There has never been a greater need to address inequities highlighted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Where and how should districts spend the $123 billion (American Rescue Plan/ESSER III) in funding?
Equitable and Effective Family and Community Engagement practices have had a more significant impact on student outcomes than many interventions that take place only in the school building. Students who have caregivers who are supported to be engaged in their education, attend school more regularly, have higher performance and greater post-secondary success.
So, how do we do this? Traditionally, family engagement is often underfunded and understaffed, one sided, as seen with the traditional practices of back-to school nights, open houses and in person parent-teacher conferences. These common practices create and multiply the barriers that families already face such as work schedules, transportation, access to food and child care, and previous, traumatic experiences as students themselves in oppressive education systems. I work to shift the power dynamic so that families design what they need, to be engaged.
My work lies at the intersection of policy, practice and research and I am a certified Teacher and Assistant Superintendent in the state of Massachusetts, with a double Masters. (MS, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2001 and EdM, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2018) I began my career in Education in 2002, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and am currently located in the Boston Area.
As an educator, consultant, coach, single mother, aunt, sister, daughter, and friend, I know the many hats we wear as professionals and caregivers. I impact educational equity in the following ways:
1) Training hundreds of education, health and human services professionals on the MA state framework for equitable family engagement
2) Providing technical assistance to schools, districts and community partners to co-design, co-generate and implement Theories of Change and Logic Models
2) Coaching for Differentiated Instruction and Universal Design for Learning, providing greater access to hundreds of teachers and thousands of students, worldwide
3) Delivering recommendations for ELLs/MLLs to the MA state Commissioner for Education
4) Co-founding a school for blended learning
5) Serving on Multiple boards and committees for advancing the research and practice of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
6) Committing to language access and social justice across all of my work
The key to Equity is that every child and youth will reach their full potential when every family has access to what they need to thrive. I work in service of children, youth and families, community partners, schools and districts that are committed to impacting student outcomes through equitable family and community engagement practices.