This document discusses how two school districts, Everett Public Schools and Traverse City Area Public Schools, use the mass communication platform Blackboard Connect to engage and involve parents. It outlines how the districts use Blackboard Connect for daily attendance tracking, emergency notifications, event reminders, and more. Feedback from parents in both districts suggests the system has increased attendance, parent involvement, and communication between home and school.

1. Engage and Involve Parents with Blackboard Connect Everett Public Schools Mary Waggoner Director of Communications Diane Bradford Executive Staff Assistant Traverse City Area Public Schools Alison Arnold Director of Communications RaeAnnFiebing Technology Training Specialist

2. Mobile Education & Connectivity Multi-Modal Mass Communication Campus Commerce & Security Web Based Teaching & Learning Synchronous Learning & Collaboration

4. Empower district leadership to communicate directly and effectively

5. Engage parents in their child’s academic progress

7. Improving your attendance and Enforcing Accountability

8. Enhancing your students’ achievement with greater parental involvement

9. Increasing funding

11. Serves over 5,000 clients in K-12, Higher Education, and Government

13. 1 in 3 K-12 students

14. 1 in 6 Higher Ed students

17. Blackboard Connect for Teachers™ Empowers teachers to communicate easily with students' families - in their home language - helping to improve parent involvement and student achievement in the classroom.

18. Everett Public SchoolsEverett, WA 9

19. Everett Public Schools Blackboard Connect

20. Ensure each student learns to high standards Everett Public Schools statistics 26 schools Over 18,000 students About 2,000 staff

21. Ensure each student learns to high standards Got “ConnectED” in 2005 Began using in 2005 for emergencies Added attendance notification in 2006 Outreach messages increased significantly since 2006 – now are 55% of messages Sent 5,595 unique phone calls last school year 597,024 total phones called last school year

22. Ensure each student learns to high standards How we use Blackboard Connect Daily attendance calls Use follow up outreach call for excused absences Emergency messages Community outreach for event and early release reminders pass/fail status for athletics eligibility Free and reduced lunch notification Email newsletters Fees owed Classroom/teacher assignments

23. Ensure each student learns to high standards What people are saying School staff reports Increased attendance, or at least, decreased unexcused absences Increased parent involvement Saves money, time and resources by reducing letters and postage Food and Nutrition alone saved approx. $1,800 in Sept. by using Blackboard Connect to send free/reduced letters.

24. Ensure each student learns to high standards Where we are going Beginning to implement Connect for Teachers with 7 schools as “early adopters” this year Anticipate it will become a systemwide communication tool

25. Ensure each student learns to high standards Mary Waggoner MWaggoner@everettsd.org Director of Communications Diane Bradford DBradford@everettsd.org Executive Staff Assistant

26. Ensure each student learns to high standards Parental Feedback Louise Uriu Parent in Everett Public Schools

27. Traverse City Area Public SchoolsTraverse City, MI 18

28. Traverse City Area Public Schools Increasing Parental Involvement Through AlertNow

29. TCAPS Demographics Located in Traverse City, Michigan at the southern end of West Grand Traverse Bay Nearly 10,000 students in 18 schools 300-square-mile boundary within 5 counties Over 1400 employees 34% free and reduced lunch

30. 2008-2011 District Communications Goal All communication will increase support and engagement among students, staff, parents, and community for improved relationships and student achievement.

31. AlertNow in TCAPS Launched AlertNow in 2008 Driving factors for decision: Support Board initiated communications goal Increase enrollment by debunking the notion that “larger schools mean less communication” Build school-home relationships and increase parental awareness to support student achievement

32. How AlertNow is Used Attendance Calling in High Schools H1N1 School Closures Testing, Registration, Conferences, & Other Event Reminders Bus Delays Calls for Volunteering Opportunity Implementation of new Bus Routing PD for staff / Trips Available for Bus Drivers

33. Parental Feedback “Just wanted to say..Fantastic! Great way to communicate. Feel like I’m in the loop now! What a great tool for us all! “I really appreciated this message. Both my daughters are in high school so I don’t always get the information any more.”

34. Parental Feedback Denise Timm Parent in Traverse City Area Public Schools

35. Alison Arnold, Director of Communications, Marketing, and Volunteer Servicesarnoldal@tcaps.net | 231-933-8995 RaeAnn Fiebing, Communications Technology Training Specialistfiebingra@tcaps.net | 231-933-1794

36. Discussion & Questions? 27

37. Thank you! Blackboard Connect www.blackboard.com/connectfork12 (800) 424-9299 ext. 4 28