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

Presented by: Dr. Julie A. Evans
CEO, 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 districts
26% 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 engagement
in 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 communications
o 32% of parents overall say they are very satisfied
o 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

Parent satisfaction with current communications strategies
66% of parents are satisfied with teacher to home communications
o 32% of parents overall say they are very satisfied
76% of parents are satisfied with district to home communications
o 36% 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

National Speak Up reports and infographics
Targeted and thematic reports
Digital learning trends
Community engagement
Mobile learning
Games in the classroom
Blended 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 + group
o Parents – English and Spanish
o Teachers
o Librarians/Media Specialists
o School Site & District Administrators
o Technology Leaders
o Community Members & Communications
Officers
Gain news insights in the activities, attitudes and aspirations of your stakeholders
Surveys open Oct 2018 – Jan 2019
Learn more www.tomorrow.org/speakup

Your questions,
comments,
thoughts

Thank you for joining today’s discussion!
Dr. Julie A. Evans
jevans@tomorrow.org
949-609-4660 x15
Twitter: JulieEvans_PT and SpeakUpEd

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

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