2021-2022
Each year, Ohio’s Statewide Family Engagement Center produces a report to highlight work being done by educational consultants in each of Ohio’s 16 State Support Team offices participating in Ohio’s Family and Community Engagement Network. This report contains examples of what Ohio’s regions are doing directly for families, for schools, for districts, and for their own regional offices in the area of family engagement in education.
This year’s report took a look at the efforts of four workgroups coordinated through the Ohio Family and Community Engagement Network highlighting the products and advancements made by each. The four workgroups include Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports and Family Engagement, Early Literacy and Family Engagement, Coordination and Alignment, and a book study on Just Schools by Dr. Ann Ishimaru.
Check out the amazing work produced by each work group below and revisit past editions of Voices from the Field by clicking on previous editions at the bottom of this page.
Coordination and Alignment Workgroup
In 2021, the Ohio Family and Community Engagement Network started a workgroup focused on the coordination of family engagement activities and resources and aligned them with other initiatives of Ohio’s State Support Teams. This Coordination and Alignment Workgroup focuses on making it easier to locate resources for families or for schools and providing insight and clarification around Ohio’s system of support for families.
To address these goals head-on, the Coordination and Alignment Workgroup created a database of family-facing professionals in Ohio. This database is for facilitating the awareness and collaboration of these professionals to provide the best support for each family and includes a wide array of family-facing professionals. Working together, professionals and organizations can better support families of students with disabilities and other families who may face significant challenges supporting their child’s education and well-being. Learn more about this database by following this link.
Membership
Carolyn Head, SST 11
Terri McIntee, SST 3
Megan Horstmeier, SST 13
Kim Moritz, SST 6
Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Workgroup
The Ohio Family and Community Engagement Network’s Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) Workgroup is charged with creating PBIS family engagement resources, tools, and materials to strengthen the PBIS framework and support the implementation of PBIS implementation with fidelity in schools throughout Ohio. This workgroup also works to integrate PBIS family engagement practices and strategies within all training created by the Ohio PBIS Network.
This year, the PBIS Workgroup focused on updating and improving the Family Engagement within Trauma-Informed Schools Toolkit, focused on rooting all work in current mental health and family engagement research, resulting in a research brief on the topic, and, after the impacts of COVID 19, supporting schools to get back to the basics with PBIS and focus on the implementation of the framework. The PBIS Workgroup also provided feedback on the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center’s Whole Child Family Engagement Toolkit, presented at OCALICON, and supported the development of a PBIS and Family Engagement online module at SST 5.
Membership
Anthony Pizzuti, ESC of Northeast Ohio
Marla Peachock, SST 5
Terri McIntee, SST 3
Krista Allison, SST 9
Val Pack, SST 9
Early Literacy and Family Engagement Workgroup
The Early Literacy and Family Engagement Workgroup focuses on creating resources, tools, and supports for district and school leaders and teams to support their family partnership efforts in the area of literacy. This year, the Early Literacy Workgroup worked to develop a literacy rubric and accompanying videos to support building leadership teams partner with families for early literacy success. The workgroup also identified the need to expand the evidence-base around the impact of family engagement on literacy, as well as the need for improved communication with families when sending home letters about student literacy progress.
To address these needs, the Early Literacy and Family Engagement Workgroup created a family literacy resource document. This document shares five key early literacy concepts based on the Simple View of Reading, how to talk about these concepts with families, and activities families can try at home together to support their child’s early literacy skill development. All of this content can be added to a literacy progress letter or in discussion with families.
Membership
Heidi Orvosh-Kamenski, SST7
Missy Marsh, SST15
Carrie Wood, SST7
Laura Cutler, OSU Crane Center
Book Study Workgroup: Just Schools by Ann Ishimaru
As the 2021 – 2022 Network began, some members shared the desire to deepen their own learning in a workgroup. After some discussion, a book study was formed around Dr. Ann Ishimaru’s Just Schools. Studying Just School led workgroup members to discuss the challenges with school-centric approaches to family engagement and how these approaches distribute power only to a select group of families. Further, the workgroup discussed strategies inspired by the text they could use and share to promote equitable opportunities for all families to have voices in family engagement instead of just a privileged few.
To document and share their work, the Just Schools Book Study Workgroup created a discussion guide to share with others interested in studying the book. One member held that, “The book is challenging and would be best processed in a group, such as a district leadership team. It is not for the faint of heart, but it broaches important topics that need to be discussed to push our thinking in education around engaging all families.
Membership
Marla Peachock, SST 5
Steve Ramos, SST 4
Tamie Cruz, SST 1
Gwen Harshaw, OCALI
Krista Allison, SST 9
Past Issues
