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Family-School Partnerships in Rural Communities: Benefits, Exemplars, and Future Research

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Rural Education Research in the United States

Abstract

Research has established that families significantly influence students’ development, with parental engagement positively predicting academic and social-behavioral adjustment. When families and schools partner in students’ education, positive benefits for the students as well as their families and teachers are realized. Although rural schools are uniquely positioned to foster and benefit from family-school partnerships, limited resources, logistical barriers and lack of familiarity challenge the development of effective partnerships in rural settings. This chapter will examine Teachers and Parents as Partners (TAPP), a structured, indirect intervention that focuses both on promoting students’ social-behavior and academic success and strengthening family-school partnerships. Research on TAPP has documented its positive effects on students’ behavioral, academic and social-emotional functioning across home and school settings; this chapter will outline its efficacy and utility in rural settings. Authors will review results from a four-year randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of TAPP in rural schools and provide suggestions for future research considerations of family-school partnerships in the rural context.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants awarded to the first author by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (R324A100115; R305C090022).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, National Center for Research on Rural Education, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 216 Mabel Lee Hall, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0235, USA

    Susan M. Sheridan, Gina M. Kunz, Shannon Holmes & Amanda Witte

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  1. Susan M. Sheridan
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  2. Gina M. Kunz
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  3. Shannon Holmes
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  4. Amanda Witte
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Correspondence to Susan M. Sheridan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nebraska - Lincoln Nat. Center for Research on Rural Edu, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

    Gwen C. Nugent

  2. University of Nebraska - Lincoln Nat. Center for Research on Rural Edu, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

    Gina M. Kunz

  3. University of Nebraska - Lincoln Nat. Center for Research on Rural Edu., Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

    Susan M. Sheridan

  4. Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA

    Todd A. Glover

  5. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

    Lisa L. Knoche

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Sheridan, S.M., Kunz, G.M., Holmes, S., Witte, A. (2017). Family-School Partnerships in Rural Communities: Benefits, Exemplars, and Future Research. In: Nugent, G., Kunz, G., Sheridan, S., Glover, T., Knoche, L. (eds) Rural Education Research in the United States. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42940-3_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42940-3_14

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