Bringing diverse voices to the table: Creating truly inclusive school communications

A new school year is around the corner and with it  a host of communications challenges and opportunities. Gearing up for the start of the school year is an excellent time to reflect on your communications plans and make needed adjustments before heading into the whirlwind of another year.

As you think about communications opportunities and hurdles, take a moment to reflect on your resources and vet, review and provide feedback on messaging, tactics and strategies. Do you have a strong, diverse set of stakeholders you trust to provide honest feedback and a range of perspectives? Are their voices truly representative of your students and community? If not, what can you do to address it?

In general, communications are strongest when created with input from the target audience. Some school districts develop key communicator councils or communications cabinets. These stakeholder groups can share honest feedback about how things are going in  the district and inform communications strategies and campaigns.

Other districts host listening sessions and one-off community meetings or seek feedback more informally from trusted sources. But far too often the participants do not represent the broader community or students in schools.

Seeking and receiving parent, student or community feedback can be incredibly valuable to shaping and refining communications. But it’s just as important to make sure all voices have a place at the table. Our job is to communicate with everyone in the broader school communities.

Making sure committees, community groups or trusted advisers represent the community’s diversity will help improve the effectiveness of your communications and outreach strategies, better serve kids and better engage families.

Not just the usual suspects

Every district has them: the engaged, passionate and committed community member or parent with the time and desire to get involved in the schools. These individuals will volunteer for everything.

They will seek out opportunities for engagement, read the materials you send out and show up prepared to contribute. They are eager to share opinions. They want their voices to be heard — and they are.

While their voices and messages are important and can be valuable in improving and refining your work, they often are far from representative of the broader community.

Most families do not have the time, confidence or resources for this type of engagement. They may not feel as comfortable in the schools, may be intimidated by the educational system or may not feel like their voices or input is valuable.

But these voices — quiet voices that may go unheard — often are the ones you need to hear most.  We don’t reach these individuals effectively with our communications. They don’t feel included or valued in our system. If we want to improve outreach and supports to students and families, we first need to know if what  we are doing is working and why or why not.

To create a truly inclusive stakeholder group we need to expand well beyond the usual suspects. We can’t simply rely on those who are already well-connected to our schools. We need to do the hard work of reaching people who are not actively engaged with our schools, feel disconnected or disenfranchised and whose perspectives are immensely important to our work.

Whether you are seeking parental feedback, student insight or community engagement, finding people who routinely do not engage with district leaders or share their views can be very powerful. These are the voices that so often go unheard and the needs that easily can be ignored.

If we want to craft truly effective communications or engagement strategies with all of our students, families and community members, we need to seek out the quiet voices and learn from what they have to say. Are we currently reaching them with our communications and outreach? Is what we are doing effective? How can we improve, increase engagement and better meet their needs?

Being intentional about inclusivity

Creating a diverse and inclusive committee, cabinet or listening session is more than ensuring a few individuals of color are sitting in the room. It means thinking holistically about the representative voices you want included and how to structure your meetings to accommodate a diversity of needs.

When you look around your community and classrooms, what do you see? Do you see similar diversity in your meetings, committees or advisers? Things to consider:

  • Are the major racial or ethnic groups in your community represented? Do you have refugee or migrant communities represented in your schools? Are they at the table? If not, how can you effectively reach out and create a safe and inclusive space for participation?
  • Is the diverse language of your area represented? Is your group set up in a manner that supports and includes nonnative English speakers?
  • Does your group or meeting reflect your community’s economic diversity? Have you structured your meeting in a manner that is inclusive of working families?
  • Are students with special needs and their families included?
  • Have you included members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community or their families?
  • Are there other significant groups in your community not generally represented at your events?

In addition to making sure you have a diverse set of stakeholders at the table, it also is important to look at how you structure your meeting, event or group. Is your meeting set up for your needs or the needs of participants? Have you gathered feedback on structure from people who will be impacted? An inclusive community meeting, event or group should:

  • Provide interpretation services and translated materials for those who need them and ensure people know these materials will be available.
  • Occur a time that works for busy working families. A 4 p.m. meeting might work for the retiree or stay-at- home parent but will automatically cut out anyone with a full-time job.
  • Provide child care if needed. Many low-income families or single parents will not be able to attend a meeting or event if they have to hire child care. Providing child care can remove that barrier and improve access.
  • Establish norms and rules of engagement that support all participants in feeling safe, respected and welcomed.
  • Seek feedback on what went well and what could be improved for the future.

