Following the roll out of the new Family Engagement Framework: A Guide for Illinois School Districts, Schools and Families, Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) assembled a panel of experts to present at Illinois’ annual Every Student Succeeds Act Conference to provide guidance on enhancing family engagement practices, and Turning the Page Chicago’s Kylia Kummer, Managing Director, was invited to present.
Moderated by the Illinois State Board of Education and hosted by The Center: Resources for Teaching and Learning, panelists for “A Practitioner’s Panel: Building Sustainable Pathways to Family Engagement” also included representatives from the Regional Office of Education and school administrators. Discussions among the panelists and an audience comprised of Title I program coordinators, afterschool coordinators, teachers and administrators, and school grants coordinators explored how to garner interest in shared responsibility through family engagement, strategies to sustain parent involvement, today’s school partnerships, and how to support at home learning.
PARENT STORIES ILLUSTRATE IMPACT
Stories of Turning the Page parents are excellent reminders of how our efforts to ensure a high quality education for all students, through strengthening school communities, have had an impact. Using parents’ words and stories to illustrate TTP’s mission and impact, Kylia told the story of a parent excited about how TTP’s programs contributed to improving her son’s reading ability. TTP helped her community to see the “True vision of what can happen if all the parents come together and collaborate with the teachers and staff.” Kylia also spoke about another parent, active in our program, who was recently elected to the Local School Council, and was able to discuss a new parent group at one of our partner schools, whose purpose is to encourage parents to advocate on behalf of their children about curriculum suggestions.
SHARING OUR EXPERTISE
Kylia’s role at the conference showcases TTP’s genuine interest in improving the quality of education received by the communities we serve. Our leaders are often invited to speak about our work as experts and advocates within the education realm. As passionate leaders in the field working to mitigate the long term effects of a lack of high quality education on those already struggling with social and economic disadvantages, TTP’s leadership hardly ever turns down opportunities to share ideas, collaborate with like-minded groups and individuals, and spread the word about our creative approach to serving the underserved.