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 Outreach & Involvement
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.
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.
Casa Notes is designed to allow teachers to quickly make, and customize, typical notes that are sent home to parents or given to the students. Note templates are available both in English and Spanish.
Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence
CREDE is a federally funded research and development program focused on improving the education of students whose ability to reach their potential is challenged by language or cultural barriers, race, geographic location, or poverty. The site provides access to publications, research, and toolkits for administrators, teachers, and parents.
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.
Crosscultural Developmental Education Services
CCDES is a company that works with school districts, teachers, and parents around the United States and Canada, offering technical assistance, professional development, and numerous tools and resources. CCDES, founded by Dr. Catherin Collier in 1987, specializes in ESL, LEP and Special Education issues as well as an emphasis on Parent Education and Empowerment.
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.
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.
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.
Harvard Family Research Project: Bilingual Voices and Parent Classroom Choices
A case study of a Latino mother and her difficulties in helping her daughter achieve success in the U.S. school system. Offers discussion questions for staff to reflect on ways they might better assist immigrant families.
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.
This site offers a monthly column for parents and educators offering information and articles on different subjects. Topics include: reading, parenting, early childhood, and safe schools. One section offers articles in Spanish.
I can't begin to tell you how much help your site has been! It is so wonderful.
~ Jody E.
