Welcome to our November newsletter, celebrating Family Engagement Month!
This is a perfect time to reflect on the essential role families play in every child’s academic journey. At Family Engagement Lab, we believe that when educators and families join forces, children build the skills, mindsets, and habits they need to thrive. This month, we invite you to recommit to strengthening partnerships for equity in literacy and math, together and year-round.
In this issue, you’ll find our latest feedback to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) advocating for more family-centered research and accessible evidence, insights into how parents’ math mindsets affect student success, highlights from Learning Heroes’ new report showing the measurable impact of family engagement, and updates on conferences where Family Engagement Lab is connecting with leaders and innovators nationwide. This November, and always, let’s empower meaningful family–school partnerships and unlock brighter futures for every student!
Vidya Sundaram and Elisabeth O’Bryon
Family Engagement Lab Co-founders
What We're Sharing
Family Engagement Lab’s Feedback to Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Redesign
Family Engagement Lab urges IES to prioritize research that bridges school learning with home and out-of-school environments, areas vital for student success but lacking in large-scale studies. Evidence from Family Engagement Lab’s FASTalk program (which has served over 70,000+ students) shows curriculum-aligned family engagement yields significant gains in literacy, especially for multilingual learners and those in high-need settings.
Key recommendations:
Make family engagement a core research focus, documenting scalable strategies.
Improve dissemination by ensuring research is accessible to families, with plain-language and multilingual materials.
The message: Family engagement is essential, not an “add-on”, and IES should center its redesign on research, technology use, and accessible communication that supports families as key partners in learning.
Math stirs strong emotions for many Americans, both positive and negative according to a Gallup Math Matters Study, supported by the Gates Foundation. While 60% of U.S. adults say math makes them feel “challenged,” nearly half (48%) also report feeling “interested,” with younger adults tending toward more negative emotions and older adults reporting more positive ones. Importantly, parents’ feelings about math influence how they support their children: nearly three-quarters of parents with positive math feelings feel confident helping with homework, compared with just 38% of those with negative emotions. As national math scores stagnate or decline, the findings underscore that math learning isn’t just academic—it’s emotional—and parents’ own math mindsets can shape their children’s success.
K-12 education is rapidly evolving, with innovations like school choice, high school redesign, AI, and new technologies transforming classrooms, even as learning gaps and chronic absenteeism widen. This creates both complexity and optimism across the sector. One constant remains: research shows family engagement is essential for student success and school improvement. The recent Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Impact Study from Learning Heroes found that schools excelling in family engagement had far smaller rises in absenteeism and less decline in reading and math during the pandemic. In fact, top-performing schools saw a 39% smaller increase in absenteeism, meaning students spent more time in class learning.
Yet, families are often left on the sidelines, missing opportunities to be true partners in education. At Family Engagement Lab, we deeply appreciate Learning Heroes’ decade of research and their ongoing commitment to elevating family-school partnerships. Their report affirms what we know from practice: When families and educators team up as partners, schools strengthen, achievement grows, and trust powers lasting change. Family engagement isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s a proven driver of school and student success.
Where We'll Be
In December, Vidya Sundaram will be attending the California Family Engagement Network (CAFEN) Conference in Los Angeles. Email us if you would like to connect atsupport@familyengagementlab.org.
This October, Family Engagement Lab attended leading national events to champion family engagement and inclusive education:
NAFSCE National Assembly, New Orleans (Oct 6–10): We joined experts and advocates at this national convening focused on building strong family–school–community partnerships.
NCSM Annual Conference, Atlanta (Oct 13–15): Our team connected with math education leaders to advance equity and innovation in schools.
EdTech Week, New York City (Oct 20–22): We participated in a cutting-edge festival exploring the future of learning technology and were part of an inspiring event hosted by the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL).
Family Engagement Lab, 548 Market Street, #42210, San Francisco, CA 94104
