Schools of Excellence

What are the National Standards for Family-School Partnerships? 

PTA’s National Standards for Family-School Partnerships set the bar for how schools and parent organizations should work together to support student success. We know that families are essential partners to providing a high-quality education for every student. Decades of research shows that family engagement matters for student success, students whose families are engaged are more likely to attend school, avoid discipline problems, achieve at higher levels and graduate. Family engagement also helps schools, research suggests it is equally as important as school leadership or a rigorous curriculum to predict school improvement. 

Although there is consensus that family engagement matters, parents1 and educators struggle to figure out how to engage with one another in ways that reach all families and have a positive impact on student success (Robinson & Harris, 2014). Since their initial creation over 20 years ago, the National Standards for Family-School Partnerships have contributed to greater awareness and capacity for improving family-school partnerships across the country and internationally. 

The Standards are one of few recognizable and concrete guideposts for family engagement across the education system, complementing important work such as the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School-Community Partnerships. The National Standards for Family-School Partnerships have been used by PTAs, schools, districts, state education agencies, and the U.S. Department of Education for accountability and support for strong family engagement, including as the foundation for PTA’s own Schools of Excellence program which supports over 300 local PTAs and their schools annually. 

How are the Standards organized? 

National PTA identifies six Standards that can help schools, PTAs and school districts improve their family-school partnerships so that all students can thrive: