Bilingual education : a history of family and community involvement in schools

The demographics in today’s schools are undergoing large transformations and it is imperative for schools to keep up with this change. In the face of accountability, schools with high minority or ELL populations are not faring as well as others thus they are subject to school reforms that intend to transform the school into one that produces comparable results to higher performing schools. In this review of the literature, I highlight key elements that schools can adopt, specifically those with high minority or ELL populations, to better meet the needs of at-risk students. I elaborate on bilingual education and the relationship it has on academic achievement for ELL and monolingual students. I also elaborate briefly on the importance of community schools as a school improvement strategy and more formally on the important role that the development of strong community-school relationships have on at-risk students. In the third section of the review, I focus heavily on parental involvement and engagement and the role that this has on academic achievement and overall school reform. The findings highlighted in the literature review are promising further intensifying the necessity to consider these strategies as a means for promising school reform. Implications for practice are included at the conclusion of this literature review.Curriculum and Instructio