Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center at the Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Dr. Barbara Boone, OhSFEC Director
Kristin Meek-Hennon, Program Coordinator
Ohio Statewide Virtual End-of-Year Celebration
At the end of the first year of program development, the first cohort of districts and schools across 16 regions in Ohio were ready to celebrate good work and share ideas with each other. The project director and team at The Ohio State University organized the first End-of-Year-Celebration, as guided by NNPS.
The End-of-Year Celebration was hosted on Zoom for about two hours. Dr. Boone, OhSFEC Director, welcomed everyone. The State Superintendent, Paolo DeMaria, addressed the group with a very supportive message: “I want to thank all of you for attending—not only to celebrate the great and amazing work that you are doing, but also to learn from each other. . . ” Dr. Epstein at NNPS reviewed essential program components, and Dr. Boone summarized data on regional, district, and school progress in the first year of the statewide project.
In break-out Zoom Rooms, school teams and district leaders shared details on one partnership activity from their One-Year Action Plans for Partnerships that they were most proud of this year. Dr. Meredith Wellman, OhSFEC Project Leader, created a slideshow of all schools’ best practices at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbovngwbCAo. The meeting concluded with information on next steps in training, data collection, and support in the next school year.
Due to COVID-19, it was a tough year to start an ambitious initiative, which is scheduled to grow to scale with two more cohorts across Ohio. The End-of-Year Celebration was an important way to recognize progress in all regions, districts, and schools. The sessions recognized the importance of teamwork to implement plans with impactful engagement activities. It was a year worthy of celebration.
Read more about Ohio Statewide Virtual End-of-Year Celebration in Promising Partnership Practices 2021.
Colleagues Connect: Virtual Meetings for District and Regional Leaders
The Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center (OhSFEC) conducts Colleagues Connect meetings on Zoom to bring together regional and district leaders from across the state. These leaders are guiding school-based Action Teams for Partnerships to plan, implement, evaluate, and continually improve their partnership programs. The Leaders for Partnerships come together about monthly for about one hour to share best practices and discuss and find solutions to emerging challenges before they become serious problems. The OhSFEC leaders report and remind regional and district leaders about deadlines, data collections, and opportunities to participate in NNPS activities to share their work with others across the country. The meetings are recorded for those who cannot attend in real time.
For the meetings, OhSFEC leaders prepare several conversation starters to prompt attendees’ discussions about their current activities and emerging challenges. For example, attendees may be asked: “How are your schools’ One-Year Action Plans for Partnerships coming along?” or “How have you helped your schools recruit replacement members for their Action Teams for Partnerships (ATPs) next year?”
Or, district leaders raise their own questions of interest. In one meeting, a district leader asked the others for ideas about when their Action Teams for Partnerships (ATPs) were meeting because some schools were having trouble scheduling team meetings for families and teachers. Another district leader asked how others’ schools recruited teachers to become ATP members, and how they oriented new members to the team’s work. These specific questions generated immediate feedback from colleagues. One district leader commented, “I found the meetings to be valuable because I made contact with other district leaders and learned additional ways to support our school teams in this very important work.”
Colleagues Connect provides a small but important window into how the regions, districts, and schools in the OhSFEC project are doing and how they can continue to improve. The meetings help regional and district leaders gain knowledge, skills, and confidence to move forward with plans for effective partnership programs in their offices and with their schools. A large project like this one could isolate participants. Colleagues Connect is one way OhSFEC is building close ties and a sense of community across the state. There is a real partnership network growing in Ohio.
Read more about Colleagues Connect: Virtual Meetings for District and Regional Leaders in Promising Partnership Practices 2021.