Outreach strategies

We often hear from the same voices because we solicit feedback or participation in the same ways. Going beyond the school newsletter or website can help increase participation from diverse community members.

Strategies can include:

  • Asking engaged parents of color or those who represent historically underserved or underrepresented communities to recommend others from their community to sit on panels, attend forums or join a committee.
  • Asking parents and students how they get their news and how they prefer to be engaged.
  • Talking to parents one-on-one at school conferences about opportunities for increased engagement and participation. Solicit input on outreach strategies.
  • Posting fliers at local churches, community centers, child care centers, ethnic grocery stores or other community hubs.
  • Using social media to more broadly get out your message.
  • Holding a listening session with community members to assess the most effective ways to reach them.
  • Making sure to stress the importance of hearing from people. People are much more likely to engage if they feel invited to do so and if they feel like their input or feedback will be valued.
  • Asking people about others you should be reaching. Should you be engaging with or hearing from other groups?

Resource links

Contributed by Crystal Greene, communications consultant

‘Rock star’ communications versus ‘checking the box’

The role of communications in district management is growing. More and more schools are discovering that communicating their strengths to the public can be

the difference between people choosing to send their kids to their schools or taking them elsewhere. In very real terms, schools are learning that when they simply “check the box” in communications, they may be losing valuable funding.

At the same time, schools with “rock star” public relations departments are finding that they can literally pay for themselves in students and increased community support for levies and bonds.

What is the difference?

Checking the box can be described as having a good website, sending out routine printed materials and providing meaningful agendas for parent engagement activities. If you’re doing that, congratulations.

For most school districts, communications is handled by one full-time communications staff member. Checking the box can be as much as a one-person PR shop can do.

But let’s say you want more

“When you have a really well-staffed and high- functioning communications department, they almost end up filling a chief of staff function,” said Jamie Marie Riche, founder and principal consultant at Ideal Communications.

It is possible to go from simply reporting directly from the administration to the public to being an effective go-between, able to predict how the public will respond and add to the decision-making process.

“When you have great staffing and well-trained PR people, they are doing regular internal check-ins to see where everyone is on the steps of the strategic plan,” Riche said. “They’re not just reporting out what we’re doing. They’re asking where the next piece is. They are able to report back from community meetings and say, ‘This is where you played a difference in the lives of kids, and here is where we need your help next.’”

Rock star communications means finding out what the community really thinks

“In a perfect world, part of my job, when I am acting as a communications person for a school district, is acting as a synthesizer and translator between how we think about education internally and making it easier to understand for the general public,” Riche said. “In return, I get to be the voice of the community into the leadership team.”

This means asking questions. A community survey can tell you where you’re doing great and also where you need to step up. If people don’t know the good work you do, you may come up empty when it comes time to ask for a school bond.

Communication goes both ways

It is important for the person in the lead communications role to not only be clear on what’s happening right now but also know about the big issues coming up in the next few months. That means having a seat at the table.

“It was sure helpful to be aware what was happening when I needed to think about how to respond to an issue that might seem related but has implications or tie-ins to other issues,” Riche explained. “That kind of general level of awareness that you get from being in those team meetings is hard to replicate outside of it.”

Emergencies: The Crucible

Moments of crisis are when the public turns its eye directly on the schools. It’s under that pressure that a district can truly shine or find out just how poorly it has prepared.

“Good emergency response communication is all about timeliness and clarity, and those both depend on really good advance planning,” Riche said. “Identify who will take the lead in communications and what actions need to take place by each person or team. And depending on the emergency, it’s good to know who those skilled professionals are who can come in and help.”

For example, during a strike when school is canceled, principals become available to help respond to emails and phone calls. However, if you have an active shooter situation while school is in session, even principals in nonaffected schools will be unavailable. So your communications plan for emergencies needs to be very case-specific.

“I have an executive director of community relations and under her is the communications director, and in emergencies, our communications director is our spokesperson,” explained Matt Utterback, superintendent of Oregon’s North Clackamas School District and the American Association of School Administrators’ National Superintendent of the Year.

