Keeping the Child at the Center of Every Decision: Family Engagement at the Berea Community Elementary School

Jeremy T. Martin

Introduction

The Berea Community Elementary School is a student-centered school environment that prioritizes the needs of students and their caregivers. Results from this case study indicate that community members identify Berea as special and unique because of its close-knit feeling, including its small size, and because of the learning personalization that individual students receive. For many caregivers and school staff, the school community feels like a family, in part because of the dedicated staff members who support families by facilitating the allocation of resources, distributing information, and encouraging connections with the school.

In this case study of the Berea Community Elementary School (BCES), findings demonstrate the community’s commitment to further developing its family and school partnership programs. Each of the emerging themes elucidates the commitment to families, including how the school centers the student along with the myriad family engagement offerings that are available to caregivers. As the school conducts inquiries into its equity practices, opportunities abound to align the school’s family engagement framework with its equity goals. These opportunities will allow the school to pursue continuous improvement strategies that integrate equity and family engagement.