Teachers who work with English as a Second Language learners will find ESL/ESOL/ELL/EFL reading/writing skill-building children's books, stories, activities, ideas, strategies to help PreK-3, 4-8, and 9-12 students learn to read.
Parent Coordinators
20 Rules for Great Parent-Teacher Conferences
This article from Scholastic's Instructor Magazine offers great tips from teachers on ways to get the most out of parent-teacher conferences and put parents at ease before, during, and after the meetings.
Reading at Home with Your Child
Delta Publishing sells videos, DVDs, and handouts available in English and Spanish for educators to teach parents how to read with their children.
American Federation of Teachers: Parent Resources
The AFT offers many useful resources for educators to use with parents to help them navigate today’s hot-button educational issues, as well as how to help them become better consumers of public education and advocates for their children.
Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services (BRYCS)
Provides technical assistance to service providers working with refugee children and their families in the U.S.
Bringing up Baby Bilingual Blog
Website with many links to research, articles and useful links to support bilingual language development.
BRYCS: Involving Refugee Parents in Their Children's Education
Resources for helping educators increase parent outreach to refugee families.
Campaña Quetzal is a coalition of parent, youth, individuals, educators, and organizations committed to unleashing the academic and personal potential of each Latino student and eliminating the academic achievement gap.
Capitol Region Education Council (CT)
CREC began as a grassroots organization of local school districts in Connecticut working together to solve common problems. Its mission is to work with boards of education of the Capitol Region to improve the quality of public education for all learners.
Children Now: Education Resources
Offers information, research, and policy recommendations for policy-makers, educators, and parents working on behalf of children.
Clearinghouse for Multilingual Documents
The California Department of Education promotes the Clearinghouse for Multilingual Documents (CMD), a secure database to assist local educators in both locating and uploading their own free parental notification documents translated into non-English languages. While documents will be most relevant for educators in California, the database serves as a model for other educational systems looking to expand resources in other languages.
Colorado Parent Information and Resource Center (CPIRC)
The Colorado Parent Information and Resource Center (CPIRC) at Clayton Early Learning provides information about the No Child Left Behind Law and support for school and family partnerships in Colorado that lead to increased student achievement. CPIRC also offers trainings for schools, parents, and districts, and some of these training resources such as PowerPoint presentations are available for free online.
Connecticut Family Learning Initiative
The CT State Department of Education's Family Literacy Initiative works to expand, strengthen and coordinate family literacy services in the state. Family literacy publications and resources are available on the program's website, including a family literacy guide in Spanish.
Cultivating Readers: A Magazine for Parents
The National Center for Family Literacy puts the family at the forefront of educational reform in the area of national literacy. They have produced a free downloadable bilingual magazine in English and Spanish for parents called "Cultivating Readers," which gives tips on promoting reading to children from birth until age 8.
D.C. Language Access Coalition
The D.C. Language Access Coalition's (Coalition) goal is to ensure that DC residents and workers who are limited English proficient (LEP) or non-English proficient (NEP) have equal access to the most essential government benefits and services including food stamps, Medicaid, health care, unemployment benefits, job training programs, public education, fire and emergency services, the police department and mental health services.
Ed.gov: Education Resources for Spanish Speakers
This site, sponsored by the Department of Education, provides links for Spanish speaking parents of school-age children. It also includes answers to frequently asked questions, a resource center with publications and materials, a general information center, and assistance for parents in need of financial support to aid their child's education.
Education World: Parent Involvement in Schools
Practical family meeting ideas with links to other websites and resources.
Emergency and Community Health Outreach
Multilingual resources on health and safety resources, languages include English, Hmong, Somali, Spanish, Vietnamese and Cambodian.
This section of the Learning Network is designed to help parents stay connected to their children's learning. Find homework help, creative activities, printables, games, and ideas from other parents and experts.
These parent and child programs were designed by educators at the Pennsylvania Center for the Book to be used by professionals who are training parents or caregivers to support young children's literacy learning.
This website from PTO Today provides all the information needed to organize a successful Family Reading Night event. You can also request a Family Reading Night Kit, which includes a planning guide, posters, brochures, and many fun creative ideas to use at your event.
Great Schools: Back-to-School Night
This article discusses some ideas for parents so that they can make the most of back-to-school night at their child's school, as well as information that they should take with them from the event about their child's school, classroom, and teacher (such as important contact information). This article is available in English and Spanish.
Many links to Head Start publications on a variety of topics such as infant nutrition, certificates of appreciation for parents, children's mental health, and developmental assessments. Many of the publications are downloadable and translated into Spanish.
Learning Two Languages: Questions Parents Ask
This article from PBS answers many questions parents have about helping their children become bilingual.
Maryland State Parental Information Resource Center
The Maryland State Parental Information Resource Center's (PIRC) mission is to help parents, community members, and educators in Maryland work together to increase family involvement and improve student achievement. The website offers extensive information in Spanish, as well as information for newly arrived immigrants.
Massachusetts DOE Resources for Family and Community Involvement
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education offers resources for family literacy and community involvement, providing information about program design and links to other useful Web sites.
Massachusetts DOE Resources for Family and Community Involvement: Additional Resources
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education offers online federal resources for educational excellence, family resources from the MA Department of Social Services, and guidelines for learning at museums.
Matrix Parent Network and Resource Center
Matrix is a parent-run information and resource center, helping families of children with special needs in Marin, Solano, Napa, and Sonoma counties of California.
