Peer-to-Peer State Collaboratives: March 2021 Convening
As described in an earlier post, the Center has launched two peer-to-peer collaborative opportunities for state educational agencies (SEAs). The collaboratives serve 10 states that are working together to address their most urgent and important needs related to alignment and coherence of SEL and other whole person strategies and initiatives.
Following an in-person kick-off convening in February 2020, the state teams have been working with Center technical assistance (TA) staff to address their state-specific problems of practice. Additionally, throughout the year, the Center hosts virtual convenings for participants from all 10 state teams to collaborate and learn together
This March, state collaborative participants had the opportunity to participate in four days of professional learning with peers from other states. The session topics were as follows:
- Monday, March 22 — Building Collaboration Based on Trust in Order To Take Action: This session was co-hosted with the Coherence Lab Fellowship. Participants explored practical strategies for strengthening their professional relationships to improve their collaboration and to help them advance their alignment and coherence efforts.
- Tuesday, March 23 — Practice Makes Perfect: Incorporating Asset-Based Framing into Your Strategic Communications: This session was a follow-up to the collaborative’s January keynote event by Trabian Shorters on asset-based framing. Participants used key communications materials from their state educational agencies to practice what they had learned about asset-based language.
- Wednesday, March 24 — Fireside Chat with North Dakota: Introduction to the Exemplars Protocol: This session provided a deep dive into the Center’s third and final protocol, Spotlighting Whole-Person Success: A Guide for Using Statewide Data to Identify Exemplar Districts in SEL and School Climate. Participants had the opportunity to hear about North Dakota’s experience with the pilot.
- Thursday, March 25 — Canary in the Coal Mine: Attendance Data as an Indicator of Community Well-being: Attendance data can serve as an early indicator of community and student well-being. Low attendance rates may indicate opportunities to improve school climate and promote a sense of belonging for students. For individual children, it may indicate that they are navigating adversity, which their school or district may be positioned to ameliorate. In this session, participants worked to build their capacity for using such data to support districts and schools in promoting well-being.