Chapter 3: The Role of Leadership in Forging Family–School–Community Relationships

In our economically and culturally diverse society, schools are finding it increasingly difficult to create educational programs to address the various needs of the students (Merz & Furman, 1997) with the finances and the resources available to them. This realization has influenced some school-and district-level educators to collaborate with families and communities (Hands, 2005a; Sanders, 2001) in order to establish “connections between schools and community individuals, organizations, and businesses that are forged to promote students’ social, emotional, physical, and intellectual development” (Sanders, 2001, p. 20). Although family-school-community partnerships have been considered important for students’ academic success, creating an effective relationship among the entities has proven difficult.