Family Friendly Walk Through

Last week, the staff of the Alabama PIRC were trained on how to conduct Family Friendly Walk Throughs. The project, developed originally by the Arizona PIRC has been used successfully to help schools identify ways they can work with families to create a stronger learning environment for students. The research on family engagement has found that schools need to be the first to reach out to families and invite them to participate in their children's education. However, often schools have unintentionally created barriers to effective family engagement. Having a Family Friendly Walk Through helps the school understand how inviting it appears to the local community.

As a part of the walk through, the PIRC staff assess the school: customer service, school environment, school website, community partnerships, documents, and school to home communication. The walk through consists of a physical tour of the campus, surveys of parents and teachers, an interview with the principal, document reviews and website reviews. Once the assessment is complete, PIRC staff convert the data collected to a report, which is provided to the school as a reference tool for the purpose of creating a stronger learning environment. The report contains areas that were identified as either strengths, emerging practices, or areas for improvement along with specific research based recommendations for improvement.

If you are in a Title I school and you are interested in having a Family Friendly Walk Through, contact the Alabama PIRC today!