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United States: The National Network of Partnership Schools

The National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS), established in 1996 at Johns Hopkins University, aims to support families and communities in the United States to become involved in their children’s education. The NNPS has developed various tools to this end, including a “partnership process” called Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS) Interactive Homework. Through TIPS, the student is given a homework assignment, based on a topic discussed in class, that requires interaction with someone at home. In this way, both teachers and parents are involved in the student’s work.

NNPS, which was initially funded with grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the US Department of Education, encourages member schools to try to finance the programme independently. In order to become a member, a school must dedicate a team to the initiative, define goals and allocate a budget. Schools pay a sign-up fee and an annual renewal fee, and are required to complete an annual survey that allows the NNPS to evaluate their work. More than 1000 schools in 22 US states are now members. Each member receives the annual Promising Partnership Practices, a compendium of around 100 partnership activities that were implemented by NNPS members over the previous school year. The activities are organised and indexed according to student outcome, grade level, and type of involvement.

www.partnershipschools.org