"Better Communication = Better Engagement = Better Schools!"
Communication is Key! As a parent of a child with special needs in the Worcester school system, I found the excellent communication skills of Principal Proctor to be essential and comforting. I also found the enthusiasm of the teachers at his school (and since then, at other schools) to be quite inspiring.
At other times, communication with the school has not been as good as it could have been. For example: My son has Type 1 Diabetes. It is not possible for him to be at school and not get his medication. Yet the Worcester summer school application form for this year had a very clear message – no medications will be given at school. I was able to get him into summer school after I called and talked to the person in charge of the program, then her supervisor, and ultimately the Nursing supervisor of the whole system. NOTE: This specific problem will be addressed with the help of Tracy Novick in the next School Committee session. It think this is a great first step, but this is one of the issues that would have been addressed in the process.
I want to create a new level of excellence throughout our school system, and I propose a unified communication plan will do this by activating Parents, Teachers and the Community.
We know that parents inherently care about their children’s education. We also know that teachers care about their students’ education. Yet, parental involvement is not as high as it could be. This is not just true for our schools here in Worcester; this is true across the nation. We hear from teachers that parents are not involved, and we heard from parents that the school doesn’t care about their child.
My work in medical education and publishing over the past decade has taught me that effective communication is necessary to maximize the hard work that each person puts into their role. My proposal will maximize this effort in a cost efficient and measurable way.
For example, I was recently on the design team of a Story Telling project, in which we created an interactive, educational DVD to empower lower-income patient to take control of their high blood pressure. This project is a great example of the relationship between education and communication. I played a large role in developing this innovative approach through which patients telling their own stories to motivate others to improve their health behavior.
Results from this project were recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and featured in the Boston Globe and New York Times. We formed focus groups of people with hypertension and asked them about their personal strategies for managing their disease. We wanted to know what worked and what didn’t. We were also interested in how they communicated with their doctor. Then, we interviewed 13 patients to capture their powerful insights on DVD. Next, we gave a series of these DVDs to patients with high blood pressure. (They either watched them in office or reported watching them at home.) Within three months, their blood pressure was under control by an average of 12mmHG, which is a most dramatic improvement. Effective communication clearly produced powerful change! Likewise, I believe we can use research-based methods to achieve a higher level of communication between Parents and Teachers.
This plan has a sea-change potential, since it could affect every aspect of our children’s educational system. A key component of this plan is that we should continuously involve and query parents (and community members) about their expectations and needs from the school system. This data, in turn, should inform and drive effective change strategies.
The Trobaugh Communication Plan:
This plan is not an add-on; it must be a part of the fabric of the day-to-day operations of the school community. The plan is based on a system-wide vision with local implementation. I support the rights of all workers and would need this plan implemented with our Union help. For example, a plan created by Wawecus Road School, would not work for North High, but the process to create these plan’s will.
1. Conduct needs assessment. At each institutional level, get input from parents, teachers, administrators, and community (where appropriate students as well). What do the parents need to know? What are the main points the teachers need to communicate to the parents? This forum would need to have proportional representation from the school staff and well as the community that uses the entity. If a school has 50% students with English as a second language, then this forum would need to reflect that parental composition. This will require creativity and flexibility to empower the parents to participate in this activity. We would leverage technology as much as possible. While it is most effective to have all stakeholders at the table physically, we should explore asynchronous methods as well.
2. Implement professional development activities. Each school or administrative group will develop a professional development workshop on preferred and effective communication for parents, teachers, and administrators. These activities will be integrated into existing professional development time for all staff. The workshops will establish priorities as well as establish long-term goals for that school.
3. Formally incorporate quality of parent-teacher communication into the evaluation of school system. We would establish benchmarks of parental involvement. We would need the individual councils to decide what other forms of communication and materials as well.
4. Promote ongoing quality improvement and program evolution. The needs assessment forum will become the “communication council” for that school. This council would conduct periodic assessments of communications that go to parents (and that go from their school to the system administration). Since this council will serve in a formal capacity, information sharing is very important and they should have an account to access to the school web site as well an email account.
I will take the lead and organizing a concerned group of parents, teachers, and administrators to conduct the needs assessment and develop the seminars. I have spoken with various school personnel as well as concerned parents who are already excited about this process.
Voter (parent, teacher, administrator and community member) F.A.Q.
- Is communication a problem with certain schools in particular? What I am proposing will improve all schools. Every child in the system, regardless of its socioeconomic means or district, deserves excellent and consistent teacher-parent communication. In addition, this is not a problem exclusive to Worcester.
- Shouldn't this plan come from the administration (school or central)? I will work closely with the administration to develop and implement this plan. However, a high level of community input distinguishes this plan from other initiatives.
- Do we need a central communications department with new staff to support this plan? Although, more people working to make the schools a better place, we don't need a department or new personnel for this plan.
- Won't this cost a lot of money? I am committed to making this as cost neutral as possible. Teachers and administrators are already communicating every day with parents and the community, this plan looks for more effective communication within the current framework and collective bargaining contracts. In addition, there will be opportunities for community partnerships and other additional funding to see greater community involvement.
- Are you asking teachers to work outside of collective bargaining? No. Teachers already do so many things for their kids that it is counterproductive to ask them to do anything outside of their collective bargaining agreement. These agreements are in place with good reason. We will work with the teachers collectively to determine the most effective way to implement this communication plan.
- The last thing we need is another bureaucratic system, how will you be sure this does not get out of control? Because of you and your involvement! This will work because parents and teachers really have the same goal. It is needed because they have different jobs.
- Isn't this just Parent Engagement? No, parental engagement is one of the results but it will also include many facets of communication besides what is just offered to get parents into the school.
- What about the PTA and the Governance Councils? I am a member of the PTA and the Governance Council at my school. I know that parental engagement is a goal of both and integration with the school's evaluation and professional development data. This proposal could empower those groups to take more action. However, without the empowering feedback of the representative parents and school staff it is hard to know what is needed to more forward to create change.
Culturally Sensitive Communication:
Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/18/us-storytelling-bloodpressure-idUSTRE70H6NQ20110118
Parent Activation:
Harvard Meta Analysis http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/parental-involvement-and-student-achievement-a-meta-analysis
Taking Leadership in Parental Involvement http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/taking-leadership-innovating-change-profiles-in-family-school-and-community-engagement
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