External communication
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Training for district and school administrators on effective external communications, particularly in a diverse community. This was an assignment for a graduate class but is being incorporated into our district's communications planning.
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External communication
- 1. Workshop Four Administrator Training: External Communications Multi-Media Presentation David Britten University of Phoenix - EDD 545 Rich Merlo February 17, 2014
- 19. Some Results and Analysis How parents want to communicate with school NSPRA Survey 2011 Increasing Preference
- 21. What Parents Want in School Communication, Edutopia, August 31, 2011
- 25. “Using home visits to provide one-toone guidance on more effective parenting and home teaching skills”
- 28. “If the organization has no planned public relations, then chances of having effective communication and positive relationships with key audiences will be pretty much hit or miss — with a stronger emphasis on the „miss.‟” http://www.nspra.org/files/docs/StandardsBooklet.pdf
Editor's Notes
- Workshop FourAdministrator Training: External CommunicationsMulti-Media Presentation David Britten University of Phoenix - EDD 545 Rich Merlo February 17, 2014
- This presentation is designed to present the basic foundation of our district communications plan, particularly that portion that focuses on our external audiences. Who makes up this group will be identified in a later slide. Throughout this training you will learn:Methods to increase parental involvement.Effective communication techniques to support a positive climate in a diverse community.How to assess and create diverse community involvement.While this training focuses on policy and procedures, the ideas contained in here from various references identified in those respective slides are open for discussion and debate as we collaborate on an effective plan to support our educational mission.
- Before we can talk about what we should be doing, we should have brief discussion about what we are but more importantly what we are not doing. In other words, are we failing to communicate?Play scenefrom Cool Hand Luke (1967),retrieved from YouTube.com at http://youtu.be/SnO9Jyz82PsLet’s pair off and with your partner, identify 2-3 things we are doing well in communicating and 2-3 things we may be doing poorly or missing out on altogether. We’ll come back together in about 5 minutes to share our findings.
- This might represent our vision for effectively communicating with our internal and external publics. Given the discussion we just had about what’s working and what isn’t, how do some or all of what we identified fit into a 21st century strategy for communicating?
- We have internal and external audiences that require an effective two-way communications strategy. While this training will focus primarily on our external audiences, some understanding of the role of internal audiences is required. Here is a list of the most obvious groups. Are there any groups or individuals you see missing?Let’s talk a bit about the difference between “internal” and “external” publics. How might we communicate differently with each group? What do you believe is the expectation of each of these groups for communicating with our schools and the district as a whole? Which groups are most beneficial to our mission? (this might be a trick question)
- Here are a handful of purposes for communicating with our internal publics. How do these compare with what we discussed in the previous slide?
- Again, here are a number of purposes for communicating with external publics. Spend about a minute thinking about these and then pair off again to see if you can come up with one more you might add to this list.Which purpose do you feel is most important and why?
- These next two slides lay out a number of goals for our communications efforts.The goals of our communications plan, whether focused on internal or external publics, must be clear enough that we all understand where we’re headed and how our students, schools and the district will benefit from a well-defined, focused plan.Let’s take a closer look at the third bulleted goal. How will more “timely” internal communications have positive impacts on communicating with our external publics?
- It’s not enough to have a good communications plan if the effort doesn’t translate into a more inclusive, collaborative community relationship. How does the bullet three goal tie communications into overall “customer service?”Up to now, we’ve talked about the vision of our communications plan, the audiences we want to impact by it, the purpose of our plan, and a number of goals. The last goal lays out a need for assessing our plan both in general and specific to each of our internal and external publics. Let’s pair up again and come up with 2-3 ideas for measuring whether or not our plan is working. We’ll take about 10 minutes so you can have a good discussion of each.
- Now we get down to the “how” of communicating, particularly with out external publics. Individually, I’d like you for the next 2-3 minutes, make a list of all the ways in which you think we do or should be communicating with parents and other external groups.Let’s compare your lists with mine.
- Here are a number of communications tools I identified in our efforts to communicate with parents and other external groups. Are there any from your thinking that we should add?Let’s see if we can identify the ones we feel have been most effective, those that have been so-so, and maybe those that are minimally effective or even exist in name only.
