Review

Communicating with Families: The Professional Handbook offers strategies to share information with families (e.g., writing letters, parent-teacher conferences). The online Teacher Space provides materials that can be downloaded to share with families or directly accessed online by families, such as letters about what the children are learning. These materials for families are translated into Spanish, and the Professional Handbook suggests that teachers should reach out to colleagues or community organizations to support communication with families in their home languages. However, the curriculum does not provide specific guidance on how to communicate in culturally responsive ways. Additionally, the curriculum lacks information on how to learn from families about children's development.

Engaging Families: The curriculum provides multiple resources to support parent and family engagement. For example, the online Family Space includes activities, take-home books, and other resources for parents to extend their children's learning at home, all of which are offered in English and Spanish. All Teaching Guides include sections on "Engaging Families and the Community," which provide examples for how to include family and community members in the classroom. While the resources on parent and family engagement are plentiful, there is limited consideration for how to engage parents from diverse cultures, parents who speak languages other than English or Spanish, or parents with disabilities or other special needs.

Communicating with Families: The Teacher's Handbook provides general guidance on how to communicate with families. It suggests that teachers share their expectations for children and invite families to share their expectations for children at home, as well as ask families about children's interests and experiences. The handbook also recommends sending home a form describing children's school days and asking families to describe children's activities at home and in the community. The online portal provides Family Engagement Letters, in English and Spanish, for each unit. The letters include information about the unit of study and what children are doing in class. Even so, the curriculum lacks specific guidance on how to interact with diverse families.

Engaging Families: The curriculum includes specific guidance on how to engage families in children's learning and development. For example, the Teacher's Handbook suggests teachers invite families to share with the class some items related to topics that children are learning about. Another suggestion is to post an "Ask your child" question at the end of each day. In some units, children "write" invitations and programs for family events (e.g., scavenger hunt, museum night, garden party). However, the curriculum provides limited guidance on how to implement these events. The Family Engagement Letters provide concrete ideas on how families can extend learning at home. Although the letters are available in English and Spanish, there is no discussion of how to engage families from diverse cultures, families who speak languages other than English and Spanish, or parents with disabilities or other special needs.
 

Communicating with Families: The Handbook includes some strategies for sharing information with families (e.g., monthly newsletter, regular parent meetings). While the curriculum describes the importance of recognizing parents as sources of information about the child and family, it lacks guidance on how to learn from families about their child's development, culture, home language, and background. The curriculum includes some considerations and strategies for working with culturally and linguistically diverse families. For example, the curriculum cautions teachers not to overwhelm families with educational jargon, to keep wording simple, and to use plenty of visual support in activity directions.

Engaging Families: The Handbook describes the importance of engaging parents and families in children's learning and development, and it offers general guidance on how to do so. Some strategies include implementing an open-door policy, conducting special events (e.g., monthly family nights and school celebrations), and creating weekly home learning activities. Activity books for families are available at an additional cost. However, the Handbook lacks guidance on how to use them with families. There is no guidance on how to engage parents with disabilities or other special needs.

Communicating with Families: Volume 1: The Foundation provides a range of communication strategies that encourage both learning from and sharing information with families. Some curriculum resources specify the importance of translating materials for families who do not speak English and of understanding the backgrounds of families with whom you work.

Engaging Families: The curriculum provides multiple resources to support parent and family engagement. The Learning Games are activities for families to do at home with their children, available in both English and Spanish. The Letters to Families provide information about the interest areas and studies, such as suggested vocabulary and activities, to extend children's learning at home. Other suggestions for family engagement were inviting families to volunteer in the program or participate in classroom activities, and these suggestions included consideration of families' diverse needs (e.g., using families' home languages).

Communicating with Families: The Teacher's Manual provides strategies for how to communicate with parents and families. For example, it suggests communicating with parents regularly, conducting two home visits a year, and holding parent-teacher conferences. For each theme, the Theme Guide includes a "theme introduction letter" in English and Spanish. Most guidance for communicating with families tends to focus on how to share with families, but there is limited information on how to learn from families. The curriculum suggests that teachers "always strive to be nonjudgmental and sensitive to cultural differences." However, it lacks guidance on how to communicate in culturally or linguistically responsive ways.

Engaging Families: The curriculum provides specific guidance on how to engage parents and families in children's learning and development. It offers Home Link Activities that encourage nightly story time as well as Snuggle-Up and Read Parent Workshops and Celebrations. The Teacher's Manual also suggests using parent volunteers and assigning them tasks that draw on their abilities and interests. A limitation is that the curriculum lacks guidance on engaging families in culturally and linguistically responsive ways and does not address working with families who have disabilities or other special needs.

