ABSTRACT
There is remarkable consensus across the chapters in this volume about several important themes relevant to family-school partnerships in the present and the future: (a) Family-school partnership is critically important to the optimization of children’s educational experience; (b) An ecological developmental systems theoretical perspective is a useful framework for conceptualizing the complexity and importance of relationships between home and school; (c) Diversity characterizes the changing demographics of the nation, the public school population of students, and is salient to every aspect of the educational enterprise including family-school-community partnerships; (d) Evidence-based practice is valued, and we continue to have important limitations to our knowledge base regarding effective family-school partnerships. The shared voice and vision of the authors is compelling and lends credence to the prediction of Weiss and Stephen (this volume) that we are poised as a nation to take advantage of a critical window of opportunity in educational and social policy, “to realize a vision for a strategic, comprehensive, and continuous system of family, school, and community partnerships that demonstrably contribute to children’s development and school success” (p. 449).
Although the consensus that is evident in this volume among the authors is hopeful regarding the improved family-school partnerships that may emerge in the subsequent decade, there are also barriers to this vision. Weiss and Stephen caution wisely that realizing this vision will require major policy and practice changes as well as new ways of conducting, using, and communicating research and evaluation. Furthermore, there are psychological, structural, and historical barriers to home-school collaboration (Christenson & Sheridan, 2001).
