Chapter 29: Community Learning Exchange: Uniting Urban Communities and School Leaders to Improve Family and Community Involvement in Urban Schools

This chapter turns a theoretical and practitioner lens on the value of community and school engagement. The authors of the work document the aforementioned process illustrated by a southeastern postsecondary institution’s work with two public schools located in a historically Black, urban community in a metropolitan city. This chapter examines how a community learning exchange among families, educators, educator preparators, and community leaders cultivated deeply meaningful conversations that lead to partnerships which fostered increased family involvement. Moreover, this chapter aims to unpack a university, K–12, community collaboration and partnership experience from the perspective of a university faculty member, a university project director, and a K–12 school principal who worked together to address family involvement. By making note of the possibilities of university, school, and community engagement this work offers ways for similarly situated collaborators to rethink educational collaborations.