My research question posed the theory that there could be a one-size-fits-all recipe for successfully changing a school culture to have dynamic, engaging, positive relationships between school staff and parents. According to the National Center of Educational Statistics (2020) in 2017-2018, 79% of the 3.5 million public school teachers in the U.S. were White while 53% of the 50.7 million public school students were minorities (better known as Black, Indigenous and people of color). Remarkably the 47% of White students were primarily enrolled in schools with at least a 75% White student demographic where only 6% of the 50.7 million students who were White went to a school with less than 75% White students (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2020). There is clearly a need for White educators to know how to communicate with students and families outside of their own race. It is imperative that teacher preparation programs begin instructing teachers who to speak to parents about their children’s academics, health and wellness, interventions, and their future. This literature review taught me that even though there is not one clear path to solve every school’s relationship deficit or heal any one parent-teacher relationship, there are clearly three steps that can be taken by schools to start the healing and building process. The three themes in my paper assessment, intervention, and community centers, are intended to be those steps towards better relationships and they cannot be completed one singular time. Relationships take constant work and assessment or evaluations of successes and failures should be done continuously. One area I would like to explore more in my own private research is extending interventions to include scaffolding strategies into the repertoire of families. How much more successful could behavior plans, or methods for learning for students with disabilities, or health plans be if the student received them with fidelity in every location of their daily life?

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Truly my passion project has always been to define and defend how a school can build a community center and why it is important and necessary. This literature review solidified my beliefs that community centers can offer benefits not only to family-school relationships, but to raising up the whole family in order to educate the whole child. I think that the education community should be made aware of how vital parent-teacher relationships are to the success of not only to student academics but to their social and emotional well-being as well. Wyatt Academy is a living example of the success these relationships and community center can bring to an urban school.

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Wyatt Academy is an elementary school in the Whittier/Cole neighborhood in the urban heart of Denver, CO.  The school serves a low SES population where 94% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch in 2020.  About 65% of the students are learning English as a second language and 9% of the student body has a current IEP or 504 plan.  The school building was built in 1887 and educated children continuously until 1983.  For nearly fifteen years the building was abandoned, set ablaze, and occupied by derelicts and drug addicts until it reopened as an elementary and middle school in 1998.  For over twenty years Wyatt Academy has been hosting an internal battle to maintain its Charter license, provide a safe education for inner-city students, and to only appear in the news for positive academics or community involvement. 

I began working at Wyatt Academy in the fall of 2016 when we were on a short list of schools DPS wanted to close due to poor academics, violence, and the lack of attendance.  In the last four academic years, the teachers and staff of Wyatt Academy have brilliantly fought to end the violence within our walls, raise the bar for academia in the neighborhood, create a safe community-centered approach to maintaining positive relationships with families, and focus on educating the whole-child.  We moved our School Performance Framework (SPF) rating from red to green in 3 years.  I believe that we owe a great deal of our success to the Wyatt Academy community and neighborhood involvement.

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 In my experience, students listen to people they know and trust—first year teachers start rock bottom and are met with school-wide challenges because they haven’t built relationships yet.  The relationship between a school staff member and the student body must be one of compassion, patience, and genuine care.  That relationship is solidified when it extends beyond the student and reaches the student’s family and community.  This is how and why Wyatt Academy has become so successful.  We stopped placing blame on parents and students for their behavior and lack of academic growth and instead began to focus on bringing the entire family up.  We created a community center within the school to provide food, clothes, laundry, and computer access to family members.  We started to see the students’ needs as more than math and literacy, but also nutrition. We began teaching students how to deal with stress and began meeting their basic needs first.  Our principal Ms. Mishara has made doctor appointments, dentist appointments, and calls about housing for our families.  Staff members have sought out partnerships with local stores and programs to ensure that every student has school supplies, shoes that fit, fresh produce and groceries, clean clothes, and toys.  Every teacher within Wyatt Academy has made it their personal mission to invest in the school and its students and it shows in the data.

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According to Tancred et al. (2018), “students’ feelings of connectedness to their school settings, safety when at school and parental involvement… improved behaviors and academic outcomes” (p. 2).  Once we started showing compassion at every turn, the erratic violent behaviors of students halted.  Once we started sending food home with students on a weekly basis, students were able to learn more for longer periods of time.  Students are less stressed and feel truly safe at school.

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When focusing on a school-wide approach to community at Wyatt Academy, we do not believe the only place for education is within the classroom.  Our school-wide pedagogy is that all students are our students and every opportunity to teach is an opportunity to build meaningful relationships whether we are on the playground, in the hallway, cafeteria, or classroom.  Showing students that every staff member in our school cares for them and their family is not just based in conversation, but also on the appearance and maintenance of our building and grounds.  Vagi et al. (2018) states, “the lack of supervision of corridors, and poor maintenance can provide opportunities for conflict and foster feelings that the school and students are not cared for and that aggressive behavior is tolerated or even necessary to stay safe” (p. 297).  One of the staff members sought out a partnership with a local artist group to come and paint culturally diverse murals throughout the school.  The janitorial staff has grown in order to guarantee the entire facility is not just clean, but also well maintained.  In addition to climate, the community within the teaching staff also affects the success of anti-bullying, violence-free school environments (Li et al., 2017).  When teachers feel their opinions are heard and validated by their principal they take ownership of the school environment more fervently.

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For the student to truly be able to advocate for themselves and feel confident in their decision-making regarding the academics and healthy choices in their own life, they need every adult in their life to contribute to their success.  Every person throughout their day from their home in the morning, through the school day with their teachers, to the afterschool program instructors needs to teach the student how to be confident when advocating for themselves, making lasting healthy relationships, and how their right to education is essential and nothing or no one should stand in their way; a strong community builds strong children. In order for this to happen, we as educators need to partner with families to ensure that every child is taught and treated as the whole child. Relationships are paramount in the success of our children. I plan on taking this knowledge and expanding it into a website for easy access to premade surveys and assessments, strategies for extending interventions and scaffolding to families, and ideas to enrich and encourage parental involvement through building a community center in every urban school. Even though Wyatt Academy has come leaps and bounds in the past 4 years, we have more room to grow and when or if I leave Wyatt Academy my pedagogy and relationship practice will continue on with me.