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On June 10, 2009, the Roundtable co-hosted an event with the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy at Suffolk University. The meeting accompanied the release of the Rennie Center's policy brief titled, Toward Inter-Governmental Agency Collaboration: The Role of Children’s Cabinets.
In October 2008, Governor Patrick signed an executive order establishing the Child and Youth Readiness Cabinet – a state leadership team focused on streamlining state efforts to improve services for children, youth and families. The Readiness Cabinet is jointly chaired by Paul Reville, Secretary of Education, and Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and includes the state secretaries of Administration and Finance, Housing and Economic Development, Labor and Workforce Development, Public Safety and the Child Advocate.
In order to inform the work of the Readiness Cabinet, the Rennie Center produced a policy brief that examines established children’s cabinets in other states. The policy brief has two principle purposes. First, it is designed to inform the general public about the purpose of children’s cabinets and to highlight the potential role that non-government stakeholders (such as parents, youth leaders, advocacy groups, and service providers) might play as the Governor’s Child and Youth Readiness Cabinet begins their work in Massachusetts. Second, it is written to contribute to the policy dialogue about how to increase the level of collaboration among state departments and agencies that serve Massachusetts children, youth and families by putting forth examples of structures and strategies being used by other states’ children’s cabinets to carry out their work.
The event began with a presentation of the policy brief, followed by a videotaped response to the brief by Secretary of Education Paul Reville and a moderated panel discussion. The event concluded with an opportunity for audience members to ask questions of the panelists.
Panelists
- Jarrett Barrios, President, Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation
- Kathleen Betts, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Children, Youth and Families, Executive Office of Health and Human Services
- Michele Brooks, Assistant Superintendent for Family and Student Engagement, Boston Public Schools
- Lisa Famularo, Research Director, Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy
- Natasha Gonzalez, Member, Governor's Statewide Youth Council; Student, Hampshire College
- Patrick Johnson, Member, Governor's Statewide Youth Council; Student, Suffolk University
- Tom Weber, Deputy Chief of Staff, Executive Office of Education
Moderator
Richard Weissbourd, Child and Family Psychologist; Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Graduate School of Education
Read the brief.
Review the meeting materials.
Read the editorial written by Abby Weiss, Executive Director of the Roundtable, and Jill Norton, Executive Director of the Rennie Center.
On January 29, the Roundtable sponsored a meeting entitled, Supporting Students’ Health through Partnerships with Schools. The meeting was presented in partnership with Boston Medical Center Healthnet Plan; Boston Public Schools School Wellness Initiative; Massachusetts Coalition of School-Based Health Centers; and The School of Education, Northeastern University. Dr. Rick Weissbourd, Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education and Kennedy School of Government, offered the keynote in which he discussed many of the physical and mental health challenges students face. He spoke about the need for developing a robust system for prevention. A panel discussion, moderated by José Massó, Director of Communications, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, explored the delicate balance of early intervention and prevention with the management of crises and chronic illnesses. The panelists were: Dr. Shari Nethersole, Medical Director for Community Health, Children's Hospital Boston; Toby Romer, Principal, Brighton High School; and Arlene Swan-Mahony, Assistant Director for Health Services, Boston Public Schools. They shared their on-the-ground experiences with addressing students’ health needs and examined some of the opportunities and challenges of partnerships.
Rick Weissbourd’s Presentation: Quiet Problems [PDF]
Co-sponsored by the Youth Policy Initiative, A Conversation about Outcomes took place at The Boston Foundation on May 27. It was a provocative discussion – one which demonstrated that there is great interest in Boston in developing shared outcomes for our children and youth. At the meeting, an informative funder panel featured Geeta Pradhan of The Boston Foundation and Peg Sprague of the United Way who each shared their perspectives on outcomes and their implications for grantees. Lisa Jackson of the Center for Effective Philanthropy moderated the discussion. Dishon Mills of BPS’ DELTAS office offered an overview of an effort to develop such outcomes.
