The 2024 National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference (CSxFE Conference), hosted by the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL), annually brings together several thousand parents, educators, researchers, and advocacy organizations for a multi-day discussion. Under the 2024 “Level Up for Success!” theme, attendees from around the nation connected with each other in workshops and established safer, more holistic youth development strategies.
Researchers from the Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation (PRE) are renowned throughout the country for conducting applied research and evaluation studies focused on promoting positive educational outcomes for youth and understanding the influence of both schools and communities on those outcomes. One of the aims of NYU Metro Center’s PRE team is to use research to inform educational policies and practices at federal, state, local, and programmatic levels. Sharing their research findings and resources with CSxFE conference attendees is very much in line with the Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation’s efforts to work collectively toward racial, social, and economic justice through family engagement leadership.
The PRE research team presented preliminary findings at their workshop session, “What Parent Leaders Do and Why They Matter: Lessons from a National Research Study.” These findings were from our Spencer Foundation funded project about Parent Power and Leadership. In this study, researchers from the Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation explore the impact of family and parental leadership and advocacy on children of participating adults. PRE continues to document how collective parent action relates to the learning and thriving of families, especially children and youth.
NYU Metro Center’s PRE research team presented understandings based on the survey they administered to over 180 organizations, detailed in the Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation’s published report, Parent Leadership and Organizing for Justice. The study also focuses on five organizations across the country who are engaged in parental leadership development and community advocacy efforts.
Additionally, we collaborated with a parent leader and community organizer for a fireside chat about how their family leadership work has benefitted the children in their community. Furthermore, presenters provided attendees with an infographic that summarized the PRE survey findings and engaged in an interactive activity where participants were encouraged to apply lessons from the research to strengthen their own work.
Finally, the Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation (PRE) showcased their Parent Power Map & Directory at the 2024 IEL Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference. The team created this resource that was in response to early conversations with parent advocates who desired more connections with parent leaders across the country. PRE Research and Policy Analyst, Parker Foster noted that, “... parent leadership and advocacy organizations work tirelessly for the advancement of their communities. It is PRE's hope that we can continue to support and amplify their efforts as they engage in community building." The Parent Power Map & Directory is a prime example of the Center’s commitment to putting research into action. Consequently, PRE researchers demonstrated its features during the CSXFE conference session, encouraging the audience to share it with groups who wish to connect with other organizations around the same key issue areas. Dr. Joanna Geller, Director of the Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation at NYU Metro Center remarked that PRE stands with diverse, committed parents whose leadership journeys are fueled by love for their own children but sustained by love for all children. These caregivers want to learn how to effect change to obtain high-quality childcare, thriving and joyful public schools, healthy food, stable housing, and living wages to support their families and communities.
If your organization would like to be featured in PRE’s Parent Power Map & Directory, please complete our Parent Power & Leadership Survey and get your organization on the map!