Family Trends from Week Ending March 5

During the week ending March 5th, over 20,000 parents or caregivers responded to a pulse check with their parents’ praise and insights. We know parents and family members hear from their school after Possip pulse checks – but you may wonder what else is happening across the 26 states where Possip partners with schools, districts and families. Take a look at an overview of parent praise and insight from across the country.

Last week, 64% of parents responded that they were happy with their child’s school, with the remaining saying they were mostly happy or not happy with their child’s school.

 

We saw a few themes across the country:

• Specific shout-outs to teachers who have supported their children during virtual learning
• Praise for districts that are in the process of reopening school or recently moved to in-person learning
• Continued feedback and comments about school reopening plans and future or current COVID safety protocols
• Requests for more communication from teachers and the school overall
• Feedback for teachers around academic progress communication, virtual classroom management, and substitute teacher effectiveness

 

Here are a few suggested parent tools and resources based on what we are hearing.

• Blog: How to write an email with feedback to a teacher: https://possip.com/teacher-feedback-email/ 
• Blog: 5 Ways Parents Can Support Strong Teacher Communication Virtually https://possip.com/5-ways-parents-can-support-strong-teacher-communication-virtually/ 

 

We also shared these resources with our partner schools…

• Free Resource: COVID-19 Communication Parent Newsletter Template: https://app.hubspot.com/documents/5933397/view/94080897?accessId=82f822
• Blog: Parent Teacher Communication During COVID-19: https://possip.com/parent-teacher-communication-during-covid-19/ 
• Blog: 6 Tips on How to Communicate So Parents Listen and Hear: https://possip.com/parent-communication/ 

 

We’d love to hear from you. What else do you want to need or see? Do these parent praise and insights align with what you see?

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Possip Spotlight: Using Staff Pulse Checks to Inform Decision Making

This week’s Possip partner spotlight features a conversation with Teach for America Indianapolis Managing Director of Leadership Development, Brea Porter. Brea shares how TFA Indy has used Staff Pulse Checks to inform decision making. One of the primary ways they’ve encouraged participation in Pulse Checks is by letting their team know why they’re using Pulse Checks, and how they plan on leveraging their feedback and praise to drive decision making.

Read our Q&A with Brea to learn some strategies you can use to keep the feedback loop between your team and leadership transparent and open!

Possip: You mentioned you had a staff meeting to talk through how and why you are sending Pulse Checks to them. How did sharing your learning goals with your team increase their participation?

Historically, our organization has relied on lengthy quarterly surveys and frequent Google Survey forms to capture data about our member experience. Especially during the COVID-era, it seems like we started to push out more surveys than ever before just to get a read on how our people were doing. From the user perspective, it was perceived that we were constantly collecting input, but there was no through line that connected that input to the changes we were making for our organization. By sharing our POSSIP learnings with our network, they were able to see much more clearly how big of a role their input plays in both the day to day and long-term decisions our team makes. I believe this conversation allowed folks to truly feel heard, and demonstrated that their voices are valued by the decision-makers of our organization.

Possip: Has sharing findings and impressions from Pulse Checks with your staff been impactful?

Not only did sharing our findings from Pulse Checks increase the level of participation in general, but it allowed for our members to be a part of our decision making and planning processes. The accessibility and optional anonymity of Pulse Checks has allowed our folks to be vulnerable and engage in perhaps deeper, more thorough conversations than before. We’re able to gather insight from all perspectives, not just those who are willing and able to attend monthly focus-group meetings.

Possip: How did you go about doing this?

First, our leadership team had to get really clear on why we were collecting this data in the first place – what was our objective in having our members complete these Pulse Checks? Next, we wanted to make that reasoning available to our broader community, including offering a space for questions and comments to be shared. Then, we were finally able to share some of the insight we collected alongside how it has impacted our current planning, and what it could mean for us as an organization long term. Our members were appreciative of our level of transparency, and this conversation truly created a positive shift in our community culture.

Possip: What best practices or other takeaways would you share with other partners about staff Pulse Checks?

I think the advice we would offer is to be as intentional as possible about the Bonus Questions that you design for your Pulse Checks – they should feel timely and relevant to current context. Also, push yourself and others to be as transparent as possible about how the data you’ve been collecting has and will impact future planning and initiatives. From our experience, increasing that level of transparency with our members has increased member participation and strengthened our community.

Special thanks to Brea for the Q&A!

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Favorite Whip-Around Questions

Trying to connect teachers – staff – and even students – can get stale.  Our team loves using whip-around to keep us connected – and constantly getting to know each other better.  Here are some of our favorite whip-around questions – and some of these are great ones for students also.

