Columbus, OH
Dr. Barbara Boone, OhSFEC Director
Kristin Meek-Henson, Whitney Gherman
Professional Learning Booster Sessions
The Ohio Department of Education supports 16 regions across the state. Each one has a Regional Coach who guides district leaders to help their schools organize strong and sustainable programs of school, family, and community partnerships. Each school in this project forms an Action Team for Partnerships (ATP), writes and implements an annual plan, and assesses progress. Many of the project’s regions, districts, and schools are active members of NNPS.
This year, OhSFEC conducted two half-day Professional Learning Booster Sessions on Zoom for regional coaches, district leaders, and schools’ ATPs on three previously requested topics:
(1) How to raise awareness of all families about their school’s partnership programs. Districts and schools wanted more (or all) families to know their schools were working to increase and improve family and community engagement. This is “step one” for encouraging parents to become involved in their children’s education at school and at home.
(2) How to redesign family engagement activities so that they remain fresh and relevant. Most school improvement activities are not perfect on the first try. And, new students and families enter schools every year. It is important to review and redesign activities over time to improve outreach to more and different families.
(3) How to conduct feasible evaluations of the quality of partnership practices that are implemented. It is challenging to conduct useful evaluations of partnership practices because time and funds for evaluations are often limited.
The three topics are interconnected. Five successful district leaders in the OhSFEC project presented examples of building awareness with good communications, redesigning activities to personalize—or individualize—practices for students’ families, and evaluating activities that are implemented. For example, they shared ideas to redesign activities that families may conduct at home, and not only conduct “events” at the school building. OhSFEC leaders shared sample survey items that district leaders and school teams can use or adapt to evaluate aspects of elementary, middle, and high school partnership programs.
Attendees considered how the information and examples could help them adjust and improve their own partnership programs to engage all students’ families in ways that support specific goals for student learning and success in school. See the OhSFEC website to obtain copies of the evaluation questions for elementary, middle and high schools, and other useful resources: www.OhioFamiliesEngage.osu.edu.
Read more about Professional Learning Booster Sessions in Promising Partnership Practices 2023.
