How to Communicate Best with Parents in the Digital Age: Text, Twitter, Email, Call

Presented by: Dr. Julie A. EvansCEO, Project Tomorrow@JulieEvans_PT

How to Communicate Best With Parents in the Digital Age: Text, Twitter, Email, Call

Today’s Discussion

▪ About Project Tomorrow and the Speak Up Research Project

▪ Text, Twitter, Email, Call: ▪ Current environment for parental engagement in schools ▪ Parents’ preferences & satisfaction with communications methods ▪ Comparisons with administrators’ values and perspectives ▪ Glimpse into the future

▪ Project Tomorrow resources to support your work: new report!

▪ Your questions, comments, thoughts – let’s discuss!

Tweet with us!

@JulieEvans_PT @SpeakUpEd #FETC18

@Project Tomorrow 2017

Getting to know you!

About Project Tomorrow

▪ Nonprofit education organization supporting K-12 education since 1996

▪ Mission is to ensure today’s students are well prepared for the future

▪ Programs and research focus on role of digital tools within the education ecosystem

o Speak Up Research Project on Digital Learning:

collecting & reporting on the authentic feedback of K-12 stakeholders to inform federal, state & local programs and policies

About the Speak Up Project on Digital Learning

▪ Annual research project since 2003

▪ Uses online surveys + focus groups

▪ Facilitated through schools and districts with support from state DOE

▪ Online surveys for: K-12 Students, Teachers, Parents, Administrators, and Community Members

▪ All K-12 schools are eligible to participate

About the Speak Up Project

▪ Participating schools and districts get access to all locally collected data + state and national data for benchmarks

▪ National data is reported via white papers and infographics – and used regularly by edu orgs & policymakers

▪ 100% free service for schools/districts

Since 2003,

5 million

Speak Up

surveys

submitted

About the Speak Up Project

Topics covered include:

✓ Use of technology to support learning – formal and informal ✓ School climate for innovation ✓ College and career ready skill development ✓ Leadership challenges ✓ Teachers’ needs and professional learning experiences✓ Valuations of different stakeholders on digital learning ✓ Emerging trends with digital tools, content and resources ✓ New classroom models✓ School to home communications✓ Designing the ultimate school

“Without data, you are just another person with an opinion …”

Introducing the Speak Up Project to

inform new discussions and better decision-

making around your community

engagement plans


National participation in Speak Up 2016: 514,085

Survey Audience # of Surveys Submitted

K-12 Students 435,510

Teachers & Librarians 38,512

Parents 29,670

Administrators 4,592

Community Members 5,801

About schools and districts: 2,445 schools, 7,123 districts26% urban, 36% rural, 38% suburban, 57% title 1 eligible

Key trends from our research …

• Greater emphasis on students’ global skill preparation

• Value of personalized learning on the rise

• Acceptance of new learning models

• Increasing criticality for connectivity at school and home

• Learning as a 24/7 enterprise for students

• New expectations from parents – increasingly, digital

• Heightened importance of effective communications

Let’s talk about parent communications

“In this complex world, it takes more than a

good school to educate children. And it

takes more than a good home. It takes

these two major educational institutions

working together.”

Dorothy Rich, author of MegaSkills®


✓ What do parents say are effective communications with their child’s teacher and the school or district?

✓ How satisfied are they with current methodologies?

✓ Are we meeting expectations?

✓ What can we learn from this research to inform our local efforts?


Speak Up 2016 findings from parents of school-aged children nationwide

29,670 parents nationwide

80% mothers

Child’s grade band:

• PreK – Gr 2: 36%

• Gr 3-5: 35%

• Gr 6-8: 34%

• Gr 9-12: 32%

Age distribution:

• 20s – 4%, 30s – 32%,

• 40s – 47%, +50 – 16%


Administrators and Communications Issues

• 1/3 of school site administrators say communications with parents is a major challenge – an issue that “wakes them up in the middle of the night”

• But 88% say they are using social media more to communicate and engage with parents – and 61% are seeing a positive impact from that

o 18% increase in administrators seeing that positive impact in one year from 2015 to 2016

• 72% say it is essential for new teachers to learn about how to use technology to communicate and engage with parents and students during their pre-service education



• New classroom models are driving increased urgency for improved communications and engagement

Example: Blended learning environments

✓ 48% of school principals say their schools are blending learning now

✓ 50% of parents endorse blended learning as good for their child





Benefits of blended learning:

✓ Improves school to home communications✓ Results in more engaged parents ✓ Ensures students, teachers and parents on the

same page regarding student progress





Challenges of blended learning:

✓ High levels of communications required so that parents know their roles and responsibilities regarding blended learning


Value of mobile devices to help improve family/parent involvement

o 54% of parents say the inclusion of mobile devices within school day improves teacher-parent-student communications as well as student engagementin learning


Parents want to be involved in their child’s education

We asked: What do you want to know more about?

o Recommendations from my child’s school about apps they can use at home to support learning

o How to work with their child’s teacher to improve learning opportunities

o Types of technology and workplace skills my child is learning at school

o What technology to have at home to support my child’s learning


Parents want to be involved in their child’s education

We asked: What do you want to know more about?

o Recommendations from my child’s school about apps they can use at home to support learning

o How to work with their child’s teacher to improve learning opportunities

❖ 68% of district communications officers say their district is providing information such as this!

o Types of technology and workplace skills my child is learning at school

o What technology to have at home to support my child’s learning


What do parents know about their local schools?

Information % of parents from small

sized districts (< 5k students)

% of parents from medium sized districts

(5k – 25k students)

% of parents from large

sized districts (>25K

students)

School academic performance comparatives 55% 51% 59%

Percentage of high school graduates at local schools

34% 28% 38%

Percentage of graduates who go to college 31% 27% 39%

Identification of schools that need improvement 28% 30% 28%

Trends in academic performance per school 24% 23% 29%

Qualifications of teachers in local schools 24% 24% 24%


What do parents know about their local schools?

How are they finding this information?

1. Word of mouth 36%

2. 3rd party aggregator of school info (i.e., GreatSchools.net) 25%

3. State education websites 24%

4. School websites 24%

5. District websites 23%

Two types of communications

▪ Teacher to home communications regarding

individual child information or academic

progress

▪ School or district communications regarding

general information, events or notifications


Overall parental satisfaction with current communications strategies

66% of parents are satisfied with teacher to home communicationso 32% of parents overall say they are very satisfiedo 39% of parents in urban communities say they are very satisfied

76% of parents are satisfied with district to home communications o 36% are very satisfied o 40% of parents in urban communities say they are very satisfied


Parent satisfaction with current communications strategies

66% of parents are satisfied with teacher to home communicationso 32% of parents overall say they are very satisfiedo 39% of parents in urban communities say they are very satisfied

76% of parents are satisfied with district to home communications o 36% are very satisfied o 40% of parents in urban communities say they are very satisfied

Lowest satisfaction level all communications? Depends upon tech skill proficiency!o Parents with advanced tech skills: only 31% are very satisfied o Parents with beginner skills: 43% are very satisfied

Teacher to home communications

regarding individual child information or

academic progress


Parent satisfaction with current communications strategies:

Teacher to home re: individual child

14%

21%24%

33%

38%35%

42%

23%19%

ES Parents MS Parents HS Parents

Dissatisfied Somewhat satisfied Very satisfied


Parents’ assessment of most effective way for the teacher to communicate

child information

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Handwritten notes

Auto phone messages

Push thru mobile app to phone

School portal

F2F meetings

Personal phone calls

Text message

Personal emails

High school parents Middle school parents Elementary school parents


Parents’ assessment of most effective way for the teacher to communicate

child information

• Tech-savvy parents favor digital communications by almost 2:1 compared to parents with beginner tech skills

• No differences in text message interest based upon demographics


Communications vehicles All parents All principals Elementary

school principals

Middle school

principals

High school

principals

Personal emails 77% 72% 72% 75% 71%

Face to face meetings 39% 68% 73% 67% 58%

Personal phone calls 32% 68% 64% 72% 73%

Text messages 39% 41% 45% 42% 35%

School portal 23% 34% 30% 42% 37%

Push info thru a mobile app to

parents’ devices

21% 27% 28% 30% 26%

Auto phone messages 13% 22% 23% 22% 21%

Handwritten notes sent home 21% 21% 31% 13% 10%

Principal’s assessment of most effective way for the teachers to communicate

School or district communications

regarding general information, events

or notifications


Parent satisfaction with current communications strategies:

