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Engaging Families through Attendance Cafes

Join the AugustGATE Equity Webinar on Engaging Families through Attendance Cafes. Learn about strategies to connect with families, hear from a school improvement coach, and get resources to get started. Don't miss out!

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Engaging Families through Attendance Cafes

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  1. AugustGATE Equity Webinar Attendance 201: Engaging Families through Attendance Cafes Exploring topics related to equity in graduation success The webinar will begin soon. While you wait, please share in the chat panel: Your name, school/district and role Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, State Superintendent

  2. Connect to Audio You can join by computer audio or call in. Dial +1 669 900 6833 or +1 646 558 8656 Webinar ID: 122-657-497 Test Audio

  3. Tips for Participating • Share comments and ideas in the Chat panel (send to “All”) • Ask presenters questions in the Q&A panel • Slides are available on the GATE Equity Webinar page in the Archive now. • Recording will be available at the end of the month.

  4. Webinar Etiquette

  5. Do you need clock hours? We are offering 3 free Clock Hours for attending both of today’s Dual Credit Webinars. • Attend both the morning and afternoon GATE Equity Webinars Live. • Complete the pre-reading assignment. • Register for clock hours. • Print and sign the clock hour form. • Send the signed evaluation to Ronnie.Larson@k12.wa.us. • Clock Hour Instructions and Registration Here!

  6. AugustGATE Equity Webinar Attendance 201: Engaging Families through Attendance Cafes Exploring topics related to equity in graduation success Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, State Superintendent

  7. Objectives Learn a strategy to connect with families through hosting Attendance Community Cafés Learn from a school improvement coach how they are supporting attendance in Washington schools Get resources to get started

  8. Who Are We?

  9. Vision: Values: All students prepared for post-secondary pathways, careers, and civic engagement. Mission: Transform K–12 education to a system that is centered on closing opportunity gaps and is characterized by high expectations for all students and educators. We achieve this by developing equity-based policies and supports that empower educators, families, and communities.

  10. Equity Equity Statement Each student, family, and community possesses strengths and cultural knowledge that benefit their peers, educators, and schools.

  11. Office of System & School Improvement

  12. Next Month September, 2019 School Climate 101: Behavior Supports 10a.m. – 11 a.m. School Climate 201: Behavior Supports 3p.m. – 4 p.m.

  13. Questions & Polling 2 In the chat: What’s one strategy you use to gather your families feedback?

  14. Attendance Webinar 101:You may have missed... • Attendance in Washington Basics • Definitions, reporting, research, data, best practices • Vancouver Public Schools • Focus on eliminating gaps between student groups • Multi-tiered district-wide approach

  15. Attendance Community Cafés

  16. Misconceptions Barriers Negative School Experiences Misconceptions Lack of Engagement • Illness, both chronic and acute • Lack of health, mental health, vision, or dental care • Family responsibilities • Trauma • Unsafe path to/from school • Poor transportation • Housing and food insecurity • Frequent school changes • Involvement with child welfare or juvenile justice systems • Inequitable access to resources due to bias & discrimination. • Absences are only a problem if they are unexcused • Missing 2 days per month doesn’t affect learning • Sporadic absences aren’t a problem • Attendance only matters in the older grades • Suspensions are not relevant • Struggling academically and behaviorally • Ineffective or harmful interventions • Bored • Social challenges • Bullying • Suspensions and expulsions • Harsh, biased disciplinary practices especially for students of color • Negative attitudes of parents due to their own school experience • Undiagnosed disability • Lack of appropriate accommodations for disability • Lack of or inequitable access to challenging, culturally responsive, engaging instruction & enrichment • Lack of academic, emotional and behavioral support • No meaningful or negative relationships to adults in the school • Stronger ties with peers out of school than in school • Unwelcoming school climate • Failure to earn credits/ no future plans • Many teacher absences or long-term substitutes *Attendance Works

  17. Elements of Success of MTSS for Attendance

  18. Family and Community are Key • They know their experience • Barriers • Culture • Language • Experience in school • Resources • We don’t have to have all the answers.

