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Outreach and Engagement Awards

Ohio State University Nominated Programs

In 2008, Ohio State had a pool of 34 outstanding programs from which to choose its nominees for the regional Outreach Scholarship W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award and the C. Peter Magrath University/Community Engagement Award. The scope and quality of these programs represent the broad spectrum of Ohio State’s partnerships with communities and industry.

Educational Improvement

• Forensics in the Classroom
• Haiti Empowerment Project
• Education Outreach at Lima
• Mathematics Coaching Program
• CSTW: Fostering Literacy, Elementary through Life
• Ohio Community Collaboration Model for School Improvement
• Interprofessional Urban Schools Initiative
• InterACT

CSTW Outreach: Fostering Literacy, Elementary through Life

Ohio State Partners: Department of English, College of Humanities; School of Teaching and Learning, College of Education and Human Ecology; Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Community Partners: Columbus City Schools, Susan J. Bonnell, Siemer Family Foundation, Ingram-White Castle Foundation, Susan E. Brown, Godman Guild Association, and Columbus Literacy Council
Links: CSTW outreach website
Photo: CSTW Africentric Tutoring Session

The mission of the Outreach Program, a component of the Center for Study and Teaching of Writing (CSTW), is to partner with public schools and community organizations in the Columbus and central Ohio communities to identify literacy needs, enhance writing and literacy instruction, and support the lifelong learning of communication skills for largely underresourced populations. Our strength can be found in the scope of our projects. Outreach Program graduate student consultants leverage the expertise of OSU faculty from the English Department and School of Teaching and Learning and student volunteers to provide the following set of programs in diverse communities around OSU. A primary focus is on children’s literacy, writing in particular. Our 8-year affiliation with Columbus Africentric Early College Elementary School is built upon a shared belief that addressing student needs in writing at an early age will enhance student self-confidence and help prepare students for college and adult responsibilities. During weekly tutoring at Africentric, third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students write and revise to create portfolios that result in bound books with color images and careful layout. Ultimately, the program is designed to improve student test scores and facilitate the academic objectives of Africentric’s teachers and administrators. In 2006 the Susan J. Bonnell Endowment Fund allowed us to continue these literacy initiatives. A secondary school program called “OSU/Linden-McKinley High School Writing Center Collaborative” allows the Outreach Program to create a series of monthly in-school writing workshops that has grown into a student-run writing center called “The Writing Lounge.” Outreach staff trained students from an Advanced Placement English literature class to be peer tutors. In 2007 the Siemer Family Foundation donated funds for this project, reflecting their common interest and passion for literacy programs that complement students’ in-school learning. In addition to these projects, the Outreach Program runs a Writing Camp for High School Students, supported by the OSU Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Ingram-White Castle Foundation, and a Teacher Summer Institute, supported this year by a donation from Susan E. Brown through the Justice Paul W. Brown Fund. Adult literacy projects address a larger problem in the University District—low literacy levels among socioeconomically disadvantaged adults. Even within this technologically sophisticated country, literacy continues to be a growing concern for many native English speaking and nonnative English speaking adults. To address this issue the Outreach Program works with Columbus’s Godman Guild Association and Columbus Literacy Council (CLC). At Godman Guild, adult learners attend our weekly writing workshops as they pursue their General Education Development degrees (GEDs). At CLC we work with people from a rich diversity of cultures, many of whom need help with the English language. We recruit and train OSU student tutors who provide individual face-to-face work—using computer-training programs—to enhance their language skills. Our focus is on writing and literacy in all their changing forms. With the support of the College of Humanities, we develop projects that help young children, high school adolescents and teachers, and adults in central Ohio.

