Engage Stakeholders

Students, families, staff, communities, and partners (from the local level to the national level) work together to ensure equal ownership in implementing equitable, multi-level systems of supports.

Meaningful partnerships in a school-wide system

Schools engage in authentic partnerships where all voices are encouraged and valued. Tied to the community, district, region, state, and national visions and goals; successful schools effectively and efficiently engage in meaningful, trusting relationships with stakeholders. They build cultural and linguistic bridges across the system and among stakeholders to provide the knowledge, skills, and habits Wisconsin learners need to graduate college career ready.

Schools engage stakeholders by understanding and communicating:

• The vision and goals of their equitable, multi-level system of supports journey,
• the importance of partnering to find solutions and make decisions,
• role clarity (how to participate and who the stakeholder represents),
• practices, policies, and procedures (“the work”) and how it’s tied to equitable learner outcomes,
• available resources (capacity building, professional development, etc.), and
• established feedback loops (so stakeholders get a deep understanding of opportunities and barriers).

Schools know and understand what works best for engaging stakeholders at their school because they assess their system and use their data strategically.

Stakeholders in an equitable, multi-level system of supports

Stakeholders represent a larger group and serve as communication pathways so schools can get a full scope and deep understanding of their system. Schools engage with the following stakeholders regularly.

Students

Student council and student voice groups provide a continuum of communication between the leadership team and students. Students might see what leadership is not seeing and leadership might see what students are not seeing.

Families

Schools focus attention to family input from populations underserved by the school and district. Family representation helps demystify the interworking of schools and schools gain insights into family values, cultures, and norms.

Community

We want all students to be good citizens. By engaging communities, schools have partners that help to:

• Reinforce cultural values of what the community finds as acceptable/unacceptable behavior,
• offer opportunities like leadership positions outside of school,
• provide collective ownership and a supportive environment, and
• bring community challenges and opportunities back to the school.

School, district, regional, state, and national level staff

Staff members represent multiple skills and unique perspectives. They pay particular attention to providing voice for underserved learner populations.