NMENGAGED Resources

PTA Parents’ Guides to Student Success
Notes From The Backpack-A PTA Podcast
Unlocking the How (Learning Heroes)
PTAs Leading the Way for Transformative Family Engagement
Learning Heroes Family Engagement Resources
NMPED Parent Portal
Canvas Courses
Planning Guide for Parent-Teacher Conferences
Parent and Family Engagement under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as Amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (January 10, 2025)

Glossary

Action Plan
The family engagement plan your Action Team will create using the steps and tools provided in NMENGAGED.

Action Team
A team composed of a school administrator, teachers, School staff, families, community and tribal partners that represent the socioeconomic, linguistic, and cultural diversity within the school.

Assets
Assets are the strengths, talents, cultural knowledge, languages, and resources that families and communities bring. Recognizing these assets means valuing and celebrating the rich diversity of households, including the unique languages, cultural knowledge, skills, and contributions each family offers to the community.

Collaboration
Families and the school community partner to achieve shared goals for students with a focus on building relationships.

Common Core Standards
Educational standards describe what students should know and be able to do in each subject in each grade.The Common Core State Standards are a set of high-quality standards in mathematics, English language arts (ELA) and reading and writing in social studies, science, and technical subjects. There are also New Mexico-specific standards in Science and Social Studies with additional state-specific standards focusing on culturally relevant texts and instruction.

Developed by teachers and experts across the country, these standards prepare New Mexico students to be ready for college and careers in order to be competitive in both national and international job markets.

Core Beliefs for Family Engagement
All families have dreams for their children and want the best for them 2. All families have the capacity to support their children’s learning 3. Families and school staff are equal partners 4. The responsibility for cultivating and sustaining partnerships among school, home and community rests primarily with school staff, especially school leaders. (Beyond the Bake Sale, Henderson, Mapp, Johnson and Davies. The New Press. 2007)

Equity
The promotion of access, opportunity and advancement of all individuals, including those in underserved communities, in order to identify and eliminate conditions that prevent the ability of all students to reach their full potential. “The term ‘underserved communities’ refers to populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life,” (January 2021 President Biden’s Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government).

JRE’s definition: Refers to fairness and justice and is distinguished from equality. Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that students and families do not all start from the same place and educators must acknowledge and adjust the imbalances.

Economically Diverse
Economically diverse families represent households with varying income levels and financial experiences. They bring valuable perspectives that reflect the realities of different economic circumstances, enriching the community with diverse insights, problem-solving approaches, and resilience. Recognizing the contributions of economically diverse families highlights the importance of equity, inclusion, and the shared goal of creating opportunities for all.

Equity Councils
Equity Councils are responsible for informing and advising school boards, superintendents, charter school governing bodies, and executive directors to ensure that the Martinez and Yazzie Consolidated Lawsuit decision is implemented with a focus on the students most in need of specific support.

The NMPED established the Equity Council requirement for all districts and charter schools in the state to ensure that the important work of the Martinez and Yazzie Lawsuit was carried out by the experts at the local level.

For more information visit the NMPED Equity Council webpage.

Family
All adult caregivers. A natural, adoptive or foster parent or other adult serving as a parent such as a close relative, a legal or educational guardian; and/or a community or agency advocate.

Family Engagement
A productive, equitable and inclusive partnership among families, educators and the community to promote children’s learning and development from birth through college and career, and across home, school, and community settings. Family, school and community partnerships are about building active, reciprocal relationships in which schools, families and community agencies and organizations engage in meaningful and culturally appropriate collaboration to improve student outcomes. (Dr. Karen Mapp’s definition, Senior Lecturer at the Harvard School of Education and author of the Dual Capacity Framework.)

Family Empowerment
The act of engaging, involving, educating, and lifting the voice of families through authentic partnerships and family education. Empowerment is anchored in families being at the decision-making table using their funds of knowledge and cultural and linguistic expertise incorporated into the policy and budget decisions.

Funds of Knowledge
The knowledge that families bring is abundant in unique skills, talents, and cultural resources. School communities should focus on families’ multiple layers of experiences and foster conditions for language and culture to thrive.

Gender Identity
One’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One’s gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth. (HRC.org)

Inventory
The Inventory is a tool that the Action Team will use in Step 3 to assess school-wide progress in strengthening partnerships between school staff.

Parental Involvement
Parental Involvement is compliance focused. It is based in the activities already determined by the school. This could include classroom volunteering, chaperoning school events, participating in parent-teacher conferences, collecting compliance evidence like sign-in sheets from parent meetings. School staff are usually in leading these activities, inviting parents to participate.

Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) defines parental involvement as the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities (NCLB, 2004)

Parent Organization
A private nonprofit organization that brings together families, school staff, and community to strengthen family-school partnerships for student success.

PTA’s National Standards for Family-School Partnerships
PTA’s National Standards for Family-School Partnerships set the bar for how schools and parent organizations work together to support student success. The National Standards for Family-School Partnerships have transformed family engagement across the country for over 20 years.

The Standards give schools and PTAs guidance on how to improve family-school partnerships and set the bar for best practices in six key tenets:

• Welcome All Families
• Communicate Effectively
• Support Student Success
• Speak Up for Every Child
• Share Power
• Collaborate with Community

Research Proven
Practices and programs that are based on well-supported and documented theories of learning with a strong evidence base that are implemented as they were in the validating research are likely to produce better outcomes for children.

School Community
School staff, students, families, and community and tribal partners. AKA: stakeholders and partners

School Improvement Plan
The New Mexico School DASHboard provides parents, community members, and all stakeholders with meaningful information on school improvement plans and their decisions to improve student learning.

Social Emotional Learning
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) reflects the critical role of positive relationships and emotional connections in the learning process and helps students develop a range of skills they need for school and life.

Socio-economic Status
See Economically Diverse

Student
An all-inclusive term to also include children in the early education environment, birth to age five, as well as youth and young adults through age 21 who are continuing to receive special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”).

Student Outcomes
Advancing student social, emotional, and academic development.

Surveys
Surveys are a tool that can be used as a way to gather feedback from students, teachers, and administrators about their experiences and perceptions. Surveys can be used to improve teaching methods, curriculum, and the overall learning experience.

Tribal Collaboration
There are 23 tribes located in New Mexico – nineteen Pueblos, three Apache tribes (the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, the Jicarilla Apache Nation and the Mescalero Apache Tribe), and the Navajo Nation.

The nineteen Pueblos are comprised of the Pueblos of Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Nambe, Ohkay Owingeh, Picuris, Pojoaque, Sandia, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, Santa Ana, Santa Clara, Santo Domingo, Taos, Tesuque, Zuni and Zia.

Each tribe is a sovereign nation with its own government, life-ways, traditions, and culture. Successful tribal collaboration requires mutual respect, communication, and cooperation. Relationship building and collaboration between tribal communities and school communities will promote early and integral partnerships to collectively work to address the needs of New Mexico’s students, families and communities.

Underrepresented Groups
Underrepresented groups are families who are less likely to be represented in education due to their race, ethnicity, gender, disability, or socioeconomic status.