State Leadership to Strengthen Family Engagement Programs

The Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center (OhSFEC) is implementing a comprehensive, scalable approach to enact state policy for family and school engagement at local levels. Joyce Epstein and Barbara Boone report how OhSFEC's research-based design, implementation, and evaluation of a leadership ladder has enabled state leaders to support regional, district, and school leaders as they organize and implement family engagement programs linked to schoolwide goals for student learning and development. Initial evaluation of the program shows that the policies and practices are being applied in schools, and families are seeing improvement in their interactions with schools.