As the school year progresses, many districts face a familiar challenge: declining student attendance. Mid-year lulls can significantly impact student performance, engagement, and overall district success. For administrators, this is the perfect time for an attendance reset, leveraging data-driven strategies to reconnect with students and families.

In this post, we’ll explore why attendance matters, how to use data effectively, and actionable steps to foster a culture of consistent engagement.

Why Attendance is Crucial

Regular attendance is more than a metric—it’s a lifeline for student success. When students attend school consistently, they not only perform better academically but also build habits that set them up for lifelong achievement. Missing just two days a month can lead to chronic absenteeism, putting students at risk of falling behind in reading, math, and other foundational skills.

The White House Council of Economic Advisors reports that post-pandemic chronic absenteeism has surged from 15% to 30%, widening achievement gaps and increasing dropout risks. Students who miss school frequently are more likely to face challenges such as limited employment opportunities, poorer health, and involvement in the criminal justice system later in life.

Conversely, consistent attendance unlocks opportunities for growth, engagement, and success. Students gain knowledge, social skills, and the resilience needed to thrive. For district leaders, fostering regular attendance is a powerful strategy to boost student outcomes and build stronger school communities.

Step 1: Analyze Attendance Data

Understanding the root causes of absenteeism starts with data. Use your district’s data dashboard to identify key trends:

• Who: Which students are missing the most days?
• When: Are absences increasing during specific periods?
• Why: What reasons are families providing?

Modern platforms like SchoolStatus enable districts to monitor attendance trends at macro and micro levels, turning data into actionable insights.

Step 2: Segment Your Outreach

Not all families experience absenteeism the same way. Tailor your communication to address specific needs:

• High Absence Rates: Offer personalized interventions, such as transportation assistance or flexible scheduling.
• Moderate Absence Rates: Provide positive reinforcement and attendance strategies to families nearing risk.
• Good Attendance: Celebrate and encourage families with strong attendance records to maintain momentum.

SchoolStatus communication tools make it simple to send customized messages via email, SMS, or app notifications, ensuring families receive relevant and actionable support.

Step 3: Engage Families Proactively

Family engagement is key to improving attendance. Foster collaboration by:

• Transparent Communication: Use Smore (also included in the SchoolStatus Connect platform) to create newsletters with attendance data, tips, and expectations.
• Parent Workshops: Educate families on the importance of attendance and strategies for overcoming barriers.
• Feedback Channels: Offer surveys or forums to capture parent concerns and involve them in solutions.

Step 4: Implement School-Wide Incentives

Incentives can motivate students and families to prioritize attendance. Ideas include:

• Classroom Challenges: Recognize classes with the best attendance records.
• Individual Rewards: Highlight students with strong attendance in newsletters or assemblies.
• Community Partnerships: Partner with businesses to offer perks like discounts or gift cards to families maintaining good attendance.

Step 5: Monitor and Adjust

Attendance interventions must be dynamic. Use your data tools to measure the impact of your efforts regularly. Ask:

• Are chronically absent students showing improvement?
• Which interventions resonate most with families?
• What feedback are families and teachers providing?

Platforms like SchoolStatus allow educators to track progress in real time, making it easier to adapt strategies.

The Reason to Reset

A mid-year attendance reset is an opportunity to reconnect with students, empower families, and build momentum for the rest of the school year. By combining data analysis with targeted outreach and proactive engagement, districts can foster a culture of consistency and collaboration.

Ready to reimagine your attendance strategy? Schedule a demo with SchoolStatus today and discover how data-driven tools can make attendance improvement effortless and impactful. Let’s work together to ensure every student is present and prepared to succeed!

It’s that time of year—the start of the holiday season. It’s a compressed time of celebrations, religious observances, shopping, entertaining, travel, and overeating. You have your lists; you’re checking them twice, right?

Now, let’s add another task to your holiday to-do list: connecting with your families, students, staff, and the entire school community. While your students and colleagues may be getting ready for the holiday break, it’s important not to shut down your school communications. Instead, take advantage of this time to share information and strengthen relationships. With the help of your school community, you can share helpful tips, fun news, and entertaining photos and videos that will contribute to the success of your school.

To help you get started, I’ve gathered a few fantastic ideas to consider this month.

Show Appreciation for Key School Personnel

Every corner of your school is filled with individuals who deserve special recognition. From the first grade teacher who has taught multiple generations of families to the slightly eccentric science teacher who knows how to make science not just fun, but a potential career path. And let’s not forget about the custodial staff and support professionals who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make your school great.

As the year comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to acknowledge and appreciate the “gifts” that these individuals bring to your school. But it’s not enough to simply recognize them individually. Take advantage of various communication platforms such as school assemblies, PTO meetings, morning announcements, newsletters, the school website, and social media to spread the word about their contributions. Use the holiday season as an opportunity to show your students, colleagues, parents, and the entire school community how much you appreciate them.

Use Multicultural Holidays to Celebrate Your School

The holiday season is a perfect time for schools to embrace multicultural celebrations and foster unity within the entire school community. While it’s important to respect the separation of church and state, it’s also important to acknowledge and recognize diverse cultures and religions as a unifying gesture that promotes tolerance and understanding.

