Alvarez Gutierrez published in ED Week
Dr. Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez along with the Family-School Collaboration Design Research Project published in Education Week: Family-School Relationships Are the Missing Link in COVID-19 Era Education
Seven recommendations for improving family outreach during the pandemic
COVID-19 has made it more obvious that the public school system cannot fulfill its mission without families. This pandemic—along with the many overlapping pandemics our nation now faces, including racial, economic, political, and environmental injustices—has also heightened existing barriers between families and schools.
For the past few years, we at the Family-School Collaboration Design Research Project—the community research partnership facilitated by the University of Utah of which all the authors of this essay are a part—have been working with teachers, administrators, and culturally diverse families in Salt Lake City to design new ways of increasing family voice in schools. When we recognized the increased disconnection between families and educators during COVID-19, we asked them to share experiences, hopes, frustrations, and needs in recorded Zoom videos. In those videos, families and educators taught us how COVID-19 is straining their relationships. This reality challenged us to think creatively about school and family engagement.