handbook on family and community engagement cover

Handbook on Family and Community Engagement

This comprehensive report compiles articles covering diverse aspects and issues of community engagement, such as engaging with families from diverse backgrounds, engaging families of children with disabilities, empowering families to support homework completion and effective study habits, community engagement in rural schools, and using data in engagement practices.

Jay Breslow

Student Voice in School Reform

In 2013, the school board in Philadelphia announced a plan to close 37 schools. The Philadelphia Student Union, an organized group of students that runs campaigns at the local, state, and national levels, showed up to the school board meeting dressed as zombies. They performed a choreographed routine to Michael Jackson’s Thriller and collapsed at the end. One of the participating students, Benjamin Franklin High sophomore Hausim Talbot, told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “We represent the students affected by the closing plan. Our hopes would be dead.”