Families, Schools, and the Adolescent

Families and schools share a desire for students to succeed but are often perplexed about how to collaborate and support this achievement, especially during the transition to middle and high school. This book will help educators and policymakers identify and implement the most effective strategies to help parents remain involved in their teens’ education. The research in this book looks at diverse families and adolescents from a wide range of backgrounds while considering cultural and socioeconomic contexts. Bringing together multidisciplinary perspectives—including prominent researchers from the fields of teacher education, psychology, and sociology —this authoritative book:

• Presents new research on family-school partnerships in the unique developmental period of adolescence.
• Outlines the challenges teachers experience in maintaining communication with families.
• Offers strategies that reflect academic socialization among African American, Asian American, Latino, and European American families as key factors that promote achievement.
• Describes how technology can bridge the gap between families and schools in a way that fits with the developmental needs of adolescents.
• Examines the roles of policymakers, communities, and school districts to highlight developmentally appropriate, culturally sensitive policy solutions.

Nancy E. Hill is a professor at Harvard University, Graduate School of Education and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, Harvard University. Ruth K. Chao is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside.

“This book could not have come at a better time….The authors provide us with numerous insights into how we can move forward to increase the quality of family-school relations in many different types of neighborhood and community settings.”
—From the Foreword by Jacquelynne Eccles, University of Michigan