The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has made an exciting investment in family engagement: $13.7 million in grants to 30 organizations that will develop and implement what the foundation calls “transformative family engagement programs in the field of early childhood education.”

The grant funding is meant to ensure that parents are “at the table” when key decisions are made about their children’s preschool years.

Kellogg received more than 1,130 applications for this grant, the highest number in its 83-year history.

“This was an eye-opening moment for us. We knew there was a need and a value around the issue of family engagement, but we didn’t realize the extent of the shared value around families’ desire to more deeply engage in their children’s education,” said La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the Kellogg Foundation.

Power of Family Engagement

Engaged parents can indeed have a strong, positive impact on their children’s preschool experiences.

“Research has shown that meaningful family engagement—the amount of time parents spend talking with their children, reading them a book, cuddling them or asking about their day—has a direct impact on learning and motivation,” according to Too Small to Fail, the nonprofit organization supported by the Clinton Foundation. Too Small to Fail helps parents and businesses act to improve the health and well-being of children ages 0 to 5.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education’s blog, Homeroom, covered the department’s release of the Dual Capacity Framework, which helps schools and communities “build parent and community engagement.”

The blog points to Baltimore where the public schools, “worked to support 12,000 pre-kindergarten and kindergarten homes, and to engage families in home-based literacy practices. Each week students received a different bag filled with award-winning children’s books, exposing children, on average, to more than 100 books per year. The book rotation also includes parent training and information on how to share books effectively to promote children’s early literacy skills and nurture a love of learning.”

“When parents are involved in the educational process of their children, students are more likely to attend school regularly, to take more rigorous courses, earn higher grades, and graduate; and go on to both college and careers,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan explained in a video.

 Kellogg Grantees in Massachusetts

Kellogg’s family engagement grants will go to initiatives in 18 states and the District of Columbia.

“These organizations recognize that family engagement is a core strategy connected to improving learning outcomes,” explained Carla Thompson, Kellogg’s vice president for program strategy.

Two organizations in Massachusetts were among those awarded grants.

Lawrence Community Works, a community development corporation, will use its grant funds to develop more Community Education Circles (CECs), which Kellogg defines as “an innovative effort to bring together parents, teachers and students in Lawrence Public Schools and contribute to the turnaround of this struggling school district.” CECs “use relationship-building conversations and joint action on shared goals to create a practice of deep parental engagement, effective school-family communication and co-investment in improved student educational outcomes.”

The work builds on Lawrence Community Works’ past community engagement projects. The organization explains more about the circles here.

Kellogg is also giving a grant to the Cambridge-based Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) to revitalize family engagement during the transition to kindergarten.

The project will promote promising community approaches and “work with national partners and local communities” to encourage conversations about how to implement family engagement projects, “especially among families affected by income inequality, racial inequality and immigrant status.”

On its own webpage, HFRP explains that it draws “from a body of research built over decades,” adding, “we promote a systemic approach to family and community engagement in the earliest years of life.”

Meeting National Demand

Kellogg says its vision is to see all the grant recipients infuse family engagement programs “throughout local and national education reform efforts… lifting up the voices of families to set all children on a path to success. Because of the unprecedented interest and clear demand from the field, the foundation, now more than ever, understands the need for family engagement funding and is using this opportunity to invest in families.”

We are encouraged by Kellogg’s investment and look forward to seeing grantees develop new best practices. Family engagement is critically important in early childhood when the foundations of learning and literacy are being built.