The Ohio Family Engagement Leadership Summit 2022 was a free day of professional learning and connecting virtually with those dedicated to advancing effective family-school-community partnerships across Ohio and beyond. Hosted by the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center at The Ohio State University on September 16, 2022, this Summit brought research to action by providing schools, families, and community partners with the tools they needed to work together to launch all children to success.
Below, find recordings of learning sessions and workshops on a variety of topics, including early literacy and family engagement, family-school partnerships to address student mental health, addressing inequity through family voice, family leadership in education, connecting with families to engage at home, and evidence-based family engagement practices.
Watch All Summit 2022 Recordings on our YouTube Playlist
9:00 – 9:15 Welcome
Dr. Barbara Boone, Director, Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center, The Ohio State University
Dr. Ana-Paula Correia, Director, Center on Education and Training for Employment, The Ohio State University
Dr. Stephanie Siddens, Interim Superintendent, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce
9:15 – 10:15 Keynote
Culturally responsive school leadership: placing community at the center of system change
Dr. Muhammad Khalifa, Professor of Educational Administration and the Executive Director of Urban and Rural Initiatives, The Ohio State University
10:30 – 11:30 Concurrent Sessions #1
Participants will explore the new Family Engagement Core Competencies published by the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement, and how they can enhance professional practice.
Dr. Margaret Caspe, National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement
The Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution has developed the Collaborating to Transform and Improve Systems: A Playbook for Family-School Engagement to make the case for why family engagement is essential for education systems transformation and why families, schools, and communities must have a shared understanding of what a good quality education looks like for this transformation to occur. This presentation will discuss three years of collaborative research with over 50 organizations in 15 countries and share parents’, teachers’, and students’ beliefs on the purpose of education, as well as barriers to and opportunities for improving family engagement in schools.
Dr. Emily Morris Markovich, Fellow for the Center for Universal Education, Brookings Institution
Session 3 Recording: Empowering Families to Lead
Participants will learn how Kentucky is equipping parents and caregivers to serve as leaders and decision-makers at all levels of education.
Laura Beard, Family Engagement Manager The Pritchard Committee (Kentucky)
This session will provide an overview of best practices and tools to help families discuss financial topics, including free access to English and Spanish versions of the Money Talks series.
Yesenia Alvarez Padilla, Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center
Session 5 Recording: Student Empowerment and Voice: Ohio Association of Student Leaders
Learn about who The Ohio Association of Student Leaders is and the outcomes of its programming. Attendees will also learn how families, schools and districts can get students involved with the organization in an interactive dialogue.
Anthony Paletta, Middle-Level Co-Director, Ohio Association of Student Leaders
Special Education requires schools, communities, and service providers to come together as partners with families to provide tailored services, supports, and instruction for their children. Facilitators for this session will summarize findings of 30 research studies that provide the foundation for recommended strategies and best practices along with practices from three, widely accepted frameworks for family engagement.
Dr. Kenyona Walker, Senior Project Manager, The Ohio State University
Dr. Gabrielle Hicks, Translational Researcher, The Ohio State University
Kyanna Johnson, Graduate Research Assistant, The Ohio State University
Session 7 Recording: How to Use Rewards Effectively
In this session, participants will learn about best practices for the use of rewards in motivating children and adolescents. The session will focus on the use of rewards at home and at school, focusing in particular on applications to educational interventions such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS).
Dr. Eric Anderman, Professor of Educational Psychology, Interim Dean/Director at Ohio State Mansfield, The Ohio State University
Session 8 Recording: Kinship Connections: Partnering with Kinship Families in Schools
This presentation will include an overview of kinship care, caregiver personal stories, and strategies for partnering and supporting kinship families in schools.
Dr. Angela Tobin, Kinship Caregiver Virtual Support Group Coordinator
Session 9 Recording: Family Engagement is Family Empowerment in Early Childhood
Early education professionals have the unique opportunity to grow with families as they become parents and caregivers. We will discuss how to best facilitate dynamic family engagement and education to strengthen families on their journey as parents and caregivers, and how to build lasting social networks within your school community. Engage and empower families to learn with their young children, celebrate milestones, and continue learning together at home with relevant resources and research.
