Catholic School Parents Victoria eNewsletter

Parent Engagement in governance – school and parish education boards

Simon Stevens is the new Education Officer at Catholic Education Melbourne whose role focuses on work with school boards. On a recent trip to Boston, while visiting the John F Kennedy School of Government, he took time to talk to Dr Karen Mapp from the Harvard Graduate School of Education about the role of parents in education.

Dr Mapp has been to Australia a number of times and her insights into the Australian context are reflective of her own experience as a consultant on family engagement to the United States Department of Education in the Office of Innovation and Improvement. Her view, in short, is that there is still a lot to do in developing family engagement initiatives that build capacity among educators and families to partner with one another around student success.

At CEM, the notion that “a Catholic school community includes learners, their families, their teachers and other staff at the school – all of whom come together to form a connected and organic learning environment for the benefit of students” is firmly expressed in Horizons of Hope, the education framework for the Archdiocese of Melbourne

Click here for more information about Horizons of Hope

This sense of connectedness and belonging provides the foundation for the full flourishing of each student. Simon sought out Dr Mapp following consultation with CSPV Executive Officer Rachel Saliba. He sees that one of the many ways that parents can be engaged in the learning of all children of the school, and build this connectedness, is through the contribution parents make in the area of governance on school-based education boards

Dr Mapp outlines in her Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family–School Partnerships that both the school and families have their own capacities to build so that the distinction fades in relation to the greater goal of charting a path toward effective family engagement efforts that are linked to student achievement and school improvement.

Click here to learn more about the Dual Capacity Framework

Parents sharing in the educational journey of the school, in a myriad of possible ways, develops the dual capacity of the entire school community to enhance engagement by both the school and families in the students’ learning. Dr Mapp’s research and experience demonstrates that this engagement is a significant factor in improving outcomes for all. Educators and parents sharing in the school strategic journey in an integrated, sustained relational manner can make the difference.

Governance, through the work on a school board, is the strategic process through which the school builds its intellectual, social, financial and spiritual capital and aligns them to achieve its goals. Parents need to be a part of that journey.

Simon can be contacted at sstevens@cem.edu.au.

For more information on School Boards, please contact 9267 0228 or email schoolboards@cem.edu.au