During the 2022 National ESEA Conference, held in New Orleans this year, the Region 8 CC and Michigan Department of Education (MDE) team led three workshops during the Wednesday and Friday sessions. The team presented on Equitable Family-School Literacy Partnerships to Support High Early Literacy Outcomes, Launching Education Careers through Credentialing, and Centering Student Voice in Social Emotional Learning for Equitable Learning Environments. For an hour and a half each, they led discussions regarding the ways in which the initiatives focused on equity in literacy, education careers, and centering student voice.
Sarah Sayko, Shanon Everett, and Melissa Manko led the Equitable Family School Literacy Partnerships to Support High Early Literacy Outcomes workshop. In this workshop, the MDE, with the Region 8 Comprehensive Center, presented the resources they developed for families, schools, and childcare providers for equitable family-school literacy partnerships that result in high early literacy outcomes for all students. Participants left the workshop with a greater understanding of equitable school literacy partnerships and why they are important, and how to utilize the resources they would be provided in their goal to achieve high early literacy outcomes for students in grades PreK through third grade.
Some of the resources participants received included read alouds, leadership strategy packets, family homework packets, and more. A list of the resources participants received can be found here.
Chris Dwyer, Lorraine Thoreson, Candace Vinson, and Robin Zeiter’s session on Launching Education Careers through Credentialing focused on, “the MDE’s work to grow the pipeline of educators and youth workers beginning in high school career and technical education (CTE), dual enrollment, and Early Middle College Programs”1, providing participants with information regarding their initiative to fill teaching positions, examples of the program in action, and how they can utilize it in their school districts. More information regarding the program can be found at the following link.
The final session presented by MDE with the Region 8 CC was given by Bersheril Bailey, Rose Buckley, Amy Colton, and Leisa Gallagher. In this session the presenters covered, Centering Student Voice in Social Emotional Learning for Equitable Learning Environments, the initiative the MDE and Region 8 CC partnered together to center student voice to create equitable learning environments led by and for students. The resource utilized for this presentation can be found here.
