Episode 133: Beyond Report Cards — Strengthening the School-Home Connection

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Welcome to another episode of K-12 Education Untangled.
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My name is Dr Kim J Fields, former corporate manager turned education researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast.
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I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microaggressions that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system.
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I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system.
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Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their education and progress.
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This battle-tested experience is what I provide as action steps for you to take.
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It's like enjoying a bowl of educational research with a sprinkling of mother wisdom on top.
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If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in public education that could affect you and your children, and the action steps that you can take to give your children the advantages they need, then you're in the right place.
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Thanks for tuning in today.
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I know that staying informed about K-12 public education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening.
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Give me 30 minutes and I'll untangle the latest trends, issues and topics pertaining to this constantly evolving K-12 public education environment.
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In this episode, I'll be discussing ways to strengthen the connection and communication between school and home.
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Can you recall a time a teacher said or did something that changed the course of your life or your child's life?
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Sometimes a chance meeting or a seemingly random conversation can change things.
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That's why it's important that you stay in the loop about what's happening with your children at school, because being left in the dark, even the most well-intentioned parents can't step in to course correct before it's too late.
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To course correct before it's too late.
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Strengthening the school-home connection and communication is vital for your child's academic success.
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This connection needs to be two-way communication that involves conversations based on data in languages families understand and is tailored to each child's needs.
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It involves providing supportive interventions and transparency, as well as greater collaboration between families, teachers and school administrators.
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Let's untangle this.
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Let's untangle this.
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According to the results of the 2024 K-12 Family Communication Survey, more than 78% of families reported that they don't receive suggestions and resources for how they can support learning at home.
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For families who have children in middle school and high school, they reported that they received even less regular communication on supporting their children's success.
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Most of the time, approximately 45% of families only receive communications after a student is already absent.
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For multilingual families, this lack of communication is even more pronounced.
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The survey indicated that, while 70% of multilingual respondents preferred to receive text messages about their child, over one-third had trouble with the information coming home from school due to language barriers.
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The issue with this is that it cuts families off from insights that are critical to connecting with the school.
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Further, the 2024 K-12 Family Communication Survey revealed that families are grappling with technology and information overload.
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In fact, 62% indicated that having central communications could simplify their connection with their child's school.
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72% of respondents favored emails and 70% preferred text.
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These percentages indicate that strong digital communication is key for connection.
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There are additional key findings that came out of that survey 69% of families want daily or weekly communications about their children's academic progress.
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45% of families reported that school communications were not frequent enough.
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42% indicated that the school provided insufficient information and 53% expressed that information shared by their children's school wasn't always easy to access or understand.
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The issue isn't that parents don't want to communicate and connect with the school.
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The issue is that in order for them to strengthen the connections to school.
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They need relevant, accessible and actionable information.
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Parents want what's best for their children, but sometimes being involved in a positive school-home partnership can be difficult due to several barriers that some families experience.
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Due to several barriers that some families experience, the most frequent one-way modes of communication used with parents include websites, newsletters, email, text apps and report cards, and the more popular two-way modes of communication include phone calls, home visits, parent-teacher conferences and virtual meetings.
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Mobile technology is fundamentally changing the ways that schools and teachers communicate with parents.
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A teacher's communication skills are often the strongest predictor of parent involvement.
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Clear and useful communication with parents can increase interactions between teachers and parents, promote better awareness and monitoring of student progress and behavior, provide a better understanding of school policies and programs for parents as well as students, and enable teachers to better understand parental views regarding their child's learning progress.
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Effective communication is key to strengthening school-home connections.
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There are barriers that can hinder this communication.
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These barriers include racial stereotypes, language, teacher training, technology and time.
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Racial and cultural barriers can have a direct influence on how families of color connect with schools.
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A recent survey reported that differences exist in teacher contacts with parents from different racial or ethnic backgrounds.
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For instance, teachers were more likely to reach out to black and Latino parents about disruptive behavior at school than they did for white students.
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Teachers were also less likely to contact immigrant Asian parents about academic or behavioral concerns, even when the student was struggling.
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Also, teachers were less likely to contact minority parents about good news related to student accomplishments.
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Informative communication was consistently associated with higher levels of school-home connection, whereas negative communications from the school about behavior or schoolwork were not associated with any type of connection.
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This infers that the content of communication matters in relation to families, strengthening their connection to the schools.
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One barrier to technology use has been the fragmented approach used by schools to communicate with parents.
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This results in many parents having to navigate an array of communication channels.
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The fragmented approach includes the use of multiple and different apps within a school to communicate with parents.
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As an alternative, parent-teacher conferences and IEP meetings could be conducted through apps such as Zoom or WebEx.
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A learning management system, or LMS, can be one potential solution that can serve as a one-stop location for information sharing between teachers and parents, for information sharing between teachers and parents.
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Examples of learning management systems include Google Classroom, canvas and Moodle.
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These online learning platforms are used to organize and deliver lessons, courses or training programs.
