This is a huge win for those working tirelessly in family engagement and OST!

I also mentioned that to be on the safe side, it’s a good idea to start building your evidence base now, in case these funds are earmarked for evidence-based programs under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). 

Now that you’re all familiar with the four evidence levels, let’s dig into the most accessible one: Level 4. 

So many grass roots, small, community-based organizations are at a disadvantage with ESSA’s evidence requirement. Here’s why: 1) evaluation services can get expensive, and 2) they often require technical know-how or an outside consultant to do them well. 

Program staff are great at working with kids, families, and schools. That’s why they do this work! They didn’t sign up to be evaluators, so I get why the thought of doing an evaluation can send some program staff running for the hills. 

But let’s take a deep breath.

Here’s the great news about Level 4: if you know that your organization is planning to evaluate your family engagement or after-school services but hasn’t done so yet, you can demonstrate that there is a great likelihood that your services are impactful and still get access to those Title I and other federal funds. 

That’s it – demonstrating a likelihood! It’s a great way to get your foot in the door with districts while working towards the bigger goal of becoming evidence-based. 

So you may be saying – Amanda, that sounds great, but how do I show that my services are likely to have a positive impact on kids and families? 

Here’s what you need to apply for ESSA Level 4 approval: 

​So if you’re started to track your family engagement or student data, Level 4 gives you time to get your systems up and running, while still giving you access to the funds you need and the students and families you want to work with!

If you want to know how to DIY the ESSA Level 4 process, sign up below for Evidence for Engagement, the free mini course from Tamara Hamai and me!

​With weekly videos and worksheets, it will walk you through how to get your application ready for your local school district and get your foot in the door. 

The recently-passed American Rescue Plan Act has set aside … brace yourself … over $2 BILLION for out-of-school time (OST) — after-school and summer — programs!
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Not to mention, there is funding for community schools and all the wraparound services that so rarely get enough attention or funding but are absolutely critical for bolstering families in underserved communities. 

This is a game changer for kids, families, schools, and OST/community school providers. 

But we can’t rest on our laurels and wait for the money to rain down on us. (Wouldn’t that be nice?) It’s time to be proactive! 

I’ve had a lot of conversations with OST folks recently about the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)’s evidence requirements. 

Basically, if a school or district is going to purchase a program or services with federal funds (ie. Title I), they need to make sure that there is some evidence to show that what they’re purchasing is effective. 

Makes sense, right?

Unfortunately, that’s not as easy or straightforward as it sounds.

Many small, community-based, minority-owned organizations don’t have the capacity or funds to hire an evaluator. For me, this is a serious equity issue. 

But for no money, there is a way to get your foot in the door.

To be deemed evidence-based, a program needs to meet one of the following levels:

Now, the American Rescue Plan Act does not seem to specify that spending is limited to evidence-based programs … but why hurt your chances of getting access to this lifeline?

Now is the time to position your program for maximum benefit from this upcoming funding opportunity. 

If you want to get more information about Level 4 and becoming evidence-based, sign up for the FREE mini-course that Tamara Hamai and I developed. Each week you’ll get emails with videos and graphic organizers to help you get ready to become an evidence-based organization!

At that time, the thought of staying at home for even two weeks straight sent my anxious brain into overdrive. 

Now, it’s been a year since we’ve been in a restaurant, a year since I’ve been to the gym, and a year since I’ve seen most of my friends. Somehow, we’ve made it through this year of change, fear, and in loss.

On a more positive note, it’s also been a year full of learning and growing as people and as educators. 

In reflecting on this past year, here are the biggest takeaways that (I hope!) the education world has realized:

1. Families are critically important partners in the work of educating children. 

In a recent teacher focus group, the challenges of connecting with families this year were their biggest concern.

No longer can we pretend that families and schools exist in separate planes.  

Educators have seen just how important family engagement is for getting their own work done. 

​Teachers (and other critical school staff!) and families MUST be equal partners in sometimes herculean task of educating children, especially those who come to school with a variety of needs and challenges.

2. Teachers and families both need to be commended for how well they adapted to educating children at home. 

I am constantly in awe of teachers this year — teaching is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I cannot imagine having to change basically every skill and strategy you’ve honed throughout your career in a flash. Their work was more challenging than ever during the pandemic, and in many cases, they put their health on the line to do the best they could for their kids. 

Now, my dog is the only kid I’ve had to contend with this year (although he does make working from home challenging at times!). So I have great admiration for parents who have found ways to adapt their schedules, learn how to teach their children, and maintain positive, loving relationships in an unimaginable situation.

From the surveys and focus groups I’ve done over the past year, it’s been clear how hard this has been for educators families, and both groups deserve our respect and gratitude now more than ever.

I’m sure you anticipated this lesson … but we MUST use data to drive our supports for children and families! Without kids and families in school buildings every day, a different approach was critical to figure out who was getting what they needed … and who had barriers that the school should help families overcome. 

I’ve gotten to work with a number of different schools, districts, and organizations on their use of data this year, so imagine my PURE JOY to hear that a staff member at one of these schools said that with the use of the data tracker we developed, “We are no longer guessing.” 

That’s just it! We don’t have to guess.

We can use simple, low- or no-cost strategies (Don’t forget to download my free guide here!) to make sure we know EXACTLY what’s happening with each of our kids.

No one’s falling through the cracks on our watch. 

By engaging families as equal partners, respecting the hard work that both educators and families contribute to the education of their kids, and by easily tracking how our families are engaging (sometimes more importantly, how we’re trying to engage with them), we open up a new world of home-school collaboration and possibilities for success. 

In the coming months, as we start to transition back to some semblance of normal life, I hope that we don’t regress and forget all that we’ve learned this year. 

I’m excited to find new ways to support educators and families in their journey towards more equitable, data-informed partnership. 

I have a few things up my sleeve for 2021, so stay tuned!

Let’s see how we can all continue to grow and learn together in this next phase of the year.

Working collaboratively to develop a logic model can be a unifying experience for teams, a way to get everyone on the same page about the work. 

But what keeps your finished logic model from disappearing into the dark void of your computer’s file system, never to be found or opened again?

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you may know where I’m going… 

You can use your logic model to help design your team’s data tracking system! 
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Although people design them differently, logic models always have a column for either the measures that you’ll use to assess progress (as I have in my template below) or the immediate outputs that would occur as a result of your activities.

• Number of families attending school events
• Number of home visits conducted
• Percent of children whose families have engaged with the school in some way throughout the year
• Number of parent/family leaders 

Your logic model is basically a cheat sheet to the data points you’ll want to track for your program!

​So if you follow the steps in my free guide to tracking your engagement data, you’ll see that you’ve already answered some of the questions in Step 1 — why you’re tracking the data. 

I don’t know about you, but I think that identifying the purpose behind each part of our work is often the hardest. But since you’ve already connected your measures to your short- and long-term goals, you’re ahead of the game!

With your logic model in hand, you’ll be ready to tackle the rest of the questions with ease and start tracking. 

If you haven’t gotten your hands on my free guide, use the form below to get your copy!