“They are likely, depending on the severity of the situation, to be the person onsite of the crisis/ emergency, and the director of community relations would stay in the office and stay abreast of the crisis as  it is unfolding and would be in communication with the director on site,” Utterback said. “And we’d also have communications support staff. They’d be managing the social media, the website, all email blasts, those sort of things.”

Utterback noted, “It’s a team effort. The other part is communicating and coordinating with our translation department. We are careful it goes out in four languages, and in a crisis, we have to work very quickly with our translators.”

So, how much do rock star communications cost?

Depending on your district’s funding, your communications staff might simply be the superintendent’s secretary who already juggles multiple tasks. That makes it hard to achieve rock star status.

The North Clackamas School District found out exactly how a communications staff can provide a great return on investment last November when they decided to put a $500,000 capital construction bond on the ballot.

Before starting the campaign, the district completed a survey and found the community did not have positive feelings about the local schools, which meant the bond would never pass.

“We used (the) website, social media, advertisements in the newspaper and did table tents at the mall,” Utterback explained. They also made themselves regular attendees at every PTA, community organization and school staff meeting. Utterback made over 200 presentations celebrating the district’s successes and laying out the plan for what the district wanted to achieve.

With improvements in student data, attendance rates and grades, Utterback and the communications staff used that information to win over the community.

“Over the course of two years, a lot of our community saw me one to three times and each time they saw this improvement in the story and they made connections with me,” Utterback said. “Suddenly, the district wasn’t this bureaucratic monster.”

When the survey showed the community approval rating was at 80% to 90%, the district put the capital bond on the ballot, where it passed.

“A communications department, that staff and that team play a critical role in the success or lack of success in the school district,” Utterback said. “When you can align your communications department with the mission and strategic goals of the school system, good things happen. And if good things happen for the school, clearly good things are happening for our kids.”

Contributed by Megan J. Wilson, freelance writer and communications consultant, Los Angeles, Calif.

Tech tip: Strengthen your parent community with ClassDojo

Have you heard of ClassDojo? Chances are you have, but if you haven’t, it’s probably happening in your schools whether you know it or not. Ninety percent of school districts use this popular web-based classroom management tool to connect with parents via text or email.

The free program was released eight years ago and can be translated into about 20 languages.

For teacher Jason Kline’s fourth- and fifth-graders, ClassDojo has evolved from a classroom tool for positive reinforcement and learning to one essential for communication with parents, even grandparents. He’s been a ClassDojo ambassador for five years for Eagle Charter Elementary School in Salem, Ore.

It’s paying off. Almost 100% of the school’s parents have signed up to connect with everything from homework reminders and fun videos of kids to alerts.

For example, 90% of parents acted on a message Kline texted about an emergency closure, with all but one child getting picked up by midafternoon.

Embrace new technology

“School districts might be wary of something they don’t understand, and therefore, choose not to use it,” Kline said. “But the technology is here and limited only to your imagination.”

He noted ClassDojo has become the most engaging tool at Eagle Charter since parents either text with their phone or use email as their main communication tools rather than the school newsletter.

Plus, ClassDojo is very simple for a student, teacher or parent to use. It provides a platform for two purposes: giving points for positive behavior and accomplishments in the classroom and keeping parents informed of not only their child’s daily progress and activities but also school events and issues.

School Story — a key tool for leaders

Use of ClassDojo’s School Story is even broader  and connects parents with schoolwide events and issues. That’s where you as a school leader should perk up.

Research supports the notion that parents connect with the classroom first, school second and district last. Establish positive engagement at the classroom level and you have a solid bedrock to build support on the larger issues, from explaining complicated controversies and banishing rumors to sharing facts on broader issues like bond measures.

Good uses for School Story include promoting lunch or coffee with the principal, sharing budget priorities and surveys, promoting contests and featuring teachers. School Story is an ideal place to post messages during Teacher Appreciation Week, back to school and other main events like graduations.

ClassDojo also can allow “likes” and comments with strong guidance on appropriate engagement, which reduces the fear of rumors and mean comments you often find on traditional social media. If comments become inappropriate, they can quickly be removed with staff stepping up to solve problems offline unlike some social media tangents that can derail constructive parent engagement.

Confidentiality protected

One of the biggest misconceptions driving users away is the worry that student information isn’t confidential, Kline said. He noted that personal information is never released. Plus, each student has a unique access code. You can’t get in without it. And data about students — points given or taken away — disappears each year.

