Perspective | The most underused tool in your school isn’t a program, it’s the people at drop-off

Every semester, I open my college writing course at every institution where I teach the same way. Before we talk about thesis statements or citation formats, I ask students to share their literacy journeys in a letter to the professor. I want to know the story of how they became readers and writers. Or didn’t. I want to know which of their classes were their favorites and why. I want to know if they like school and if they consider themselves a good student. The responses follow a pattern so consistent it has stopped surprising me.

The students who light up when describing their educational journey, who remember being read to at bedtime, whose parents asked about their schoolwork and school day at dinner, almost universally describe themselves as confident students.

The ones who say things like, “I’ve never really been a good student,” tend to share a different kind of story. They didn’t like school; no one was checking in because their parents were working. They fell behind in second grade, and nobody caught it until fourth. These are college students who are still carrying the weight of engagement that came too late or never came at all.

That pattern, visible to any educator who has ever asked students to tell the truth, points to something researchers have been saying for decades and school leaders too often treat as a soft add-on: Family engagement is one of the most powerful, underused levers we have for improving student outcomes.

The evidence is stronger than most people realize

A 2025 report from Learning Heroes, “Centering Families in the Future of Education,” pulls together a decade of research with families, educators, and community partners. The findings are difficult to ignore. Students with engaged families consistently outperform their peers, show stronger social-emotional development, and are less likely to drop out; that truth holds from the time a child enters school to their high school senior year. 

The aspect of this research that makes it so compelling is how it reframes what actually drives school outcomes. When family engagement becomes part of how a school approaches attendance, literacy, and math rather than an add-on program, results follow.

The relationship between home and school may ultimately be more predictive of whether a child shows up and succeeds than poverty level, curriculum, or funding — not a new initiative and not a budget increase, but the strength of the connection between families and the people who teach their children every day. 

So why aren’t we doing this better?

Part of the answer is that we have defined family engagement too narrowly. For years, schools have treated it as showing up for conferences or volunteering at events. That model quietly shuts out the families who most need to be in the room. It excludes parents working two jobs, caregivers navigating language barriers, and families whose own difficult experiences with school leave them wondering whether they are welcome at all. 

The research is clear about this too. Low-income families and immigrant families face real structural barriers to traditional forms of school involvement. These families often navigate conflicting work schedules, lack of child care, lack of reliable transportation, and in some cases, a history of hostile or dismissive interactions with school staff.

Schools that design engagement only for the families who already feel comfortable walking through the front door are leaving their most important partners on the outside.

The issue is not a parenting problem; it is a design problem, and it is fixable.

What school leaders can actually do

The schools that get family engagement right share a few things in common. They treat it as a conversation. They ask families what they need and what they know. They meet families where they are by sending messages in families’ home languages, partnering with trusted neighborhood organizations, and making positive phone calls that don’t begin with bad news. They build trust before there is a crisis.

For policymakers, the ask is straightforward. Fund family engagement as a school infrastructure investment, not a grant-funded afterthought. Require meaningful family engagement plans that reach historically disengaged families, not just a sign-up sheet on back-to-school night. Embed family engagement training in educator preparation programs and professional development.

For parents, the message is simpler still: Your involvement matters more than you realize. Your support and your relationship with your child’s school truly shift the dynamic. Research consistently finds that when families feel valued and connected to schools, children show up differently, both literally and figuratively.

We spend a great deal of time looking for the next program, the next initiative, the next fix. Every semester, my students remind me that the most formative forces in their education had little to do with a curriculum or a test. Students were influenced by parents who asked questions, families who showed up, and homes where learning felt like it mattered. We cannot manufacture that, but we can build schools that earn it.