In July, CETE’s Dr. Barbara Boone and Dr. Meredith Wellman attended the IEL National Family and Community Engagement Conference in Cleveland.

 Dr. Boone was a member of the conference planning committee, where she organized and led a networking meeting for all Ohio attendees on the first day of the conference. The conference included attendees from all 50 state and international participants as well. Dr. Boone led three other sessions for the family engagement professionals associated with her recent for family and community engagement with Ohio’s Department of Education. Dr. Wellman co-led one of the presentations with Dr. Boone, presenting initial findings from a research project on teacher efficacy for working with families.

A list and description of the presentations is below:

1. Good Good-Byes and Hellos: Seeing Families and Children through Successful Kindergarten Transitions
In this session, CETE’s Dr. Boone and Anita Armstrong, ODE’s Assistant Director of the Head Start Collaboration Office, presented on bridging strategies implemented by early childhood educators that can reduce the stress of transitioning for children and families.

2. Shifting Attitudes and Efficacy Beliefs about Partnering with Families through Teacher Professional Development
In this session, CETE’s Dr. Wellman and Dr. Boone presented results of a recent pilot study of a teacher professional development course in Ohio, Partnering with Families to Support Early Literacy. They also shared the course structure, embedded research-based practices, and lessons for future course offerings.

3. PBIS Family Engagement Rubrics: Tools for Deepening Partnerships with Families
In this session, CETE’s Dr. Boone and Marla Peachock, consultant from State Support Team region 4, shared rubrics for family engagement work embedded within the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports work that schools do. Tier I and II rubrics were shared, along with other resources for working with families in schools where PBIS is implemented. This was an interactive workshop where participants considered their current PBIS family engagement work and created plans to improve based on the rubrics shared.

Contributors: Meredith Wellman, Barbara Boone, Angela Stansell