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Many of these platforms feature parent access capabilities that allow parents to view student courses, assignments and grades, as well as communicate directly with school personnel.
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Because learning management systems are primarily used to deliver and manage instructional content, they can give parents a better glimpse of the day-to-day happenings in class and their child's performance on specific tasks.
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For example, a parent can see their child's actual work and the teacher's feedback, not just the grade received on the assignment.
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A lack of time has consistently been noted as a barrier to communication for both parents and teachers.
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The lack of time for parents to connect typically reflects their busy lives, including family obligations and work schedules.
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Many school events, such as assemblies, parent meetings etc.
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Are often organized during the school day, when many parents are unable to attend.
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This makes it difficult for parents to consistently connect with the school.
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It seems easy enough to schedule some school events in the evening or weekend.
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Another barrier to communication and connection that may not often be thought of are the physical challenges of some parents.
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The parent who is visually impaired may miss the nonverbal cues in communication and would benefit from a focus on clear verbal input.
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A parent who is hearing impaired may benefit from an agenda to read or a quiet meeting space.
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Likewise, it's important that parents with mobility issues feel welcomed, with accessible parking or drop-off, clearly marked access into the school and an accessible meeting space.
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Also, practical barriers prevent some parents from connecting with the school.
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These include financial restraints and transportation challenges.
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Parents from connecting with the school.
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These include financial restraints and transportation challenges.
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One possible solution to the transportation challenge is to hold parent-teacher meetings in easily accessible community locations near public transportation.
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To be sure, personal invitations to parents to meet at school at convenient times is one way to strengthen school-home connections and communication.
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Realistically, home and school are the two places where children spend the majority of their time for 18 years, teen years.
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It makes sense that these two places should have a beneficial relationship that helps children grow into individuals that one day can make an impact on the world we live in.
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Many teachers incorrectly assume that parents of color don't have the time, interest money, interest money support or energy to support what the teachers are doing.
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So the teacher bypasses the parents, thinking that they're helping them by not bothering them.
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This is a mistake.
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Reaching parents is not really that difficult.
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It just takes willingness and an intention to engage, validating what parents are already doing to support their children's learning, and respecting parents' viewpoints invites further engagement.
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This is much better than viewing parents' role from a deficit perspective.
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When parents perceive that they're getting more communication and invitations from teachers, they become more involved in helping their children at home and in school.
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Opportunities to talk to each other can support the development of a collaborative relationship.
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A deeper understanding of the perspectives that parents bring to the school-home connection is vital.
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Parental agency, or the actions and responses regarding their concerns, is another important piece to the school-home connection.
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Teachers can play a role in developing parental agency by building trust in relationships with parents.
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That way, parents may not feel as though they are imposing by asking for more teacher time to discuss their children's development.
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Parents should continue to advocate for teacher support, but also to network with other parents.
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Even creating a parenting association linked to the school.
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School-home connection is vital for English language learners, and parent involvement and support is key.
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The traditional back-to-school nights, open houses and parent-teacher conferences may be important to teachers and school administrators, but many Latino families don't find these as important as teachers personally reaching out to them to understand their cultural practices and expectations for their children.
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School leaders need to be creative in reaching out to this community.
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Since Hispanics are a diverse group that include multiple countries of origin as well as citizenship status, both of which make it difficult to develop universal strategies to boost parental involvement, the focus should be on the nature of the Latino parent involvement in their children's schooling and Latino parents' cultural beliefs about education.
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When bonds are formed with other parents at the school, it can help increase school connection among Latino families.
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These bonds are typically two-way, meaning that parents of English language learners have opportunities to give back to the school community.
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For example, they can participate in weekend campus special activities or create an after-school reading program where children can read from Spanish and English books.
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It is without question that productive and purposeful school-home connection, communication and collaboration have positive effects on children's development of academic progress.
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This communication and connection may be hindered by a number of factors, including socioeconomic status, cultural differences and limited social capital.
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All parties, especially teachers and parents, need to have an empathetic and respectful understanding of each other's roles, perspectives and resources in order to support academic achievement for the children in their care.
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Teachers and parents are both active partners in a child's learning process.
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One of the best ways to strengthen the school-home connection is for parents to develop a partnership with their child's teacher.
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It requires that teachers be willing to listen with their heart as well as with their head at the same time.
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Listening with their heart helps teachers understand the problem, while listening with their head means utilizing their training and experience to listen for the source of the problem, without being sidelined by language that could be misconstrued as an insult to the teacher, their teaching methodology or their professionalism.
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When parents work together with teachers as partners, they assist students in becoming better listeners and it leads to a cohesive message between school and home that will serve to nurture confident, capable and curious learners.
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When families get feedback from teachers about what's going well, they're more likely to continue helping their child develop a new skill or succeed in a task.
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They will also share more with the teacher and expand their participation in the process.
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Using the listen, support, ask, follow-up framework, teachers can let families know that they're interested in understanding them and their unique child, and it opens the door for the teacher's ideas and suggestions to be much more likely appreciated and implemented.
