Making Informed Decisions in MTSS through Family Engagement Data The evidence is consistent, positive, and convincing: families have a major influence on their children’s achievement in school and throughout life. (A New Wave of Evidence, Henderson and Mapp, 2002).

Yet, trying to measure and set goals for engaging families in their children’s education has proven difficult.

This is primarily b/c: 1) there has not been a statewide tool available to measure family engagement, and 2) each district or school may use different tools.

The Kansas State Dept. of Education (KSDE) has developed a network called the Technical Assistance Systems Network (TASN) to build the capacity of districts and schools across KS. One of these TA providers is the KS Parent Information Resource Center (KPIRC). Slide of TASN logo and KPIRC logo.

KPIRC promotes meaningful family engagement at all levels of education by providing professional learning to educators on the research, benefits, and best practices that link families to their children’s learning. Evaluations of these trainings are sent to TASN evaluators. (Slide of picture of trng)

KPIRC collaborated with the TASN evaluation team to develop a statewide Family Engagement Survey for schools implementing Multi Tier System of Support (MTSS). This survey helped schools self-assess the degree to which they engaged families in the education of their children.

In 2008, the KS State Board of Education endorsed the PTA National Standards for Family School Partnerships as a framework from which to approach family engagement. The TASN Family Engagement Survey was aligned with the PTA Standards. (Slide of PTA Standards)

The survey consists of 15 statements and responses are selected on a 5 pt. Likert Scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. The TASN Family Engagement Survey is translated into 3 languages: English, Spanish and Hmong.

Each MTSS district or school is responsible for distributing the Family Engagement survey to its families. Most schools are distributing the survey electronically after parent/teacher conferences. Instructional staff is also responsible for completing the School Implementation Scales.

School Implementation Scales for instructional staff included Likert style questions on the engagement of families in areas such as Empowering Culture, Instruction, Curriculum, and Assessment.

All Family Engagement survey data and training evaluations are received by the TASN evaluators and compiled into a school report based on the PTA Standards for Family School Partnerships. The MTSS Building Leadership Team at the district/school is sent the report.

The Building Leadership Team then shares this report with other instructional staff. Schools can then make informed decisions about targeting specific areas of family engagement to include in their School Improvement Plan.

Over 200 trainings, coaching opportunities and/or technical assistance were provided to 64 districts across Kansas. (Slide of KS map)

Training provided by KPIRC was of high quality, as illustrated by summarized results form 241 evaluations collected at 7 trainings. ( Slide is Evaluation Results from 241 Trainings Participants)

From the KPIRC trainings, numerous educators said they learned skills to better engage parents in their children’s learning. (Slide Teachers Learned skills to Engage Parents).

Parents of 2,985 students in schools implementing MTSS completed the 15 item Family Engagement Survey in either English or Spanish. This represented 27 buildings in four districts. (MTSS Family Engagement Survey Chart here).

The School implementation Scale was completed by 199 instructional staff from two Kansas districts. Results were used by the building implementation teams to make informed decisions in order to identify strengths and areas for improvement. (Teachers Reflected Chart on slide here).

To multiply impact, KPIRC has collaborated with KSDE to incorporate family engagement into the new statewide Kansas Education Systems Accreditation (KESA) 5 R’s framework beginning in the 2017-18 school year. Slide of KESA 5’rs.

To engage more MS and HS families in planning for their children’s future, KPIRC has collaborated with KSDE to incorporate family engagement into the statewide Individual Plans of Study (IPS) initiative. (Slide of IPS)

Finally, partnerships between KSDE, the TASN Technical Assistance Providers, KPIRC and TASN evaluators provides an environment where Kansans Can make informed decisions in MTSS through Family Engagement data. (Kansas Can slide)