Ohio Community Collaboration Model for School Improvement: Improving Educational and Well-being Outcomes for Ohio’s Children

Ohio State Partner: College of Social Work
Community Partners: Lima City Schools and Fostoria Community Schools
Links: OCCMSI website

Student achievement is at an all-time high in Ohio. An emerging consensus is that standards-based education is the foundation for this improvement, as it provides the operational detail for Ohio’s educational vision—higher achievement for all students. There are practical limits, however, on how much standards-based reforms can affect student academic success. For many of Ohio’s students, the conditions for learning also must be right. For instance, if students are hungry, bullied, or using alcohol or drugs, they are less likely to be engaged in the classroom and make the most of their academic learning time. These “conditions” and/or nonacademic barriers to learning present real impediments to optimal student success, academically, socially, and developmentally. The College of Social Work (CSW) at the Ohio State University and the Center for Students, Families, and Communities at the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) have partnered since 2001 in the development of expanded school improvement models, state policies, and professional development opportunities designed to assist Ohio schools in addressing barriers to learning through school-family-community partnerships. There are several facets to this outreach and engagement partnership. Leaders at the CSW developed and piloted the Ohio Community Collaboration Model for School Improvement (OCCMSI) in 12 Ohio school districts. Lessons learned from this project have informed school mental health practices in Ohio’s schools. Using the OCCMSI framework, many have facilitated partnerships with families, community/neighborhood organizations, businesses, and higher education institutions to enhance learning, healthy development, and overall success in school. Freedom Elementary School in Lima actually moved out of academic emergency into continuous improvement during the project’s implementation period. CSW also has informed Ohio’s Access to Better Care School-Family-Community Partnership agenda, especially as outreach and support were provided to Lima City Schools and Fostoria Community Schools in relation to enhancing school mental health supports. These two districts worked closely with their county ADAMH Boards, as well as with other various partners (Family and Children First, Family Resource Centers, etc.) to leverage additional school-linked and school-based resources for students and families. Finally, the CSW team has provided professional development annually to over 140 21st Century Community Learning Center grantees across Ohio. Most recently, CSW developed the Ohio Quality Assessment Rubric (O-QAR), a self-assessment tool that explores stakeholder perceptions of quality related to out-of-school-time youth development, academic learning, and parent/family engagement activities. O-QAR results are being used to guide local site improvements and to inform state-wide professional development opportunities. This outreach work has informed several statewide education policy priorities that aim to help schools “get the conditions right for learning,” and include the state school-board adopted prevention policy, school climate guidelines, and parent/family engagement policy. More recently, the partnership has contributed to the development of the Comprehensive System of Learning Supports Guidelines, which requires schools to systematically target interventions and supports to students facing academic and nonacademic barriers to learning. The ongoing partnership between CSW and ODE will continue with the pilot implementation of the Learning Support Guidelines, further enhancing educational and well-being outcomes for Ohio’s children.

Interprofessional Urban Schools Initiative

Ohio State Partners: College of Education and Human Ecology, School of Physical Activity and Educational Services (Counselor Education) and School of Policy and Leadership; P-12 Project; Office of Student Affairs, Student Wellness,Sexual Violence Education and Support; The Women’s Place; The Literacy Collaborative®
Community Partners: Columbus City Schools (Weinland Park Elementary, Cranbrook Elementary, Arts IMPACT Middle, Linden McKinley High, Independence High, South High), Metro High, Mansfield City Schools, South-Western City Schools, Westerville City Schools, Godman Guild, Ingram White Castle Foundation, Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio, Girl Scouts Seal of Ohio
Links: Urban Schools Initiative; Principal’s Office

