The data that really struck me was located in a blog post about teacher-parent and school-parent communication. This information was based off a survey of 30,000 parents and their opinions on communicating with their child's school. Below is one piece of data that I found very interesting.
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| Teacher-Parent Communication Data (Source) |
This infographic provides information on the way parents would like to have their child's teacher communicate information home. It states that only one in three parents are not satisfied with the way communication home is done. I think one in three not being satisfied is too many unsatisfied parents, but I don't really find this data that surprising. As a school teacher, I see that a lot of my colleagues really lack in the area of parent communication. I am in no way perfect at it either.
When looking at the rest of the data, I do agree with e-mail being the most effective method of communication. Specifically when you work in a low income area, like I do, e-mail becomes the best way to communicate because a lot of parents do not work a traditional nine-to-five job. I don't necessarily agree with face to face meetings only being 45% effective. I think that a face to face meeting or two are needed throughout the year to really discuss a child with their parents.
Like I said earlier, I know that parent communication is something that I need to work on. This year I began using Class Dojo, and it has already been a game changer when it comes to parent communication. It combines the e-mail and text communication into one very convenient location. Also, it allows any message I send home to be translated into Spanish (or other languages). This is huge for me and my classroom because I have 14 students this year whose parents only speak and read Spanish.
This infographic also brought up school to home communication, and had very similar results. Below is the data from that portion of the research.
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| School-Parent Communication Data (Source) |
Again, this data is also reflective of parental opinions of school communication. It shows very similar results with only one in four parents saying that they are not satisfied with the way their child's school communicates, with e-mail being the preferred method.
I am not one that often looks at data, but after looking at this today, I feel like reading data is something all teachers should do. It really can be eye opening to what is going on in education.
I'm glad you found value in looking at the research. Class Dojo is a great tool- kudos on recognizing that you need to strengthen this area of your practice and are taking steps to do so!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth!
ReplyDeleteI explored the same resources! With one out of the three parents not being satisfied with teacher communication. I do agree with you it is something we can work on. Sometimes I feel like I don't have time for parent communication other than Newsletters and Calendars when the planning time isn't enough for all the things we have to do. I struggle with that. I spend a lot of my planning creating materials for my students in my self-contained classroom. Also, how often should we be contacting parents for an update? from the report that we explored I wished it stated some ways of how teachers can contact parents and how often.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI also started using Class Dojo this year, although I have not found it to be a huge success so far. I am going to try through the first quarter though and see. I think that communication is one of those areas where it is nearly impossible to make everyone happy. Some parents want or need tremendous amounts of information, while others find it completely overwhelming and then tune out. Like everything in life, it's all about finding a balance.