School/district to home re: general information

11% 12% 12%

39%43% 42%

40%

32%30%

ES Parents MS Parents HS Parents

Dissatisfied Somewhat satisfied Very satisfied


Parents’ assessment of most effective way for the school or district to

communicate general information

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Hard copy flyers/newsletters

School/district Facebook

Mobile app

Websites

Online newsletters

Text messages

Auto phone messages

Email messages

High school parents Middle school parents Elementary school parents


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Facebook

Websites

Mobile app

Printed flyers/newsletters

Online newsletters

Text messages

Auto phone messages

Email messages

District communications officers Principals Parents

Conflicting perspectives on the tools for effective school-district

communications with parents


Largest mis-alignment:

“Facebook as a tool for effective school and district communications”

▪ District communications officers – 78% say yes

▪ School principals – 39% say yes

▪ Parents – 16% say yes (K-5 – 18%, Gr 6-8 - 16%, Gr 9-12 – 14%)

Conflicting perspectives on the tools for effective school-district

communications with parents


Parents’ use of social media

Social Media

Always + Often

Never

Facebook 69% 12%

Instagram 16% 45%

Snapchat 9% 73%

Twitter 11% 61%

YouTube 28% 15%

Msg apps 47% 19%

Video msg 18% 40%

Role of social media in the lives of parents of school-aged children


22%

9%

42%

64%

23%

12%

14%

29%

45%

34%

Instagram

Twitter

Social messaging apps

Facebook

YouTube

Fathers of school aged children Mothers of school aged children


Usage scale: All the time + often


Parents’ use of social media

Social Media

Always + Often

Never

Facebook 69% 12%

Instagram 16% 45%

Snapchat 9% 73%

Twitter 11% 61%

YouTube 28% 15%

Msg apps 47% 19%

Video msg 18% 40%


Students’ use of social media

Social Media

Always + Often

Never

Facebook 45% 27%

Instagram 65% 17%

Snapchat 68% 17%

Twitter 30% 45%

YouTube 73% 5%

Msg apps 51% 21%

Video msg 39% 27%



Social Media Parents 29 or

younger in age

Parents 30 -39 in

age

Parents 40-49 in

age

Parents 50-59 in

age

Facebook 64% 66% 60% 51%

Instagram 37% 28% 18% 10%

Snapchat 33% 11% 5% 3%

Twitter 11% 8% 11% 9%

YouTube 43% 30% 23% 19%

Msg apps 47% 46% 38% 30%

Video msg 27% 23% 19% 17%

Usage scale: All the time + often


Speak Up 2016 findings from parents of school-aged children

What is most important to parents in terms of communications and engagement?

✓ Convenience✓ Push, not search ✓ Personalized, not standardized ✓ Timeliness and currency✓ Realization that they are busy✓ High impact/high ROI type results


“Communications with parents must

be carefully planned and two-way.”

The Parent Institute

Today’s Discussion

▪ About Project Tomorrow and the Speak Up Research Project

▪ Text, Twitter, Email, Call: ▪ Current environment for parental engagement in schools ▪ Parents’ preferences & satisfaction with communications methods ▪ Comparisons with administrators’ values and perspectives ▪ Glimpse into the future

▪ Project Tomorrow resources to support your work: new report!

▪ Your questions, comments, thoughts – let’s discuss!

National Speak Up reports and infographics

Targeted and thematic reportsDigital learning trendsCommunity engagement Mobile learning Games in the classroomBlended learning outcomes Community engagement – coming soon!

Presentations, podcasts and webinars

Services: consulting, workshops, evaluation and efficacy studies

More resources available at www.tomorrow.org

New Speak Up 2017 reports to be released in Spring 2018

Plan to participate in Speak Up 2018

Online surveys for: o K-12 students – individual + groupo Parents – English and Spanisho Teachers o Librarians/Media Specialistso School Site & District Administratorso Technology Leaderso Community Members & Communications

Officers

Gain news insights in the activities, attitudes and aspirations of your stakeholders

Surveys open Oct 2018 – Jan 2019Learn more www.tomorrow.org/speakup

Your questions,

comments,

thoughts

Thank you for joining today’s discussion!

Dr. Julie A. [email protected]

949-609-4660 x15Twitter: JulieEvans_PT and SpeakUpEd

How to Communicate Best with Parents in the Digital Age: Text, Twitter, Email, Call

Education

Transcript of How to Communicate Best with Parents in the Digital Age: Text, Twitter, Email, Call