GSC 2026

Missed Opportunities: An Analysis of Family-School Relationships in State Literacy Policy

Kathy Luksetich March 6, 2026

OVERVIEW

• Critical Interpretive Policy Analysis (CIPA)
• Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan (ICLP)
• Montana Literacy Plan (MLP)
• South Dakota Literacy Framework (SDLF)
• Family involvement/engagement
• Equitable school-family relationships
• Multilingual families

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Shirley (1997)

Teemant et al. (2021)

Parental involvement: "avoids issues of power and assigns parents a passive role in the maintenance of school culture" Parental engagement: "designates parents as citizens in the fullest sense - change agents who can transform urban schools and neighborhoods" (p. 73)

Equity framework for family, community, and school partnerships 4 guiding values:- mutual respect - democratic participation - critical consciousness - sustainability

• Critical Interpretive Policy Analysis (CIPA)
• Framing Approach

• Research Questions:
• Does the ICLP frame family-school relationships as parent involvement or parent engagement, as defined by Shirley (1997)?
• To what extent do constructions of parent-school relationships in the ICLP reflect values of equitable partnerships?
• What are the implications of these constructions for multilingual families?

METHODS

Visual content is a cross-cutting and universal language, like music. We are able to understand images from millions of years ago, even from other cultures.

POLICIES

Primary Text: 2024 Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan (ICLP) Comparisons: South Dakota Literacy Framework (SDLF) Montana Literacy Plan (MLP)

Data Analysis: -Deductive Coding: family involvement, family engagement, mutual respect, democratic participation, critical consciousness, sustainability -Notes and memos -Exclusions -Identification of key themes

Field Work

INITIAL FINDINGS

• Relationships framed as partnerships
• Family involvement/engagement terminology used interchangeably
• Relationship structures shift - sometimes clear engagement, other times school-based involvement
• Principles of mutual respect generally present with occasional shifts to deficit perspectives of families
• Democratic participation varies - some areas encourage power-sharing and active engagement of families, but in other areas the school retains power
• Critical consciousness generally absent from considerations of how school engagement practices disadvantage multilingual families

Write a great headline here

Although you should not abuse bullet points, icons and schemes can be great allies when presenting. You will keep your audience/class engaged and the information will be engraved in their brains.

• Sustainability is also generally absent, but may be more present/obvious in individual district plans
• Many statements are more political than actionable

• In many places, there is a clear division between family and school
• Lack of clarity regarding responsibility and accountability
• General absence of family engagement overall - described as critical, essential, etc. in narrative, but goal workbooks miss opportunities to actively engage families

Development

NEXT STEPS

• Refine research questions
• Complete review of MLP and SDLF
• Revise methods and theoretical framework
• Draft findings

QUESTIONS

• Do the proposed research questions align to the methods and frameworks, while still addressing the main interest in the topic?
• Are the choices for comparative cases reasonable, or should they be chosen on different criteria?
• Do the initial findings make sense, and do they align to the research questions and methods?

REFERENCES

Diem, S., Young, M.D., & Sampson, C. (2019). Where critical policy meets the politics of education: An introduction. Educational Policy, 33(1), 3-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904818807317 Illinois State Board of Education [ISBE]. (2024). Illinois comprehensive literacy plan. Illinois State Board of Education. https://www.isbe.net/Documents/IL-Comp-Literacy-Plan-2024.pdf Montana Office of Public Instruction. (2018). Montana literacy plan. Montana Office of Public Instruction. https://opi.mt.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=6eMj_bKxiNM%3d&portalid=182 Shirley, D. (1997). Community organizing for urban school reform. University of Texas Press. South Dakota Department of Education. (2023). South Dakota literacy framework. South Dakota Department of Education. https://doe.sd.gov/literacy/Framework.aspx Teemant, A., Borgioli Yoder, G., Sherman, B. J., & Santamaría Graff, C. (2021). An equity framework for family, community, and school partnerships. Theory Into Practice, 60(1), 28–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2020.1827905 van Hulst, M., Metze, T., Dewulf, A., de Vries, J., van Bommel, S., & van Ostaijen, M. (2024). Discourse, framing and narrative: three ways of doing critical, interpretive policyanalysis. Critical Policy Studies, 19(1), 74–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2024.2326936 Yanow, D. (2000). Conducting interpretive policy analysis. SAGE Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412983747

Book Title

Last Name Last Name, Author (2013), Book Title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Book Title

Last Name, Last Name, Author (2013), Title of the book. Place of publication: Publisher.

Book Title

Last Name Last Name, Author (2013), Book Title. Place of publication: Publisher.