Stakeholders Engagement
Fihayya Plair
Department of Education, Southern Connecticut State University
EDL 687: Administrative Internship
Dr. Olcay Yavuz
2/15/2022
Reflection 1: Stakeholder Engagement
For my first reflection concerning stakeholder engagement, I attended a virtual
SPMT and PTSO meeting as well as interviewed both assistant principals in the school.
During the SPMT meeting, the chairperson asked the representatives from each department
and committee to recap what new things were happening, upcoming events, or
accomplishments to celebrate. There was one parent present and an announcement of a
project that a student was working on. Nothing of great significance happened, except
updates and keeping everyone abreast of what was happening. The notes were written up
and sent out to the school. For the interviews, I asked each assistant principal what formal
structures were in place to engage all the different stakeholders of Career High School.
To engage and communicate with classroom teachers to achieve their support for the
school’s success, leadership positions were created such as GLT (Grade Level Teams) and
PLC (Professional Learning Communities) where teachers analyze grade level data and
brainstorm interventions for students’ success. I felt that this was true, but after our Grant
expired and all the resources that came along with it left last year, many teachers are
struggling to keep these processes going with zeal. As part of the original ninth grade team
that started all of this, I feel that a smaller committee of teachers, who are still zealous,
should continue this work. I also think that Faculty meetings, comer committee meetings
and department meetings need to be more specific and meaningful with clear objectives and
outcomes. Most of the time teachers come out of these meetings feeling like nothing got
done and thus was a waste of their time.
To engage and communicate with school-based professionals, our school has a team
called SSST, which stands for Student Support Services Team, where the school-based
professionals come together to evaluate and analyze data concerning students. They also
work with the GLTs when referrals are made. Information that is gathered on a student
during Kidtalks during GLTs are centralized and stored on our school’s shared Google
Drive which everyone has access to, including the school-based professionals. SSST did not
meet this year, however. Generally, I feel very disconnected from our school-based
professionals. We do not have much communication with them unless a student was brought
up in a meeting as needing a referral. To improve this, there should be meetings taking place
where team leads meet with the school-based professionals to get updates and vice versa.
This does not happen.
To engage and communicate with families to achieve their support for the school’s
success, we have a parent liaison, who works to bridge the communication between school
and home by helping parents get the information, help, and support they need to ensure their
child's academic and social success in school. We also utilize power school, progress reports
and report cards that get sent home every quarter, a living working school website, and
social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, where parents and families can be
kept abreast of the initiatives and accomplishments of their students. The problem with all of
this information that is being shared is that there is no sure way of knowing that the families
actually receive it. Most families do not stay up to date on PowerSchool, contact
information is outdated, teachers often cannot get into contact with them and only a select
few of families come to report card conferences. Engagement is poor. To improve the
communication and engagement of families we need to strengthen and invest in the
resources of the parent liaison, maybe even hire two.
To engage and communicate with community members to achieve their support for
school success, we have a community liaison team who assist the school social worker in
meeting various needs of identified students and families. They act as liaisons between
schools and community to further the academic success of students. This includes our
connections with Yale through Clifford Bears Clinic, which is stationed in our school. Our
SROs and Truant Officers also work engage the community by taping into the local
community resources. In my opinion, on the one hand, we have all of these resources, but on
the other hand we still have students who are chronically absent, cutting classes, in need of
therapy, medical assistance, addiction treatment and are not receiving it. This work needs to
become more intentional, inclusive of every student and the school should be held
accountable for it. I would like to learn more about this area.
To engage and communicate with district central office to achieve their support for
the school’s success, the principal, assistant principals, and lead teachers are in constant
communication with the supervisors in central office. Through lead teacher meetings, CIAs
and district Professional Developments, our school is constantly engaging in conversations
regarding curriculum changes, and instructional program improvements. In my opinion,
these conversations are not very productive in bringing about effective change and
improvement to our students’ success. We have vertical team meetings at the end of every,
just to run into the same problems we do every year. Curriculum is still a problem, it is not
clear what the curriculum is. Our textbooks are not centralized. Consistency across the
district is lacking. We are over testing our students. Teachers and central office alike are not
being held accountable for student success. Real conversations need to be had.
To engage and communicate with the state department of education to achieve their
support for the school’s success, all of our school data, grades, suspensions, on-track
records, incidents, and successes are sent to Hartford, where it is analyzed and suggestions
and recommendations are sent back to us. The state also send initiatives and funds to the
schools to improve student success. It would be nice if initiatives that were meaningful such
as laws to lower student teacher ratios were being pushed by the State. I feel that the
communication and engagement in this area could be improved such that teachers and
school leaders had more influence on what successful schools look like and could ask the
state for assistance on making that happen.
Overall, I learned a lot about the strategic plans placed in the school to communicate
and engage with the different stakeholders of our school for the success of our students.
Basically, on paper these strategic plans look great. However our school is still struggling to
ensure the success of all of our students. Our parent engagement is horrible, and state scores
are not where they should be. Strategic planning is not taking place to improve meaningful
engagement with families, the community, teachers, central office or the state. The generic
engagement we have is not leading to meaningful change and improvement. I would
definitely like to further investigate how we can improve meaningful engagement with our
stakeholders as a whole, in a way where there is true improvement in our school.