TradeWinds Communications and The Idea Marketing are pleased

to present…

The 2011 Phase I Report for the Colorado

Department of Education

The TradeWinds Communications team has led the parent outreach efforts for the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) for almost six months. Our team appreciates the opportunity to work with CDE and remains focused on your goals and objectives. We continue to see our efforts gain momentum in the community and look forward to expanding our efforts.

In partnership with our colleagues at The Idea Marketing, and as mandated by Senate Bill 08-212 requiring communication and transparency with regard to the “Preschool to Post-secondary Education Alignment Act,” our teams have worked diligently preparing strong messaging and outreach platforms to enhance awareness of the Colorado Growth Model, the use of SchoolView.org, the concepts of student growth, and the power of parental involvement.

The following is a recap of our activities during this first phase, a snapshot of our strategies to lay the groundwork for this mission and a glimpse of what’s ahead...

Customized Communications Audit for The Colorado Department of Education

(Jan. 23, 2011)

The Audit and The Strategy

When the TradeWinds/Idea Marketing team began work in late January of 2011, our first goal was to become intimately familiar with CDE’s Colorado Growth Model, SchoolView.org and the issues surrounding the two. We tackled this learning curve with numerous exploratory meetings with the CDE, as well as the initiation of a series of interviews with CDE and parent stakeholders to get their input about the CDE’s efforts and recommendations for communicating with parents. This phase provided our team with significant information from both the educators’ and parents’ points of view.

Interviewees included:

• Judith Martinez, Director, CDE Dropout Prevention and Student Engagement Unit

• Charles Dukes, CDE Dropout Prevention and Student Engagement Unit

• Kenneth DeLay, Colorado Association of School Boards

• Lynn Huizing, Colorado PTA

• Christine Domino, Colorado State Accountability Network

• Jim Griffin, Colorado League of Charter Schools

• Charles Wright, AllAboutMySchool.com

• Senator Evie Hudak, State Senator District 19

• Patsy Roybal, Denver Public Schools

• Richard Martinez, Executive Director, CO Statewide Parent Coalition

• Alex Sanchez, Director of Multicultural Outreach, Denver Public Schools

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Based on the information gathered and client feedback, we adjusted our strategy to combine research and outreach by interviewing parents directly and gathering feedback from them as well. In a collaborative effort with Kent Jackson, we also incorporated the development of follow-up online surveys to engage parents after each meeting and gather feedback on their understanding and use of SchoolView.org.

As we moved into Phase I of our outreach campaign, we combined research with outreach by conducting family meetings designed to gather information, as well as give it. The meetings have been conducted in both English and Spanish.

Our strategy was therefore designed to accomplish several things:

• Inform first adopter parents (those who are already active in their children’s academic activities and Internet-savvy) and encourage them to share this information with their parental peers.

• Provide onscreen demonstrations of the site, gather feedback about the site and the messaging we’re considering for promoting it.

• Gather follow-up information for contacting those same parents once they’d had a chance to navigate the site themselves.

• Educate parents about the importance of "growth" for their children’s academic success, as well as explain the differences between growth and performance.

Overall, participation and feedback among parents has been favorable, and most participants were willing to either participate in the follow-up survey, or (in addition) host an in-home parent meeting with other individuals who may not be as familiar with the Colorado Growth Model and SchoolView.org (secondary. The latter strategy allows us to gradually cast a wider net with regard to reaching parents in greater numbers.

As we have progressed, we have narrowed our initial outreach to target parents exclusively, delaying our communications efforts to reach teachers, administrators, and the broader community until later in the year.

We’ve also condensed our meeting agendas to focus more on the concepts of student growth and performance and less on explaining the purpose and usability of each SchoolView.org web page and suggestions for content for the “Community Connections” page.

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“Adaptability” – The most important element of our

strategy

Kent Jackson talks to parents at Free Horizon Montessori

Goodnight Elementary PTO parents and accountability team members

We’ve conducted the following parent meetings and or workshops, reaching approximately 65 parents so far:

• Lotus School for Excellence – April 14

• West Denver Prep – May 4

• Lowry Elementary – May 11

• Free Horizon Montessori – May 17

• Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition Conference - May 28

• Goodnight Elementary - June 7

• Juneteenth Organizational Committee - June 13

• Annual Juneteenth Celebration - June 18

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Answering parent questions at Free Horizon Montessori

COLLATERAL MATERIALS ADD IMPACT TO MESSAGESOur team prepared for the first round of parent outreach meetings by developing preliminary, or “test” materials to use during the meetings and as leave-behind information for parents.

