TextMarks helps businesses, nonprofits, and schools to reach and engage their communities with mass text messaging services. Providing an inexpensive, effective solution, TextMarks makes reaching parents and staff easy for schools.

1. ENCOURAGING PARENT
INVOLVEMENT IN EARLY
LITERACY THROUGH
TEXTS
TextMarks

2. Introduction
 TextMarks helps businesses, nonprofits, and schools to reach and
engage their communities with mass text messaging services.
Providing an inexpensive, effective solution, TextMarks makes
reaching parents and staff easy for schools.
One reason reaching parents by text is important is encourage
reading early. Children from low-income homes may experience
more challenges in learning to read and write in kindergarten
because of the “word gap.” Researchers have found that
preschoolers’ exposure to words varies greatly in families
depending on household income, with children of affluent families
hearing 30 million more words by the age of three than their
disadvantaged peers.
To encourage parental involvement and increase early literacy
experiences at home, interventions such as workshops, home
visitations, and counseling at well checks can all help families.

3. Early Literacy
 However, Stanford University researchers decided to track whether
frequent texts to parents could improve literacy outcomes in their
early learning program. The texts consisted of education facts, fun
tips to build literacy at home, and engaging ways to maintain skill
levels. Parents had positive feedback for the program; families liked
receiving the texts, and said they were spending more time on
literacy activities together. Children also scored higher on literacy
tests because of the texting program.
Mass text messaging can also be a low cost, easy way to
communicate general school information. Emergency notifications,
weather closures, and other timely updates can be shared with
parents. With 91% of Americans keeping their mobile device within
reach around the clock, mass text messaging can help schools to
maximize efforts to engage families, even with limited time and
resources.
To learn more about how your school can utilize mass text
messaging, visit www.textmarks.com.