Table Of ContentFacilitating Effective
Communication in
School-Based Meetings
This book offers guidance for school-based professionals participating in
the special education process. It provides a foundation for effective oral
communication and meeting facilitation in team meetings while highlighting
methods to enhance collaboration between educators and families.
School psychologists across the United States share how they structure
meetings, provide examples for how to communicate educational and
psychological concepts, and describe personas they present to support the
meeting process. Chapters present a sequential facilitation process for
school psychologist-led meetings and apply that process to problem-solving,
suspicion of disability, eligibility/feedback, IEP, and manifestation deter-
mination meetings. Within each chapter, featured practitioners describe
ways to address common challenges that arise.
Aimed at graduate students and professionals, this text is a unique,
example-based resource to enhance readers’ ability to facilitate and
participate in the special education process.
Jason R. Parkin, PhD, NCSP, is an assistant professor in the school
psychology program at Seattle University. His professional interests in-
clude psychoeducational assessment and family/school partnerships.
Ashli D. Tyre, EdD, NCSP, is a professor and program director for the
school psychology program at Seattle University. Her research in-
vestigates perspectives of students, school staff, and families in educa-
tional change.
“Home-school meetings are a fragile interface between families and
educators that require technical and clinical skill of school psycholo-
gists. Parkin and Tyre have managed to comprehensively capture the
intricacies of home-school meetings and substantiate these intricacies
with testimonials from practitioners and trainers throughout the United
States. The text is a ‘must read’ for early career school psychologists
and educators wishing to better hone their family-school collaboration
skills.”
—Francis J. DeMatteo, EdD, NCSP, associate professor and director,
School Psychology Program, Humboldt State University;
author of Delivering Psycho-educational Evaluation Results to Parents:
A Practitioner’s Model
“Finally a resource on leading school-based teams, Facilitating Effective
Communication in School-based Meetings: Perspectives from School
Psychologists, fills the void in the school psychology literature in this
critical area! Teams are frequently used in schools, but little formal
training actually occurs, leaving school psychologists to learn on the fly.
Especially noteworthy is its practicality because the author’s painstak-
ingly collected the art and wisdom of leading school teams by veteran
practitioners. The book is thorough, clear and methodical in its
approach, and fun to read. I will be using it in my program across a
variety of courses.”
—Sam Song, PhD, president, Division 16, APA; program coordinator,
UNLV School Psychology programs; co-editor of Social Justice and
School Psychology; author of School Psychology in a Global Society
“What a gift to the field of school psychology! Unpacking the
dynamics of school meetings is so needed and rarely taught in such
a practical way. New and seasoned school psychologists will learn so
much from this book!”
—Rebecca Branstetter, PhD, founder of The Thriving School
Psychologist Collective
Facilitating Effective
Communication in
School-Based Meetings
Perspectives from School
Psychologists
Jason R. Parkin and Ashli D. Tyre
First published 2022
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 Taylor & Francis
The right of Jason R. Parkin and Ashli D. Tyre to be identified
as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Parkin, Jason R., author. | Tyre, Ashli D., author.
Title: Facilitating effective communication in school-based
meetings : perspectives from school psychologists / Jason R. Parkin
and Ashli D. Tyre.
Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021007150 (print) | LCCN 2021007151 (ebook)
| ISBN 9780367427030 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367427023
(paperback) | ISBN 9780367854522 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: School psychologists--Professional relationships. |
Meetings--Planning. | Communication in education. | Special
education--Parent participation. | Parent-teacher conferences.
Classification: LCC LB3013.6 .P37 2022 (print) | LCC LB3013.6
(ebook) | DDC 371.7/13--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021007150
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021007151
ISBN: 978-0-367-42703-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-42702-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-85452-2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780367854522
Typeset in Times New Roman
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
Jason wishes to thank his wife and children, Sharon, Cora, and
Jillian; his parents, Richard and Katherine; and his brother and
sister, Erik and Kristen. All example names in this text are
probably just coincidences…
Contents
List of Figures and Boxes xv
Acknowledgments xvi
1 An Introduction to Oral Communication and Meeting
Facilitation 1
Why a Book on Oral Communication, and Why
Meetings? 1
Meeting Facilitation and Oral Communication: Two Skill
Sets That Complement Each Other 2
What Creates an Effective Meeting? 3
A General Overview of This Book 7
Summary 9
References 9
2 Foundations of Effective Communication 11
Consider the Context of Communication 12
Foundations of Communication: Credibility, Clarity,
and Care 13
Communication Requires Credibility 14
Communication and Emotions 14
Communication Should Appear Reasonable 15
Interactions Between Vertices in the Context of
Communication 16
Worldview, Beliefs and Values 16
Persona and Stance 19
Oral Communication and Collaboration 20
Collaboration Requires Active Listening 22
Disentangling Facts, Inferences, and Attributions 24
Collaborative Discussion 26
viii Contents
Putting It All Together: The Context of Communication
and Collaborative Discussion 29
Summary 30
References 31
3 Meeting the Objectives of the Context of Communication 33
Establishing Trust and Credibility 34
Considering Our Persona 37
We Are All Doing Our Best 39
We Are a Team, We Work Together 41
Professional Confidence and Security 44
Considering Our Stance 45
Topics are Unintimidating, a Normal Part of
Education 45
We Are Here to Solve Problems 46
The And Stance In Action 47
Discuss Strengths and Supports 48
Understanding Meeting Participants’ Beliefs and Values 49
Beliefs and Values Are Influenced by Culture 51
Beliefs and Values Are Influenced by Our Ability to
Engage with Society 53
Implicit Assumptions of Special Education and
Disability 56
Acquiring an Idiographic Understanding of
Participants’ Worldview 57
Fostering Collaboration 58
Summary 59
References 60
4 Foundations of Meeting Facilitation 62
Group Dynamics and the Multidisciplinary Team 63
Group Development 64
Group Leadership Functions 65
An Overview of the Meeting Process 67
The Planning Phase 68
The Warm-Up Phase 71
Introductions 72
Meeting Purpose 72
Group Norms 73
Roles 75
The Action Phase 76
Contents ix
Active Listening in a Group 77
The Closure Phase 78
Post-Meeting 80
Summary 80
References 81
5 Planning and Facilitating Problem-Solving Meetings 82
A Meeting Called by Many Names 82
What Do We Mean by Problem-Solving? 83
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support 83
The Continuous Problem-Solving Model 84
Problem Identification 85
Problem Analysis 85
Intervention 86
Progress Monitoring and Evaluation 86
Oral Communication in Problem-Solving Meetings 86
The Role of the School Psychologist in
Problem-Solving 88
Getting to the Table: Advocating for Your Role in
Problem-Solving Meetings 89
Planning 90
Team Composition 91
Team Member Roles 92
Team Development 93
Frequency and Duration of Meetings 94
Agendas 95
The Warm-Up Phase 97
Introductions and Review of Roles 97
Purpose and Meeting Goals 98
Norms 99
The Action Phase 100
Individual Student Problem-Solving 106
Validating Teacher Concerns for a Student 106
Prioritizing When There Are Multiple Concerns 106
The Elephant in the Room – Suspicion of
Disability 106
A Tendency to Focus on Unalterable Factors 107
When a Problem for a Student is a Problem for
the Whole Class 108
I Tried That, It Didn’t Work – Wash, Rinse,
Repeat 109