“A big advantage I’ve found is that it tells me which parents do not check messages, which means I can find other ways to reach them, which helps you customize your connections to each parent,” Kline said.

ClassDojo also helps parents connect with each other.  For example, when parents post messages, they can connect offline if someone needs help with a fundraiser or transportation.

“With rapidly changing technology and social media norms, school leaders can ignore it, fight or embrace it,” Kline said. “We’ve embraced it, and every parent I reach loves it.”

Learn more about the free ClassDojo at www.classdojo.com.

Contributed by Shannon Priem, APR, freelance writer and former public information director for the Oregon School Boards Association

Tips for improving your writing

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.”
— Ernest Hemingway

Writing is a skill that improves with practice and coaching. The following tips are easy ways to increase readability when you write:

  • Vary the length and pace of your sentences. Use strong, precise verbs. Change passive sentences to active voice. Keep the subject and verb close together. Start most sentences with a subject and verb instead of an introductory phrase.
  • Double-check words that commonly are misused. Did you write “anxious” when you meant “eager?” Did you use “insure” when the correct word is “ensure” or “assure?”
  • Avoid bureaucratic terms and acronyms whenever possible, especially for writing that is going to the public or news media.
  • Be wary of words with opposite meanings that can create confusion. For example, “sanction” can mean both “approval” and “punishment,” as can “cite.”
  • Question the use of every cliché, “to be” verb, preposition, adjective and adverb. Each one robs your writing of power. Put a twist on a cliché instead of settling for a tired phrase. Recast sentences that have more than five prepositions and infinitives. Strive for specific action verbs instead of “to be” verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Advice from writers

Donald Hall: Look out for the verbs be/is/are and has/have combined with nouns and adjectives. See if  you do not gain by using the verb itself, clear and clean. Edit your writing to simplify your verbs. “He looked outside and became aware of the fact that it was raining” easily revises into “He looked outside and saw that it  was raining.” Or more simply,  “He looked outside. It was raining.” Instead of “We had a meeting,” try “We met.” The meaning is different, slightly, but if the second phrase is accurate, it is better. We save three syllables; we add vitality.

Roy Peter Clark: Place strong words at the beginning of sentences and paragraphs and at the end. The period acts as a stop sign. Any word next to the period plays jazz.

Anne Lamott: Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.

Sylvia Plath: And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.

Mark Twain: The difference between the almost right word and the right word is … the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

Watch out for these words

Some of the following words or phrases are grammatically incorrect, such as “comprised of” and “totally destroyed.” Others are bureaucratic and off- putting to the reader, such as “signage” when “signs” is perfectly adequate.

  • Words commonly confused: affect/effect; anxious/ eager; farther/ further; less/fewer; ratio/margin; insure/ ensure/assure; lie/lay; lying/laying
  • Words  commonly  misused:  reverend;  most importantly; including; adjectives as adverbs such as slow, careful, warm which should be slowly, carefully and warmly
  • Impossibilities: totally destroyed; most unique; more parallel; surrounded on three sides (unless it’s a triangle)
  • Homonyms: it’s/its; you’re/your; they’re/their/there; principal/principle; to/too/two; led/lead; who’s/whose; peak/pique; peace/piece; faze/phase; pored/poured; red/ read; break/brake
  • Nonexistent words or phrases: enthused; snuck; irregardless; picketers; comprised of
  • Great nouns/lousy verbs: impact; gift; transition; wardrobe; deadline; executive producer
  • Many words ending in -ize: finalize; prioritize; strategize; utilize
  • Bureaucratic words: signage; gaming (for gambling); onboarding; deplaning
  • Redundant phrases: future planning; new record; safe haven; at the intersection of; exact same; underground tunnel; past history; past experience
  • Unnecessary words: currently; presently; upcoming; a total of; very; really
  • Clichés: field of dreams; came to play; 24/7; ’tis the season; ’twas the night before; Grinch steals; Yes, Virginia; Jack Frost; Old Man Winter; Mother Nature; spring is here; and thousands of others

I am continually updating this list and welcome examples of clichés, nonsense words and improper usage. Email examples to thehughesisms@gmail.com.

Contributed by Dick Hughes, writing consultant

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