In all, we developed a Parent Q&A leaflet, parent follow-up cards, messaging feedback forms, a discussion guide for meetings (for internal use) and PowerPoint presentations of customized (updated and adapted per parent meeting) SchoolView.org site tours and an outdoor banner for festivals.

All collateral materials have been in draft form and continue to be revised as we look to solidify our outreach presentations and CDE finalizes the branding / logo for SchoolView.org.

Currently, messaging and corresponding materials are being revised for more long-term use to ensure the CDE has these items beyond the summer of 2011. The Parent FAQ will be expanded to include more streamlined messaging, visuals and reformatted into a tri-fold, leave-behind brochure. Once finalized, all materials will be available in English and Spanish.

The PowerPoint presentation was shortened to deliver top-tier information to parents during short presentation times, and a separate discussion guide is being prepared for those presentations in which we have greater flexibility and time allotments (e.g., workshops, in-home parent coffees, etc.). While these materials have served as interim pieces (during the pilot parent meetings), as more messaging feedback is gathered and tested, these materials will soon be finalized and used as permanent outreach resources. In addition, we have partnered with our friend and colleague Kent Jackson of Jackson Research Strategy Solutions to gather post-meeting information from parents about their use of SchoolView.org and their understanding of the concepts of growth and achievement. Based on the information gathered and client feedback, we adjusted our strategy to combine research and outreach by interviewing parents directly and gathering feedback from them as well.

In a collaborative effort with Jackson, we also incorporated the development of follow-up online surveys to engage parents after each meeting and gather feedback on their understanding and use of SchoolView.org. Jackson provides brand strategy consulting and market research support for continued development and deployment of SchoolView. Parents who participated in school and conference settings where pilot presentations and interviews were conducted are now being surveyed to gauge their experiences using SchoolView.org and to guide the TradeWinds/Idea Marketing teams in furthering the development of campaign themes and messages. Survey results will be available during June, 2011.

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COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS OFFER DIVERSE OUTLOOKS

Advisory Committee

As part of the pledge to develop collaborative efforts and involve key stakeholders, our team amassed a group of community leaders, educators and parents to serve on an advisory committee. This committee is charged with reviewing and critiquing our outreach strategies and providing recommendations for improvement and furthering our reach into parental circles.

Committee members will meet by phone once a quarter to review our activities and share their thoughts for improvement. To date, advisory committee members include:

• Lynn Huizing, President, Colorado PTA

• Christine Domino, Colorado State Accountability Network

• Senator Evie Hudak, State Senator District 19

• Patsy Roybal, Manager of Parent Engagement Denver Public Schools

• Richard Martinez, Executive Director, Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition

• Judith Martinez, Director, CDE Dropout Prevention and Student Engagement Unit

• Alex Sanchez, Director, Multicultural Outreach, Denver Public Schools

• Towanna Henderson, Denver Public Schools, Office of Parent Engagement, Denver Public Schools

• Harriett Younger, Parent/Member, CO Statewide Parent Coalition

Our objective is to utilize these individuals as we continue to do parent outreach across the state. Their involvement and feedback will enable us to reach parents in key demographic and geographic areas. We would recommend quarterly meetings that would begin in September and providing monthly updates through email keeping the committee apprised of our continued outreach efforts.

A Little Help From Our Friends

Tapping into our network of community and civic leaders, the TradeWinds team has met with several community leaders with ties to parent groups that might otherwise be more difficult to reach.

For example, our respective teams met with George Bamu, Executive Director of Africa Agenda, to explore linkages and meeting opportunities with French-speaking parents and families (primarily immigrants). This effort is designed to help us secure presentations at African churches and temples, braid shops, and individually-owned supermarkets (which, we have discovered, are significant gathering spots for families from Ghana, the Congo, the Ivory Coast and other west and central African countries). Barbecues and baby showers are also big draws with more than 150 families gathering to celebrate. Mr. Bamu has offered to serve as a liaison to these communities to secure face time with them.

Similar efforts have been explored with Colorado’s Latino immigrant communities with Alex Sanchez, formerly of Denver Public Schools.

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PARENT OUTREACH EXTENDED INTO SUMMER

Year-Round Schools

To keep parents engaged and informed during the slower, summer months, TradeWinds and The Idea Marketing will maintain the momentum of in-classroom parent meetings by reaching out to schools that adhere to a year-round calendar. Those schools may include but won’t be limited to:

• Goodnight Elementary – Pueblo City 60 – June 7

• Corwin International Magnet School - Harrison 2 School District, Sept. 6

• Chamberlin Academy Elementary - Harrison 2 School District

• Boulder Prep Charter High School - Boulder Valley School District

Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition Conference

TradeWinds and The Idea Marketing were also featured presenters at the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition Conference in Colorado Springs as the summer break began. Conducting two workshops (one in English, one in Spanish) approximately 60 parents attended and provided enthusiastic feedback about student growth and SchoolView.org.

