Possip uses pulse check surveys and experienced educators to help schools make parents one of their greatest assets. We give parents weekly pulse checks that translate into weekly actionable reports for schools.
Educators from schools across the country gathered for a conversation between Possip’sJordan Jones, Executive DirectorsKathryn ProcopeandKristin Scotchmer, PrincipalCorbet Houston, and education consultantKerry Swarrto talk about using family feedback in school improvement projects and operations. Keep reading to hear from the panelist!
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Routine Pulse Checks are a way schools and districts engage their communities to learn the priorities of a diverse set of people. Through using routine feedback you can bring parents, staff or students to the table, and have their priorities top of mind when approaching school improvement.
Possip data reveals that parents most often weigh in on improvement on school operations, even over academics, teacher interactions, and school culture. In 2021, parents used Possip to communicate about operations more than any other category – 45% of all praise and family feedback. This trend was true before 2021 and has persisted since.
Approximately half of all parent comments relate to improvement to operations.
This makes sense.
In the operations category are situations that are most visible to parents and staff, that show up in their everyday school experiences.
Here’s more from Kristin Scotchmer, Executive Director at Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School. She explains how her team used Possip’s Bonus Question to make decisions about healthy and safety policies, and serve Mundo Verde’s most vulnerable families.
“What I appreciate about the platform is the way families can respond in open-ended language. We asked a question and were able to… give families space to give us feedback on their underlying concerns. We were able to construct a policy and…elevate the voices of our most vulnerable families in that conversation.”
Kristin Scotchmer
Executive Director at Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School
Interestingly, Possip’s data reviews that schools with lower happiness have more feedback on operations than schools with higher happiness.
Our data shows that as happiness increases, feedback on operations decreases, and praise for operations improvement increases.
Here’s a great clip from Kathryn Procope, Executive Director at Howard University Middle School, on how Possip feedback helped their team make decisions about improvement to car line procedures. In doing so, they reinforced trust with Howard University Middle School’s families and helped people feel empowered.
“I think parents feel more empowered. This is giving them a way to hold us accountable. I feel like it’s given parents a sense of power and a sense of commitment to us and knowing that when they give us information we are taking their feedback seriously. It definitely elevated the trust level for us.”
Kathryn Procope
Executive Director at Howard University Middle School
Howard University Middle School partnered with Kerry Whitacre Swarr, Possip reporter and education equity consultant who is also working on her Ed.D. dissertation involving Possip, to develop a research-based protocol for using family feedback in school improvement projects – like the car line improvements Kathryn spoke about. Learn this protocol here.
Corbet Houston, Principal at Howard University Middle School, shared that it can be a scary thing to begin receiving feedback. Here’s how he understood the value once he saw the data, and how Kerry’s protocol helped him frame the feedback.
“We don’t traditionally hear from a large portion of our parents. Once we got our first set of responses back from parents it was eye-opening. A lot of the parents who responded- their voices aren’t normally heard. It was also refreshing to sit and have a conversation about what questions make sense.”
Possip welcomes school leaders on February 2 at 11 AM CT / 12 PM ET to learn a research-based protocol for using family feedback in school improvement projects!
Nearly two hundred leaders and educators from across the country gathered for a conversation betweenPossip’s CEO Shani Dowell,school administratorsKavon SeayandMarc Anthony Peekof Napier Elementary in Nashville, communication consultantAustin Rhodesof Rhodes Branding, and lawyer and community fitness leaderJames Crumlin. Keep reading to learn theirtactics for increasing attendance.
The framework for improving attendance and increasing enrollment starts with engaging families to understand the barriers to attendance.
Data from Attendance Works, a national non-profit initiative, finds that:
“Possip’s routine Pulse Checks are a way to engage all families often and learn about their needs early on. Through routine feedback you can notice a potential barrier when it first arises for a family. For families already dealing with chronic absences, Possip’s Attendance Checks are a way to learn about direct and specific barriers to missing school.”
Possip’s data shows us thatsickness and transportation are the biggest barriersto attendance. In feedback from over 7000 families since 2019, we learn that40% of families report having a barrier to attendance. Sickness is the top barrier, ranging from half to the majority of absences. Transportation is the second top barrier, averaging about 10% of absences.
Once you understand barriers, you can begin removing them. Addressing health and transportation first.
Marc Anthony Peek, Community Achieves Site Manager at Napier Elementary in Nashville, shares some of the tactics his team has developed to address transportation barriers, including a walking school bus, and smartly timed attendance incentives informed by data.
Consider these tactics for removing transportation barriers:
Wide windows of time for drop off and pick up help families have flexibility in their schedules.
Helping families build their net of support for carpooling, and having parents who volunteer to help with carpooling
Extracurricular activities and afterschool programs aid with that flexible timing and have the added benefit of motivating students to come to school.
When families are asked in Pulse Checks what would help with attendance, Possip data shows they believe extracurricular activities, and a support person or mentor will help ensure attendance each day. This is why we consult partnering schools in creatingcommunity “nets” of support.
Consider intentional partnerships, engaging community organizations to help motivate students or provide a safe place.
Send parents home with a family phone tree to collect phone numbers of families who live near them and/or their bus stop.
During school events, have parents build out their support network as an activity.
Lawyer and TriathleteJames Crumlin, who notably leads Nashville’s most popular and longest running free community workout Capitol Steps, talks more about the role of a support person or mentor:
To address the top barrier of sickness, establish clear guidance for parents and kids on what to do when sick. Here are a few ways:
Make “go/no go” decisions clear.
