Why back-to-school is the best time for family engagement
Written by Kate Pechacek
Back-to-school season is a unique moment when families and educators are completely in sync: both hopeful, both eager, and maybe a little nervous. But the energy is there. The partnerships are primed.
Family engagement has power at two levels. At the district level, family engagement often falls into the category of one-way information sharing from schools to families. But the truth is, effective district-level family engagement results in strong culture building that creates a primed learning environment around the classroom. This allows the positive impacts of families and school staff working together to result in amazing outcomes improvements for all students in the classroom. So the real question is: How do we keep that Family Superfan energy going, and leverage that energy to maximize the impact of effective family-school partnerships?
Steps 1 and 2 of the four essential steps to positive family engagement impact
The answer lies in four essential steps: Reach, Communicate, Engage, Improve. The first two steps are necessary precursors to true engagement and improvement via school-family partnerships.
Step 1: Reach every family with equitable access
Imagine planning a community celebration without sending invitations. That’s what happens when schools focus on engagement without ensuring equitable reach. Many districts rely on apps, portals, or email newsletters, assuming families will engage. Yet these channels often leave out families who lack reliable internet, who are less familiar with technology, or who simply can’t download yet another app.
Without equitable reach, even the best engagement strategies fall flat. There is a common-sense answer when it comes to effective reach, which is just not common practice in school districts.
Default text messaging breaks through the reach barriers by meeting families where they are: on their mobile phones, without requiring downloads or data plans. It’s the single most effective way to reach every family, every time. Why has this common-sense idea not become common practice? It is not fiscally viable for most communication platform providers. In fact, many platforms rely on the barriers families have to access text messaging to keep costs lower.
TalkingPoints is the only platform that defaults every family into text messaging, opting in by default. As a non-profit organization, philanthropic support allows TalkingPoints to provide barrier-free access for every family without passing along the additional cost to school districts.
See TalkingPoints in action—watch a 90-second explainer video.
Step 2: Communicate with consistency and clarity
Once families can be reached, communication must be consistent, accessible, and, for site-level communication, two-way. Many families cite confusing or inconsistent communication as a top reason for disengagement. Using simple two-way, translated messaging that breaks down education jargon helps to ensure every family and staff member has the tools needed to communicate effectively.
High-quality K12 contextualized machine translation, and human translation support when needed, is a common-sense way to make sure communication is barrier-free. Why isn’t it common practice?
Again, fiscal viability limits most communication platform providers. This is again where TalkingPoints’ philanthropic support provides every family and staff member access to the highest quality, fast, K12 contextualized, understandable two-way communication.
Improvement in the culture surrounding the classroom, and improvement in student outcomes in the classroom, are the expressed goals of school districts and communication platform providers. However, without a tool that allows a school district to truly reach every family and for those families to effectively communicate back, improvement will be limited. In fact, without accounting purposefully for barriers to reach and communication, the students who are often more underserved end up on the losing end of the family-school advantage.
Kick off the year right with every family
Engagement is not just about attendance at events—it’s about families feeling like partners in their child’s education. Once schools consistently reach and communicate with families, the ground is ripe for effective engagement that leads to true improvement.
Assess your district’s family engagement strategy and uncover growth opportunities:
Celebrating 10 years of partnership and impact
For a decade, TalkingPoints has supported students, families, and educators through the power of effective family-school partnerships. As an education technology nonprofit, our award-winning communication and family engagement platform has improved outcomes for districts and students across the country.
We connect 9 million+ educators, students, and family members annually and have facilitated more than one billion conversations—building trust, fostering relationships, and fueling student success. Named by Common Sense Education as “the best overall family communication platform for teachers and schools,” TalkingPoints drives measurable gains in attendance and academic achievement, backed by rigorous, causal research.
Join us in building a future where every child has the support they need to thrive.