The Interprofessional Commission of Ohio (ICO) has a long history of commitment to and engagement in the urban schools in central Ohio. Through the original program, the Campus Collaborative, administered by the ICO beginning in 1997, and now through relationships with various departments throughout Ohio State and schools and organizations throughout central Ohio, the Urban Schools Initiative outreach programming has expanded to three distinct programs that have a substantial impact on students, parents, and educators throughout Ohio. Each project is supported within the university and has also generated significant external funding from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, the Ingram-White Castle Foundation, and the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio. These three initiatives are the Principal’s Office website, the Parents Influencing Education (PIE) program, and The ROX!-Ruling Our eXperiences program. The Principal’s Office, under the direction of the ICO and OSU’s P-12 Project, developed and maintains an online learning community that provides information, collaboration, continuing education, and professional development for principals in Ohio. Members of the editorial board represent the Columbus, South-Western, Mansfield, and Westerville school districts. The goal of the Principal’s Office is ultimately to improve the academic achievement of students by better preparing principals for effective school leadership and for their role as leaders of academic instruction within their buildings. Use of the website helps principals assess and reflect on their own leadership and management practice, and also facilitate dialogue among principals on key issues of leadership. Given the isolation of the principal in the building, the website is an effective tool for disseminating useful research on teaching and learning, models of professional development, updates on the requirements of No Child Left Behind, and achievement of state standards that define the terms of success in a demanding profession. The site boasts 2,500 subscribers and nearly 85,000 hits per month. The Parents Influencing Education (PIE) program is a reading, leadership, and mentoring program at Weinland Park Elementary School. PIE is a multifaceted program that seeks to increase student reading comprehension, increase student reading achievement, develop young leaders and mentors, improve parent involvement in the learning of their children, and develop school-family community partnerships. First- and second-grade students are paired with fourth- and fifth-grade peer tutors to help them in the area of reading comprehension. Using a mentoring model, the PIE program operates with the assistance of graduate students who serve as mentors to the elementary students and faculty members who provide professional development to the parents during the tutoring sessions. The program uses the OSU Literacy Collaborative KEEP BOOKS© program. The ROX!–Ruling Our eXperiences program is a self-esteem and empowerment program for adolescent girls. It currently operates at Linden McKinley, Independence, South, and Metro high schools; Arts IMPACT Middle School; and Weinland Park and Cranbrook elementary schools. The ROX Program is designed specifically as an intervention for young girls facing issues including body image, gender roles, sexual harassment, career development, leadership development, femininity, and sexual violence. The goals of the program are to improve the physical self-concept of participants, to increase healthy assertiveness in participants, to dispel myths regarding sexual assault and sexual violence, to increase the self-esteem of participants, to address issues of body image and the societal and media influences on girls’ appearances, to teach girls how to physically defend themselves, and to encourage girls to pursue nontraditional educational, personal, and career options.

InterACT

Ohio State Partners: Department of Theatre, College of the Arts; WOSU Public Media
Community Partners: Tri-State Diversity Conference
Photo: Adrianne Varwig, Diana Bae, and Akil Babb in an
InterACT scene.

In the summer of 2006, Department of Theatre Chair Mark Shanda met with several Vice Provosts to share his vision for the creation of an interactive theatre ensemble of undergraduate students who could serve the campus in addressing issues of social change and policy instruction. The idea was to offer a service-learning class for 15 undergraduates per quarter under the leadership of a director/facilitator trained in interactive theatre techniques. The group would develop and perform projects related to graduate student orientation, faculty and teaching assistant development events, and work with specific units to start dialogue about challenging operational issues. Within a week of that meeting cash commitments were received from the Office of Academic Affairs, the Graduate School, and the Dean of Undergraduate Education. These funds along with support from the College of the Arts and the Department of Theatre combined to form a salary package to hire a 9-month lecturer to organize and direct the InterACT company. The InterACT program has had a highly successful year and has been well received by the university community. Under the direction of Robin Post (M.F.A. 2006) InterACT has presented interactive events for Faculty and TA Development, the Office of Minority Affairs, Undergraduate Admissions and First-Year Experience, the Office of University Outreach and Engagement (at the 2006 Outreach Scholarship Conference), the Wellness Center, the College of Dentistry, and the Office of Disability Services. In addition, InterACT has fielded requests for future potential projects with the Martin Luther King Complex, the Wexner Center, the Multicultural Center, WOSU, the College of Engineering, and Purdue University. When InterACT receives a specific request—for example, a department’s request for scenes addressing minorities in the workplace—Robin starts her students off with some research, and then, through discussion, improvisation in character, and script refinement, a scene is born that provides potent inspiration for discussion and critique of the situations presented. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive about the program and the program received a 2007 Multicultural Center Diversity Award. A faculty member commented, “I’ve been at OSU for 14 years and this was far and away one of the best workshops (of any kind) I have ever done.”

2008 O&E Awards: Educational Improvement page 1

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