Improve parent-teacher communication
Your school’s teachers are already juggling multiple responsibilities. They don’t just trust employees of a school administration. They also have a responsibility to each and every student’s parents.
On top of a full-time job inside the classroom, teachers need to report on student performance and behaviors. Traditionally, this is done through monthly or quarterly parent-teacher conferences, but today’s parents need more.
The more hectic parents’ schedules get, the more actively they worry about their child’s well-being and academic performance. Modern school management software takes a huge burden off of teachers’ and parents’ backs, allowing them to transparently monitor child interaction with teachers, their progress through school, and their attendance.
School administrators use tools like WPSchoolPress to improve parent-teacher communication by cultivating transparent relationships, setting the foundation for trust, address and resolve urgent school matters easily.
Let’s look at how those issues get in the way of school communication, and how administrators can address those obstacles to encourage teacher involvement and parent satisfaction.
Transparency Leads to Greater Accountability
A child’s academic results are the result of a team effort. If grades are good, it means teachers are using effective methods to keep their students interested in the subjects, and leading them towards excellence. In turn, teachers and parents alike are motivated by their school administrators. It is your job to think of ways to improve student performance and ways which make parents decide that your school is the best school for their child.
When student performance does not meet expectations, it is not always due to the lack of interest on teachers’ behalf, but often due to a lack of transparency. Parents might receive the news of their child’s poor performance after it has already caught traction and formed a troubling pattern. This moment can be avoided altogether if schools assume greater responsibility for student conduct and performance. Administrators who empower teachers to communicate with parents in a transparent manner help build a solid foundation for student success.
For example, one in six American students is chronically absent. Schools with better channels of communication between teachers and parents are able to reduce chronic absenteeism and keep at-risk students in the classroom.
Frequency is the Basis of Trust
As is the case in any relationship, trust is crucial, but it develops slowly, and its steadiness must be maintained continuously. Teachers should think of themselves as parents’ best friends when it comes to challenging and inspiring their young ones.
Parents need to have the option to check up on their children with the same ease they get from consulting their GPS to get directions to a destination. The more frequently parents have access to academic scores, performance metrics and the behavioral information for their child, the more at ease they will be leaving the fate of their young ones in the school administration’s hands. This will make it more likely that they will give their seal of approval to the school as their child’s second home.
Frequency and consistency in communication will ensure strong compatibility between the school and the parent, one which reassures parents they made the right choice for their child’s education.
Happy Teacher, Happy Parent
In order for kids to excel academically, the well-being of a teacher is equally important as their own. A teacher must feel like caring mentors rather than underappreciated babysitters.
Every parent has concerns they wish to bring up with their child’s teacher, but it is next to impossible to hold a satisfactory one-on-one meeting in increasingly crowded classrooms. Teachers can streamline some of the most important elements of parent-teacher communication. Updates, reminders, and student performance information can be released simultaneously through a simple SMS text that helps teachers deal with every student’s parent in a more pragmatic and efficient manner.
Not only is it important for teachers to relay updates regarding parent concerns, but it is crucial that they do it in a timely manner. If a problem arises, parents have the right to know about it immediately. This involves parents from the start, leading to a more effective solution through effective parent-teacher partnership.
Extracurricular Communication
Parent-teacher conferences can’t address every issue a student may have. Urgent matters can occur in between parent-teacher meetings and must be dealt with through other means. Every school must implement a communication side channel. Phone calls, video calls, emails, texts, can all be utilized for concise and to-the-point updates or reports, rather than releasing a long letter that outlines the general issues, at the beginning of each month.
In today’s hyper-connected, mobile-first world, parents need to feel like they are in the classroom, in the school halls, and close to everything happening in their children’s fast-paced, ever-changing academic and social life. Making information easily accessible and available is just the first step. The next is streamlining the internal structure of the school administration. School administrators need to reduce the barriers between parent and teacher communication.
Parents demand access to student report cards, records compilation, accounts, admission forms, attendance records, and a session calendar. Schools that offer this information in an easy-to-use platform establish themselves as leaders in education. Those that go the extra step can offer personalized SMS messages alerting parents to important developments inside and outside the classroom.
To learn more about how you can make your students’ parents feel more involved and trusting, see our live demo of WPSchoolPress. Empower your school staff to send updates to parents in a transparent, accessible manner through an easy-to-use system.
