Summary 

Read Talking Back: Why Your District Needs a Two-Way Communication Strategy for more tips on beefing up yours. 

Check out SchoolCEO Magazine’s recent survey What Parents Want.

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Episode Transcript

Welcome to the SchoolCEO Podcast. I’m your host, Eileen Beard. 

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You meet an old coworker for coffee, and they spend the entire time talking about themselves. Meanwhile, you spend the entire time thinking about how quickly you can make your escape and how you’re never meeting up with them again. In discussing your strategic communication plan over the last several episodes, we’ve mostly been focusing on just that—a one-sided conversation in which your district does all the talking. 

But if your school communication is anything like that old coworker, your stakeholders may assume you’re not interested in their thoughts or you don’t really care about them. And we know that’s not true. 

In SchoolCEO Magazine’s recent survey “What Parents Want," more than half of parents said they receive communication from their child’s school district multiple times a week or even daily—and that’s not counting messages that come directly from their child’s teacher. Most of that is one-way. How often are families invited to initiate a dialogue, ask questions or provide feedback? 

To be really engaged in their child’s education, parents don’t just need to be informed. They need to actively participate. But there are things you have to consider in order to make two-way communication effective and inclusive. Today, let’s talk about where two-way should take place to do just that. 

Your teachers’ back-and-forth conversations with families may be happening primarily in person at dedicated events like parent-teacher conferences once or twice a year. Whether or not educators can reliably reach most of their parents this way largely depends on grade level. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 88% of K-2 parents attend conferences, but that figure drops to just 51% for parents of high school students. But families don’t just skip parent-teacher conferences due to lack of interest. The NCES also found that When parents are the only guardian in their household they are less likely to attend conferences than those with two parents or guardians. Families living below the poverty threshold were also less likely to attend than those not living in poverty. There are several factors that may be to blame: lack of childcare, lack of reliable transportation, inflexible work schedules and more. These same factors make it difficult for parents to meet with their child’s teacher after school, removing another potential opportunity for in-person communication.

Many schools have experimented with implementing different schedules, offering childcare during conferences or a whole host of other strategies, but the fact remains that connecting in person is logistically difficult. In-person conversation is a powerful way to communicate, but you can’t rely on it as your only avenue for two-way communication.

Instead, think about communication that meets your families where they are. According to 2024 data from Pew Research Center, 91% of U.S. adults own smartphones, and that majority persists across demographic groups. It stands to reason then that smartphones are a more reliable—and more inclusive—avenue for some two-way communication. So have you considered investing in two-way communication systems that revolve around smartphones—like a messaging platform that integrates with your district’s mobile app? 

At the end of the day, school communication should be about more than just sharing announcements; it should be an ongoing conversation between your district and its families. That’s how you get families engaged. That’s how you earn families’ loyalty. 

Stay tuned to the next two episodes for some more tips on beefing up your two-way communication. Until then, thanks for joining me.