In addition, at least five parents volunteered to host parent meetings in their homes.

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Left: Patricia explains growth con-cepts to Spanish-speaking parents

in Colorado Springs

At the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition Conference workshop.

Parents from Goodnight Year Round Elementary

SCHOOLVIEW.ORG GAINS VISIBILITY AT JUNETEENTH

Annual Juneteenth - June18, 2011 – Historic Five Points

The return of Juneteenth to Denver was a celebration for the African American community.

With more than 5,000 in attendance, your TradeWinds team handed out more than 75 FAQs about SchoolView.org, as well as parent contact cards, CDE tote bags, and other giveaways at the exhibit booth (and prize wheel) , which was located along the main parade route (on Welton Street) near the majority of other vendors and along the parade route.

Visits to the booth were brisk throughout the day. In addition to having Spanish-speaking booth attendants well-versed in SchoolView.org, we delivered CDE’s messaging about the site and growth to approximately 75 African American, Latin and Anglo parents attending the festival.

Even after the expo had ended, we had a hard time closing down the booth due to the high volume of attendees who wanted to take a spin on the prize wheel. Interestingly, approximately 12 parents were already familiar with SchoolView.org either by name or description.

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Left: Mayor-elect Michael Hancock

stops by the booth to applaud our

efforts.

Right: Explaining the Colorado

Growth Model to parents.

OTHER UPCOMING SUMMER EVENTS

The following are just a few of the events we’re researching to attend and conduct outreach to parents:

• Aurora KidSpree Bicentennial Park July 16 - 17, 2011

• Montbello High School Back-to-School Community, August 11, 2011

• Colorado State Fair

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LESSONS LEARNED…As we have reached out to parents, conversed with our colleagues at CDE, and spoken with school administrators, parent organizations, etc., the TradeWinds and Idea Marketing teams have learned the following:

• Parents and principals are hungry for information about SchoolView.org, as well as concepts about growth, particularly as they prepare to enter a new academic year this fall.

• Demand for these presentations is growing as parents are very interested in how to better engage with their respective schools and with teachers. A growing number of parents are volunteering to host meetings in their homes or at their own PTO meetings, and we’ve secured more than 30 schools/organizations who are waiting to finalize specific parent meeting dates with our team before school begins (see list of schools in Appendix).

• It is prudent to customize each parent presentation based on the group being addressed. For example, presentation slides may be changed from English to Spanish if the majority of parents speak Spanish. We also change the scenarios we use when describing growth when we communicate with parents from middle schools vs. parents of high school students, elementary, etc.

• Parents are interested in the subject matter of our presentations and have many questions. The following is a sampling of some of the types of questions we’ve been asked:

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1. How does SchoolView.org get this informa-

tion, and how often?

2. Are we looking at other scenarios other than

CSAPs to gauge how students are doing? I

have a big issue with basing everything on

CSAP scores to assess learning abilities, etc.

I think we rely too much on this one thing.

3. Does this fall under the standards-based

grading?

4. How does all of this work in tandem with

CSAP and other parent portals?

5. Is there a way to track (we have a child that’s

autistic and we won’t allow him to take the

CSAPs) his progress? He’s in the third grade.

Is there a way to track the growth of the kids

who fit this type of scenario as well, so that

they’re not left out or behind?

6. So this site allows you to drill down to the

school, the class, and find out what’s going

on?

7. Are charter schools included in the data?

APPENDIX

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WHAT’S NEXT...

In the midst of the information being given and gathered, our teams have continued lining up schools and other parent-oriented organizations from summer into fall (see below). They include:

Parents/Parent-Affiliated Organizations

• Africa Agenda – June 20

• Single Mothers of Color – August 1

• Fox Ridge Elementary – July 13 (tentative)

• Corwin International Magnet School – September 6

Adams Twelve Five Star Schools

• Mountain View Elementary School

• Niver Creek Middle School

• Silver Hills Middle School

• The Academy of Charter Schools

• Mountain Range High School

Aurora Public Schools

• Global Village Academy

• North Middle School

• South Middle School

• Hinkley High School

Boulder Valley School District

• Boulder Prep Charter High School

• Flagstone Elementary School

• Meadow View Elementary School

• Northeast Elementary School

• Northridge Elementary School

• Pioneer Elementary School

• Redstone Elementary School

• Summit View Elementary School

• Timber Trail Elementary School

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A parent signs up for the online survey

Cherry Creek 5/Cherry Creek Public Schools

• Horizon Middle School

• Thunder Ridge Middle School

• Grandview High School

• Smoky Hill High School

• Eastridge Elementary School

• Cherry Creek 5/Cherry Creek Public Schools

• Horizon Middle School

• Thunder Ridge Middle School

• Grandview High School

• Smoky Hill High School

• Eastridge Elementary School

• Fox Hollow Elementary School

• Timberline Elementary School

Douglas County RE 1 - Year Round Schools

• Castle Rock Elementary School

Falcon District 49

• Sand Creek High School

Fort Collins - Poudre R-1

• Polaris Expeditionary Learning School

• Fossil Ridge High School

Greeley 6 (Weld County)

• Greeley Central High School

Harrison 2 Schools

• Corwin International Magnet School

• Chamberlin Academy Elementary

Pueblo City 60

• Fountain International Magnet School

• Freed Middle School

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Weldon Valley RE-20 (J)

• Weldon Valley Elementary/Junior/High School

Individual Parent/Organizational Meetings Scheduled:

• Jaraine Lattany, Through Christ Everything is Possible, June 24, August 8

• Javier Suarez, Denver Parent

• Tiffaney Wolters, Lotus School for Excellence

• Claudia Velasquez, Parent, McElwain Elementary

• Aisha Love, Lotus School for Excellence

• Hugo Miranda, Munroe Elementary

• Yeimi Nevarez, AcadeMia, Ana Marie Sandoval

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OUR SERVICE TO YOU...

Thank you again for allowing TradeWinds Communications to serve your recent communications needs. It is always a pleasure to help our clients find the right solutions – and then help them achieve their goals!

Because TradeWinds Communications believes in accountability, we’ve implemented systems and disciplines that assure we deliver the highest quality of service at each stage of your campaign. But we never know if we’ve fulfilled that mission until we get honest feedback from the highest source: the client.

As is customary with our firm, we’re conducting our phase I client satisfaction survey to better serve your needs and assess the quality of service provided by our firm.

Please take a few minutes to complete this questionnaire. We would appreciate your returning the form to us by July 15, 2011.

Thank you again for your time, and your business!

CLIENT SATISFACTION SURVEY

Please comment on your overall experience with TradeWinds Communications by circling the number that best corresponds to your opinion of our work:

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH Outstanding Very Good Good Fair Poor

TradeWinds Customized Audit 5 4 3 2 1

Pilot Parent Information Meetings 5 4 3 2 1

CREATIVE PROCESS 5 4 3 2 1

Presented creative strategies with clear goals and objectives

5 4 3 2 1

Exercised good judgment on which communi-cations path to take

5 4 3 2 1

Presented ideas that were achievable within budget guidelines

5 4 3 2 1

CAMPAIGN IMPLEMENTATION

Please take a moment and check the type(s) of service/project completed, rating your sat-isfaction with each:

Outstanding Very Good Good Fair Poor

Counseling and advice 5 4 3 2 1

Creativity 5 4 3 2 1

Community outreach 5 4 3 2 1

Presentations 5 4 3 2 1

Writing quality 5 4 3 2 1

Collateral design and production 5 4 3 2 1

Event planning and coordination 5 4 3 2 1

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CLIENT/FIRM RELATIONSHIPDid your account team demonstrate a complete understanding of the task at hand, as well as your organizational needs?

YES! _____! NO! _____

Did your account team take the lead in advising you on the best way to meet your objectives?! ! !

YES! _____! NO! _____

Do you believe you can approach your account team with criticism and concerns?YES! _____! NO! _____

Were projects completed in a timely manner and in accordance with established timelines?!

YES! _____! NO! _____

With what areas of our service/performance were you most pleased?!

___________________________________________________________________________________

What specific areas of our service/performance would you like to see improved?

___________________________________________________________________________________

Would you recommend TradeWinds Communications to others?

_____! Definitely would_____! Probably would_____! Probably would not_____! Definitely would not

CLIENT SERVICE Outstanding Very Good Good Fair Poor

Was responsive to your calls and concerns 5 4 3 2 1

Anticipated needs and made sound recom-mendations

5 4 3 2 1

Worked well with members of your depart-ment

5 4 3 2 1

Met deadlines 5 4 3 2 1

Kept you informed of project status 5 4 3 2 1

Provided clear and thorough estimates 5 4 3 2 1

Stayed within budget guidelines 5 4 3 2 1

Charged fees reasonable for caliber of work performed

5 4 3 2 1

Provided reader-friendly invoices

Overall quality of work 5 4 3 2 1

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