Communications With Families
Providence
Effective school communication with families has been shown to increase parental involvement, make teacher-student relationships stronger, and even have an effect on students’ on-task behavior and classroom participation.
In PPSD, approximately 31% of students are Multilingual Learners, and 55% of the student body come from homes where English is not the primary language spoken. Students and families in PPSD speak over 55 different languages and hail from 91 countries of origin. This diversity in languages provides unique challenges and opportunities for school and family communications, and the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division recently reached a settlement with PPSD over noncompliance issues for the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 (EEOA). Through this investigation, the Justice Department found that the district did not effectively communicate with parents of Multilingual Learners (MLLs).
Our Providence SCORE Community Research Team was particularly interested in measures that show:
The ways and effectiveness of PPSD’s communication with limited English proficient parents and families;
The modes of communications that PPSD uses with families and their effectiveness;
The types and effectiveness of school- and district-based family engagement events.
See below for more information about the SCORE Communications with Families goals and indicators, and click on the links to see available indicator data!
The SCORE Communications with Family indicators are separated into four goal areas that focus on access to communication:
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Providence Public Schools has a high number of multilingual families, and there are legal requirements that schools and the district communicate with them in ways that they are able to understand. However, in practice, these requirements are not always met.
The indicators in this goal area focus not only on the ways schools communicate with limited English proficient parents and families, but also these parents and families’ experiences with school and district communication.
| Number | Indicator |
|---|---|
| 1 | Family language preferences for school/district communication. |
| 2 | # of school staff who are bilingual/multilingual and languages spoken. |
| 3 | Description of services of partner/external organizations (and/or district-based staff) providing language access services. |
| 4 | Family satisfaction with district/school communication in preferred language and language access services. |
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Providence Public Schools communicate with families in several ways. This includes phone calls and in-person meetings, messaging and scheduling platforms such as KiNVO and Skyward; alerts and a newsletter; and social media platforms that share both district and school-specific information.
The indicators in this goal area focus on the different ways the district communicates with parents and families, including the types and modes of communication as well as the experiences parents and families have with them.
| Number | Indicator |
|---|---|
| 5 | Modes of communication with families used by schools and district. |
| 6 | Languages available in modes of communication with families. | 7 | Engagement measures for mass emails sent by schools and district. |
| 8 | Family satisfaction with school and district communication. |
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If communication with families and parents is to be successful, responsiveness is critical. The Providence Public School District’s website lists as a priority each staff member communicating “in a professional and timely manner” and working “with a sense of urgency during all customer interactions.” Two-way communication platforms and procedures include ways of routing and prioritizing community issues, and also collect data around response times, overall satisfaction, and themes in communication.
The indicator in this goal area focuses on the level of responsiveness parents and families experience with district communications.
| Number | Goal |
|---|---|
| 9 | Average response time for communication with family by schools or district. |
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Numerous studies have shown that systematic efforts by schools to engage families are associated with improved student outcomes. Robust family engagement can include family orientations, open-houses, conferences, and other direct forms of individual communication where the district can share resources and receive feedback from parents and caretakers.
The indicators in this goal area focus on the quantity and quality family-oriented events in the district, as well as the proportion of staff trained in family engagement. Additionally, two indicators focus on staffing levels and family satisfaction with the district’s Parent Ambassador Program (PAP).
| Number | Indicator |
|---|---|
| 10 | #, types, and attendance numbers for family engagement sessions/events run by schools and district. |
| 11 | Family satisfaction with family engagement sessions/events run by schools and district. | 12 | # and % of school staff trained in family engagement and curriculum covered. |
| 13 | Parent Ambassador job description and staffing levels. |
| 14 | Family satisfaction with Parent Ambassador(s). |
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Currently, the active indicator links represent data that is publicly available (i.e., enrollment data and SurveyWorks climate survey). However, in many cases, our community-identified indicators differ from those that are publicly available. We are working to request data that the school district collects but is not yet made public. As new data and visualizations are ready, we will add them to the SCOREcard.
Additionally, some of what community members have asked to be measured in the SCOREcard is, to the best of our knowledge, not currently being collected In these cases, this SCOREcard represents a call to action for the school system, in partnership with community organizations, to collect data in areas that matter to the community, and to make it publicly accessible. As we get access to more data, more indicators will be populated and our SCOREcard will be stronger.