DATA ANALYSIS: University-Community Partnerships: Assessing Parent Involvement and Partnership Programming

The Lea Partnerships Study is examining how school-community-university partner programming supports the students and families of Lea Elementary School in West Philadelphia, one of two Penn Partnership Schools. This longitudinal study of the partnership’s processes and outcomes has conducted interviews and surveys with students, staff, families, and school partners. The team is now determining how best to present its findings to make them actionable for the school community and salient to the larger education community. This is the first comprehensive partnership study Penn GSE has undertaken at any of the over 200 schools it works with in Philadelphia.

The purpose of this data analysis session is to gain deeper theoretical insight into how a unique university/school partnership is shifting their conception of family engagement from an attendance perspective to a relationship-based perspective. Using data from a long-term participatory ethnography now in its sixth year, we will present a subset of data collected during Family and Community Engagement committee meetings and events to explore how to interpret partnership goals in light of the time and intensity of effort the shift to a relationship based perspective of family engagement takes.