Research demonstrates that a majority of Title I schools indicate that learning compacts, help promote family involvement.  Title I principals were asked to rate the helpfulness of compacts in achieving different types of school and family outcomes.  Responses tended to differ by school poverty, with the highest-poverty schools finding compacts most helpful.  In the highest-poverty schools, 85 percent of principals found Title I compacts helpful in supporting homework completion.

• About 8 out of 10 principals in high-poverty Title I schools rated compacts as helpful, as did a majority of principals in low-poverty schools.

• Across all schools, about 30 percent of the principals considered compacts “very helpful”.
  

• Principals perceived compacts as having the greatest impact on homework completion, school climate, student discipline, and reading at home—factors that are amenable to intervention by school-family partnership activities.

Case studies provide further insights into the compact process.  In case studies of five schools that developed strong written compacts, researchers found that in four of the five schools, the compact functioned as a supportive component of a much larger and well-established parent involvement program.  In the fifth school, the compact served as the primary catalyst for more intensive involvement by families.

Data from the Prospects study of student outcomes (1998) provide evidence that when compacts are effectively implemented, positive student outcomes, including higher achievement, result.  Schools with compacts were compared with non-compact schools on parental involvement and student achievement.  Schools with compacts had higher levels of family involvement in those activities in which parents worked directly with their own children.  These activities included parents’ monitoring of homework and reading with their children.  The study concluded that, after controlling for other factors, positive student outcomes found in compact schools were associated with the greater involvement of parents in supporting their own children’s learning.  Other activities, such as volunteering and decision making, may be valuable in their own right but were not shown to significantly affect learning.

In a second study from the same time period an examination of ten schools found that four aspects of parent involvement in their own children’s education correlated highly with achievement and other outcomes.  These were: the parent caring about what occurred in the Title I classroom; the parent encouraging the student to read; the parent keeping track of the child’s progress in school work; and the parent making sure that there was a place for the child to study at home. 

Because the data in the first study covered the early 1990s, before the Title I compact requirement, compact schools were ones that initiated the compact on their own and presumably were committed to its success.  Now that compacts are required in all Title I schools, achieving this level of commitment in all schools will take more effort.  Source: Heid, C., & Webber, A. (1999). School-level implementation of standards-based reform: Findings from the Follow-Up Public School Survey on Education Reform. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

According to the study, Organized Communities, Strong Schools.pdf, conducted by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, March 2008, research data suggest that organizing efforts are helping to develop new capacity in schools – particularly in the areas of school-community relationships, parent involvement and engagement, sense of school community and trust, teacher collegiality, and teacher morale. These indicators have been identified by research as critical to the creation of successful learning environments (see Sebring et al. 2006).

Annenberg's research also found evidence of improved student outcomes through higher student attendance, higher test scores, and increased graduation rates and college-going aspirations in four sites where a combination of policy/resource advocacy and school-based support helped to sustain implementation of reform.

In addition to schooling change, the groups in our study are contributing to the development of new civic capacity to work for community improvement. Adult and youth members reported new knowledge about school and community issues, new engagement behaviors in schools and communities, and higher goals and expectations for themselves and their families as a result of their participation in organizing.

Annenberg's research sheds light on a range of strategic choices and organizational characteristics that support organizing success. Future research and knowledge-building efforts need to focus on understanding what factors help groups to develop the capacities necessary to transform schools and communities. The impact of involvement in organizing on young people’s development and future academic success – and the broader impacts on community capacity produced through school reform
organizing – also warrant further examination.

Data suggest that organizing is contributing to school-level improvements, particularly in the areas of school–community relationships, parent involvement and engagement, sense of school community and trust, teacher collegiality, and teacher morale.

Successful organizing strategies contributed to increased student attendance, improved standardized-test-score performance, and higher graduation rates and college-going aspirations in several sites.

Our findings suggest that organizing efforts are influencing policy and resource distribution at the system level. Officials, school administrators, and teachers in every site reported that community organizing influenced policy and resource decisions to increase equity and build capacity, particularly in historically low-performing schools.

Data indicate that participation in organizing efforts is increasing civic engagement, as well as knowledge and investment in education issues, among adult and youth community members.  Young people reported that their involvement in organizing increased their motivation to succeed in school.
Our research suggests that organizing groups achieve these schooling and community impacts through a combination of system-level advocacy, school- or community-based activity, and strategic use of research and data. Continuous and consistent parent, youth, and community engagement produced through community organizing both generates and sustains these improvements.