Communicating with Families: "Stepping Stones to Family Involvement," in Foundations for Learning, describes the importance of communicating with families. It suggests that teachers learn from families about what a child does well, his likes and dislikes, and what he finds challenging. The curriculum recommends scheduling conferences and parent meetings in advance and using communication notebooks for two-way communication. In addition, the curriculum's website includes parent letters (in English) that describe what the children are doing in the classroom during each unit. Even so, most communication is unidirectional, and the curriculum lacks guidance on how to interact with diverse families.

Engaging Families: Learn Every Day™ provides specific guidance on how to engage families and parents in their children's learning. For example, the "Home Stretch" section of each lesson suggests ways families can extend children's learning at home (e.g., encourage children to look outside for four things that are colorful; ask parents to show their children their favorite exercise); parent letters repeat these suggestions. However, there is limited consideration for how to engage parents from diverse cultures, parents who speak languages other than English or Spanish, and parents with disabilities or other special needs.

Communicating with Families: The Curriculum Guidebook provides general strategies for communicating with families, and the online Pre-K Parent Center provides information for families. The curriculum offers limited information on how to learn from families about children's development. For example, Galileo® Pre-K provides forms for families to observe their children's development, but there is little guidance for teachers on how to use these observations. Materials for families (accessed through the online Pre-K Parent Center) are available in Spanish. However, the guidance on how to communicate with families in culturally and linguistically responsive ways is limited.

Engaging Families: Galileo® Pre-K provides guidance on how to engage parents and families in children's learning and development. For example, the online Pre-K Parent Center includes access to a large selection of printable hands-on activities and computer-based educational activities (available in English and Spanish). The curriculum gives minimal specific guidance on how to engage parents from diverse cultures and parents who speak languages other than English or Spanish. For example, the Curriculum Guidebook suggests inviting families to share about their language and culture and asking families for suggestions of classroom activities which represent their cultures. However, the curriculum lacks specific guidance on how to utilize ideas or information families offer. An additional limitation is that the curriculum does not address how to engage parents with disabilities or other special needs.

Communicating with Families: The curriculum provides a range of strategies to communicate and connect with parents and families. Some of these strategies invite teachers to learn from families (e.g., suggestion box, parents share observations of children, teachers conduct home visits to learn about styles and traditions). Furthermore, the curriculum includes examples of information to include in notes or newsletters sent home to families. Some curriculum resources specify the importance of translating materials for families who do not speak English and understanding families' cultures.

Engaging Families: The curriculum provides multiple resources to support parent and family engagement. Bringing Active Learning Home is a series of family workshops that suggests teachers take families' backgrounds and needs into account to tailor workshops (e.g., translating workshop handouts). In addition, Let's Play and Learn Together offers home activities to share with families.

Communicating with Families: The Home Connections Resource Guide offers strategies and materials to share information with families (e.g., home visits, parent-teacher conferences, family newsletters in English and Spanish). However, with the exception of a "suggestion box" for families to share suggestions with the program, most of the curriculum materials and strategies communicate information to families in a uni-directional way (from program to family). The curriculum lacks information on how to learn from families about their child's development, cultures, home languages, and backgrounds.

Engaging Families: The Home Connections Resource Guide provides general guidance on how to engage families in children's learning and development. It includes resources to extend children's learning at home, such as take-home storybooks and family newsletters with suggested activities to do at home. The curriculum also invites families to visit the classroom at many of the end-of-unit celebrations. While the curriculum includes some guidance on how to engage families who speak languages other than English, there is limited consideration for how to engage families from diverse cultures or parents with disabilities or other special needs.

Communicating with Families: The resource guide, Family Connections Building a Sense of Community, and online resources, Family Connections, provide a range of materials and strategies for sharing information with families, such as letters about the curriculum's learning experiences. In addition, "From the Experts: Family Connections" describes some ways to learn from families about children's development (e.g., survey families about child's interests and activities at home as well as parents' visions for child's education). While the materials for families are translated into Spanish, there is limited further guidance on how to communicate with families in culturally and linguistically responsive ways.

