Schools Rebuilding Public Trust
Finding time to invest in relationship-building activities is challenging for school board members, superintendents, district leaders, and principals. Do it anyway. In bad times, leaders must fight the human instinct to hunker down and circle the wagons. Public problems require public solutions. School boards can play a pivotal role in this process.
May 2013
Using Technology to Tell Your Story
Storytelling is different in the digital age. With smartphones, flip video cameras, and inexpensive software, it’s easier than ever to create compelling new stories and slide shows. Social media outlets offer unlimited – and free – publishing opportunities. The final product may not rival traditional broadcast news, but neither does the cost.
March 2013
Schools Battle Hunger
Swept into children’s lives along with a rising tide of poverty that shows no signs of receding, hunger is haunting America’s classrooms. Linked to weakened immune systems, cognitive delays, anemia, slowed or abnormal growth, social-emotional concerns, and other challenges, hunger can devastate a child’s development and future life chances.
January 2013
Public Information on School Construction
When school boards win voter support for a bond issue, it’s tempting to breathe a collective sigh of relief and move on to other pressing issues, but the real public information campaign is just beginning. Communicate less information more often, and do so in a simple, clean, clear, and compelling fashion.
October 2012
School Communications Go Mobile
It’s time to go mobile. When it comes to Internet access, smartphones and mobile devices now outpace traditional PCs by a five-to-one ratio. Today’s on-the-go consumers use the mobile web daily and 25 percent are mobile only. For African-American and Latino parents, that percentage jumps to 38 percent.
September 2012
The Battle for Public Education
In politics and propaganda, lies told often enough become the truth. Big lies – such as the canard that public schools are failing – often are the most believable. Relying on word-of-mouth and high levels of parent satisfaction, while still important, is not enough to win a marketing war.
August 2012
Telling the Public About Public Schools
Campaign to keep public schools public – and local. Here are effective, low-cost ways you can remind your community to “stay local”: Work in public, and fight in private; focus on what matters; celebrate and recognize success; hit the speaker circuit; stay in touch; and, keep the public in public schools.
July 2012
Boosting School Staff Morale
Teachers perform better when they feel appreciated for the work they do. Greater job satisfaction translates into higher levels of teacher optimism about what students can achieve, as well as more positive interactions between teachers and parents. Teacher expectations and parent engagement impact student learning. Addressing morale is important.
June 2012
Top 10 List of Public Education Success
Policymakers and pundits have decried “our failing schools” so often it’s become an accepted truth. But the naysayers are wrong. It’s time that we recognize our accomplishments and give our public schools a collective pat on the back. Here is my personal Top 10 list of things we’re doing right.
June 2012
Common Core Communications
Communications needs to be a vital part of any plan focused on helping key individuals and groups understand the Common Core, and the need to transform student expectations as well as teaching and learning. Creating awareness, influencing perceptions, and changing teacher, student, principal, and parent behavior takes time, resources, and careful planning.
May 2012
The New Generation Gap in Schools
In the 2008 Presidential election, about 70 percent of voters did not have school-aged children. This mainstay constituency represents a shrinking demographic. This means public schools can do a great job of teaching students and communicating with parents, and still miss 70 percent of the people upon whose support they depend.
March 2012
School Board Training
In today’s tough economy, every dollar counts, and public entities – including school boards – are under intense scrutiny. Before traveling to a state or national conference, review the program agenda and materials publicly, including registration costs and travel fees, and then highlight which sessions board representatives plan to attend and why.
February 2012
Getting the Good News Out
Advocating for top-notch public schools for all children has never been tougher, or more important. With gaps between generations getting wider by nearly every measure imaginable, school officials need a new communications toolkit. This toolkit needs to start with a keen understanding of today’s generational politics and fractured electorates.
January 2012