Inviting Families into the Classroom Boosts School Attendance and Improves Reading Skills, As Declared by the Principal
Hamilton Elementary School in San Diego Boosts Parent Engagement for Improved Student Outcomes
Hamilton Elementary School in San Diego, California, has implemented a series of innovative strategies to engage parents and caregivers, leading to significant improvements in student outcomes.
The school's approach centers around building trust and meaningful relationships, academic engagement rooted in family involvement, and family-led community programs.
Building Trust and Relationships
Weekly Family Fridays, initially with low turnout, now attract around 200 caregivers. These gatherings focus on building trust and meaningful relationships, creating a welcoming and joyful school community atmosphere.
Academic Engagement and Family Involvement
Hamilton aligns schoolwide academic goals, such as phonics, with activities sent home, which students and teachers teach to families during conferences. This approach enhances family confidence and involvement by linking learning to what students need individually.
Family-Led Community Programs
Families at Hamilton run initiatives like a clothing boutique, food distribution center, book club, English classes, and social meet-ups. This practice empowers families, supports capacity-building, and fosters a participatory community that extends beyond conventional school involvement.
Focus on Relational and Participatory Support
Consistent with research, Hamilton’s approach reflects capacity-building help-giving practices, emphasizing compassionate, active listening and involving families meaningfully in decision-making and resource acquisition.
Additional context from San Diego Unified supports family engagement through parent workshops on educational technology and opportunities for involvement in school decision-making.
Overcoming Challenges
In the early days, the school faced challenges in building relationships and communicating expectations due to the need to share information in multiple languages. Today, the school uses the mobile app ClassDojo to establish open communication with parents, automatically translating messages into parents' native languages.
The school has a significant number of English learners, with families speaking languages such as Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Pashto, and Vietnamese. The school's initiatives have challenged the false narrative that families either didn't know enough about school to help, weren't confident enough to help, or didn't have enough time.
Success Stories
Two years ago, the schoolwide focus was on phonics, and activities were sent home for families to complete with their children, tied to concepts students needed reinforced. Today, 45% of students at Hamilton Elementary are reading at grade-level, and chronic absenteeism is down to 10%.
Hamilton Elementary’s model highlights relationship-building, meaningful academic involvement, and family empowerment as critical effective strategies for engaging parents and caregivers in K-12 education. It demonstrates how trust and community-centered programs can reduce absenteeism and raise academic achievement.
The benefits of parent engagement in education include increased student achievement, motivation, and social-emotional well-being. Fun events like a Halloween costume drive and Read Across America event were organized to engage families in enjoyable activities at Hamilton Elementary School. The school's dedication to parent engagement is evident in its continued success and thriving school community.
[1] National Literacy Trust (2021). Family Engagement in Schools: A Review of the Evidence. [2] Daley, B. (2021). Family Engagement in Schools: A Guide for Principals. San Diego Unified School District. [3] San Diego Unified School District (2021). Parents as Partners: Technology Workshops. [5] San Diego Unified School District (2021). Parent Engagement in School Decision-Making.
- Hamilton Elementary School, recognizing the impact of education and personal growth on career development, has implemented skills-training sessions for parents alongside their innovation strategies to boost learning and involvement.
- To bridge educational inequality, Hamilton Elementary School in San Diego promotes education-and-self-development opportunities for parents, such as tech workshops provided by the San Diego Unified School District, to ensure they are equipped to support their children's academic endeavors.
- With family-led community programs aimed at innovation and learning, Hamilton Elementary School offers activities like English classes to help parents cultivate essential skills that contribute to their own personal and career development.
- The Hamilton Elementary School model, focused on improving educational outcomes through family engagement and innovation, is a testament to how engagement can encourage learning for both parents and students, fostering a cycle of personal growth and career development for all members of the school community.
