Studies show that a strong family-school partnership is key to helping students reach their full potential, and communication technologies are at the core of these valuable connections.
In order to help educators maximize their use of communication technologies, the National PTA’s Center for Family Engagement (CFE) created a new “Essential Tech for Better Family-School Communications” toolkit with several components. The toolkit includes an overall collaboration guide, a comparison grid of technologies, a map to document for parents where school information can be found, and a list of questions to ask to improve family-school communications systems.
The core starting point is the Collaboration Guide: Essential Tech for Family-School Communication. In the guide, the CFE establishes the features and criteria that are important and analyzes various platforms on the market according to these attributes. (ParentSquare was included as a participating company in the “Messaging and Texting Services” category.)
The purpose of this collaboration guide is to enable education decision-makers, educators, and advocates to be more intentional with their selection and use of school-home communication technologies. Through research and expert guidance, the CFE developed seven top considerations:
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Content
The four major types of important content identified through family and teacher input in the guide include personalized student information, learning support resources, general information, and coordination.
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Accessibility and ease of use
Accessibility and ease of use considerations to meet families and teachers where they are include ADA compliance, language accessibility, device accessibility, and simplifying actions to reduce friction and improve user experience.
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Communication capabilities
Different methods of communication, two-way communication abilities, notifications, message attachments, and translation options are all important for decision-makers to consider.
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Training and support
From onboarding to ongoing training and technical support, a platform’s ability to meet the needs of teachers, administrators, and families with support and training is crucial. This includes basic and advanced training, technical support for users, and even support in multiple languages.
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Data moderization and privacy
Data capabilities and data privacy are particularly important to school and district technology leaders. Data standards compliance, student privacy standards, and a data privacy policy are at the top of this list, with features such as single sign-on and cross-platform interoperability as secondary considerations.
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Improvement and evaluation
Studies about platforms and their effectiveness, as well as engagement analytics, can help to demonstrate the reach and impact of these platforms.
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Cost
For districts and technology leaders, cost is often one of the main determining factors in selecting a family-school communication platform and needs to be balanced with a platform’s available features and benefits.
ParentSquare was one of the technology platforms assessed by the National PTA to help education leaders in charge of selecting communication technologies for their schools or districts. When choosing a family-school communication technology to best support a school community, it’s critical that decision-makers consider the combination of platform features that will best support their community’s needs.
Read more of the Collaboration Guide: Essential Tech for Family-School Communication from the Center for Family Engagement, and check out their full toolkit for more in-depth information on the project and how to improve family-school communication through technology.
