Working with Advisory Panels

1. Working with Advisory Panels Hollie Gabler Filce Hollie.Filce@usm.edu MS SPDG ~ REACH-MS Realizing Excellence for All Children in Mississippi

2. What’s with the fish? • Fish can lead many types of existences • As a solitary fish in a bowl • In a tank with others • Swimming in open waters • It’s a philosophy for interacting with others that we’ve used a lot in our SPDG – particularly with our schools. www.CatchTheFishPhilosophy.com

3. What does the MS-SPDG do? • Original SPDG (2005 – 2010 + no-cost extension) • School-wide PBIS • Literacy • Family engagement • New SPDG (2010 – 2015) • PBIS • School-wide (scaled up, statewide) • Targeted groups/Tier II (smaller scale) • LRE – with alternative schools & juvenile justice • Family engagement

4. What is the format/structure of your Advisory meetings? • The meetings are virtual (online or teleconference) • The meetings are face-to-face only • The meetings are face-to-face, with some people teleconferencing into the room. • Other (please specify)

5. SPDG Partners

6. A separate MS-SPDG advisory panel… • Didn’t ensure the right players were in attendance • Was cumbersome and expensive • Meet relatively infrequently • Sometimes fostered the idea that the SPDG was “separate” &“special” • Didn’t help integrate SPDG priorities into existing initiatives’ activities & agendas

7. Didn’t we just see each other? • Many of the same players were on existing bodies, boards, and panels • Much SPDG business was conducted during breaks, before or after those meetings • Integrating SPDG priorities into THEIR goals and agendas showed better promise. • The MS Special Education Advisory Panel was selected as the primary outlet because of their permanency and regularity of meetings.

8. Have SPDG personnel joined other advisory boards for the purpose of disseminating information or providing the SPDG viewpoint? Yes No

9. Changing our Advisory Approach • Presented idea of utilizing the MS Special Education Advisory Panel as the SPDG advisory panel at a SEAP meeting. • Parents on the SEAP were enthusiastic for a more proactive vehicle through which they could support innovations in our state. • SEAP approved request to serve as the primary SPDG advisory entity and provided a letter of support for the application.

10. MS - SPDG Interactions Oversight by the MS Special Education Advisory Panel

11. 2010 SPDG Advisory Strategy • Primary oversight by the Mississippi Special Education Advisory Panel (bi-monthly) • Ancillary support and interaction with • Mississippi P-16 Council (annually) • MS PBIS Alliance (bi-annually, SPDG-supported) • MS Parent Training and Information Center • PLUS others to be developed (drop-out prevention task force, RtI Initiative, etc.) • Other boards not specifically SPDG-related • MS Higher Education Literacy Council (quarterly) • MS Youth Justice Project

12. Kinds of Input • General advisory functions • Feedback for annual report and project evaluation • Better able to give larger impact statements – they have a broader ‘view from the field’ • Ensure parent involvement in development of processes

13. Tips for working with other boards • Join or get yourself appointed to those boards • Know their mission, their goals, their objectives • Point out & make explicit the connections among your work • Offer the support of the SPDG for their activities when appropriate.

14. Cautions • You are at the mercy of that group – you may or may not stay their focus. • Many groups are time limited – if this is the case, your ‘advisory’ board may not be there. • The group may think the SPDG can “solve all of their problems” – you have to be firm about the scope of your work/capacity.

15. Do you assess the process quality of extent that stakeholders perceive the process is fair and authentic [Hicks et al. (2008)]? Yes No IF YES: How do you go about doing this?