Michigan Department of Education: Parent Involvement Fact Sheet
A brief overview of the direct connection of parent involvement and academic achievement.
Minnesota Department of Education: ELL Guidelines for Parent Involvement
This section of the ELL Guidelines focuses on parent involvement, with resources such as tips for working successfully with interpreters.
These brochures for parents cover a variety of topics concerning the education of young children, from providing the best care to finding the right toys. Some are also available in Spanish. The brochures are available for purchase for a minimal fee from the online store of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education
NCPIE is dedicated to developing effective family/school partnerships in schools throughout America.
National Network of Partnership Schools
Established at Johns Hopkins University in 1996, NNPS invites schools, districts, states, and organizations to join together and use research-based approaches to organize and sustain excellent programs of family and community involvement that will increase student success in school. NNPS was founded and is directed by Dr. Joyce L. Epstein.
National Parent Teacher Association
National PTA is the largest volunteer child advocacy organization in the United States. A not-for-profit association of parents, educators, students, and other citizens active in their schools and communities. PTA is a leader in reminding our nation of its obligations to children.
The National Education Association has created Help for Parents to provide information and resources to help parents understand what's happening in their child's classroom.
NPR: Language Gap Mars Parent-Teacher Chats
Weekend Edition Sunday, April 8, 2007.
by Elizabeth Wynne Johnson
Federal law requires school districts to provide
interpreters for parent-teacher conferences. But demand far outstrips the state and federal funds provided. How are schools adapting?
(audio file from NPR website)
Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center
The Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center assists the families of children with disabilities through education, information and training. PEATC builds parent-professional partnerships to promote success in school and community life.
Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center (VA)
The Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center builds positive futures for Virginia's children by working collaboratively with families, schools and communities in order to improve opportunities for excellence in education and success in school and community life. PEATC has a special focus on children with disabilities.
Parent Institute for Quality Education
This website outlines the work PIQE has been doing to promote parent involvement by providing nine-week training courses that will assist parents in understanding the U.S. educational system and becoming better advocates for their children.
The Parent-Child Home Program (formerly the Mother-Child Home Program) is a proven, innovative home-based literacy and parenting program serving families challenged by poverty, low-levels of education, language barriers and other obstacles to educational success.
Parents + Schools = Successful Children: Practioner Guide
The Parents + Schools = Successful Children series is a project developed by the National Center for Family Literacy. The project includes bilingual materials to promote the importance of parent involvement and literacy support at home. This Practitioners' Guide offers numerous ideas and resources for reaching out to parents.
Parent education and readiness program supporting parent education and developmental activities with infants and toddlers. Services include home visits, group meetings, developmental screening and referral to additional resources if needed.
Here you'll find information about your child's development, fun educational activities, information about PBS KIDS programs, and much more!
This site guides parents through their child's development from birth through age 5. This site is also available in Spanish.
PEAK Parent Center provides training, information, and technical assistance to equip parents with strategies to advocate successfully for their children with disabilities. Some information is available in Spanish.
Pierce County: Early Learning Resources
Pierce County Library System in Washington offers a Web page full of early learning resources, like downloadable information sheets with ideas to make everyday activities a learning experience, booklets with reading tips, and podcasts about pre-reading strategies.
Project Success: Increasing Parent Involvement
Practical suggestions for increasing parent involvement in schools.
Raising A Reader's mission is to foster healthy brain development, parent-child bonding, and early literacy skills by engaging parents in a routine of daily "book cuddling" with their children from birth to age five. It offers its program through organizations such as Head Start, and has documented participating children's superior book knowledge and story comprehension.
San Diego School District: Parent Resources
The San Diego Unified School District's parent resource page offers general school policy information in multiple languages, along with helpful articles about testing, attendance, and student performance.
Scholastic: Reaching Out to Bilingual Families
A list of seven tips for involving bilingual families at school. (Please note that the recommendation to enlist other bilingual children as translators refers to guiding new students at school and assisting with translating at programs, not at parent-teacher conferences.)
Sesame Street: Military Families
Sesame Workshop presents a bilingual educational outreach initiative designed for military families and their young children to share. The materials include a parents' magazine, a children's poster, a facilitator guide, and downloadable videos and music.
Talking About Wordless Picture Books
Talking About Wordless Picture Books: A Tutor Strategy Supporting English Language Learners is designed to support tutors who are working with low-intermediate English language learner (ELL) parents in family literacy programs. Developed by NCFL with funding from UPS, the strategy provides detailed instructional activities to help ELL parents build and practice English conversational skills.
Tomás Rivera Policy Institute: Latino Parental Involvement *
"Understanding Latino Parental Involvement in Education: Perceptions, Expectations, and Recommendations."
Tomás Rivera Policy Institute: Pre-K Programs*
"Latino Public Opinion Survey of Pre-Kindergarten Programs: Knowledge, Preferences, and Public Support."
The mission of the U. S. Department of Education is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence for all Americans. The Department WebSite includes information on funding, research, publications, and programs.
U.S. Department of Education: Healthy Start, Grow Smart Series
The "Healthy Start, Grow Smart" series was an initiative of Laura and George W. Bush and sponsored by the Texas Department of Health. It offers downloadable Word and PDF documents in English and Spanish that offer parents advice for caring for babies from birth to 12 months of age.
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