Intentionally shifting our mindset around shared decision-making can be scary, yet can also be empowering. Ensuring your team embraces the power of including different voices to make changes can wield truly innovative, sustainable shifts in the culture of your school. Inviting stakeholders, those who are truly representative of your community, to be active participants in the decision-making process, rather than just listening to their voice or giving them a vote, is imperative. Your school’s data isn’t just your school’s data, it’s your community’s data. This shift in mindset enables us to be open and transparent in sharing data, which is critical when engaging in meaningful shared decision-making. Even more, proactively providing opportunities for involvement within key initiatives that matter most to students and families is a smart, effective way to leverage our time and energy. Read below to find out how schools can cultivate a collective culture of shared decision making that broadens our view of stakeholders as partners within our school community.
Empower Students as Informed Partners
Lean into students’ expertise which lies in their prior knowledge, lived experience and knowledge of themselves. The barrier that often emerges is that staff will invite students in, but if students don’t feel equally informed, they will defer back to those adults who are most informed. Constructively using a tool such as a personal matrix can “draw on student prior knowledge regarding behavior expectations and identify where connections need to be bridged and built”: Personal Matrix Activity (Center on PBIS, 2021, pgs. 47-51). Taking the step to build knowledge and understanding allows for equal footing in ideation, problem solving and decision making. Here is an example of an outline from VBCPS, which describes activities developed to engage high school student teams at a one-day Student Summit to support collaborative PBIS team action planning: Student Summit Outline_VBCPS (VBCPS, 2020)
Build a Culture of Data Transparency
Shared decision-making requires that there has to be a willing, transparent sharing of data. Effective and fair decision-making frameworks are often rooted in a consistent, data-informed process. In education, successfully partnering with others to problem solve and plan means that there must be an equitable sharing of relevant data so that all stakeholders are equally informed. This shift is often a struggle when there are perceived imperfections in the data we share. Understanding that the power and purpose of data sharing with partners is to cultivate trust, shared ownership, and more robust, responsive solutions to the challenges impacting students and the broader school community is helpful in transitioning to a more transparent approach. This infographic (Ida, 2021) from the Data Quality Campaign highlights a four policy framework helpful to schools and divisions in building a better data-sharing system and decision making process.
Reach Beyond the School Walls
Creating more inclusive solutions involves inviting more voices into the problem-solving process. Reaching out to those members of the school community who may not be physically present on a daily basis can feel daunting but is important to ensure all vested stakeholders feel supported and heard. Providing opportunities for relevant awareness and learning, as well as two-way communication and feedback, is critical, building more equitable partnerships beyond just staff and students. Actively identifying potential partners in problem-solving and supporting their involvement and readiness for informed engagement can open a world of possibilities and improve educational experiences for all. One such example is a local school division partnering with community-based day-treatment providers to participate in joint professional learning for tiered behavior supports. Then, identifying representatives from each site to serve on the school and division PBIS teams to select decision-rules and build a continuum of evidence-based interventions and supports for the whole student population. Here is a list of question prompts (Clever Cities, 2018) that will help leaders and teams to consider equitable representation and inclusivity of stakeholder groups in and outside of the school:
- Who is directly impacted by the decision?
- Who is indirectly impacted by the decision?
- Who is potentially impacted by the decision?
- Whose help is needed to make the decision work?
- Who knows about the subject?
- Who believes they have an interest in the subject?
Embrace Families as Partners
Despite efforts to encourage the involvement of families, we may often find that they do not lead to increased engagement. How might we shift from a top-down approach and begin to elevate the natural learning that happens at home and make our work in school more relevant to students’ home lives? Take a moment to listen to the following Podcast: Building Better Collaboration Between Families and Schools (Gonzalez, 2024, 47:00) to learn more about how to build strong partnerships with families by unpacking our biases, explaining best practices to caregivers, offering relevant strategies to use at home, and valuing student and family voice and choice. 10 Tips for Partnering with Families (Colorado Dept. of Education, 2012) also offers tangible ideas for involving families in MTSS team decision making.