Anneliese Johnson, Principal, A. Sophie Rogers School for Early Learning, The Ohio State University
12:00 – 12:30 Lunchtime Session with Dr. Boone and Guests
Candid Conversation on Leadership
Christian Davis, Cincinnati Parent Empowerment Network
Brett Tingley, Parents for Reading Justice
12:45 – 3:00 pm Workshops
Workshop 1 Recording: Exploring a Trauma-Informed, Multi-tiered Approach to Equity
This session will equip participants for the pursuit of equity in all spaces by 1) challenging previous and limited conceptualizations of trauma (such as those within the infamous ACES study), 2) exploring the prevalence of trauma and documented impact upon various demographic groups, and 3) surveying evidence-based strategies for system-level change.
Dr. Gabrielle Hicks, Translational Researcher, The Ohio State University
Workshop 2 Recording: Building Partnerships to Promote Student Mental Health
Participants will review and engage with research-based, collaborative strategies for school-family partnerships around mental health.
Dr. Brett Zyromski, Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University
Patrick Cunningham, Graduate Research Assistant, Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center, The Ohio State University
Workshop 3 Recording: A Multi-tiered Strategic Approach to Family Engagement
Leaders, build a multi-tiered strategy for collaborating meaningfully with all families in your school district. In this collaborative workshop, create a plan to take back to your school or organization to use tomorrow!
Dr. Barbara Boone, Director, Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center, Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center
Hadley Bachman, Family Engagement Researcher, Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center
12:45 – 1:45 Concurrent Sessions #2
Session 10: Dwelling with Families: Interrupting the Taken-for-Grantedness of Schools
Adopting Michael Polanyi’s (1958) notion of “dwelling in,” Debbie invites us to consider what it might look like in practice to “dwell” in family and community contexts in order to learn with and from families. How might having a deep understanding of the knowledge parents hold about children, teaching, and learning, enable educators to use that parent knowledge as they walk alongside parents and family members in the education of their children?
Acting on Polanyi’s (1958) notion of “breaking out,” Debbie urges us to re-think things as they are and to forge new pathways that will create more space and voice for parents and families in their children’s teaching and learning. How might educators use parent knowledge alongside their own teacher knowledge in order to inform curricular and program planning in meaningful, contextual, and equitable ways?
You will leave this session with an understanding of the conceptualizations of “dwelling in” and “breaking out,” in relation to the engagement of parents and families in learning, as well as with a repertoire of key practices to enact both concepts in your practice.
Dr. Debbie Pushor, Professor, University of Saskatchewan
Session 11: Authentically Engaging One Family at a Time
Check & Connect effort in Ohio’s largest district – with 20,000 home calls – revealed true family struggles.
Seneca Bing, District Family Engagement Coordinator, Columbus City Schools
Gherima Woldemariam, District Family Engagement Coordinator, Columbus City Schools
Session 12: New Ways of Communicating about Dyslexia in Ohio Schools
Participants will learn about Ohio’s newest Dyslexia Law, and will receive templates that schools and families can use to communicate back and forth about Dyslexia screenings and supports for students.
Dr. Meredith Wellman, Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center
Dr. Sherine Tambyraja, Dyslexia Administrator, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce
Session 13: Microaggressions in Educational Workplaces (Session Not Recorded)
Participants will learn about the specifics of Microaggressions and how they impact the workplaces of educational institutions.
Sophia Antoun, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Education Specialist, The Ohio State University
Session 14: Who We Are, What We Do, and How We Engage ALL Families
Participants learn about OCECD’s history, services, and supports for parents/professionals statewide by our diverse staff.
Tammie Sebastian, Statewide Program Coordinator, Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities
Elizabeth Rivero, Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities
2:00 – 3:00 Concurrent Sessions #3
This session will emphasize three ways any school community can enact more liberatory family-school partnerships.
Dr. Jennifer McCarthy Foubert, Associate Professor of Educational Studies, Knox College
Session 16: Connecting Across Boundaries to Explore History and Expand Community
Learn how non-profits, universities, and K-12 schools partner to engage in cross-district, institutional, and community collaboration.
Glennon Sweeney, Kirwan Institute, The Ohio State University
Derek Burtch, Co-founder of Erase the Space and English teacher at Olentangy High School.
Session 17 Recording: Time to Reframe Family Engagement
An introduction to research conducted by the Frameworks Institute and NAFSCE on family and community engagement communication strategies that work and the ones that don’t.
Sherri Wilson, Senior Director of Training and Engagement, National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE)
Session 18 Recording: Resources for Engaging Families with Students with Disabilities
The Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI) promotes access to opportunities for people with disabilities. Gwendolyn Harshaw, Program Director of OCALI’s Family and Community Outreach Center, will share the many resources OCALI provides to help educators engage families with students with disabilities.
Gwen Harshaw, Program Director of Family and Community Outreach Center, The Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence
