TWLC World Cafe items to review

Hello Everyone:

I hope you all enjoyed this blizzard of 2009. I love a winter wonderland yet still take comfort that the winter solstice begins tomorrow.

Carol has provided a few items to review prior to our next meeting on Monday December 28 from 10:00-11:30 am. We will finalize these items when we meet. Attached are:
1) draft agenda
2) world cafe questions and
3) entrance/exit questions.

School District Logo DRAFT Chamber Logo

CUMBERLAND TOWN WIDE LEARNING COMMUNITY
WORLD CAFÉ
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010
9:00 A.M. - 12:00 Noon

9:00-9:15 Gathering of Community Members:
Committee Members greet guests

9:15-9:35 Doorways to Our Dialogue
Donna Morelle, Paul Oullette, Mayor, and Rosemary Reilly-Chammat

9:35-9:45 Framing Our Conversation
Carol Bissanti

9:45-11:00 Creating New Knowledge for Town Wide Community Learning
Café Hosts and Guests

11:00-11:15 Break Time

11:15- 11:50 Connecting Conversations to Deepen Our Intentions
Café Lead Facilitators and Carol Bissanti

11:50-12:00 Transforming Our Conversation
Donna, Paul, (Rosemary and/or Team Members)


CAFÉ QUESTIONS TO FINALIZE

The following questions represent our last draft. Please be prepared to accept or make a final revision at our December 28th morning meeting. Look at these questions in terms of the information you are trying to gain to move your agenda forward and think about them through the lens of the guests who will be “new” to the discussion

1. How can we collaborate to make learning a core component of our town’s culture (defining the action)

2. If our success was completely guaranteed and Cumberland became a model for town wide learning, what bold steps might we choose to take? (creating forward movement)

Is this question asking: “What bold steps might we choose to take to guarantee that Cumberland will become a model for town wide learning?”

3. What would it look like if Cumberland was renowned as a “learning community” for all residents? (creating a shared vision)

CAFÉ ENTRANCE/EXIT ACTIVITIES

As we discussed, there are a variety of entrance and exit activities that could be designed to assist to establish a “mindset” and/or gain additional information that would help to move the agenda forward post the Café. The following are some examples. Please review carefully. As you consider them think about the committee next steps and what additional information could be gathered at the Café that would assist in committee action planning. Remember we want these activities to compliment the questions, not be repetitive. Suggestions are welcomed. We need to finalize these activities at the December 28th meeting as well.

ENTRANCE/EXIT EXAMPLES:

1 What do you think are the town of Cumberland’s greatest assets? (Question on a sheet of paper, answered individually and returned before the activities begin)
2 List what you know currently exist in our community that could provide a foundation for building a town wide learning culture (Easels with paper where guests could develop a list, etc.
3 Please prioritize the actions that were summarized today that you think are the most important or that you think will make the greatest impact as we start action planning.
(Guest place dots on summary café sheets #1-3 or #1-4 as they exit)

TWLC meeting 12/16/09 at 6:30-8:00 pm

Hello Everyone:

This will serve as a meeting reminder for tomorrow evening. The agenda so far, is as follows:
1)Donna will share the responses to date and we will discuss reach out strategies to invitees that have yet to respond.
2) Identification of facilitators.
2)Donna,Lisa, and Carol will report out on their site visit to BRT and their recommendations on set up and logistics.
3) Donna and Paul will report out on their meeting with Mayor McKee.
4) Carol will guide us through the final details of our planning and work to be completed between now and January 9th, including materials, supplies, food and beverages ect.
5) We can keep in contact via email and blog over the holidays but we should schedule one more meeting just prior to the TWLC in case we need it.


I am looking forward to our discussion tomorrow. Please let me know if you can not make it.

Take Care,

Rosemary

"From cradle to college to community building"

Not to get ahead of the ball, however, I came across a very unique organization based out of Harlem who's slogan is "From cradle to college to community building."

The slogan really caught my eye and made me think. In addition, it's similarity to something we might create to capture our young to old learning concept was apparent.

It is a much broader and deeper organization that I think we have ever imagined and in many ways applies more to inner-city populations but it truly offers some grounding on the limitless opportunities to this kind of community work. I think it also reminds us that student achievement is linked to many many factors we so often forget or don't spend enough time addressing.

Please take a look at their website when you have some time. http://www.hcz.org/home

They even offer different workshops for communities around the country to attend to gain a personal touch and feel for they work they do. Something really worth exploring some day.

Hope everyone is ready for the holiday and I will see you on Wednesday!

TWLC Invite - 01.09.10 - 9 am @ BRT

Cumberland is ready now

It's been exciting to wait for the mail and see that we've already had a turnaround on the RSVPs, even though invitations have only been in folks' hands for 3-4 days.

If the first wave of RSVPs is any indication of whether "Cumberland is ready now," I think we're on the right track.

Thanks so much to everyone for your thoughtfulness generating the invitation list. Your knowledge of the town, combined with your passion for learning in Cumberland, is a dynamic combination.

December 3rd meeting summary

Cumberland Town Wide Learning Community Steering Team
Meeting Summary
December 3, 2009

Donna Morelle, Paul Ouellette, Lisa Beaulieu, Ryan Pearson, Carol Bissanti and Rosemary Reilly-Chammat

We welcomed Paul L. Ouellette, Vice President of Community Development and Workforce Training, Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the steering team and partner in this effort.

The holidays arrived a bit early, with Donna bestowing a gift of reading to all of us. Each of us received a The World Café book, The World Café Resource Guide, The Art of Powerful Questions, World Café laminated reference card and a copy of the dissertation that started it all. Thanks to Donna for ordering the books and taking advantage of a great package deal. If you could not make the meeting, contact Donna to pick up your books.

We reached agreement on the following three questions:

1. What would it look like if Cumberland were renown as a "learning community" for all residents? (shared vision)

2. How can we collaborate to make learning a core component of our town's culture? (defining the action)

3. If our success was completely guaranteed and Cumberland became a model for townwide learning, what bold steps might we take? (creating forward movement)

We still have time to refine the questions if necessary. If you have any other ideas about these questions, please let me know. We may also choose questions to ask at the beginning and end of the world café to solicit additional input.

We reviewed the list. Members of the strategic planning team, including Karen and Rosemary, were added to the list. We decided to have the school principals on the list serve as participants instead of facilitators. When we meet again, we will determine other potential facilitators based on the number of respondents. Donna and Paul will meet with Mayor McKee soon to discuss the event and invite him to give greetings.

We decided to limit the participants to local stakeholders only, so we removed Commissioner Deborah Gist from this list. The group agreed that we would like to communicate our efforts to Ms. Gist and other State officials at some other point in time.

Lisa shared the invitations and response cards. They look great. Cindy Chabot and Donna worked on the mailing list. Most of the invitations were mailed by Friday December 4th.

Carol, Donna, and Lisa will visit the Blackstone River Theatre to help inform specific arrangements for that day. Carol is working on a materials list.

The group will meet again on Wednesday December 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. We will review the RSVP list to date and plan our work based on the number of responses. We may need people to make phone calls ect. We also need to determine our parting messages to the group on January 9th. How will we communicate with them following the meeting? What are the opportunities for involvement? ect..

Respectfully Submitted:

Rosemary Reilly-Chammat

Karen's response

Hello Everyone:

Karen had some trouble with the blog, here is her feedback:

I like them all, I would propose making the first question a little simpler though, like "How can we collaborate to make learning a core component of our town's culture?"

Rosemary

third question

Hi

I agree. We need to engage stakeholders and they need to see how they can benefit. Would we get at that in responses to the first question about collaboration and community assets?

Rosemary

Third Question

What if the third question is more of a 'what's in it for me?'.

We are encouraging stakeholders to involve themselves as an more integral part of the long-term solution. Our desire for their commitment extends far beyond this single event, as we have all agreed. I propose:

Why would a town learning community benefit stakeholders?

How can we collaborate to enhance and leverage our community assets by focusing on learning as a core component of our town's culture?

I changed it slightly because it did not grammatically seem to flow.

If our success was completely guaranteed and Cumberland becomes a model for townwide learning, what bold steps might we choose?

Would it be 'becomes' or 'became'?

What would it look like if Cumberland were renown as a "learning community" for all residents?

replaced 'being' with as.

I think they are great questions!

Update World Cafe Questions

Hi Everyone:

Donna, Tom, and I have all weighed in once with three potential questions. We each selected the question:

How can we collaborate and enhance our community assests by focusing on learning as a core component of our town's culture? What do others think? Are we begining to build consensus on this question?

In terms of creatign forward movement, I also like the bold steps question Donna posed and the idea of Cumberland as a model in Tom's new question, so I tried combining.

If our success was completely guaranteed and Cumberland becomes a model for townwide learning, what bold steps might we choose?

I am still mulling over the others. I do like the idea of questions that define learning as part of a shared vision. I still like:

What would it look like if Cumberland were renown for being a "learning community" for all residents? I think that whatever question we chose, it should reference all residents.

Rosemary

Focus Questions for World Cafe

Building on Carol's and Rosemary's thoughts, as well as the feedback from Tom, I've come up with these 3 draft focus questions for the World Cafe:

• If we were successful in creating Cumberland as a townwide learning community, how might we define learning? (Creating shared vision)

• How can we collaborate and enhance our community assets by focusing on learning as a core component of our town's culture? (Defining the action)
  


• If our success was completely guaranteed as a townwide learning community, what bold steps might we choose? (Creating forward movement)

I posed these questions for two reasons. First, they all focus on learning as the core element...the web that ties the work together. Second, I tried to pose questions that build on each other and are interdependent.

Looking forward to your feedback.

Donna

gentle nudge-world cafe questions

Hi Everyone:

Last week I posted an online assignment regarding our World Cafe questions.

Please find some time this week to review and comment. I'd like to have some consensus on questions to use by November 20th. The following week is Thanksgiving so it will be difficult to get work accomplished and we will meet again on December 2, 2009. Since we are not meeting at all in November, it is important to participate on line. It would be helpful for our discussion to have narrowed down the questions we think will work best. We can discuss in more detail on December 2nd.

Thanks and take care, :)

Rosemary

World Care Questions- interim assignment

Hi Everyone,
Carol provided a comprehensive summary of where we are to date and tasks to be completed. We have made great progress to date. Paul Ouelette of the Northern RI Chamber of Commerce accepted an invitation from Donna to co-sponsor the World Café with us. Lisa secured the Blackstone Valley Theatre for January 9th and is looking into January 23rd as a snow date. Lisa is also working on a save the date and an invitation for the event. The list is being shared among all of us to populate with potential World café participants.

At the last meeting, we also agreed to begin an online dialogue about the questions for our World Café.

Carol provided a handout including questions we had initial agreement on at our meeting on October 6, 2009 including:

1) What would it look like if all community representatives partnered with schools to take mutual responsibility for student achievement?
2) How do I envision my role in the community where all adults clearly assume collective responsibility for every student’s success?
3) What would I contribute (knowledge, skills, experiences, human/program resources) to assist our community in supporting learning for all Cumberland students and/or town residents?
4) What are the opportunities/dilemmas in developing a partnership between all community members and the school department on behalf of the town students and residents?
5) What would it look like if every member of the community contributed to the education of our youth?
6) If our success was completely guaranteed as a Town Wide Learning Community what bold steps might we choose?

Other potential questions including how they can assist in moving the work forward might include:

7) What would it mean if Cumberland’s motto read: Cumberland a town where opportunities to learn are abundant? (defining the vision)
8) What would it look like if Cumberland were renown for being “a learning community” for all residents? (defining the vision)
9) How might we “band together” to contribute to a town wide learning community where learning is a priority for everyone? (defining the action)
10) If we were successful in creating Cumberland as a town wide learning community, how might we define learning? (creating a shared vision)
11) How can we collaborate and enhance our community assets by focusing on learning as a core component of our town’s culture? (defining the action)

You will note that there is some redundancy in the questions. Carol advised that we consider:
1) The scaffolding of the questions rather than sequence.
2) The questions should be independent yet related.
3) Consider key components or domains of inquiry. For example: I identified three potential domains within each set of questions:
a. Learning community defined (questions 1, 6, 7, 8, 10)
b. Contribution to the learning community (questions 2, 3, 5)
c. Collaboration within the learning community (questions 4, 9, 11)

Please review the questions. We need to have three questions for our World Café.
Please choose three from the list or generate others to post on the blog.

I would offer:
What would it look like if Cumberland were renown for being “a learning community” for all residents? (8)
What would I contribute (knowledge, skills, experiences, human/program resources) to assist our community in supporting learning for all Cumberland students and/or town residents? (3)
How can we collaborate and enhance our community assets by focusing on learning as a core component of our town’s culture? (11)

What are thoughts about these questions. Do you think they will help facilitate the work at our World Cafe? Will the questions help us engage the participants and identify next steps in our work?

I look forward to your ideas and the discussion.
Rosemary

CORRECTION TO NEXT MEETING DATE

Hi Everyone:

Thank you to Carol, for noticing an error in the posting about the date of our next meeting. It should be Wednesday December 2, 2009. I previously said the third. Please make the correction in your calendar.

Thank you and take care,

Rosemary

A Fitting Quote...

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.", Martin Luther King, Jr.

next meeting

Hello Everyone:

I hope you had a chance to enjoy this beautiful day.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday December 3rd from 6:30-8:00. In the meantime, we will move forward with our work via email and the blog. Donna will be sending out "the list" with instructions soon. I will post information on the blog this week related to domain and question development for our World Cafe discussion. Finally, Donna is reaching out to the Northern RI Chamber of Commerce to ascertain their interest in partnering with us in this endeavor. I am looking forward to a positive outcome.

Rosemary

Hi Team,

Establishing a Purpose and Intent for the Cafe

We are definitely closer to reaching consensus with regard to the Cafe intent. The grant introduction has created the vision for the purpose:

"Imagine a town where learning is a priority for everyone; from children to grandparents, a place where learning is a core component of the town's culture... A place where the town bands together to give everyone opportunities to grow and capitalizes on its existing resources by bringing together key stakeholders to make a difference..."

Based on our on-going discussion the purpose of the Cafe would be to introduce, explore, and consider what it would take to turn this vision into a reality. The Cafe would be the precurser to the work, but provide information vital to action planning.

Let's be ready to determine who the key stakeholders are that need to have this World Cafe "conversation" with us.

Carol

The Art of Powerful Questions

As promised - here is the World Cafe article that described strategies for creating powerful questions.

What Matters #2

What Matters #1

Present: Lisa Beaulieu, Carol Bissanti, Karen Freedman, Donna Morelle, Ryan Pearson, Rosemary Reilly-Chammat

The group welcomed Carol Bissanti. She has joined the group to facilitate planning and implementation of the World Café as a kickoff to Town Wide Learning Community efforts. Carol shared information about the World Café model. She shared World Design Principles included in the World Café Shaping Our Futures Through Conversation by Juanita Brown with David Issacs and the World Café Community.

Principles include:

Principle 1: Set the Context
Principle 2: Create a Hospitable Space
Principle 3: Explore Questions that Matter
Principle 4: Encourage Everyone’s Contribution
Principle 5: Cross-Pollinate and Connect Diverse Perspectives
Principle 6: Listen Together for Patterns, Insights, and Deeper Questions
Principle 7: Harvest and Share Collective Discoveries

An outline of the work was also distributed. The group discussed issues and details of our World Café as follows:

The makeup of the team needs to be a microcosm of the community. Carol challenged the 20-60-20 rule that was included in the Complementary Learning article from Harvard advising engagement of the 20% of the community likely to be early supporters of Town Wide Learning. The World Café model encourages diversity of thought and respect for different opinion. Collective intelligence of the group results in positive results for the community by taking advantage of a cross section of multiple voices.

There are commonalities in the World Café model and specifics are driven by purpose and questions. For example, most World Café experiences generally include three rounds of questions with discussions lasting between 20-30 minutes. This can be modified based on the needs of the group.

Another aspect of the World Café can include solicitation of ideas from participants related to existing resources in the community and other like ideas. This type of input is not part of the Café table discussions; it is written and collected to serve as a type of environmental scan. For example, we could ask about existing partnerships that could serve as a foundation to town wide learning.

The group also discussed Town Wide Learning for all residents versus Town Wide Learning for student achievement. This conversation generated potential questions to help participants define the scope of Town Wide Learning. Carol reminded us that while we have been discussing this concept for a while, the World Café will be the first time that others will be introduced to the idea.

The purpose for our efforts could be to create an opportunity for learning partners to work together to create more learning opportunities. It would allow us to capitalize on resources related to a common goal.

The idea of reconvening the District Strategic Planning Team prior to the World Café to share this idea was also discussed. It would help to reengage those partners and serve as a sounding board for the feasibility of our World Café plans.

The group discussed potential questions. Carol’s blog posting of 9/29 provides modifications of those questions suitable for discussion and an outline of the work we need to accomplish at the next meeting on October 6th from 6:30-8:00 pm.

The group set a tentative date for World Café January 9, 2009 with the goal of determining specifics for the World Café prior to the holiday season.

Points for Consideration

Hello Town Wide Community Committee Members.



I appreciate your warm welcome. Most of you have indicated that you received my email of 9/24. At our next meeting we should be able to focus on the following three interdependent details:

1. The Cafe Purpose
2. The Cafe Participants
3. The Potential Questions

Points for consideration:

Purpose: What are our intentions at the Cafe?

*Do the following goals capture your intentions? What revisions to these goals would better highlight your intentions?


---To develop a common vision of a community that collectively supports student learning and/or Town Wide Learning

---To collect information relative to community resources as they exist and what gaps exists with regard to the ideal?

---To create an atmosphere of trust and commitment around this initiative

---To gain a sense of appropriate "next steps"

Participants: Based on your intentions, who are the appropriate members of the community to invite to this initial cafe?

* Do you need a "tight group" of community members to begin this initial conversation or should a "wide base" of community members be involved?

Potential Questions: What questions would best align to your purpose and to energizing the cafe participants?

* Do any of the potential questions align and/or what revisions to the questions would best serve your purpose?

1. What would it look like if all community representatives partnered with schools to take mutual responsibility for student achievement?
2. How do I envision my role in a community where all adults clearly assume collective responsibility for every student’s success?
3. What would I contribute (knowledge, skills, experiences, human/program resources) to assist our community in supporting learning for all Cumberland students and/or town residents?
4. What are the opportunities/dilemmas in developing a partnership between all community members and the school department on behalf of the town students and residents?
5. What would it look like if every member of the community contributed to the education of our youth?
6. If our success was completely guaranteed as a Town Wide Learning Community what bold steps might we choose?

Let's be prepared to deal with the details of these three components at our next meeting on October 6Th.

Congratulations on the RI Foundation Grant...Welcome, Carol!

I wanted to personally thank everyone for their efforts toward the successful grant award from the RI Foundation. As a result of the grant award, we are able to commence planning for our World Cafe in which we will invite community partners to a dialogue about the Townwide Learning Community.

As part of that venture, we will have the pleasure of working with Carol Bissanti, an experienced Rhode Island educator and World Cafe facilitator. Carol joined us at our meeting last night and guided us through an initial conversation about the World Cafe.

I am happy to welcome Carol to our work and to our blog.

Parent University

Happy September, Everyone!

At one of our summer meetings, Rosemary mentioned the concept of a 'Parent University'. This year the Boston Public Schools will be launching a 'Parent University' in an effort to increase parent engagement. I thought you might be interested... Enjoy!

Search Institute Training of Trainers

Hello Everyone,

I found this training opportunity on the Search Institute website. It is taking place in Massachusetts.
http://www.search-institute.org/open-enrollments

Search Institute Essentials Of Asset Building, Training of Trainers.

Check it out!

Rosemary

Community Organizing

First, I really have to thank Rosemary, Tom and Lisa for keeping up the posts on the blog. Even though I haven't been posting, I have been reading your posts and doing a lot of reflecting offline.