Engaging Families: The curriculum provides multiple resources to support parent and family engagement in their children's learning and development. For example, the Parents Are Teachers Too (PATT) mats are hands-on, open-ended activities for families to do at home with their children, available in both English and Spanish. The curriculum also provides Take-Home Storybooks for families to read with their children and suggests offering a lending library with books in families' home languages. However, there is no further discussion on how to engage families from diverse cultures, families who speak languages other than English, or parents with disabilities or other special needs.

Communicating with Families: Welcome to Frog Street Threes offers some strategies for two-way communication with families (e.g., teachers informing families of program policy, families informing teachers about what happens over the weekend). The Family Connections CD provides a range of materials for sharing information with families, such as letters about the curriculum's learning experiences. It also includes an "All About Me" form to learn from families about children's development and routines at home. While the materials for families are translated into Spanish, there are no further resources or specific guidance on how to communicate with families in culturally and linguistically responsive ways.

Engaging Families: The curriculum provides multiple resources to support parent and family engagement in their children's learning and development. For example, the Parents Are Teachers Too (PATT) Mats are hands-on, open-ended activities for families to do at home with their children. They are available in both English and Spanish. The curriculum also provides "Family Connection" cards with strategies and activities for families to engage in with their children (e.g., encouraging children to notice numerals in the environment, supporting children to plan and build a structure with blocks, boxes, or pillows). While the parent and family engagement resources are plentiful, there is limited consideration for how to engage families from diverse cultures, families who speak languages other than English or Spanish, or families with disabilities and other special needs.

Communicating with Families: The Welcome to the Wonders section within the units describe the importance of ongoing, positive communication with parents and families. The curriculum provides Family Unit Letters in several languages (e.g., Spanish, Chinese, Haitian), which include "Ideas for Busy Families" with thematic activities that are organized around key times of the day (e.g., car activities, cooking activities). In addition, unit finger plays are sent home to build children's literacy and phonological awareness skills. Some bidirectional communication incorporates prompts that ask family members to share information on their cultures or traditions. This may include asking families to send in photos of their children cooking so teachers can use the photos as a basis for oral language and writing activities. However, the curriculum does not provide guidance for how to communicate in culturally responsive ways. 

Engaging Families: The curriculum provides specific guidance on how to engage parents and families in their children's development and learning. The Home-School Connection pages within each unit offer multiple ways to engage families in experiences that are linked to their children's learning in school. For example, the curriculum provides a list of theme-related books for families to find in libraries. It also recommends setting up a game lending library so children have the opportunity to check out their favorite classroom games (e.g., puzzles) and play them at home with family members. In addition, Theme Projects often promote family visits to the classroom so parents can join activities and observe their child's learning. Although a range of materials are used to engage families, guidance on engaging families who speak languages other than English and families from diverse cultures is limited.
 

Communicating with Families: The Planning and Assessment Teacher's Guide with Professional Development Handbook mentions that children learn best when home and school work together. However, the curriculum provides minimal guidance and few strategies for communicating with families. The CD-ROM, Ollie's Resources for Teachers and Families, provides letters for families about the curriculum's learning experiences. The curriculum provides little guidance on how to learn from families about children's development. While the newsletters and take-home books for families are translated into Spanish, there is no further specific guidance on how to communicate with families in culturally and linguistically responsive ways.

Engaging Families: The curriculum provides multiple resources to support parent and family engagement in their children's learning and development. For example, the "Family Time Newsletters" (available in English and Spanish) not only explain what children are learning in school, but also provide some activities to do in the home to extend children's learning. The curriculum also provides "Take-Home Books" for parents to read with their children, as well as guidance for "Family Workshops" to help parents support their children's learning at home. While the resources on parent and family engagement are plentiful, there is no guidance on how to engage parents from diverse cultures, parents who speak languages other than English or Spanish, and parents with disabilities or other special needs.

Communicating with Families: The curriculum provides minimal guidance on how to communicate with families. Pre K for ME includes one letter to parents inviting them to collect recycled objects to repurpose. The curriculum does not offer strategies for sharing information and learning from parents and families. It also doesn't provide guidance on how to communicate with families in culturally and linguistically responsive ways. 

Engaging Families: The curriculum provides some guidance on how to engage parents and families in children's learning and development. Some lessons provide prompts that invite family or community members to come in and speak, visit the classroom, or send in photos of the children. Pre K for ME also includes a few opportunities for teachers to send home games and puzzles that are intended to extend the learning at home (e.g., National Association for the Education of Young Children materials). Even so, opportunities to engage families are not integrated throughout the curriculum. In addition, the curriculum does not include any guidance on how to engage parents from diverse cultures, parents who speak languages other than English, or parents of children with disabilities and other special needs.

Communicating with Families: The Research and Professional Guide offers strategies for communicating with families (e.g., have an "open-door policy," weekly newsletters, and the Bruno Buzzbee Mail Poster). The curriculum provides a Family Welcome Guide that includes information on topics such as child development, the daily classroom routine, and the curriculum's characters. In addition, teachers are encouraged to gather information about the children from their families using the At-Enrollment Family Survey. The At-Enrollment Survey, family letters, and other materials are available in English and Spanish. Even so, the curriculum does not provide specific guidance on how to communicate in culturally and linguistically responsive ways. Many Languages, One Classroom, an optional professional development book (available at an additional cost), suggests ways to communicate in linguistically responsive ways (e.g., establish a Language Advisory Committee). However, this book is not referenced in any other curriculum materials.

Engaging Families: InvestiGator PreK 2018 provides specific guidance on how to engage parents and families in program activities and how families can extend learning at home. For example, the Research and Professional Guide describes how to host a "Welcome to the Club Family Night," and each Teacher Guide describes theme-based activities for "Family Investigation Nights" and "Investigation Celebrations." Additionally, the Research and Professional Guide offers a list of other ways to involve families, such as making a special snack with children. The curriculum includes some considerations on how to engage diverse parents and families. For example, the Research and Professional Guide suggests inviting parents to share their culture or ancestral heritage with the class. To extend learning at home, each unit includes a small take-home book related to the theme. Both the take-home books and instructions are provided in English and Spanish. Even so, there is limited consideration embedded within the curriculum for how to engage parents from diverse cultures, parents who speak languages other than English and Spanish, or parents who have disabilities or other special needs.

Communicating with Families: The Research and Professional Guide offers strategies for communicating with families (e.g., have an "open-door policy", weekly newsletters, and the Bruno Buzzbee Mail Poster). The curriculum provides Family Welcome Guides that include information on topics such as child development, the daily classroom routine, and the curriculum's characters. In addition, teachers are encouraged to gather information about the children from their families using the At-Enrollment Family Survey. The At-Enrollment Survey, family letters, and other materials are available in English and Spanish. However, the curriculum lacks guidance on how to communicate with parents and families in culturally and linguistically responsive ways.

Engaging Families: Just for Threes 2018 provides specific guidance on how to engage parents and families in program activities and how families can extend learning at home. For example, the Research and Professional Guide describes how to host a "Welcome to the Club Family Night," and the Let's Investigate Teacher Guide includes theme-based activities for "Family Investigation Nights" and "Investigation Celebrations." Additionally, the Research and Professional Guide offers a list of other ways to involve families, such as making a special snack with children. The curriculum includes some considerations on how to engage diverse parents and families. For example, the Research and Professional Guide suggests inviting parents to share their culture or ancestral heritage with the class. To extend learning at home, each unit includes a small take-home book related to the theme. Both the take-home books and instructions are provided in English and Spanish. Even so, there is limited consideration embedded within the curriculum for how to engage parents from diverse cultures, parents who speak languages other than English and Spanish, or parents who have disabilities or other special needs.

Communicating with Families: Tools of the Mind^® provides information to share with families about the curriculum's learning experiences. The "Parent Resource" section of the eTools website includes a "Back to School Night" PowerPoint presentation about core curriculum activities. It also contains a detailed brochure explaining the curriculum's philosophy, goals, and ways parents can effectively support their children's continued development of self-regulation skills at home. In addition, it offers newsletters to be sent home at the beginning and mid-point of each month that describe the curriculum's learning experiences, including lists of books and "fingerplays" children experienced in class. Each parent resource is provided in both English and Spanish. However, the curriculum provides minimal guidance about the importance of two-way communication with families, how to communicate with families in culturally and linguistically responsive ways, and how to share information with parents and families about their child's development.

Engaging Families: The curriculum provides specific guidance on how to engage parents and families in children's learning and development. Each parent newsletter, available in English and Spanish, includes a list of "Extensions at Home" with simple activities parents and children can do together (e.g., "Help someone at home make a recipe in the kitchen."). A "Need Your Help!" section at the bottom of each newsletter asks for specific prop materials (e.g., empty food containers). In addition, eTools offers "Let's Pretend" books in English and Spanish to help parents support the development of children's make-believe play skills at home. However, there is no guidance for teachers to invite families to become involved in the classroom environment and activities, nor is there consideration on how to engage culturally diverse families or families that speak languages other than Spanish or English.