Authentic from A to Z: Crafting Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in Arizona

00:00:01.53 >> You're listening to A Date with Data, with your host, Amy Bitterman.

00:00:07.34 >> Hey, it's Amy, and I'm so excited to be hosting A Date with Data. I'll be chatting with State and District special education staff who, just like you, are dealing with IDEA data every day.

00:00:19.50 >> A Date with Data is brought to you by the IDEA Data Center.

00:00:24.48 >> Welcome to A Data with Data. Authentic and broad stakeholder engagement is a required part of the state performance plan Annual Performance Report, and on this episode, I am joined by Heather Dunphy, who is the lead Education Program Specialist with the Arizona Department of Education. And Heather is going to share with us how in Arizona, they have been able to creatively and meaningfully engage stakeholders, especially families, in their IDEA data. So welcome, Heather. It's so wonderful to have you back on the podcast.

00:00:58.26 >> Yeah, thank you, Amy, thank you for having me.

00:01:00.29 >> Of course. Can we start out just talking a little bit about what your role is, what you do in the Arizona Department of Education?

00:01:08.45 >> Sure, absolutely. I've been with the Department of Education in Arizona for about three and a half years. Prior to that, I had been in the schools for about 20 years, in general education and special education, and so I kind of come from that background, being a teacher and also an administrator. And at the Department of Education, I submit a variety of federal data submissions. I also work with significant disproportionality and LEA determinations, and I do a lot with the state performance plan Annual Performance Report, and engaging stakeholders.

00:01:47.36 >> Perfect. And that is what we are here to talk about. So to get started, can you just describe some of the strategies that you and Arizona have been using to really authentically and meaningfully engage stakeholders around the SPP/APR?

00:02:02.80 >> Yeah, absolutely. We have a great relationship with our Parent Training Information Center and our PTI, it's called Raising Special Kids here in Arizona. So we work with them closely to -- we have seminars with them, webinars, and we did a creative Facebook live interview this year that received great responses. We have done in-person Q and A with our stakeholders, especially our Special Education Advisory Panel. We've done Zoom sessions with surveys to gather feedback from stakeholders. We've presented infographic with our indicator data, and various graphs charts, tables, different types of data displays, flowcharts, and timelines -- all kinds of things that we've done to try to engage stakeholders.

00:03:02.01 >> And how have you used these different strategies, and with which audiences?

00:03:07.12 >> Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, I think just like, say, the first step is just identifying who the stakeholders are -- 

00:03:14.55 >> Right.

00:03:14.78 >> -- which -- you know, identify them as really any person, any individual or group that has an interest in IDEA data, and outcomes for children with disabilities. So that could be people even just in our agency here at the Department of Education, or our Special Education Advisory Panel, directors at schools, teachers, parents, principals, and even students themselves.

00:03:43.99 >> Yeah.

00:03:44.46 >> So I first look at the audience of the stakeholders, and then just kind of figure out, what do they need to know, and how can I best communicate to fill that need? So when I started here at the Department about three and a half years ago in this position, my first stakeholder was myself. I really honestly did not fully understand the IDEA data, how the indicators all fit together. But I come from a teaching background, so I knew that if I'm going to explain this to anyone, I really need to be an expert myself. So I need to find a way for myself to learn best, and I'm a very visual person. And so I was thinking of ways to visualize the SPP/APR indicators and IDEA data. That was around the same time as several years ago, I went to the IDC Conference in Nashville, that was in 2022, I believe, where we had -- or you guys put on an amazing conference. The keynote speaker was Jenny Rankin Grant, and she spoke about using the power of data to influence others. And at the heart of her presentation was the importance of storytelling.

00:05:09.85 >> Yeah.

00:05:09.97 >> And that really resonated with me. And then at that same conference, one of your IDC folks, Rachel Wilkinson, she presented how to use, like, a game board as a strategy to engage stakeholders, using a story format. So here, I've kind of got this story idea going, and I'm still trying to understand these indicators. I kind of mold these ideas around in my mind, and began thinking of the SPP peer indicators as a timeline. And so I used that timeline as a way to create a hypothetical child, and I named him Miguel. And he touches various indicators throughout his educational career.

00:05:57.13 >> Yes, and that was a really nice strategy that you've used, and you presented that at the institute that we had just a few months ago, in 2024, so it kind of came full circle from you attending your first institute, and just getting into this work, to being able to share out a couple of years later just a really great strategy that you had put into place, and had been using with a number of different audiences.

00:06:28.52 >> Yes, definitely.

00:06:31.35 >> Great, and -- go ahead.

00:06:34.68 >> Oh, I was going to say, that kind of leads to some of the benefits that I have seen as a result of using these strategies of the timeline. So with the Miguel timeline, the first result that I saw was my own growth, like just putting together a timeline really forced me to understand the indicators and how they related to each other. And then one of my coworkers asked me specifically about Indicator 4, and I showed her this life of Miguel timeline, which at this point I only created for myself, to help me understand it. And she said the timeline was actually really helpful to her. And she encouraged me to share it with others.

00:07:15.84 >> So then I shared it with IDC, then you guys gave me some really good feedback on how I could refine it. And then I showed it to my supervisor, who thought it was really helpful, and suggested I share it to our Exceptional Student Services Staff. We have about 100 people here in our Department, I presented it to them. Then right after I did that presentation, we did a group activity where each person in our Department discussed where their work tied into the Miguel story and the indicators. Then they made connections about how their work connected with other people.

00:07:54.68 >> Yeah.

00:07:54.77 >> So that helped kind of break down some of those silos where people are, like, "Oh, I just do this, and then I don't really know where it goes. I just work on this one piece." So this helped our staff to see that these pieces kind of fit together in Michel's educational career. Then after sharing it with our staff, IDC asked that presented, just like you had mentioned, Amy, at the SPP/APR Summit, and then also at the IDC National Data Conference to reach an even broader audience. And at that conference, I offered my email. And I was, like, hey, if any states are interested in the template, let me know. And I had over 25 states were interested. So that was really exciting that they personally emailed me, it was, like, "Hey, share the template," which I have. And I've followed up with the states, they've said it was great for their state. And they could personalize it to their needs, you know, they can change the name of the child, they can put their state-specific calculations.

00:08:58.01>> So that was really helpful to others states, which is awesome. Then I also presented this Miguel timeline to our Special Education Advisory Panel, and they saw that it was really helpful. I presented it to our Parent Training Information Center, and they work really on the front lines with parents, answering questions about IDEA data, and questions that they may have. So they found the presentation helpful, so they could better-understand the indicators and how parents play a key role in their child's outcomes. So it's not just like me engaging stakeholders, or the Department of Education engaging stakeholders, this has become more like other people are using this to engage stakeholders, which are outside of the agency. And that's really exciting.

00:09:52.05 >> I also presented this to Arizona's preschool conference. I think oftentimes the preschool team, they're, like, oh, Indicators 12, 6 and 7 fit into the larger picture, all the way to graduation. And how does this all fit together? So that was really powerful that I could present it to preschool directors, and then I presented it at our recent Arizona's IDEA conference to educators and parents. And just like I mentioned earlier, I also presented this in a Facebook live interview with our PTI, and that was posted on their Facebook page, which received over 800 views. So it's just neat to see it just kind of get out there. That's the best way to engage stakeholders, is presenting something. And then it's kind of high-level, the story of Miguel is not real super-nitty gritty, but what it does is, it invites stakeholders to become aware of what the indicators are at a high level. And then it makes a lot more sense than when we tie specific data elements and calculations to certain indicators, and it creates more of a curiosity for the data.

00:11:17.57 >> Yeah, and for them to dig deeper. It's very overwhelming.

00:11:20.99 >> Mm-hmm.

00:11:21.22 >> So you kind of do have to start high-level, especially with families, and those who haven't been typically as involved, and then kind of get their attention so they will ask more questions and want to learn more. 

00:11:34.69 >> Mm-hmm. Exactly.

00:11:37.77 >> And you had mentioned something to me, too, that I thought was really interesting, how as part of the work you were doing, I think maybe at one of the conferences that included parents, but offering some potential questions, too, that parents might want to think about while they're having IEP meetings for their students, that kind of tie indicators. Because again, kind of taking that indicator data and bringing it more -- it became more personal to them. 

00:12:06.28 >> Yes. That's exactly right, because parents -- I've been in plenty of IEP meetings where the parent is sitting across the table, just kind of wanting to be involved, but not knowing how. And so part of the presentation that I recently gave is, how can parents begin a discussion about these measures of success, which are the indicators, by asking questions like, is my child on track to transition from preschool into kindergarten? And is my child included in the general education environment to the maximum extent possible? Also, just making sure that they receive information regarding the parent involvement survey, and oh, when and how will I receive that information so that I can participate in that? And they can make sure that the accommodations that are listed, or modifications regarding testing are appropriate and they're not just copy and paste into a child's IEP, that they really are catered and individualized for their child.

00:13:15.18 >> And parents can ask, just like Miguel, Miguel graduated in the story. You know, they can ask, is my child on track to graduate with a high school diploma in four years, like other peers, you know? And Miguel had a transition plan. So that might spur them on to see, does my child have a transition plan that includes transition services, you know, that support post-secondary goals? So these questions that I equipped some parents to ask at IEPs all kind of tie into that timeline of Miguel in kind of a friendly, palatable way, where they can see the whole picture in about a 20-minute presentation. The presentation's also on our ADE website, on the SPP/APR page, so that parents could review the presentation, or really anybody can, just to better equip themselves with the indicators.

