High Expectations
Website: https://www.highexpectationsonline.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/High-Expectations/100069960622409/
Organization Mission & Overview
High Expectations is an educational consulting firm dedicated to improving student achievement by strengthening family engagement in the education process. The organization equips families and school staff with the skills, knowledge, and tools necessary to support the academic success of every child. They envision that both staff and families share agency to build strong home-school partnerships that drive student learning and promote student achievement, engaging as equal partners in students’ learning and school reform.
Core Programs
Teachers and Staff
High Expectations provides evidence-based professional development experiences for teachers, school and community engagement staff. These professional development workshops focus on fostering trusting relationships with families and strong home-school partnerships that support student success. Grounded in culturally responsive practices, the trainings provide educators with practical tools, strategies, and resources to meaningfully engage all families as partners in their children’s learning.
District and School Leaders
High Expectations also builds the capacity of district leaders to support strong family engagement. Using the Dual Capacity-Building framework, they work alongside district leadership to:
- Create organizational and structural conditions where family engagement is encouraged by leadership and is sustained by resources and infrastructure
- Assess existing family engagement supports, strategies and practices, and develop capacity-building plans to improve partnerships
- Overall support sustainable family engagement practices at both a District and school level.
Their work ensures that family engagement is embedded into district infrastructure and is sustained across schools.
School Family Engagement Teams
High Expectations collaborates with schools to design and implement family engagement strategies that improve student learning outcomes, strengthen partnerships, and enhance school climate and culture. School teams include administrators, teachers and educators, families, family and community engagement staff and other key staff. A pivotal part of this initiative is their 2-day Family Engagement Learning Institute, a training program designed to build the capacity of school teams to evaluate, develop, and implement family engagement practices that align with student achievement goals.
Family Leadership
High Expectations supports the capacity of schools in establishing and sustaining Family-Led Leadership Teams that bring families and school staff together as collaborative decision-makers. These Family Leadership teams focus on improving student outcomes and fostering inclusive, supportive school cultures. This includes an African American Parent Advisory Council and a Family-Led Literacy Team.