Toward Improving the Educational Opportunities for Black and Latinx Young Children: Strengthening Family-School Partnerships

Abstract

ThroughoutFamily-school partnershipsthe history of the United States, BlackBlackand Latinx children have been excluded from equitable education and high-quality instruction. One of the key dimensions of these children's opportunity gap centers around the lack of connection between families and schools. In this chapter, we review the literature on school-family-community partnerships, with particular focus on BlackBlackand Latinx families, to examine the major benefits of these collaborations and the mechanisms through which partnerships help produce positive outcomes. We then discuss the main challenges (i.e., school's colorblindness and limited cultural competency, families' mistrust and negative perceptionsPerceptionsof schools, and lack of resources) of establishing comprehensive and authentic partnerships. Finally, we examine empirically based strategies (e.g., leveraging BlackBlackand Latinx families' assets, confronting biases, and cultivating a collaborative culture and empowering families) that schools could utilize to facilitate sustainable school-family partnerships. Our interdisciplinary literature review contributes to education practitioners' and researchers' understanding of strength-basedYoung children, equity-oriented school-family partnerships.