Collaborating with Families on the High School and Beyond Plan
By Brian Mathieson | March 2018
According to ESHB 2224 and E2SSB 6552, school districts are encouraged to involve parents and guardians in the process of developing the High School and Beyond Plan. I’ve always understood this, but it’s taken on a whole new meaning now that my daughter is transitioning from middle school to high school. I have a whole new lens as a parent. I wonder: Can we do a better job collaborating with all families?
How does your school communicate with your parents/guardians?
To begin, I think we need to be very thoughtful about how we communicate with our parents/guardians. Anyone who has or works with eighth-graders know that they are not always reliable sources of information. Students can be A strategy to communicate with parents and guardians, but they cannot be THE strategy. Similarly, we cannot expect all families to check websites, to be on social media, or to have updated contact information. If we are going to invite families to partner with us in developing students’ High School and Beyond Plans, we will need layers of communication. Think of it in terms of multitiered system of support (MTSS). Some families will respond to core, universal strategies of communication such as email, websites, and social media. But other families will need targeted communication (e.g., in the family’s home language) or individual (e.g., personal telephone call). The goal should be to involve 100% of parents/guardians, and to accomplish our goals we’ll need a written MTSS plan.
How are you scaffolding information for parents/guardians?
My daughter’s school uses Career Cruising and encouraged parents and guardians to register for the Career Cruising Parent/Guardian Portal. This was a smart move and a good step toward involving my family. But I am an outlier – I know what Career Cruising is, I know why a parent/guardian portal is important, I know how to navigate the system and I know how to use the system in my home language because I am a high school counselor. Giving all families access to the system is equality. Teaching families what the system is, why it’s important and how to use it is equity. I’m not pretending that scaffolding this information for all families is easy, but it is important. Simply providing the information misses the point. You can give me a rotary saw, but I’m not going to know what to do with it without some instruction.
Do you want to collaborate with or just inform parents/guardians?
Most schools strive to inform parents/guardians about selecting classes. However, the Washington Comprehensive School Counseling and Guidance Program Model challenges us to collaborate with or involve parents/guardians. This takes on a new meaning. I don’t have any simple ideas for how to shift from informing to collaborating but it is worthy of discussion within your school teams. You might begin by simply asking the question. At one of my previous schools we asked the question and then we decided to form Freshmen Family Meetings and arrange a meeting for every freshman and their parents/guardians to work on their High School and Beyond Plan. At another school, we asked the question and decided that at our freshmen parent night, we would open up as many computer labs as possible and train staff to help students to build their plans with their families that night instead of during the school day.
I encourage you to start asking the questions above and see if you can’t increase parent/guardian collaboration, and ultimately equity, in High School and Beyond planning.
Contact Brian Mathieson, Ed.D., NBCT, WSCA president, at brianmathiesonwsca@gmail.com or on Twitter at @MathiesonBri.
How does your school communicate with your parents/guardians?
To begin, I think we need to be very thoughtful about how we communicate with our parents/guardians. Anyone who has or works with eighth-graders know that they are not always reliable sources of information. Students can be A strategy to communicate with parents and guardians, but they cannot be THE strategy. Similarly, we cannot expect all families to check websites, to be on social media, or to have updated contact information. If we are going to invite families to partner with us in developing students’ High School and Beyond Plans, we will need layers of communication. Think of it in terms of multitiered system of support (MTSS). Some families will respond to core, universal strategies of communication such as email, websites, and social media. But other families will need targeted communication (e.g., in the family’s home language) or individual (e.g., personal telephone call). The goal should be to involve 100% of parents/guardians, and to accomplish our goals we’ll need a written MTSS plan.
How are you scaffolding information for parents/guardians?
My daughter’s school uses Career Cruising and encouraged parents and guardians to register for the Career Cruising Parent/Guardian Portal. This was a smart move and a good step toward involving my family. But I am an outlier – I know what Career Cruising is, I know why a parent/guardian portal is important, I know how to navigate the system and I know how to use the system in my home language because I am a high school counselor. Giving all families access to the system is equality. Teaching families what the system is, why it’s important and how to use it is equity. I’m not pretending that scaffolding this information for all families is easy, but it is important. Simply providing the information misses the point. You can give me a rotary saw, but I’m not going to know what to do with it without some instruction.
Do you want to collaborate with or just inform parents/guardians?
Most schools strive to inform parents/guardians about selecting classes. However, the Washington Comprehensive School Counseling and Guidance Program Model challenges us to collaborate with or involve parents/guardians. This takes on a new meaning. I don’t have any simple ideas for how to shift from informing to collaborating but it is worthy of discussion within your school teams. You might begin by simply asking the question. At one of my previous schools we asked the question and then we decided to form Freshmen Family Meetings and arrange a meeting for every freshman and their parents/guardians to work on their High School and Beyond Plan. At another school, we asked the question and decided that at our freshmen parent night, we would open up as many computer labs as possible and train staff to help students to build their plans with their families that night instead of during the school day.
I encourage you to start asking the questions above and see if you can’t increase parent/guardian collaboration, and ultimately equity, in High School and Beyond planning.
Contact Brian Mathieson, Ed.D., NBCT, WSCA president, at brianmathiesonwsca@gmail.com or on Twitter at @MathiesonBri.