Summary
This professional learning session will strengthen counselors' capacity to build and sustain a Family Leadership Academy (FLA) team that supports postsecondary pathways for GEAR UP students. Participants will reflect on current FLA strengths and challenges, explore research-backed barriers to family engagement in secondary schools, and examine a framework for family leadership indicators. Through collaborative activities, counselors identify promising recruitment practices and apply a three-tier recruitment model to develop a targeted plan for engaging and retaining parent and family leaders. Participants will leave this session with a concrete recruitment plan and clear next steps for cultivating sustainable family partnerships that positively influence student success.
Learning Objectives
Reflect on current FLA strengths and challenges
Identify promising practices for family recruitment
Collaborate to design a targeted recruitment plan
Commit to concrete next steps for building a sustainable FLA team
Snapshot
Engage
Participants contribute to a Collective Word Cloud about what family leadership looks like at their school.
Explore
Participants identify barriers to family engagement using the Affinity Process strategy.
Explain
Participants learn about the Family Leadership Indicators framework and consider ideas for family leadership at their school.
Extend
Participants work with colleagues to begin drafting a Family Leadership Academy recruitment plan.
Evaluate
Participants reflect on improving family engagement and leadership by completing a Triangle-Square-Circle reflection.
Materials List
Presentation Slides (attached)
Family Leadership Team Implementation Checklist (attached, one per participant)
Family Leadership Indicators Framework (attached, one per participant)
Parent Recruitment Talking Points (attached, one per participant)
Three-Tier Recruitment Model (attached, one per participant)
Family Leadership Recruitment Plan (attached, one per participant)
Flyer Content (attached, one per participant)
Triangle-Square-Circle handout (attached, one per participant)
sticky notes (several per participant)
Preparation
Before beginning the session, create a Mentimeter Collective Word Cloud for participants to interact with. Mentimeter offers a free option that includes a limited number of interactive components. To get started, sign up for an account and select the "?" in the upper-right corner of your homepage to access tutorial videos on creating a word cloud.
When your word cloud is ready, generate a code for participants to use. For quick access, include this code on slide 3 of the session slides so participants can easily type it into their devices.
Engage
10 Minute(s)
As participants arrive, use the attached Presentation Slides and display slide 3 with instructions for joining the Mentimeter word cloud. Introduce the Collective Word Cloud strategy and ask each participant to contribute a word summarizing what family leadership in high school currently looks like at their site.
After all participants have responded in Mentimeter, choose a few words to highlight or ask for volunteers to share the word they added and why. As appropriate, facilitate conversation around the words in the word cloud and the reasons people chose them.
Move to slide 4 and introduce the “ripple effect” model of family leadership. As appropriate, draw connections between the concepts on the diagram and the responses to the word cloud activity. Tell participants that, in the session, they should work to improve the ripple effects of strong family leadership in their school by looking at how to improve family leadership recruitment and engagement. Transition to slide 5 to introduce the essential question and session objectives.
Explore
20 Minute(s)
Have participants organize into tables or groups of six people. Give each participant several sticky notes. Display slide 6 and introduce the Affinity Process strategy. Direct participants to come up with as many reasons as they can for why families volunteer less when their student is in high school than when their student is in younger grades. Emphasize that they should use a separate sticky note for each idea. Set a timer for two minutes and allow participants that time to write.
At the end of two minutes, move to slide 7. Direct participants to move into groups of three. Tell participants that they’ll be grouping their reasons together with their two partners. They should group similar items together, using additional sticky notes to add category headings as needed. Set a timer for three minutes as participants work.
At the end of three minutes, move to slide 8. Have participants merge groups to create new groups of six people each. As a group, have participants repeat the same process they did with their group of three, grouping similar ideas together and using additional sticky notes to add category headings as needed. Set a timer for three minutes and have participants use that time to work.
At the end of three minutes, move to slide 9. Have participants choose one of their identified barriers, reasons, or a category their group came up with. Ask them to brainstorm how they could address that barrier in their school. Give participants two to three minutes to work with their group. When groups have finished brainstorming, choose a few groups to share out their identified barrier and proposed solutions.
Move to slide 10 and go over the barriers identified by research, connecting them to participants’ responses as appropriate.
Explain
20 Minute(s)
Pass out the attached Family Leadership Indicators Framework handout and display slide 11. Have participants read the brief and star any ideas that resonate with them. Instruct them to fill in the spaces under “Three Big Ideas About Family Leadership” with ideas that they could try at their school site.
After participants have read and responded to the prompts, display slide 12. Facilitate a short discussion (three to five minutes) around the ideas they starred and ideas they would like to try at their school site.
Extend
30 Minute(s)
Pass out the attached Three-Tier Recruitment Model handout and display slide 13. Explain the three-tier recruitment model. Ask participants to think about families in their school who would fit in each tier. Allow one to two minutes for participants to write down a few names. Then, ask participants to review their list and identify two families who could move to a higher tier. For each family, participants should identify what might help that family move up a tier based on what they know about that family.
Pass out the attached FLA Recruitment Plan and display slide 14. If participants are not already grouped with other participants from their school, have them move near their school colleagues. Invite them to take 10 minutes to start work on their school’s recruitment plan. Clarify that they will not finish the recruitment plan in these 10 minutes, and will instead need to return work and continue planning after the session. Pass out the attached Family Leadership Team Implementation Checklist, Parent Recruitment Talking Points, and Flyer Content handouts and explain that these documents may be helpful to incorporate into their plans. Set a timer for 10 minutes and allow participants to work. At the end of 10 minutes, ask participants to wrap up their thoughts, establish a follow-up date with their colleagues, and put the in-progress plan away somewhere safe.
Evaluate
10 Minute(s)
Display slide 15 and pass out the attached Triangle-Square-Circle handout. Introduce the Triangle-Square-Circle strategy and invite participants to reflect. Give participants three minutes to respond to each of the prompts.
At the end of three minutes, ask participants to share out either: a “circle” they would like feedback on addressing, or their action item from the “triangle” section.
Resources
Geller, J., et al. (2017). Evaluating Initiatives to Develop Parent Leadership: Measuring What Matters: The Parent Leadership Development Indicators Framework. New York, NY: Parent Leadership Indicators Project at the Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools at NYU Steinhardt.
K20 Center. (n.d.). Affinity process. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/87
K20 Center. (n.d.). Collective word cloud. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/103
K20 Center. (n.d.). Mentimeter. Tech tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/645
K20 Center. (n.d.). Triangle-square-circle. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/65