- More members of our external publics are looking for real-time, instantaneous updates on information and a chance to provide input to improve our programs and schools. Let’s take a closer look at our basic district and building webpages, and together evaluate whether we feel they are effectively helping us to meet our communications goals.
- Blogging, which can be contained within our website or separately as my Superintendent’s Notes are, is an easy way to get near real-time communications out to our publics. But simply writing something on the web is not necessarily going to be effective. Let’s consider some other tools that help promote a blog post so that others actually know it’s there and have an opportunity to read it.Without moving on to those tools just yet, what comes to your mind that can aid in getting something like this post to our external audiences?
- Facebook has experienced phenomenal growth, particularly in the adult population. As you can see from this screenshot, our district Facebook page is reaching a fairly good size audience.I’m sure not all of you are on Facebook or have experienced using it, but what are some possible advantages to have this tool in our communications arsenal?
- Another fast-growing social-networking tool is Twitter.Before we go any further, we should have a quick discussion on the benefits and pitfalls of using social-networking sites in our communications plan. Let’s pair off again and come up with 2-3 benefits and 2-3 risks or other pitfalls involved with the use of Twitter and Facebook.Now that we’ve come up with some benefits and problems, how can we use the benefits to further our communications vision? How can we ensure we have the right safeguards in place to minimize the risks? Let’s make a list together that could form a set of guidelines for social-networking in our communications plan.
- We certainly don’t want to shortchange any possible communications tool because of myths or misunderstandings we have about our student and community populations. How do you think our parents, students and community in general compares with this recent survey? (You may have to give a quick orientation on what some of these social-networking sites are; don’t assume every administrator knows about them even if they’ve heard about them.)American Pulse Survey (2012), retrieved from http://www.prweb.com/releases/Feb12012/SocialMedia/prweb9215800.htm on 2/12/14
- Never underestimate the power of good old print news. Our district and individual school newsletters are examples of some of the print we use. What are the benefits of printed news?What are the drawbacks?Given the benefits and drawbacks that we discussed, what are the best uses for our newsletters?What limitations should we expect when we rely on printed communications in general?
- This slide highlights the top five communications tools preferences identified in an NSPRA survey of parents. You’ll recognize the individual in the quote. Ron Koehler is our Kent ISD assistant superintendent who began as a communications professional and we benefit greatly in the county from his knowledge in this area.Let’s go to the next slide and look at a larger comparison of communications tools from this survey.Anne Obrien, What Parents Want in School Communication, Edutopia, August 31, 2011, retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/parent-involvement-survey-anne-obrien
- We’ve talked a lot about various tools for communicating with our external publics but most of that has been from our vantage point as school administrators. Let’s take a look at how parents view these tools.This slide is taken from a CommunicationsSurvey: Results and Analysis, NSPRA, July 2011 (retrieved from NSPRAK12SurveyResults—07082011 on 2/12/14). While the data is now a few years old and technology is evolving rapidly, take a look at how specifically parents identified their preference in communicating with schools.Let’s talk now about how we think our parents, many of which are limited to the Spanish language, feel about the tools in this list. Find a different partner this time and take about 5 minutes to evaluate the items in this slide and how you think our parents’ preferences would compare.
- Regardless of the tools used, there are a number of things parents want to know and news they want to receive in ongoing communications from their schools and the district. While it’s fairly comprehensive, do you see anything that might be missing?Anne Obrien, What Parents Want in School Communication, Edutopia, August 31, 2011, retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/parent-involvement-survey-anne-obrienWhich of these do you think we do consistently well at? Be prepared to defend your reasons why you believe that.Which of these do we do poorly or perhaps not at all? Why do you think that? What might it take to improve?
- In fielding complaints from parents or even other community members regarding communications, this one factor seems to come out consistently – lack of timely information or response from us back to them.What obstacles get in our way of providing timely updates and responses?Anne Obrien, What Parents Want in School Communication, Edutopia, August 31, 2011, retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/parent-involvement-survey-anne-obrien
- Our district and our community represents racial, ethnic, language and socio-economic diversity. Each of these present challenges to any effective communications plan but our goals must include ways in which we are overcoming and will overcome any such obstacles. Let’s take a look at what a number of resources claim are necessary for communicating to a diverse community.