I hope I can add to the discussion today with feedback about a research publication I found on the Harvard Family Research Project web site. The research discusses lessons learned from community organizing -- and two concepts in particular resonated with me. One, I think the differences between 'parent involvement' and 'community organizing' are relevant to our work. Second, I believe there is application to our work on the Town Learning Community in the quote below.

Specifically, the quote theorizes that an obstacle to systemic improvement of student achievement is the act of "individualizing" issues. By developing relationships and connecting people, schools provide opportunities to identify systems issues that are not the result of an individual, but rather problems that are the responsibility of the organization to develop solutions for.

"Education organizing invests in building relationships among parents as the foundation of action. It focuses on “relational power,” which is the power to act collectively in order to make system change (Cortés, 1993). All too often schools individualize systemic problems (C. Brown, personal communication, October 3, 2003). For example, a student might be faulted for poor performance when in reality the problem also lies in a lack of qualified teachers and instructional materials. Organizing counters this individualizing trend by bringing people into relationships with one another so that they can identify and act on school issues. Through one-on-one conversations, group dialogue, and reflection, parents and other residents develop a strong sense of community, and learn how to use their collective power to advocate for school change. In contrast, parent involvement approaches that focus on individual skill building rarely provide opportunities for dialogue about common problems. The absence of these opportunities often precludes parents’ working together for school improvement."(Giles, 1998)

If you think this applies to our work moving forward, a theory of action about the Town Learning Community might be:

"If we provide opportunities for people to develop relationships with one another so that they can identify and act on school issues, they will develop a strong sense of community and learn how to use their collective power to advocate for school change, resulting in more students achieving the district's standards."

I've provided the link to research on the Harvard web site on the Message Board. I'd also like to suggest that we all read the research since it's rather brief and use it for a text-based discussion at one of our meetings. Through such a discussion, we might talk about the research, this proposed theory of action, and how to test its application to our work. We might also discuss whether this could help to form the basis for a focus question in our World Cafe forum.

World Cafe

I found a website that talks about the World Cafe for those interested in learning more about it.

When there are things that 'I know I don't know' (like what a World Cafe was prior to this Spring) I love having some reading material to help me frame the subject, or as I've been known to say : 'Find a bucket to sort it into.'

See you tonight!

Town Wide Learning Community Meeting Summary

Hi Everyone, Here is the meeting summary. Let me know if I missed something. I will bring hard copies to our next meeting. I don't know if I am missing the obvious, but I can't seem to figure out how to attach a word document. See you soon, Rosemary

Town Wide Learning Community Meeting Summary

Lisa Beaulieu, Tom Kenworthy, Karen Freedman, Ryan Pearson, Donna Morelle, Dee Gould and Rosemary Reilly-Chammat

The group met on June 2, 2009 at 7:15

Discussion: The steering committee discussed a time period to convene the larger group in the town wide learning community effort. Choosing a target time will enable the committee to plan for timely implementation.

Action: A target time was set, in late September, for the first convening of the larger group to discuss the Town Wide Learning Community.

Discussion: The application to the RI Foundation for organizational development was discussed in detail. An essential question concerning what the steering committee should know and be able to do before we convene the group, was discussed. We discussed how the application will help us to prepare for the work ahead. The organizational development grant could be used to help the steering committee educate ourselves. There is a wealth of information on community involvement. Building a common language and understanding among the steering committee members is important. Hiring a facilitator could help to organize the steering committee. Donna, Lisa and Tom attended a professional development experience for school leaders called World Café. This model could be used to engage the larger group in the town wide learning community discussion. During the May meeting the team discussed possible process questions to consider including:
What do children need?
What can we do?
Where do we need help?

Donna offered the school improvement fund to seed some efforts related to town wide learning . These school department funds will be a good match to include in the grant application and demonstrate local support and commitment to this idea.

The professional development grant still needs to be discussed.

Action: Lisa agreed to draft the application to the RI Foundation. All other steering committee members will review and provide feedback. The grant will be submitted to the RI Foundation by June 30, 2009.

Discussion: The group continued to discuss what building a town wide learning community would mean. The town wide learning community would create a culture of learning in Cumberland. The model would recognize that learning just doesn’t happen in school. The process could start with current community relationships within Cumberland Public Schools. There could some type of celebration of learning as a kickoff event. Dee shared examples from Chicago and Boston. The anniversary of the high school is coming up and this event could be tied to that celebration
The Complementary Learning report from Harvard was discussed. The report contained many excellent examples to help inform our efforts in terms of leadership, leveraging resources, and building partnerships. The 20-60-20 rule was of interest. This rule advised that in terms of change, 20% of stakeholders will be on board right away, 60% can be brought along and 20% may never buy in. We need to start with the first 20%. Interestingly, this report also differentiated between family engagement and community involvement. The report held a very traditional approach to family involvement which included support for the school and homework help. Community involvement meant meeting the needs of youth beyond what the school can do. This definition of community involvement was also shared by Jude Pelchat from the Annenberg Institute at an earlier meeting with the steering committee.

The group looked at “the list” to determine next steps. We discussed a sorting activity with the list to include active partnerships, geography, power and influence. Several other names and groups were added to the list including: Youth sports and booster clubs, town stakeholders, faith community, Craig Bloomer of the Boys and Girls Club, Mike Crawley, Darlene Wood, Neal Anderson, Cumberland Youth Commissioners, Dan Yorke, Ralph Jasparro and Clifton Boyle.
The Cumberland Local Education Fund was also discussed. The town wide learning community can provide opportunities to establish and or strengthen bonds with local groups such as the fund and the Office for Children Youth and Learning.

Action: There is still a wealth of information to review and incorporate in our work. It was agreed that we would meet regularly to achieve the fall meeting goal that was established at the beginning of the meeting. Donna, Tom and Rosemary will meet to review and analyze SALT data as it relates to town wide learning.

The next meeting of the group will be June 24, 2009 from 6:30-8:00 in the Superintendent’s conference room.

Building the townwide learning community

http://www.valleybreeze.com/Free/BIZ-boyle-retires-w-Hed-shot-C-W-and-OBS

Good Morning:

As we consider leadership strategies for building the town wide learning community, I would ask us to consider approaching Clifton Boyle. He is a Cumberland resident, former Cumberland industrial arts teacher, first principal of Woonsocket Career and Tech School, and a Superintendent. He rose through the ranks at JWU and was founder of the doctoral program in education leadership. Tom and I (and now Rich D.) are all recent graduates. The article from the Breeze is linked above.

Ralph Jasparro is a Cumberland resident, JWU professor, former Superintendent and overall a very accomplished educational leader. I spoke with him about this effort to gauge his interest in participation. He was interested but I believe it was after I submitted names to the list.

A shared leadership model, that we've discussed, with education leaders, business/community leaders and parent leaders could lend itself to the so-called "big boy/girl" approach.

I know we have a full agenda for next time yet it would be helpful to define the role of the steering committee in terms of leadership, guidance and support for the group. I think it will help us to get to "yes" with the people we ultimately decide to ask to step forward.

Rosemary

National Partnership requirements

Hello Everyone,

The link for district requirements in the National Partnership is below. The annual fee is $300, however it is waived if the districts completes a survey. There are staffing and other budgetary requirements as well.
http://www.csos.jhu.edu/P2000/distreq.htm

Rosemary

Great read...really got me thinking!

I just finished reading a great paper that summarizes lessons learned at a 2007 professional development institute sponsored by the Harvard Family Research Project; "Closing the Achievement Gap: Linking Families and Communities Through Complementary Learning."

"Complementary learning" is explained like this...
Educators, policymakers, and families increasingly agree: schools cannot do it alone. Children need multiple opportunities to learn and grow—at home, in school, and in the community. Complementary learning is a comprehensive strategy for addressing all of these needs and ensuring success for all children and youth. Complementary learning is the idea that a systemic approach—which intentionally integrates both school and nonschool supports—can better ensure that all children have the skills they need to succeed

Sounds familiar, doesn't it!

