How might school districts form teams of educators with different skill sets to design and implement effective family engagement strategies? Why is it so important to create a solid action plan for family engagement and how might districts approach this work? How do family and community engagement practices positively affect EL student success in school and beyond?

We discuss these questions and much more in our conversation with a great team from Cabarrus County Schools in North Carolina. In our first episode with three guests, we bring in ESL Counselor Stacey Diaz, High School ESL Teacher Emily Francis, and School Social Worker Doug Carr. As you’ll hear in our conversation, each person bring a unique skillset to best support EL students and their families in the district and community. This team-based approach one of the key elements of success in Cabarrus.

During our conversation, we referenced the following books and resources. If you are interested in seeing the templates we discussed in the episode, please reach out to the Cabarrus team using their contact info below.

• Stacey Diaz recommends the book Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, by Jose Antonio Vargas
• Emily Francis recommends the book Being the Change, by Sarah Achmed
• Doug Carr recommends the book Spanish for Educators, by William Harvey
• Follow Stacey on Twitter 
• Follow Emily on Twitter 
• Follow Doug on Twitter 

​Thanks for listening and be sure to subscribe to Highest Aspirations wherever you get your podcasts!