- First of all, this slide lists a number barriers that most effect involvement in our schools by minority and low-income families. Do you feel that these are representative of our families (and community members)? What are some ways that a good communications plan can address these barriers?Diversity: School, Family, & Community Connections, AnnualSynthesis 2003, SEDL National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools, retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/diversity-synthesis.pdf on 2/15/14
- The research suggests that to be effective in overcoming the barriers we talked about requires a formal plan backed up by policies and procedures. The policies must identify the importance of reaching out to our diverse community, finding and honoring the commonalities as well as the differences, and bridging gaps through effective communications.Chris Ferguson, Reaching Out to Diverse Populations: What Can Schools Do to Foster Family-School Connections? National Center for Family & Community Connections with Schools. Sep 2005. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED486468.pdf on 2/13/14
- What’s very important is creating a culture and climate that values input from our external publics, regardless of their background, home situation, or other barriers to understanding. They need to believe (not just be told) that they are important to their child’s success and to their opinions are welcome as we move along a path of continuous improvement.How do feel we are doing at creating a climate of parent/community empowerment and collaboration? On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you think our overall communications effort lies, with 1 being primarily one-way communications from school to home, to 10 being fully collaborative with a school climate that values their feedback? Get with your partner and share what you think.Ethnic Minority Organization’s Best Practices for Engaging Minority Parents, Minority Parent and Community Engagement, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and National Education Association of the United States Office of Minority Community Outreach, June 2010, retrieved from http://www.maldef.org/assets/pdf/mco_maldef%20report_final.pdf on 2/14/14
- Now that we are more cognizant of the level of two-way communications experienced in our schools and our district, let’s talk about some ways in which we can improve and be more inclusive of our external publics.Ethnic Minority Organization’s Best Practices for Engaging Minority Parents, Minority Parent and Community Engagement, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and National Education Association of the United States Office of Minority Community Outreach, June 2010, retrieved from http://www.maldef.org/assets/pdf/mco_maldef%20report_final.pdf on 2/14/14
- To ensure our internal and external communications are being effective, we’ll need to consider how we’ll assess the methods and outcomes.
- The NSPRA provides a free comprehensive tool that can be used to identify what specifically we should evaluate to ensure we are reaching our intended audiences and providing opportunities for them to respond.Raising the Bar for School PR: NEW STANDARDS FOR THE SCHOOL PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSION, NSPR (2002), Retrieved from http://www.nspra.org/files/docs/StandardsBooklet.pdf 2/13/14
- We’re not just talking about the formal tools and process we are using, but also the way in which we (you, I, and the rest of our staff) interact in particular with our external publics. Tools and processes alone don’t make for an effective communications plan. How we use those tools to engage our publics is critical.An assessment will tell us where we are strong and where we might need to focus training and professional development for members of our staff (and us!). It will also identify holes in our plan as well as methods we might be using that are ineffective in reaching our audiences.
- There are also many examples on the web of surveys that we could administer in a similar fashion to determine if we are being effective at communicating and creating a culture of inclusion. This one is from a school district in another state and is an example of an online survey tool used in assessing their communications and results.The next four slides show a sampling of the survey items they included.MontgomeryTownship School District webpage, retrieved from http://www.mtsd.k12.nj.us/Page/10007 on 2/16/14
- Montgomery Township School District webpage, retrieved from http://www.mtsd.k12.nj.us/Page/10007 on 2/16/14
- Montgomery Township School District webpage, retrieved from http://www.mtsd.k12.nj.us/Page/10007 on 2/16/14
- Montgomery Township School District webpage, retrieved from http://www.mtsd.k12.nj.us/Page/10007 on 2/16/14
- Montgomery Township School District webpage, retrieved from http://www.mtsd.k12.nj.us/Page/10007 on 2/16/14
- We’ll wrap up today by collaboratively working on a plan to assess where our external communications stand so we can go out and collect baseline data that will help guide the final development of our plan. I’d like you to work collaboratively by schools and departments. I have copies of the NSPRA booklet and the complete sample district survey to help in your thinking. I will also give you the link to this presentation on Slideshare.What questions might you have before we begin?