Keep schools healthy, and communicate about it – highlight post-COVID protocols, share stats, update families on your efforts.
Repeatedly communicate the attendance policies related to sickness throughout the year. Make sure parents know exactly how and when to contact you for help.
While doing the good work of removing barriers, focus your team around communicating a culture of attendance rather than a prerogative of compliance. Focus efforts on community over compliance.
Possip’s CEO Shani Dowell voices the family perspective that surfaces in Pulse Checks, and how parents tend to respond to messages of compliance.
Communications consultantAustin Rhodesof Rhodes Branding talked about building a culture of attendance by integrating messaging and values that school is worth going to.
Your team can stepback to discuss developing these motivating mindsets:
What a student has to look forward to each day and each week
Why it’s worth showing up at school
What a student might miss if they miss school
How the school is better with the student present
Extend that culture of attendance to families, aligning through sharing data and stories.
Attendance Works provides free diagnostic tools for tracking attendance data. Possip Attendance Checks collect data consistently on the individual and collective family experience of absenteeism.
Dr. Kavon Seay, Dean of Students at Napier Elementary reminds us that “coming through with the caring piece” and sharing our own stories as educators and mentors is a way to align families, staff and students around this culture of attendance you’ve worked so hard to reinforce and communicate.
We shared several resources and tactics throughout this blog. Here are quick links to each of those:
Register today to receive the event recording! Thank you for joining Possip’s CEO Shani Dowell along with invited guests as we share ideas for improving attendance and increasing enrollment.
Kerry Whitacre Swarr, Possip reporter and education equity consultant who is also working on her Ed.D. dissertation involving Possip, partnered with Howard University Middle School to develop a research-based protocol for using family feedback in school improvement projects. Keep reading to learn the protocol for your team!
Those of us in education know that our field loves a protocol. A protocol is simply an agreed-upon set of guidelines for conversation. But the real purpose of using Protocol in educational settings creates a space to learn together and create value while improving and potentially transforming schools. This was the genesis of my dissertation topic. What if we used a meeting protocol with a School Improvement Team or other existing school teams with families representing your school population to review and make meaning of Possip Family Feedback Reports, together? I got to test this out with Howard University Middle School this fall.
The meeting protocol I created drew heavily from the works of both McDonald (2013) and Wegner and Wegner (2020). The protocol is basically a script that walks a group or team through three steps while reviewing a Possip Family Feedback Report–described below:
Quietly and individually, write three or four Notice Statements based on your observations from the Possip Feedback Report on Post-Its or on virtual Post-Its. These statements begin with the phrase “I notice that…” They should be free of inference, judgment, or speculation; they are fact-based, observing only.
Team members take turns reading aloud one new Notice Statement at a time and post them on a wall or virtual wall, without discussion. Group “like” noticing together. The process continues until all Noticing Statements have been shared.
Collectively reflect on why some noticing was more common than others.
What do the Noticing Statements mean?
Why should we care?
How can we better understand the impact of what they noticed?
Is most of the feedback compliant?
What does that mean for building an equitable school community?
Quietly and individually, participants write three or four Wonder Statements about the family feedback. These statements, which begin with the phrase “I wonder why/if/how/whether…” may or may not relate directly to Noticing Statements shared in Step 1. Sometimes they offer a suggestion; other times they are merely inquiries.
In no particular order, team members take turns reading aloud one new Wonder Statement at a time and post on a real or virtual wall organized by theme. This process continues until all Wonder Statements have been shared, without discussion.
The team reviews the notes. The team members have a dialogue about the noticing and wonder statements that were shared. Each person speaks before someone speaks again. When you speak, build off the point the person before you made. Actively listen to everyone.
Dialogue Questions:
Are there some themes?
Do you have a new perspective from the noticing and wonderings of others?
Now what? What are some actions that the team recommends the school take based on your collective learning that addresses family priorities, address power differences, and will contribute to building more equitable policies, programs, and structures at your school?
What other questions do we have? Can you collectively design questions to be used as the fourth question through Possip for the upcoming month that can?
Facilitator and Notetaker Roles for the Protocol
I built two roles—a facilitator and a notetaker. I recommend these roles change each meeting and include families, teachers, non-instructional staff, and school administrators to address any power differentials. Although we were able to accomplish everything in the protocol in an hour, the team members I worked with thought it would be great if they had even more time for rich discussion, meaning-making, and value creation–something that is rarely prioritized in the busy school day.
Create a Safe Space and Anonymizing Your Reports
With any feedback, there are concerns by team members no matter their role in your school community that things will feel personal and potentially threatening. But, we all know you don’t improve and get better unless you are open and truthful about how things are really going. This requires trust and that can be built in your team over time. Creating meeting norms to address these concerns that you revisit regularly will help. Also, school administrators can easily anonymize all feedback in the Possip portal and quickly and easily black out names in feedback to share with a team. This took me less than five minutes.
Why is it important to have a protocol and families at the table?
This protocol helps school teams focus on what families are saying. Because there are different perspectives at the table, teams can quickly understand family feedback from different perspectives, including families. Having families at the table makes schools immediately more accountable for making meaning from the feedback captured in the Possip Family Feedback Reports and doing something as a result to improve your school. Try it!
To read more on protocols and strategies for equitable family engagement, you can click here!
Sources:
McDonald, J., Mohr, N., Dichter, A., McDonald, E. (2013). The Power of Protocols: AnEducator’s Guide to Better Practice. Teachers College Press, New York.
Wenger-Trayner, E., & Wenger-Trayner, B. (2020). Learning to make a difference: Value creation in social learning spaces. Cambridge University Press.