 

• What is your favorite hobby you want to do when you retire?
• Guess the height of a team member or classmate you haven’t met in person yet?
• What is a movie you can watch again and again?
•  What is a word or phrase you know in another language? Where did you learn it?
• Tell us about one of your childhood friends and what you learned from them?
• If you could attend an NPR Tiny Desk concert by one musician/band, who would you select and why? 
• What is your favorite app on your phone? Or which one do you use most?
• What nonprofit would you choose to endorse if you could only pick one?
• If you were speaking at a TEDx conference or something similar, what would you talk about?
• What sound brings you peace? 
• What did you do this weekend?
• White holiday lights or multicolored holiday lights?
• Favorite family recipe?
• What is a proud achievement or accomplishment from middle or high school?
• Do you snooze your alarm or not snooze?

 

We’d love to hear from you.  What are some of your favorite whip-around questions?  Email us at hello@possip.com.  

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Family Trends from Week Ending February 28

During the week ending February 28th, over 33,000 parents or caregivers responded to a pulse check with their parent praise and insights. Below are trends in comments from families across the country taken directly from our Possip reports. Take a look at an overview of parent praise and insight from Possip families:

Last week, 73% of parents responded that they were happy with their child’s school, with the remaining saying they were mostly happy or not happy with their child’s school.

We saw a few themes across the country:

• appreciation for school staff members and their continued focus on student success and well-being
• comments, questions, and feedback about COVID safety measures being taken on campus during in-person learning
• continued requests for academic support for students who are struggling academically and need additional support from teachers
• feedback about school communication and requests for parent follow-up on student-specific topics

Here are a few suggested tools and resources based on what we are hearing.

• 5 Ways Parents Can Support Strong School-Home Communication
• Feeling unsure when to share feedback to your school? Check out this blog: When to Reach Out to The School

We also shared these resources with our partner schools:

• How to Use Your Report Reading Team to Follow-Up With Parents Quickly
• Effective Hybrid Learning Tips
• How Schools Are Effectively Communicating During This Time

We’d love to hear from you. What else do you want to need or see? Do these parent praise and insights align with what you see?

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Driving Strong Attendance and Enrollment Recap

We know that this enrollment period will be like none other. Schools and districts are feeling the pain of maintaining a high quality educational experience and strong funding streams. Now, more than ever, it’s important to consider how you can drive strong attendance and enrollment through your culture, messaging, and intentionality. That’s why we hosted Driving Strong Attendance and Enrollment, our second Possip PARTNER POWER CONNECT event.

Here are some of our favorite takeaways as a CX Team:

“Branding is the foundation. It’s the why.”

Monchiere’ Holmes-Jones, the CEO and Founder of MOJO Marketing + PR taught that branding isn’t simply about selecting a color scheme. It’s about centering your school and organization around a particular vision and goals that can shine through no matter the color scheme. Having a strong brand as a foundation will enable you to keep what you share consistent. We learned that because our brands are foundational, they go hand-in-hand with our missions. Monchiere told us, “If the mission is strong, it should always be a part of your message, and when someone can repeat it, they care enough to stay.” A strong mission reflects the culture, and therefore, the brand of an organization.

“Culture begets brand.”

Monchiere emphasized the importance of creating an authentic culture in order to create an authentic brand. It’s one thing to say certain values are a part of your brand, it’s another to live those values and let your brand speak for itself. She reminded us that demographics do not equal community. Authentic community and culture arise when people are presented with opportunities to express and celebrate themselves. For example, schools can take intentional time to celebrate months that highlight the identities of their scholars. Brand is “what people say when you’re not around,” as Monchiere said. In order to focus on driving strong attendance and enrollment, we have to consider the culture we have created, or want to create, when we establish our brand. 

“Stay newsworthy.”

Staying newsworthy doesn’t mean being in the news all of the time. Instead, it’s knowing what’s happening in the community and sharing relevant information with parents and families. For example, Monchiere highlighted that if there are opportunities for students to learn about different career fields or resources families can access, it’s important to become a hub for relevant information. This will encourage your parents and families to continue following and sharing what you have to say. 

A great way to do this using social media is to adopt what Monchiere calls Nike’s Hero-Hub-Help model.

• Hero posts “reiterate messaging and branding.”
• Hub posts “reiterate what’s happening right now.”
• Help posts “show how they’re helping their community.”

Show your brand; don’t simply tell.

A key part of the Metro Nashville Public Schools mantra is “every student known.” When the pandemic impacted student attendance and learning, Keri and the MNPS team wanted to make sure “every student known” was a reality. This led to the Navigator Program, which matches students with district staff and teachers who check in on them at least once a week. For Keri and the MNPS team, it was important to “expand” what they factored into attendance and make sure every student had someone they could go to if they needed solutions. Monchiere emphasized the importance of centering values in your brand, and MNPS demonstrates their values through real, actionable programs like the Navigators. 

Consider what students have gained during this time.

To wrap up our conversation, Keri ended with a reflection on her own son’s learning, calling us to consider not only what children have lost, but what they have gained and how they have grown during the pandemic. 

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We too want you to consider not only what you have lost, but what you have gained. We’ve seen your resilience, creativity, and leadership firsthand. We want you to feel empowered to “energize your brand,” in line with Monchiere and MOJO’s philosophy, by finding new ways to authentically drive strong attendance and enrollment, and continue creating a world that’s better for students and families because of your work.

