Karen Sanders, Director, Connie Spencer Ackerman, Coordinator
Cicely Chapman, Connie Spencer Ackerman (NNPS Key Contact), Barbara Sprague, and Barbara Boone. Not Pictured: Rebecca Wheelersburg, Marcia Philipps, Linda Martin, and Ellen Frasca.
Ohio's Department of Education has been working with the National Network of Partnership Schools since 1996 to organize its statewide outreach and leadership on school, family, and community partnerships. Now, the initiative is conducted within the Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement, which is housed within a newly created Center for Students, Families, and Communities. The state has established an office to guide and lead Ohio's school, family, and community partnerships.
Ohio Department of Education is recognized for four years of "scaling up" leadership, awarding grants, conducting regional training workshops for parent-educator teams, state conferences and rallies, and providing other support for over 300 schools in all regions of Ohio. The School, Family, and Community Partnerships program has established strong intra- and interagency connections with Title I, Office for Exceptional Children, the state PTA, Ohio's Parent Information and Resource Center (OhioPIRC), and Ohio Family and Children First from the governor's office. The work focuses on improving student literacy, learning, and success in school.
Ohio's mission includes fostering "the ability of families and communities to help students succeed." Its work on partnerships is supported by Goals 2000 and a private foundation grant. Ohio's Coordinator explained that in 1998, Ohio's work on partnerships was called the "best kept secret in the department" by a member of the Board of Education. She continues, "The goals of the initiative were nowhere to be found in either the department's strategic plan or in its organizational structure...Now, the creation of the new Center and Office for Partnerships and Public Engagement makes it clear that the work of the initiative is critical to helping the department meet its goals, as outlined in the strategic plan."
I always advise states [asking about joining the National Network of Partnership Schools] to do so for the following reasons: a strong research base, updated with data from the Network itself, national recognition from the Network for good work, use of the framework that guarantees a consistency that strengthens partnerships, publications and training, and a staff that is amazingly available and helpful. All that in return for an annual UPDATE. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain.
--Connie Ackerman, Ohio Department of Education, Office of School, Family, and Community Partnerships/Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement