Q&A: TED Fellow Heejae Lim on Using Tech to Strengthen Family-School Engagement
In her TED talk, Heejae Lim, the only education leader selected as part of the class of 2022 TED Fellows Program, shares how 4 in 5 children in US schools who come from under-resourced and/or immigrant families and are more likely to fall behind – sometimes by as much as two school years. This equates to 40 million children, and represents a loss to the US economy of one trillion dollars each year. Her nonrprofit TalkingPoints helps close this achievement gap by unlocking the potential of families in driving student success.
Here’s one easy way schools can communicate multilingually with families
TalkingPoints’ CEO Heejae Lim, the only education leader selected among the 20 changemakers in the 2022 TED Fellows program, shares the importance of increasing engagement for underserved and multilingual families, and how the TalkingPoints platform removes language and other barriers between schools and families so that students can thrive.
Why Do Schools Send So Many Emails? They Don’t Have To
Back-to-school means back to checking emails, texts, apps and social-media pages for notes from teachers. For parents, managing school chatter can feel like another full-time job. What if schools agreed on one channel for communications? The Wall Street Journal finds that TalkingPoints was named as the best family communication platform for teachers and schools.
Heejae Lim and Peng Zhao: We’re both immigrants. We know what it’s like to feel invisible.
Heejae Lim, founder and CEO of TalkingPoints, and Peng Zhao, Citadel Securities CEO and founding board member of The Asian American Foundation (TAAF), share the importance of family engagement – especially when it comes to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students and families – drawing on their experiences as immigrants to this country who understand the power of family engagement in education.
In Ohio district where English learners have nearly doubled in just three years, TalkingPoints helps break down communication barriers.
Pickerington Schools more than doubled family engagement using TalkingPoints to send two-way translated text messages between parents and school employees including teachers, guidance counselors, school nurses, and even bus drivers.
During Darkest Days of Pandemic, New Brunswick Schools, Parents Stayed Connected
Statistics show that 65% of the districts’ families use the platform, and 73% of them rate TalkingPoints as “highly effective.” As Michael Chiodo, principal at Lincoln Annex school notes, “To use the words of some of my teachers, it was a game-changer.”