News Release

A national network of school and family partnerships has posted its tips for involving families and communities more fully in their schools and making those schools more welcoming and supportive on the Web site "Promising Partnership Practices 2005," online at www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/PPP/2005/index.htm.

The eighth annual collection, published both online and in book format by the National Network of Partnership Schools at The Johns Hopkins University, features ways to create school, family, and community partnerships to support students from preschool through high school, helping them to achieve academic success and lifelong well-being. The virtual suggestion box features 86 "best practices" from schools in 21 states, as well as Canada.

Examples include:

Hosting an annual "book buffet," a dish-to-pass affair for students and families where each menu item relates to a book the students have read;

A "welcome wagon" run by third-graders whose job it is to pull a little red wagon full of school supplies for new students and information for their families; and

An "Oops — Turn Me Off" Family Science Night, where a school cafeteria is transformed into an interactive science lab focused on ways to conserve energy.

The collection is organized according to the NNPS goal-oriented partnership program structure, which links family and community involvement to academic and non- academic goals for students as well as to the school goal of fostering a positive climate of partnerships. Section I features 30 practices that target academic goals to help students improve in reading, literacy, math, science, and other academic areas. Section II highlights partnership strategies to help students meet non-academic goals, such as improving multicultural awareness, health and safety, and post-secondary education planning. In Section III, the practices focus on developing partnerships that make the school a welcoming, family-friendly environment with activities that reach out to all families and community members. Section IV features district and state leadership practices.

Learn more about such partnership-building practices as an English Language Learners Translation Service, Mathematics in Our World, Safety Walk, Family College Conferences, Accelerating Student Achievement Task Force, and A Virtual Tour of a Family-Friendly Partnership School.

Promising Partnership Practices 2054 (Item P-6-PP8, ISBN 9-780976-007517) can be ordered for $16.95 by contacting the Publications Department, National Network of Partnership Schools, Johns Hopkins University, 3003 N. Charles Street, Suite 200, Baltimore, MD 21218; 410- 516-8800 (tel.) or 410-516-8890 (fax). For more information about the National Network of Partnership Schools, visit www.partnershipschools.org.