  19. Questions & Polling 2 Have you involved your attendance clerks or front office staff in training, planning, or other efforts to address attendance? • Yes • No

  20. What Does A Successful Program Look Like?

  21. Engaging Communities through Attendance Cafés Kathryn A. Page Continuous Improvement Partner, OSSI

  22. Who Am I? Where Am I From? Kathryn Page Continuous Improvement Partner (CIP) Toppenish, Grandview, Ellensburg, Kittitas, Wahluke Elementary and Middle School Administrator, Special Education Director, Response to Intervention Coordinator, Special Education Teacher, SWIS Facilitator

  23. Core Belief A core belief that is the basis for hosting a Community Café is that…. “The knowledge, wisdom, and solutions we are searching for are already present in this room.”

  24. What is an Attendance Café aka Community Café? • Community Cafés are a series of guided conversations using the World Cafe model. Participants use carefully structured questions to guide meaningful conversations, allowing individuals from diverse cultural, socio-economic, and educational backgrounds to engage in discussions that increase community wisdom, build parent voice, and facilitate action to improve the lives of children. • Each Cafe produces a Harvest, which is a report that captures the discussion and serves as a tool to facilitate communication within and between communities. By collecting and synthesizing Cafe Harvests, community level perspectives, concerns, and goals can be shared with state leaders to infuse policy that affect families with authentic community voice. New York State Parenting Education Partnership (NYSPEP)

  25. Comments from a Recent Attendance Café(Attendance Clerks, Counselors, Instructional Coaches, Administrators) “We have good ideas. We need to unify across the district.” “I am committing to educating families and building relationships based on concern rather than compliance.” “Be positive in response to student absences. Be part of the solution and not part of the problem.” “Attendance is not a surface level issue but a deeper problem with not one root cause or one solution.” “We need to make school a place they want to be successful. There needs to be a sense of belonging and community.”

  26. Types of Cafés and Audience

  27. Single story https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

  28. Why did you start looking at attendance? Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) Attendance

  29. Root Causes: What did you find?

  30. What did you do as a result?

  31. What Were Some Themes You Noticed?

  32. Transforming Schools Through Systems ChangeCharles Salina, Suzann Girtz, and Joanie Eppinga “Administrators at struggling schools may say, We have to improve communication with parents, but typically the communication they are referring to is one-way. They might say to parents, “Your child has only ten credits. What are you going to do about it?” Parents don’t know the answer and neither do schools. All too often, leaders inform parents about their child’s failures rather than asking parents to help them understand the student better and offering systems that will support the child.”

  33. Planning the Café

  34. Location, Location, Location(Where should you hold an attendance or community café?) • School • Community Center • Library • Park • Where is your community? Don’t hesitate to go “to” the community • Ask your parent leaders for guidance on the location

  35. Sample Attendance Questions

  36. Setting the Stage Setting the Stage…

  37. What does it look like? hat does it look like?

  38. Café Agreements

  39. Harvest HARVEST…

  40. Practicing Critical Reflection Through an Equity Lens Brookfield (1995) describes critical reflection as focusing on three interrelated processes: (a) questioning widely held assumptions ; (b) considering alternative perspectives on taken-for-granted ideas or forms of reasoning; and (c) recognizing the influence of dominant cultural values. Think about hosting a Community Café and focusing on these three processes. Simply ask your team, department or staff to see what responses you receive without ever looking at the data. How many assumptions do we make about absenteeism? Are there alternative perspectives? What is the influence of the dominant cultural values?

  41. What Advice Would You Give To People Starting This Work?

  42. So What? What Happened? • MTSS for Attendance • Nudge Letters-2019-2020 • Community Café community created to support attendance • Procedures and Training for Attendance Clerks and Staff • Short survey developed for all students to take about caring relationships. Strides will be taken to connect students with caring adults at school.

  43. Guide for World Café or Community Cafés http://www.theworldcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Cafe-To-Go-Revised.pdf

  44. Resources

  45. Books

  46. Assistance-Questions?Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have further questions or want to share your success! I love to hear how Cafés are impacting your community. Kathryn Page Continuous Improvement Partner, OSSI kpageconsulting@gmail.com

  47. Margaret quote “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” — Margaret J. Wheatley

  48. References

  49. GATE Evaluation This presentation will change my practice in the future: • Definitely • Probably • Not Sure • No – not helpful This presentation was well organized with a variety of participant involvement: • Strongly agree • Agree • Disagree • Strongly Disagree The presenters were content experts: • Strongly agree • Agree • Disagree • Strongly Disagree The presentation met the stated learning objectives: • Strongly agree • Agree • Disagree • Strongly Disagree GATE Evaluation

  50. Get Personalized Assistance • Do you want personalized support? • We want to help connect you to the right people! • Use the Green Button!

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