Lisa R. Jackson's Presentation: A Conversation About Outcomes — Shared Definitions
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The Roundtable’s January 17 meeting, Sustaining Full-service Schools & Mental Health Services for Children, began to tackle the issue of sustainability. First, Marty Blank, Executive Director of the Coalition for Community Schools in Washington, DC, provided an overview of the national picture of community schools and how others are meeting the challenge of sustainability. Emily Sherwood, Director of Children’s Behavioral Health Interagency Initiatives, Executive Office of Health and Human Services, then discussed the ways in which children’s mental health will be transformed and sustained in Massachusetts in light of the Rosie D v Romney court case.
Emily Sherwood's 01/17/08 Presentation on Rosie D. v. Romney
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The Roundtable hosted a meeting that examined Supporting Student Success: What Works & How Do We Know? The forum focused on the integration of and accountability for school-community partnerships. Featured programs were the Boston Community Learning Center Initiative/Thomas Gardner Extended Services School; The Safe Schools/Health Students Initiative; and the Sarah Greenwood K-8 School. Speakers included: Beverly Ross Denny,Special Assistant to the Deputy Superintendentfor Teaching & Learning, BPS; Dishon Mills, Afterschool Programs Coordinator, Department of Extended Learning Time, Afterschool & Services (DELTAS), BPS; Erica Herman, Principal, Thomas Gardner Extended Services School; William Kelley, Director of Comprehensive Support Services & Partnerships, Unified Student Services, BPS; Carol Brayboy,Project Director, Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative, Unified Student Services, BPS; J. Richard Woy,Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative Evaluator,JRW Associates; and Laura Perille,Executive Director, EdVestors.
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This Roundtable meeting focused on the study of financing school-connected services, generously supported by the Barr Foundation, and convened leaders in education, health, mental health, out-of-school time, prevention, youth development and advocacy. The meeting familiarized participants with the study’s purpose and approach. It also solicited from participants an authentic critique of Boston’s assets and challenges and a sense of the kinds of specific strategies that might improve and strengthen finance practices.
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This Roundtable meeting, Educating the WHOLE Child, featured Molly McCloskey, from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). In 2005, ASCD convened the Commission on the Whole Child with the belief that schools should focus on developing students who are academically proficient, as well as physically and emotionally healthy and respectful, responsible, and caring. Her presentation was followed by a panel moderated by Martin Blank from the Coalition for Community Schools. Panelists included Carolyn Riley, Senior Director, Unified Student Services, Boston Public Schools, Virginia Chalmers, Principal, Young Achievers K-8 School, Jamie Aronson, Ph.D., Associate Clinical Director, Brighton Allston Mental Health Association, and Dishon Mills, Afterschool Programs Coordinator, Boston Public Schools.
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At this Roundtable meeting, entitled Family Literacy, Timilty School principal Valeria Lowe Barehmi spoke, followed by several workshop presentations. The workshops featured: Project Feed and Seed - A Collaborative Family Literacy Program; Theory and Practice: Engaging Young Readers; The Family School at the Otis: a family literacy model for teaching ESOL to parents in their children’s school; Engaging Parents in their Children’s Math Learning; and Reaching Multilingual Families to Support Literacy.
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The Roundtable co-hosted, with Mass2020, the Boston Foundation, Boston Public Schools, Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Boston Afterschool & Beyond, United Way of Massachusetts Bay, and the Nellie Mae Educational Foundation, a forum entitled Addressing the Barriers to Academic Achievement: Partnering for Boston Students’ Success. This event featured a presentation by Richard Rothstein, author of Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to close the Black-White Achievement Gap and panelists: Superintendent Payzant, BCYF Director Robert Lewis Jr., UWMB CEO, and Children’s Hospital VP Laurie Cammisa.
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This meeting, Making the Most of Partnerships, focused on the importance of communication, vision, needs assessment, and joint planning that takes into consideration strengths and weaknesses of existing partnership.
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The purpose of this Roundtable meeting on Meeting Mental Health Needs in Schools was to increase the focus on the provision of school-based and school-connected mental health services for children and families.
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This meeting, Focus on Families, convened community members to learn about the BPS priorities, resources and strategies for family engagement.
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This Roundtable meeting brought staff from the Children’s Aid Society, Jane Quinn and Richard Negron, together with Joy Dryfoos to discuss their reflections on a decade of practice in community schools as described in the book Community Schools in Action. Gardner Principal, Catalina Montes joined the discussion by providing her experiences at building an extended services school from an initial partnership with Boston College.
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