Program Profile: Iowa State University Child Development Laboratory School in Ames, Iowa

The Iowa State University (ISU) Child Development Laboratory School provides opportunities for students, researchers, and practitioners to observe and work with young children. The schools serves as a model early care and education program for young children and their families.

Program Overview
This full-day, year-round program on the campus of ISU hosts many practicum students throughout the year. As part of their experience, students have many opportunities to learn and practice family engagement strategies, such as conducting interviews with families, observing teacher and family interaction at drop-off and pickup times, working with families to complete child assessment forms, and talking with families at pickup time about their child’s day.

The program serves 56 children in four classrooms. The children are primarily the children of ISU faculty, staff, and students, many of whom come from other countries. Recently, the program counted 14 different languages spoken by its children and families, including Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic.

The Lab School, with a much more diverse population than the larger Ames community and Iowa, involves preservice teachers—many of whom are from rural parts of the state—in working with a diverse population of children and families. A grateful father notes, “The Lab School is the only preschool in town that has a true multiracial student population. This was important to us because we wanted our little guy to be around kids that looked like him…. As a multiracial family with two dads, we have always felt respected and welcomed by Lab School employees.”

Family Engagement Program Practices

Family Particiption in Decision Making
When a child first enters the program, the Lab School assigns a primary caregiver, who is responsible for assessing and planning for the child. The teacher also encourages families to collaborate in the development of the child’s goals. Within the first 30 days of enrollment, teaching staff ask parents to help complete the child’s developmental screening. Because of this primary caregiver relationship, over time parents become more comfortable making and contributing to decisions related to their child’s experience in the program.

Two-Way Communication
Since families speak so many different languages, it can be challenging for teachers to maintain ongoing communication with families. One way teachers meet this challenge is by making an effort to learn and correctly pronounce names. One of the teachers shares, “As silly as this may sound, I think one of the best ways to let families know that they are welcome and wanted in our programs is to learn how to say their names. We have so many international families, and I think it is important to try to say their names correctly.”

Another step the program takes is using enrollment paperwork to ask whether the family is comfortable with written and verbal communication in English. If a family indicates that they will need translation, the school seeks assistance through the university’s foreign language department, one of the foreign student groups, or, if the family prefers, a family friend.

The program staff encourage families to speak their native language at home with their children, and place special emphasis on dual language learning. For example,

• One mother from Beijing found that her daughter did not understand the stories read in class by the teacher. She says, “I want to tell the story both in English and Chinese before my daughter heard it in preschool. When I discussed my idea with her lab teachers, they tried to find a way to provide me with all the books which will be read during the next five weekdays and let me take them home over the weekend. It works. [My daughter] understands and can retell the story after she hears it again in preschool.”
• Another parent shares that her child’s teacher “recognizes the unique language development that my child goes through [Japanese, Russian, English]. We communicate with the teacher to capture the intricacy of the language development of my child together. For instance, I share some words that my child learned at home [Japanese and Russian] and ask if she uses those words at school. The teacher will share some English words that my child learned at the Lab School.”

Reciprocal Relationships
Another program policy encourages visits from extended family. The Lab School’s parent handbook section on home and school partnership welcomes grandparents “to visit, observe, and participate in classroom activities.” Karri Kerns,  former director, says that since participating in the Engaging Diverse Families project, the program now plans to expand that statement to include additional family, friends, and neighbors. “We know that for many of our families, their friends and neighbors often become their extended family while they are in this country. It is important that we include all people who are important in the child’s life.”

A Comprehensive Program-Level System
Staff at the Lab School believe that close family-school relationships are essential for the program to be fully responsive to the child and for the child to reap the maximum benefits from the early care and educational experience. The program uses certain practices to help ensure that teachers really know and partner with the families.

In addtion to primary caregiving, the program practices continuity of care with looping; the teacher moves with the children from the infant/toddler room to the 2-year classroom and then to the 3-year classroom. Kerns explains, “This practice assists us in our work to engage with families. When children have the same teacher for their first three years, we find that the families develop a strong relationship and bond with that teacher. When families have this type of ongoing relationship with a teacher, they are comfortable in interacting and sharing information that is vital to the work we do with the children and families.”

Parents agree. One reports, “It’s a relief to not have to introduce our daughter to a new environment and a new teacher, which I’m sure she would find stressful. I also feel like this means we don’t have any interruptions in our assessment of her development and our working on certain goals. We’re all on the same page because we have been building a relationship and a set of teamed observations over a longer period of time.”

Developed for NAEYC's Engaging Diverse Families Project through a generous grant from the Picower Foundation.
© National Association for the Education of Young Children.