Build a More Inclusive Community
In addition to listening to your students and their families’ voices in regards to data, consider the valued outcomes that may be achieved by partnering with local agencies and organizations to identify and address issues that matter to your community. Attendance, for example, could be a specific topic that has ramifications outside of the school building. Reflect on what outside agencies you could communicate with and include on your school teams to help support student achievement and student and staff wellness. Consider how agencies such as the Community Services Board (CSB), or local counseling agencies, could partner to provide support both during and after school or be integrated into problem-solving teams that troubleshoot issues like truancy and mental health. For instance, school divisions on the Eastern Shore of Virginia have experienced success addressing chronic attendance concerns by partnering with multiple community agencies, including representatives from their rural health system, CSB, court services unit, and both school divisions as part of a joint truancy team. This team works collaboratively with families to provide interventions and resources that address the root cause of the problem and seeks to alleviate the negative effects associated with truancy. As another example, take a moment to watch the May 2023 Attendance Works webinar (Attendance Works, 2023) that highlights Dr. Shadae Harris, Chief Engagement Officer from Richmond Public Schools, who shares the inspirational story of a community partnership, which helped to address the chronic issue of absenteeism in their community.
References
Cave, Megan. “PBISApps: Teach by Design-Anatomy of A Framework Part 9: Annual Evaluation.” Anatomy of a Framework Part 9: Annual Evaluation, PBIS Apps, 14 May 2024, www.pbisapps.org/articles/anatomy-of-a-framework-part-9-annual-evaluation.
“Center on PBIS: Resource: High School PBIS Implementation: Student Voice.” Center on PBIS | Resource: High School PBIS Implementation: Student Voice, Center on PBIS, Sept. 2019, www.pbis.org/resource/high-school-pbis-implementation-student-voice.
Gonzalez, Jennifer. “Building Better Collaboration between Families and Schools.” Cult of Pedagogy, Cult of Pedagogy Podcast:Jennifer Gonzalez, 19 Feb. 2024, www.cultofpedagogy.com/school-family-collaboration/.
Harris, Shadae, Dr. Relationships All Year Round: Nurturing Showing Up, Richmond Public Schools: Attendance Works, Housing Families First. May 2023, us06web.zoom.us/rec/play/wsZaY3XK7lHkjZ47AVhQKIRGNklL00G2mBLi_ZMCV8ULL-wQHj07c1WR6AIwYaeEFS-f4q0JpZ_jhye5.AOToPus1PNfW13ub?canPlayFromShare=true&from=share_recording_detail&continueMode=true&componentName=rec-play&originRequestUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fus06web.zoom.us%2Frec%2Fshare%2FFHGoLSgGRhyc5ipKnLKPAHb0u4YIklTZeoy3y_oOkmRQ8MJ_tyFF0FsScUO6UcLd.8lYErM336yQ2slAT.
Ida, Katie. “Four Policy Priorities to Make Data Work for Students.” Data Quality Campaign, 8 Nov. 2021, dataqualitycampaign.org/resource/four-policy-priorities-make-data-work-students/.
Lines, Cathy, et al. Ten PBIS Tips for Partnering with Families, Colorado Dept. of Education- RtI/PBIS Office, 2012, bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/1/117433/files/2022/11/PH101-Byrd-chat-transcript.txt.
“PBIS Cultural Responsiveness Field Guide:” PBIS CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS FIELD GUIDE: Resources for Trainers and Coaches, Center on PBIS, Mar. 2021, assets-global.website-files.com/5d3725188825e071f1670246/6062383b3f8932b212e9c98b_PBIS Cultural Responsiveness Field Guide v2.pdf. Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Student Summit Outline, Virginia Beach, Virginia, 2020.
“TOOL 2.1: Identification. Six Key Questions Model .” Clever Cities , clevercities.eu, 2018, clevercitiesguidance.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/tool-2-1-identification.pdf.
Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Student Summit Outline, Virginia Beach, Virginia, 2020.
