Only 45% of department heads report that family engagement is embedded into teaching children with special needs usually or all of the time, with less than 30% reporting that family engagement topics are embedded into other content areas that often.
   
   
3. Competencies Addressed - Educators Program: Understanding family diversity, communicating academic progress, and building relationships with families are among the most common family engagement competencies that educator preparation programs address. Building on family knowledge for curriculum and engaging families as leaders were the two competency areas least frequently addressed.
   
   
4. Competencies Addressed - Administrators:Establishing welcoming climates, building community and family partnerships, and setting a family engagement vision are the family and community competencies most frequently addressed in the preparation of administrators and education leaders. While only 32% of department heads reported preparing education leaders, family engagement topics within these programs is being addressed.
   
   
5. Teaching Methods: Readings, videos, and the case method are the most common methods faculty use in their coursework to teach family and community engagement. Simulations and family interviews are among the least common methods utilized.
   
   
6. Hands-on Training: Taking part in parent-teacher conferences, communicating academic progress, and reaching out to families are the most common ways education candidates engage with families during clinical experiences. Opportunities to facilitate family workshops and visit families in their homes or communities are less common.
   
   
7. Program Effectiveness: A full 55% of department heads believe that their education candidates are a little less or much less prepared for family engagement in comparison to other subjects. Only 14% of department heads believe that their education candidates are a little more or much more prepared for family engagement than they are in other subjects.
   
   
8. Priority Level: Only 31% of department heads believe that family engagement is an essential or high priority for their programs. Seventeen percent of department heads report that family engagement is a low priority or not a priority at all.
   
   
9. Challenges: The biggest challenges to preparing educators for family engagement are that there are too many other required courses for programs to cover, partner schools limit family and community engagement opportunities, and there is minimal focus on family and community engagement in state licensure. Lack of resources to support faculty and lack of familiarity on how to teach and facilitate courses on family engagement were also among the barriers most frequently mentioned.
   
   
10. Effect of COVID-19: A total 86% of department heads believe that the COVID-19 pandemic provides new opportunities for faculty to develop their own skills in family and community engagement. Seventy three percent of department heads believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has made preparation for family and community engagement a higher priority and 68% believe that the pandemic might improve the ways that aspiring educators are prepared for family and community engagement.