Such as announcing a field trip, reminding the parent about a scheduled meeting with a specialist, or updating a weekly class plan. Using emails is considered evidence of real communication. Moreover, the school’s website is official and comprehensive, including everything the parents and students need, such as the academic calendar, curriculum, school supplies, business partners, clubs, essential numbers, guidance, school info, upcoming events, and the school staff phone numbers and email addresses.
Everyone has a school email that ends with the same domain address, for example, [email protected]. In this case, parents do not have to come to school or call and wait on the phone; instead, they can send an email, and the receiver has to answer within 24 hours; otherwise, they can turn to the principal or principal’s assistant for cooperation.
Some American public schools use social networking as an informational portal and a way of communicating with the parents, students, and community as well. With the growth of social media usage, schools are utilizing it for promoting the work of staff members, in addition to praising students’ achievements. Also, they can share educational articles, e.g., “Ten Ways to Improve a Child’s Behavior,’ or comment on the national news, e.g., “How to Vote,’ or spread awareness, e.g., “The Importance of First Checkup for Cancer.’ Social media in education, such as Twitter and Facebook, became another channel of communication with the parents who are on the move and do not often check emails or regular mail.
In order to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and achieve success, many educational districts purchase school management services. One of the leading school district management solutions is Skyward, which manages education in many districts in Florida, including Seminole County and Orange County. Today’s education model is evolving and relying upon technology more than ever by utilizing a one-to-one approach instead of a one-size-fits-all solution.
Skyward – similar to other school management services – is a comprehensive solution because it combines thought leadership industry, best practices, and advanced technologies. The main reason for this kind of partnership is to meet a wide range of needs, from managing student information, curriculum, assessments, and interventions to fiscal management and human resources. Skyward supports student-based learning initiatives with a platform that a student, parents, and staff can use by helping the district streamline operations. This school management combines and simplifies workflows from many sources into a single platform.
Students and parents can log into the website to view an online report for attendance, grades, schedules, and calendars anytime, or they can use the Skyward mobile access for intuitive access to any vital information. Parents can keep track of the child’s progress, intervention, and aspirations by getting alerts for attendance, grade thresholds, and missing assignments. Also, parents can register their children, pay fees, communicate with the teacher, request specific courses, and plan for their graduation. A comprehensive platform like Skyward helps the parent stay up to date with information at one’s fingertip.
Most educational districts focus on the importance of tracking students’ attendances because the consequences of low attendance are serious and could affect the student’s academic achievement. Thus, most of the educational districts have addressed the issue by purchasing a software package and set a school messenger service. School Management Messenger (SMM) is a notification service used by the nation’s leading school systems to connect with parents, students, and staff through voice messages, text, email, and social media. As it is explained in the website; it combines school notification, mobile apps, and web content management under one, easy-to-use platform. (‘Simplify parent and community engagement.’) The system is straightforward and efficient: each teacher takes students’ attendances of the class and jots them in the school system, such as Progress Book and Canvas.
Then, the desk clerk collects the data through the SMM. After that, the educational district sends texts and emails to the parents informing them how many periods the student has missed and reminding them to send an acceptable excuse. Also, if the principal wants to send an important message, such as valuable information on hurricane preparedness, he or she can utilize the SMM to spread the message through the school’s website, mobile app, social media, and messenger app. Finally, in case of an emergency, the principal can send a voice message instantly through the program. This multisystem platform builds trust and confidence between the school and parents.
Some schools have secure communications with parents and have an extended relationship with the community as well. They send the highlighted news and events through emails every week or through the newsletter four times a year. However, almost all schools prefer to let the parents be on top of the weekly news briefs instead of the quarterly newsletter. Because of the hectic life, parents want to read the highlighted information and events so they can prepare themselves for an upcoming event or celebrate an achievement with the school.
Also, it is considered the best mean to grab parents’ attention who have disengaged from their child’s school communications over time. Newsbrief is similar to a newsletter with an unlimited number of recipients given that it is free of charge. For instance, based on my interview with Mrs. Furno, an Avalon Middle school principal, her school has about 1,000 students, but she sends a weekly news brief to over 1,200 emails.