In addition to the traditional holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, it’s important to acknowledge other significant holidays such as Mawlid and Las Posadas, a significant celebration in Spanish-speaking communities.

In some school districts, like one in Arizona, Las Posadas is celebrated with a community-wide event that not only unites the community but also collects food for local food pantries. By embracing and acknowledging these diverse holidays, schools can create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students, staff, and parents. It’s an opportunity to spread holiday cheer and promote understanding among different cultures and religions.

Chances are your school includes families and students who observe these events. If you want your school communications to be more multicultural, don’t overlook the holidays as a great time to demonstrate that.

The Holiday Shopping Mindset

Take advantage of the holiday season to tap into the generosity of your parents and staff. Host a Holiday bazaar or Christmas fair to provide an opportunity for parents to find unique gifts while fostering a sense of unity and joy within your school community. Don’t forget to involve your PTO to add an extra touch of excitement. Consider combining the fair with a holiday party, where parents can enjoy some festive punch and cookies, creating lasting connections that extend beyond the holiday season.

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Check this list twice for holiday-themed fundraising ideas for your school

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Think Outside the (Mail)box

Don’t miss out on the classic holiday tradition of sending greeting cards. However, there’s no need to burden the U.S. Postal Service when you can use email instead.

Email remains the most effective way to reach your parents, making it a great option for sending personalized holiday wishes. A simple holiday email greeting from the superintendent or principal, or even a practical message from a teacher, can go a long way in engaging your parents.

Remember to include a link in your email that directs the reader to more content, such as a page on your school website or an invitation to a holiday event. For more tips read our blog article, 10 Steps to Creating School Emails that Reach Parents

Socialize During the Holidays

Keep the spirit of the holiday season alive on your social media platforms just like your favorite Christmas sweater. Make sure to maintain an active presence on Facebook throughout the month and utilize your school’s Instagram account to stay connected through captivating pictures. Don’t forget to maximize the potential of these channels even during the holiday break by sending out reminders about exciting holiday plays and school activities.

It’s also important to keep your school website active during the holidays to provide parents with up-to-date information for their return to school planning.

You can also get some ideas from Andrea Gribble at SocialSchool4edu. She has several ways to ramp up your social media presence.

The holiday season is a time for joy and laughter, allowing us to embrace fun and lightheartedness that may not be as prevalent during the rest of the year. Do you have any ideas to share on how to make the most of this festive season and effectively connect with your parents, students, staff, and community?

Published September 19, 2024 on eSchool News.

In my role as Assistant Director of Student Services, I’ve learned that the most crucial factor in improving student attendance isn’t about policies or procedures–it’s about connections. Our district serves a diverse community of hardworking families, including many newcomer families. We’ve faced our share of challenges, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we’re making strides by focusing on what matters most: our students and their families.

In Alvord Unified, we’ve learned that operationalizing our strategic goals around attendance isn’t just about setting targets–it’s about creating systems that foster meaningful engagement. By focusing on building strong school-home connections, we’re not only improving attendance rates, but also driving improved student outcomes across the board. Our approach demonstrates that when we align our daily operations with our broader strategic vision, we can create a school environment where every student is empowered to succeed.

Before the pandemic, our district maintained a respectable 95 percent attendance rate, with chronic absenteeism hovering between 12 percent and 14 percent–on par with surrounding districts and national averages. However, when COVID-19 hit, we saw our chronic absenteeism spike to 25 to 30 percent, mirroring the struggles faced by districts nationwide.

The pandemic created an opportunity for a new approach to attendance management

As we emerged from the pandemic, it became clear that we needed a new strategy. For years, our Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) had included provisions for an attendance management program, but implementation had always been pushed to the back burner. The post-COVID landscape, with its unique challenges and shifting priorities, provided the perfect opportunity to revisit this need.

During the height of the pandemic, our school sites were overwhelmed. They were juggling COVID case tracking, managing periods of exposure, and trying to maintain some semblance of normal operations. It was during a conversation about reducing the burden of attendance letter mailings that I saw our chance. If we could automate these processes, we could free up our staff to focus on what really matters: connecting with students and families.

After researching options and consulting with colleagues at state conferences, we decided to implement SchoolStatus as our attendance management system. This move wasn’t just about tracking numbers; it was about transforming how we approach attendance altogether.

SchoolStatus has become an integral part of our attendance strategy. It handles much more than just systematic notifications. The system automates our attendance tracking, generating real-time reports that allow us to identify trends and at-risk students quickly. It manages our compliance requirements, ensuring we send out legally mandated notifications, like the crucial first notice that outlines parents’ responsibilities under California’s Education Code. This system allows us to operationalize our strategic goals around attendance, turning our vision into concrete, daily actions.

Read the full article on eSchool News.

Effective family engagement is crucial for student success. When families are involved, it improves academic performance, strengthens school communities, and fosters student confidence. According to research, students with engaged families tend to perform better academically, demonstrate positive behavior, and feel more supported.