Learn more about MOJO Marketing + PR here.

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Possip Spotlight: Gamble Montessori’s Strategies for Good Communication with Parents

At James N. Gamble Montessori High School in the Cincinnati Public Schools district, Principal Taylor Porter values good communication with parents which, according to Porter, involves informing, listening to, and responding to parents. These three tenets are central to Gamble’s communication with parents and growth strategy as a school. Gamble started using Possip pre-pandemic, and throughout the pandemic, it’s only served to strengthen their communication efforts.

Read our Q&A with Principal Porter to learn more about their communications philosophies, use of Possip, and strategies for parent follow-up.

What are your communication philosophies?

Good communication includes informing, listening, and responding. That’s the part we all miss– personally, professionally, from an organization perspective or school perspective. It’s not productive to always give marching orders. You have to find a way to hear your stakeholders and Possip, as a tool, has helped us with that.

After you receive a Pulse Check Report, what strategies do you use to follow up with parents and share praise with staff?

We signed up for Possip pre-pandemic, and I’m so glad we did because it allowed our parents and school community to get used to the tool. We get reports biweekly because we have a huddle every other Friday with our admin team. During our huddle, we go through the “hot” priorities in our reports and delegate it to the right personnel (resource coordinators, secretaries, etc). We didn’t have to create another meeting to discuss Possip reports because it goes with our schedule.

Our school is in a unique position: we’re experiencing tremendous growth. It’s really important to me to communicate with our families and community and also receive info from them– we want our relationship to be symbiotic (i.e. mutually beneficial), which includes having people in house who can respond.

What has been the impact of partnering with Possip on your school and community?

Parents love Possip because it’s another layer of communication. The most important thing to me is school safety, and we are looking to grow and keep growing. As we talk about safety and school growth, communication is the best tool. Voice mails can be tough, and emails are flooded. Having a quick biweekly report with responses is super efficient. 

I send parents a weekly robocall, weekly email, and weekly YouTube video. All of those tools allow us to share what they need to know, meanwhile, Possip is the best way for us to become aware of what we need to know from parents. Parents have shown through surveys that they appreciate the high level of communication. 

What are some tips you’ve shared with your principal colleagues that you think will benefit our other partners?

1. Prior to the first Pulse Check, send out an email blast about Possip. We sent a robocall, email, and YouTube video in advance. 

2. Before starting Possip, we had teachers proactively share information with their students that they could pass along to their parents. 

3. Don’t take sole ownership of Pulse Check Report reading. Build a team to view reports together, so you can make sure your response is effective. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share about Gamble Montessori HS?

Our school is really special. We’re a young school, but growing rapidly so I try to take advantage of any way we can increase and improve communication. There are things that make us special, such as curriculum and extracurriculars. Safety is also an essential value. Through it all, we are trying to grow and it’s working!

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We have five core values and one of them is community– we have to learn how to listen to each other. And considering the pandemic, Possip is even more useful. Pre-pandemic I enjoyed working with Possip, but now tools like it are making our lives a little better [in these times].

Special thanks to Principal Porter for the interview!

Follow Gamble Montessori High School on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

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Family Trends from Week Ending February 19

During the week ending February 19th, over 19,000 parents or caregivers responded to a pulse check with their parent praise and insights. We are seeing similar trends as last week in terms of feedback topics from families across the country. Take a look at an overview of trends of praises and insights from families across the country. Last week, 71% of parents responded that they were happy with their child’s school, with the remaining saying they were mostly happy or not happy with their child’s school. Below are a few themes from families across the country:

• praise for the dedication of all school staff members and teachers
• questions around school reopening decisions and a desire for schools to communicate their rationale
• continued requests for academic support for students and more communication around grade updates
• support with technology needs and troubleshooting virtual learning programs, along with questions about virtual learning attendance errors

Here are a few suggested tools and resources based on what we are hearing.

• Tech Troubleshooting Checklist: Here’s a resource for your child to try and guide themselves through tech troubleshooting at home https://app.hubspot.com/documents/5933397/view/82309932?accessId=0b77fb
• Student Goal Setting Trackers: These can be used at home to track progess towards academic goals at school or create your own goals with your child https://hubs.ly/H0G_NvK0
• In-Person or Virtual Learning: The Parent Decision https://possip.com/in-person-or-virtual-learning-the-parent-decision/

Here are some resources we shared with your school:

• School Reopening Checklist:  https://app.hubspot.com/documents/5933397/view/82292845?accessId=1ec48f
• Virtual Parent Organization Meeting Customizable Deck: https://app.hubspot.com/documents/5933397/view/82308302?accessId=7d2370
• Tips for Successful Parent Teacher Conferences: https://possip.com/tips-for-successful-virtual-parent-teacher-conferences/

We’d love to hear from you. What else do you want to need or see? Do these parent praise and insights align with what you see?

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