00:14:11.47 >> Great, and we'll put a link to that, if that's okay, in the notes for the episode.

00:14:15.83 >> Mm-hmm.

00:14:16.08 >> So if folks want to check it out, you can easily get to it.

00:14:19.92 >> Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

00:14:22.02 >> Heather, what plans do you all have for continuing this work in the future?

00:14:28.26 >> Yeah, well, seeing how the life of Miguel has heled folks understand the indicators, it's kind of formed a base for us here in Arizona, like we talked about. The story doesn't go in-depth, but it does give a high level of understanding to stakeholders. So at our last Special Education Advisory meeting, I have already given the Miguel presentation, so I referenced some photos of the timeline just to ground the advisory panel members in what we're discussing, where on the timeline this falls in Miguel's life, and now let's go deeper into what's our current data, what have our historical trends been. So that's kind of just helpful to reference the timeline. Then I'll probably update the story as needed, as measures change and indicators may change, and calculations might change.

00:15:28.07 >> It also, just the visualization piece, I think making the timeline helped me to better-appreciate people's learning modalities, and how if we can visualize maybe more things, it could even help people's understanding more. So I began working with the preschool team on a dashboard that's gone through a few different iterations, and will continue to, to make it easier for preschool directors to understand their data. So we created a dashboard, and this includes Indicator 12, Preschool Transition. It includes Indicator 6, LRE, Indicator 7, the Preschool Child Outcomes, as well as Indicator 8, a Parent Survey. We also have disability information on all of the students in whichever school district we're talking to for the last three years, so they can see the trends. And the specialists are going out into the field to talk about this dashboard with the school districts, and they were saying to me they are actually looking forward to our visit this year because they want to see the dashboard. And it becomes like a friendly way to show this data, and it's less judgmental. It's rather we're discussing what we're seeing in the grasp. And I recently accompanied a specialist on a visit just a few weeks ago, and due to the visual nature of the dashboard, something really stood out to the preschool director that looked off, that wouldn't be apparent just by looking at tables. And she noticed, "That doesn't look right," and then it turned out there was a data quality issue. And it may have actually gone unnoticed if it wasn't presented in a visual way.

00:17:14.53 >> So in the future, our Department plans to make data as visual as possible, if appropriate. We're working actually just internally on some flowcharts so that we can better-understand timelines and responsibilities. And we're also thinking about making data visualizations for school districts to better-understand complex topics, such as significant disproportionality, as that's a very difficult thing to explain. So that's what they meant we'd like to do, is to come prepared to discuss with districts and show them visually their data. So the visuals just really offer a friendly way to invite people into the data to get curious and ask questions, and provides that starting point for a conversation. And then we can use tools to dive deeper. We're looking into using a tool, Power BI, to really drill down information so it becomes more granular. And then we can provide targeted technical assistance to the school districts that really need it, in the areas that they really need it. And then the visuals also can allow the school districts transparency to look at their data and see areas of strengths, and also areas of needs.

00:18:31.02 >> Yeah. Wow, that's such a powerful story with the preschool, and all of what you've shared, really. But just thinking about how much of an impact, just showing data in a slightly different way can really resonate and make a lot more sense to people, depending on what type of learner they are to the point where they're realizing, oh, we have these data quality issues that we hadn't necessarily picked up on before.

00:18:59.28 >> Mm-hmm. Exactly. 

00:19:00.12 >> So all the more reason, yeah, to keep doing more of this type of work with different audiences, and, yeah, just continue on. And I know a lot of other states will really like seeing Miguel's story, and picking up some of these ideas and strategies as well.

00:19:19.34 >> Absolutely. And if anyone out there checks out our website and is interested in the Miguel story, just go ahead and email us, our email address, it's right there on the page. And you can just let us know. I'll send you a template, and you can make it your own. Also, we have infographics on the different indicators. I'm happy to send the template, they're all done, on PowerPoint, totally editable and free. So if anything strikes your fancy, we are happy to share. Why reinvent the wheel? That's the nice thing about IDC, is that you have such a broad audience so that we can all come together and help each other out.

00:20:03.29 >> Absolutely. I think that should be your mantra, Heather. I've heard you say that many times. So very appreciative of you in Arizona and the work that you're doing, and your willingness to share it so easily and willingly, and work with other states on it. That's really amazing. So thank you so much for sharing your story, and looking forward to seeing how this evolves in the future.

00:20:28.87 >> Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

00:20:32.02 >> To access podcast resources, submit questions related to today's episode, or if you have ideas for future topics, we'd love to hear from you. The links are in the episode content. Or connect with us via the Podcast page on the IDC website, at IDEAdata.org.