New Website Launched for WCER’s i3 Family Engagement Project in Philadelphia

October 1, 2014

WCER’s PhillyFASTi3 project, funded by a $15 million U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) grant, has launched a new website (www.PhillyFASTi3.com) to inform parents and educators about the Families and Schools Together (FAST) program targeting 60 Philadelphia elementary schools. The site tells the “FAST story” from parents’ perspectives, and provides information and recruitment resources to partners, school principals and teachers through a school portal.

The PhillyFASTi3 project is a collaboration of five partners, including the nonprofit FAST, Inc., which designs and distributes research-validated programs to help connect parents to their children’s schools, to strengthen families, and to improve student outcomes. Since 1988, FAST has been implemented in more than 800 schools in 50 states and in 20 countries.  

One year ago, the five-year i3 project was initiated in 30 schools, focusing on kindergarten students. The program aims to reach about 4,500 families in 60 schools by 2018.  In coordination with the American Institutes for Research, the project will assess how school-wide FAST implementation affects school climate, encourages social inclusion, empowers parents, and achieves school turnaround.  More information about this i3 implementation and research project in Philadelphia is available at familyengagement.wceruw.org/.