Well, I was also struck by the conclusion of the paper...

Regardless of terminology, the institute presenters and participants tackling these challenges are part of a growing national momentum for educating children in a more connected, comprehensive, and equitable way. As we all continue to innovate and build knowledge, we look forward to learning from them, sharing their knowledge, and helping to facilitate the national dialogue about educating children from a holistic, whole-community perspective.

The entire paper can be found at the following link. I would welcome your thoughts.

http://www.hfrp.org/complementary-learning/publications-resources/complementary-learning-emerging-strategies-evolving-ideas

Professional Development Grants

Here's link the professional development grant from the RI Foundation as discussed this evening.

http://www.rifoundation.org/Nonprofits/GrantOpportunities/SmallGrants/ProfessionalDevelopmentGrants/tabid/394/Default.aspx

Nice meeting tonight. I can't wait for more!

Organizational Development Grant Link

Here's the first grant link which focuses on support for strategic planning,  board development, feasibility & marketing, etc.  Details are found below:

http://www.rifoundation.org/Nonprofits/GrantOpportunities/SmallGrants/OrganizationalDevelopmentGrants/tabid/395/Default.aspx

Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University

Hello Everyone:

Earlier this week I attended a conference and met Dr. Joyce Epstein, Director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships. The url is http://www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/center.htm. She authored the six levels of family and community involvement that we've used in our work. The Center has a National Network of Partnership Schools Program where local schools, districts, organizations and state departments can join and get support for family and community involvement. There is a fee and other administrative requirements. It's not clear to me how joining this network would help move us along at this point. However, I told her a bit about the work we were embarking on and she suggested an upcoming conference in October 27-28 in Baltimore Maryland. Click http://www.csos.jhu.edu/P2000/pdf/fall-2009_ldc-brochure_final-web.pdf for the brochure. What do you think?

Rosemary

Communication and engagement

Hello

I found this list describing differences between communication and engagement in a book by Kathy Gardner Chadwick entitled Improving Schools Through Community Engagement. It is simple yet relevant to our work.
Sorry, I couldn't get the columns to line up on the blog.

Communication
Communicate to
Public hearing
Talk to, tell
Information out
Seeking to establish/protect turf
Authority
Influencing the like minded
Top down
Establishing a hierarchy for decision making
Goals/ Strategic plan
Products
Public relations

Engagement
Deliberate with
Community conversation
Talk with, share
Information around
Seeking and finding common ground
Responsibility
Understanding those not like minded
Bottom up
Building a network of decision making stakeholders
Values/vision
Process
Public engagement

Rosemary

Save the date for a meeting on March 30th...

Tom Kenworthy has arranged for Jude Pelchat from Annenberg to meet with the Community Involvement Steering Committee on March 30th at 6:00 pm. Cindy Chabot will be contacting each of the members of the Steering Committee early in the week to set up the meeting time.

Thanks, Tom!

Steering committee charts course for community involvement committee

Thanks for a great start last night to an important initiative in our Strategic Plan. I am looking forward to our follow-up discussions, as well as feedback from each of you after we all have a chance to complete our readings.

As promised, here is the link to the Annenberg research study on Community Involvement. I've included the full report as well as the Executive Summary.

http://www.annenberginstitute.org/pdf/OrganizedCommunities.pdf (Full Report)

http://www.annenberginstitute.org/pdf/Organized%20CommunitiesSummary.pdf (Summary)

RIPIN partnering with Cumberland to kick off town learning community

Happy New Year to all of you!

Behind the scenes, we've been putting the pieces together to kick-off the Community Involvement Committee. I'm really excited about the possibilities that are available to us with this dynamic group of teachers, parents, and community members who have been nominated.

Yesterday I got a commitment from the Rhode Island Parent Information Network (RIPIN) to help us organize the committee. Since parents will be a core element of the membership of the committee, the workshops they can offer us to support the development of this group will be free.

I'd like to meet with a small group of the Strategic Planning Committee who would be interested in steering this work. Let me know if you have an interest in stepping forward to help organize this...otherwise, I'll be in touch with several of you in the next week.