Families In Schools is a legacy organization of the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP) that sustains, expands, and refines LAAMP’s comprehensive work in parental involvement. LAAMP’s Parents as Learning Partners (PLP) initiative reached over 35,000 families in 33 schools in two Los Angeles County school districts over five years. An evaluation of PLP found that students in PLP schools had significantly outperformed students in non-PLP schools. With confirmation that a key factor in student success is the type and quality of parental support provided in the home and in home/school partnerships, the Board of Governors of LAAMP created Families In Schools in early 2001 to pursue the effective engagement of parents in the education of their children.

The Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP) was created in 1995 with a $53 million Annenberg Challenge Grant. LAAMP worked with 28 clusters of “School Families” serving 200,000 students, 8,600 teachers, and 247 K-12 schools in 14 districts. Targeting schools facing rapid demographic changes, large number of English Learner students, inadequate infrastructures, and shortages of qualified teachers, LAAMP focused on creating lasting change in how schools, parents, and communities join together to improve student achievement.

One of LAAMP’s major initiatives was the Parents as Learning Partners (PLP) project. Centered on 33 schools in three School Families, it focused on how parents and teachers could work together to support children’s academic progress through better communication, parenting education, and improved learning opportunities at home.

LAAMP’s evaluation of its Parents as Learning Partners initiative demonstrated to its Board of Governors that the key indicator of student success was the type and quality of parental support provided in the home and in home/school partnerships. LAAMP’s work on parental involvenent was transitioned to a new organization, Families In Schools, in 2001 to be sustained, expanded, and refined.