When the entire community -- schools, corporate leaders, parents, and other family members -- works together on behalf of children, learning improves.
Effective communication, central to this partnership, leads to:

Parental involvement in a child's education enhances achievement. Research results that support this assertion began emerging in the early 1990s; today, educators the world over acknowledge that when schools and family members communicate and work together, the child, parents, school, and community benefit.

• For a thorough survey of the research, check out The Effect of School to Home Communication: A Study of Perceptions (Marlatt, C., 2005).
  You can download the report in .pdf format. The thesis includes recommendations for improving school-to-home communication.
   
• Also read Community & Family Engagement: Principals Share What Works
  The report outlines six strategies that strengthen community engagement. Certainly, enhanced school-to-home communication is central to successfully implementing these approaches. The full report is available at the Coalition for Community Schools' Web site.

It's all about creating a positive school climate -- and good communication is central to that task.

According to the Center on Families, Communities, Schools, and Children's Learning, parents are more likely to participate in schools if they receive information from school leaders and teachers about school functions, classroom activities, their children's progress, and how to work with their children at home.

"Frequent and positive school-to-home communication (in the form of phone calls, progress reports, conferences, personal notes, newsletters, and home visits) helps parents feel more self-confident, more comfortable with the school, and more likely to become involved," write the authors of Critical Issue: Creating the School Climate and Structures to Support Parent and Family Involvement (1995, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, para 4).

This Critical Issue can be found online at
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/famncomm/pa300.htm

If students are to learn at school, they have to be at school.

Good communication -- with students, staff, and family members -- is proven to be one excellent strategy for encouraging students attend school. As researchers at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) have found, student attendance increases when, among other things, attendance policies are publicized and understood by all staff, students, and family members; there is effective reporting, recording, and monitoring; and policies include full family involvement, with parent notification and frequent home-school contact.

"Develop two-way contracts among students, administrators, teachers, and families that delineate standards of performance for the student, services the school will provide, or changes the school will make," authors of Increasing Student Attendance: Strategies from Research and Practice (2003, p. 17).

Read the full report online or download a .pdf version at
http://www.nwrel.org/request/2004june/index.html.

Schools are public spaces; they belong to the communities in which they are housed. As a result, while educators have the expertise and experience necessary to craft sound goals and initiatives, these endeavors will not be successful unless all stakeholders understand and support the goals and initiatives.

BRAVO* leaders "involve the faculty, students, and parents continually in reviewing and evaluating" how well the school or district is accomplishing its goals and initiatives, writes Sandra Harris, author of BRAVO Principals . . . Create a Shared Vision for Student Success (para 13). Invite teachers, students, and parents to be part of focus groups that review the work that has been done," Harris advises. "Survey the learning community regularly" (para 13).

*BRAVO is an acronym for Building Relationships with Actions that Value Others.

Schools are, first and foremost, learning organizations. Those who work in schools -- from the principal to the classroom teacher, from the bus driver to the lunchroom aide -- must learn about and embrace the mission the organization. An effective internal communication plan, therefore, is just as important as an external one. Such a plan helps ensure that the time and energy of everyone within the school is focused on shared goals.

"Employees are an organization's most important public," notes DPK Public Relations. Employees can "have a direct impact on a company's performance as well as its reputation. They can be your most passionate supporters or your most credible critics," (2006, para 2).

Read more at http://www.dpkpr.com/internalcommunications/

Public relations, unfortunately, is often given a bad rap. Public relations is not designed to put a "spin" on events-as many believe; rather, public relations gives the public and the media a better understanding of how a company works.

When school administrators effectively communicate with family and community members, they help tell a school's story. According to the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA), public schools are "the lifeblood" of democracy. "Why wouldn't we spend more time, attention, and money on telling our story and involving the public in our schools?" the NSPRA asks in Communication / Accountability.

Browse the NSPRA Web site for some great tips and strategies for bolstering your communication and public relations efforts.

Preparing for the worst has become an imperative in schools around the world. Schools know that parents and family members must be kept informed during crisis situations - or chaos can ensue.

A well-researched crisis plan should be in the hands of every stakeholder-from the principal to the teacher, the administrator to the parent or guardian. Practicing the procedures routinely is also wise, writes Nedda Shafir, public information officer for the Cave Creek Unified School District in Scottsdale, Arizona. "The last thing a school district needs is to be on the 10:00 p.m. news for a crisis that has spun out of control," she writes in Effective Crisis Communications and Emergency Notification (June 2006, School Business Affairs, p. 8.) "When a school district takes a proactive approach, the payback is an established credibility with parents, the community at large, and the media," Shafir asserts (p.8).

Read the entire article for more of Shafir's tips on crisis management planning and execution.

All students have a need to realize academic success, to feel competent, suggests Richard Sagor in the first chapter of his book Motivating Students and Teachers in an Era of Standards (2003, ASCD). All teachers, he continues, should "be given regular opportunities to validate the positive effects that their work is having on their students' lives," (2003, para 17).

School leaders can use communication tools to share those stories of student and teacher success. School Web sites can include pages that feature students' personal bests. Newsletter articles, distributed to family and community members, can share teachers' professional accomplishments and describe how those achievements can enhance student learning.

Read more of Richard Sagor's beliefs about the link between competence and motivation.

It makes intuitive sense. Helping families and community members understand how student achievement improves when particular programs are implemented can bolster support for those programs. Where there is support, funding sources follow.

For some great ideas on how to tell the budget story, read Educating Viewers about Education Finance.