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Building trust in the relationship between teacher and parent is a core foundation for creating a partnership and supportive environment.
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Learning takes place on the teacher's side as well as on the parent's side, keeping the child as the focus of attention, parents and teachers can feel they each have a role to play, as well as something valuable to contribute to the child's learning.
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Communicating early and often, as well as actively seeking collaboration, makes it easy for parents to be informed and supportive.
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These four principles can help strengthen the school-home connection.
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One all parents have dreams for their children and want the best for them.
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Two all parents have the capacity to support their children's learning.
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Three parents and school staff should be equal partners.
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The parents know the child, the teacher knows the curriculum and grade level characteristics and requirements.
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And four the responsibility for building strong school-home connections rests primarily with school staff, especially school leaders.
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So how does what I've just discussed apply to you and what are some things that you can do to strengthen the home-school connection?
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Here are the action steps you can take regarding this topic.
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But first a brief story.
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I kept up as much as possible with my kids' schooling when they were in the public education system.
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Their teachers were well familiar with my expectations and they knew they could reach out to me at any time.
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I was fortunate enough to have the type of career that enabled me to participate in school activities, visit my children's classrooms without notice to the school and have meetings with appropriate school personnel as needed.
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I felt it was important for teachers and school administrators to know that I was actively involved in my children's academic progress, and staying connected to the school was important to me.
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There were no websites or smartphones for two-way communications with teachers at that time, so we relied on handwritten notes and phone calls to keep in touch.
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Since that time, technology has helped parents with keeping connected to schools.
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The use of text messaging, school district websites and parental websites have helped parents strengthen the school home connection and communication.
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One such website is familyeducationcom.
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This website offers parents and children a number of features that are organized by topic and grade level.
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It encourages parents to be more involved in their children's lives and schools.
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The main action step that you can take is to stay involved and updated about what's going on at the school, as well as how your child is performing at school.
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You can connect with the school through volunteering and attending events, learning at home and collaborating with the community.
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Let it be known that you are an active participant in your child's education and be sure to be visible attending parent-teacher conferences, pta meetings and, if they aren't available in the evening when it's more convenient for your schedule, talk to the principal about moving the PTA meetings to evenings.
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There's a high probability that you aren't the only parent that can't make early meetings, and you can also volunteer at school.
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The research supports your effort.
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Student achievement increases when parents are actively involved in their children's schools.
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If you think about the school-home connection as a house, in most houses you have an entryway or a porch.
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This front porch is where the events at school are happening, like open house, pda and other big events.
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Then there's the family room and, in this analogy, this is where parents can learn more about schoolwork, homework and other important elements of learning that's happening in their child's classroom.
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And, of course, in a home, there's the kitchen, the place where most people gather during some type of festivity.
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Likewise, this is where private conversations are happening.
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Figuratively, when addressing the school-home connection analogy, this is where private conversations about how the child is doing, what their strengths are and where they need support.
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The kitchen is where parents can find out individual needs about their children.
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I hope this house analogy is helpful for visualizing the ways to strengthen the school-home connection and communication.
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Here are this episode's takeaways Strengthening the school-home connection and communication is vital for your child's academic success.
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This connection needs to be two-way communication that involves conversations based on data in languages families understand and tailored to each child's needs.
00:25:27.281 --> 00:25:56.368
It involves providing supportive interventions and transparency, as well as greater-home connection.
00:25:56.368 --> 00:25:58.833
Communication and collaboration have positive effects on children's development of academic progress.
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This communication and connection may be hindered by a number of factors, including socioeconomic status, cultural differences and limited social capital status, cultural differences and limited social capital.
00:26:08.510 --> 00:26:20.649
All parties, especially teachers and parents, need to have an empathetic and respectful understanding of each other's roles, perspectives and resources in order to support academic achievement for the children in their care.
00:26:20.649 --> 00:26:27.019
Teachers and parents are both active partners in a child's learning process.
00:26:29.707 --> 00:26:38.692
The 2024 K-12 Family Communications Survey revealed that families are grappling with technology and information overload.
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In fact, 62 percent of respondents indicated that having central communications could simplify their connection with their child's school.
00:26:48.656 --> 00:26:56.038
72% of respondents favored emails and 70% preferred text.
00:26:56.038 --> 00:27:02.778
These percentages indicate that strong digital communication is key for connection.
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There were additional key findings that came out of this survey 69% of families want daily or weekly communications about their children's academic progress.
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45% of families reported that school communications were not frequent enough.
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42% indicated that the school provided insufficient information and 53% expressed that information shared by their children's school wasn't always easy to access or understand.
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The issue isn't that parents don't want to communicate and connect with the school.
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The issue is that, in order for them to strengthen the connections to school, they need relevant, accessible and actionable information.
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What's been your experience with strengthening school-home connections?
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Let me know your thoughts by leaving a text message comment on my podcast website, k12educationuntangledbuzzsproutcom.
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If you enjoyed this episode, recommend my podcast to a friend directly on social media and tag my show in the post.
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Thanks for tuning in today.
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I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle.
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Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.