This list of age-appropriate skills will help prepare your child for each stage of life as they develop from preschool until the day leaves the nest.

The College and Career Competency Framework, developed by Drs. Gaumer Erickson and Noonan, supports educators in systematically embedding intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive competencies into course content. In this way, educators support students to develop into career-equipped, lifelong learners who are socially and emotionally engaged. The College and Career Competency Wheel includes 26 specific competencies categorized in three domains. Each competency is integral to in-school and post-secondary success, as determined by current and emerging research.

This site includes free, research-based instructional resources for all 26 competencies, as well as professional development opportunities to systematically teach competencies and academic learning standards simultaneously, thereby improving academic achievement, engagement, and post-school outcomes.

Community Action
Article by Andrew Bauld

School Leadership student Lorena Martinez sees community and family engagement as the key to students' success.

This resource, produced by the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (co-authored by HFRP’s Christine Patton and M. Elena Lopez), discusses the importance of families’ support for their children’s learning and development as children transition to new environments. The resource positions the transition to kindergarten as a pivotal point for establishing the kinds of practices that can help sustain gains children have made in their early learning settings, and offers examples of successful program practices that Head Start and Early Head Start staff can use to help children and families with this transition.

Partnering with Newcomer Families
Strategies for working across language and cultural differences to make families feel at home in new schools

In this brief, Christine Patton and Justina Wang, from Harvard Family Research Project, look at ways of helping to make the transition into kindergarten a positive experience that will serve as a foundation to help children reach their full potential throughout their school years. The brief highlights promising practices in six states—New Jersey, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia, and California—where local- and state-level leadership support a variety of initiatives to ensure successful transitions into kindergarten. The authors examine effective collaborative approaches in which state departments of education, advocacy organizations, school districts, early education teachers, kindergarten teachers, families, and community members work together to help kindergartners enter school ready to begin this pivotal new phase of their lives

Section One
TITLE I, PART A OVERVIEW
This section provides an overview of the strong focus that the ESSA has on parent and family engagement. Included in this section is the purpose of Title I, federal definitions, the responsibilities of the Department’s Family-School Partnership Program.
Section Two
INPUT
This section provides Title I schools and districts with a guide for meaningful consultation with parents and family members. Included in this section are Summary of Evaluation Tools, Assessing the Findings of the Annual Title I Parent and Family Engagement Evaluation, Checklist for Input, and Annual Evaluation Materials.
Section Three
POLICIES
This section provides necessary documentation samples and templates to help schools and districts implement the required provisions of Title I parent and family engagement law, as well as enhance their parent and family engagement programs. Included in this section are parent and family engagement checklists and school and district parent and family engagement policy templates.
Section Four
COMPACTS
This section provides Title I schools and districts with a guide of specific criteria to assist them in understanding and meeting Title I School-Parent Compact compliance monitoring requirements. Included in this section are templates, checklists, and sample compacts.
Section Five
BUILDING CAPACITY
This section provides a crosswalk of the National PTA Standards for Family-School Partnerships and Section 1116(e) of the Every Student Succeeds Act, Title I, Part A. Also included in this section is a graphic of the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships which the U.S. Department of Education published in 2013.
Section Six
DISTRIBUTION
This section provides resources for parent notifications required by Title I, Part A in the ESSA. Included in this section are templates for conducting the Annual Title I Parent Meeting to disseminate information and a Checklist for Distribution of required documents.

Welcoming Families from Day One
Two ways to kick off the school year with strong family-teacher partnerships