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serves just about every kind of student imaginable鈥攆rom children whose moms stay at home and volunteer in the classroom to those whose parents are still struggling to learn English.

It鈥檚 D鈥橪isa Crain鈥檚 mission to ensure all these very different families have the tools they need to help their children succeed.

The 44-year-old Crain鈥攚ho often finds herself working 12-hour days in order to be available to working parents鈥攈as spearheaded family supports for more than a decade in the 63,000-student district that includes the city of Reno and is the state鈥檚 second-largest school system.

In that time, she鈥檚 helped implement an array of new programs and services to help fill the district鈥檚 diverse needs, including an expansion of course offerings for parents, a home-visiting program, and a new approach to parent-teacher conferences aimed at giving parents a better understanding of their children鈥檚 academic data.

Through it all, she鈥檚 put a premium on helping parents from all backgrounds navigate the school system and feel that they can be a part of it.

鈥淲ith so many of our families, it鈥檚 not that they don鈥檛 want the best for their children, they absolutely do,鈥� says Crain, whose formal title is administrator for the department of family-school partnerships.

But for some parents, 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to know what questions to ask. How do you, in a respectful way, advocate for your children, how do you access district resources when you might yourself be struggling with basic needs?鈥�

Crain started her career in a very different place鈥攄oing marketing and public relations for a construction company. But she quickly moved into the nonprofit sector, and eventually, the school system, working first with the district鈥檚 Parent Information Resource Council, or PIRC, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the district.

Under her leadership, the district鈥檚 office of family and school partnerships has expanded from just Crain and an administrative assistant to nine employees, who support the work of more than 100 interpreters, child-care providers, and other personnel.

Built From Scratch

鈥淪he built all this from nothing,鈥� says Michael Doering, the executive director of the Options Area, the portion of the Washoe school district that includes Crain鈥檚 program.

鈥淒鈥橪isa took a simple request, 鈥榃e need to have a little more outreach to parents,鈥� 鈥� and ran with it, he says. 鈥淪he created this huge body of work.鈥�

There are many talented and dedicated leaders in districts across the country working on family outreach, but part of what makes Crain stand out is her ability to take high-concept ideas鈥攕uch as home visiting or parent collaboration, for instance, and translate them into real action, says Karen Mapp, a senior lecturer at Harvard University and a national expert on parent engagement.

鈥淎 lot of us are really good at the rhetoric,鈥� Mapp says. 鈥淚f [Crain] takes on a project, I guarantee it鈥檚 going to happen. She knows how to cross the t鈥檚 and dot the i鈥檚 to get things done.鈥�

Crain and her team organize twice-yearly visits to the nearby University of Nevada, Reno鈥攂ringing to a college campus a couple hundred families whose children range from kindergarten all the way through high school. For many students and parents, it鈥檚 their first exposure to the possibility of attending college.

And Crain has supervised Maria Fernandez in growing the district鈥檚 parent academy into a much more robust parent university. The program served more than 600 parents about five years ago, but last year, reached more than 6,000 parents.

Putting Parents at Ease

The parent university offers an array of courses鈥攈ow to help students transition from elementary to middle school and how to fill out a college application, to name two examples. Thanks to a grant, day care is free, and translators are on hand鈥攐ffering language assistance to parents whose native language is Spanish. Interpreters for other languages, such as Mandarin, are available on request.

The home-visiting program, meanwhile, started up more than five years ago, and recently, Crain has overseen a massive expansion. The program helps facilitate at least two teacher visits a year to help lay the groundwork for a successful academic year. It鈥檚 voluntary for teachers, and they are reimbursed for their time. Last year, more than 350 teachers elected to participate.

鈥淭eachers ... say they see a tremendous difference鈥� from the visits, says Elaine Lancaster, the executive director of the Washoe Education Association, an affiliate of the National Education Association.

Teachers appreciate professional development from Crain and her team on how best to approach the visits, she adds. 鈥淪he鈥檚 just been so enthusiastic and so determined.鈥�

And Crain has ensured that the district sticks to the model devised by the Parent Teacher Home Visit Project, based in Sacramento, Calif., says Carrie Rose, the organization鈥檚 executive director. For example, the initial visit, typically done in the fall, must focus on relationship-building, not district business.

Crain makes sure teachers do not bring along student-achievement data, behavior data, or requests for parents to fill out bureaucratic forms related to matters such as vaccinations that could intimidate or put off some parents.

Academics and goals for the future can be discussed in the follow-up visit, which usually happens in the spring.

Washoe鈥檚 home-visiting program may be associated with gains in reading scores in pupils in kindergarten through 2nd grade, although further study is needed, an examination by the Center for Program Evaluation at the University of Nevada, Reno, concluded.

More recently, under Crain鈥檚 leadership, Washoe began experimenting with a new twist on parent-teacher conferences: allowing parents to see how their child鈥檚 academic data stack up against peers鈥�.

The concept, Academic Parent Teacher Teams, was borrowed from Phoenix and implemented for the past two years with the help of WestEd, a research and development organization. Parents are given a peek at data for the entire class and are told privately which graph represents their child. All the families talk about broad implications. And at the end of the conference, parents set a goal for their child鈥檚 progress. For instance, if a 1st grader has only mastered about 10 of her class鈥檚 30 sight words, her parents could decide to help her double that number in the next couple of months, often through an at-home activity suggested by the teacher.

Strong Advocate

It wasn鈥檛 easy getting the program off the ground. At first, Washoe left out some key factors, including goal-setting and an icebreaker to help parents get comfortable, such as a quick game in which they swap information about their children, Crain says.

Partnering with WestEd helped the district improve its practice last year. Crain hopes to expand the program beyond the handful of schools using it now.

She has also helped the district integrate parent engagement into its accountability framework. And, with the help of parents, she and her team organize 鈥渇amily-friendly walk-throughs,鈥� sending volunteers to schools to serve as so-called 鈥渟ecret shoppers,鈥� to get a sense of what the schools are like to visit for new families.

It鈥檚 hard to get Crain to talk about her own role in these projects鈥攕he鈥檚 much more willing to give credit to someone else on her team. But Crain is the kind of leader who brings out the best in those she supervises, says Fernandez.

She sets clear expectations and goals, but works in a collaborative way to bring programs to fruition. And she advocates with the district to make sure that family outreach is always a part of the conversation as new programs and goals arise, Fernandez says.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a calling for her, for sure,鈥� Fernandez says.