The 2024 California Standards for the Teaching Profession place more emphasis on family engagement, and a recent report from the California Family Engagement Network (CA-FEN) covers field-level perspectives on related practices and obstacles.
The State of Family Engagement in California Schools details findings from surveys and interviews conducted with more than 370 teachers, administrators and certificated support personnel from around the state in 2025.
Overall, participants said they were aware of the six new standards, which include: 1) engaging and supporting all students in learning; 2) creating and maintaining effective environments for student learning; 3) understanding and organizing subject matter for student learning; 4) planning instruction and designing learning experiences for all students; 5) assessing students for learning; and 6) developing as a professional educator.
Respondents indicated that the second standard was the most widely applied at schools.
“Educators value family engagement and student-centered practices. Educators are aware and strongly agree with the standards, however, the application of these standards is lower largely due to the perception of low institutional support,” CA-FEN found.
The most common ways that each standard is applied are listed alongside a sampling of insights from those surveyed. Top practices performed by standard include:
- Standard one: Allowing students to share their cultural traditions with their peers and adopting curriculum based on knowledge from students and families to enhance student participation and engagement
- Standard two: Collaborating with colleagues to foster a campus culture that identifies and reduces potential biases
- Standard three: Including content representative of a community’s diverse backgrounds within curriculum and working with students and families to learn their academic interests and strengths
- Standard four: Providing students with choices in how they show understanding based on their interests and strengths and utilizing families’ feedback to differentiate social-emotional supports for individual students
- Standard six: Teachers and staff members identifying ways to address their personal biases and improve how they engage with families and colleagues
No items within standard five (assessing students for learning) were endorsed significantly more than others and endorsements of practices were lower than in other standards. Regarding the topic, one survey respondent said, “Equitable assessment practices are critical for understanding student progress and guiding instruction. Our school provides tools and support, though increased family engagement around assessments would be helpful.”
Other comments highlighted in the report pointed to issues such as a lack of alignment or standard within a district or school; use of assessments that result in faulty measurements to make instructional decision; not enough accommodations and modifications available to make assessments equitable for special needs students; and lack of time for data analysis and collaborative planning to properly use assessment results to improve instruction and student outcomes.
Of educators’ attitudes around the standards and family engagement, CA-FEN concluded that, “educators expressed very positive attitudes toward family engagement. Educators were most enthusiastic about treating families with respect. Also, they indicated willingness to self-reflect and increase knowledge to support family engagement. However, attitudes were less positive regarding visiting families at home or inviting families to co-design lesson plans — suggesting these more intense forms of partnership are less comfortable or practical for many educators.”
Teachers viewed school leaders as slightly more supportive of concepts related to family engagement than their fellow educators, meaning there may be a peer culture problem that hinders practices from being fully embraced.
Addressing barriers
Of barriers to implementing the six standards, “process-related barriers were most prevalent (37 percent), followed by belief-related (21 percent) and capacity-related (10 percent),” according to the report. “Until family engagement is embedded in school culture — championed by leadership and woven into everyday practice — meaningful improvements in family involvement and student outcomes are unlikely to take hold.”
To address challenges, process-focused solutions like offering collaborative time were among the top recommendations by respondents, followed by capacity-related actions like providing more resources, funds, time and professional development, and belief-focused changes to local culture and values.
The report also identified targeted suggestions for each standard that teacher preparation and induction programs and professional development can apply. For instance, for standard one, teachers can be presented with a broad array of models that can be used to build trusting relationships with families to support student achievement. Read the full list of recommendations in the report.