However, with today’s busy, tech-driven world, many schools face challenges in keeping families engaged. Here are seven actionable strategies to foster stronger school-family connections, tailored for today’s communication landscape.

Why Family Engagement Matters

Family engagement is one of the strongest predictors of student success. Engaged families contribute to better outcomes, such as:

• Improved academic performance
• Increased homework completion
• Higher self-esteem and social skills
• Better cultural understanding between home and school
• Higher graduation rates and lower special education placements

The digital age has introduced many tools to bridge the gap between schools and families. Here’s how you can leverage these tools, alongside traditional methods, to increase family involvement:

1. Use Video Tutorials for Parent Support

Posting video tutorials on your school’s website can help parents support their child’s learning. Videos can cover homework tips, study techniques, or walk families through school processes. This is an accessible way to equip families with the tools to assist their children at home.

Tip: Embed videos directly on your school’s website or share them via social media to increase visibility.

2. Keep an Updated Online Calendar

Outdated information often makes families feel out of the loop. Ensure your school website features a current calendar of events, synchronized with your school’s app and social media channels. This keeps families informed and reduces the need to search for updates.

Check out our School Communications Planning Guide to streamline your communication.

3. Engage Families on Social Media

With many families active on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, social media offers a direct way to connect. Use these channels to share news, celebrate achievements, and remind families of upcoming events. Link posts back to your school’s website or app for more information, and consider establishing a clear social media policy for consistency.

4. Schedule In-Person Meetings

Face-to-face meetings build trust and allow for more meaningful exchanges. Regular parent-teacher conferences, open houses, or even home visits foster connections and demonstrate a shared commitment to student success.

5. Host Family-Centered Events

Organize casual events like family nights or open houses. These allow families to see the school environment and engage in relaxed conversations, encouraging deeper involvement without the pressure of formal meetings.

6. Offer Flexible Volunteer Opportunities

Flexible volunteer options empower families to participate in ways that work with their schedules. From event assistance to joining the parent advisory council, providing a range of opportunities makes it easier for families to contribute.

7. Utilize a School Mobile App

In today’s mobile-first world, a school app is essential. Ensure your app integrates with your website, calendar, and other communication tools. A user-friendly app with real-time updates keeps families engaged and informed on-the-go.

Explore the benefits of our school mobile app for seamless communication.

Your Communication Hub

A well-maintained website serves as the central hub for family engagement, offering calendars, blogs, volunteer sign-ups, and video resources. When paired with a school app and active social media presence, this approach ensures all families stay informed and connected.

For more resources on boosting family engagement, check out our School Communications Planning Guide.

Start building a stronger school community today with these practical strategies!

Does your school have a blog? Or maybe you have a school blog, but really not sure why, or you struggle with finding new content for it. Just how effective is it? Are you sure anyone is even reading it?

If your school doesn’t have one or you wrestle with writing or managing it, you’re not alone. Some schools have a blog because they know they’re supposed to have one. However, few schools have the time, resources, or technical know-how to make their blog as effective as it can be.

Does your school need a blog? Most definitely. Your school needs a blog if you want a modern forum to tell your school’s stories and set the table for all sorts of powerful school communications.

Before you get started on creating your school blog or overhauling the one you’ve got, take a step back and look at the big picture. Your blog has the potential to become a communications hub for your school, so it’s wise to put it in perspective with your school or district’s broader communications plan.

One problem is that many schools don’t know exactly what it is that their blog is supposed to accomplish. As a result, the blog is a hodgepodge of communication of efforts. There’s a little bit of news, some updates on classroom activities, sports team results, and other pieces of communication that aren’t part of a coordinated strategy. When there’s no overarching mission, the blog becomes a one-way avenue of communication.

Remember: don’t talk at your audience; talk with them.

Another common failing of blogs is when the school talks at their audience, rather than with them. Make sure the tone and point of view of your blog is approachable for all your readers. Your blog should be a communication starter. It should foster engagement with your students, parents, faculty, and surrounding community. It should provide an outlet for them to communicate back with you, whether that’s in the comments section of the blog or on social media. You can even use your blog to link to other important items you want your readers to view or download (e.g., guides and schedules.)

If your blog isn’t accomplishing that level of two-way communication, don’t worry. You don’t have to be a tech expert to have an effective blog. In fact, you can optimize your blog with just a few easy steps.

Here are five easy steps to creating effective school blogs. Incorporate these elements into your blog planning and execution and you’ll begin seeing results.

1. Establish a School Blog Mission

Why do you have a blog? Yes, you probably know that you’re supposed to have a blog. Beyond that, though, what do you want to accomplish with your blog?

A helpful exercise is to create a written mission statement for your blog. Gather some interested parties and form a blog communication committee. The group could include some administrators, your PR lead, and possibly even some faculty members. Discuss where there are gaps in your communications strategy and how the blog could fill those gaps.

Keep in mind, you could have multiple objectives for your blog. Some possible objectives could include:

• Communicating important news to the community
• Gathering feedback from students and parents on important issues
• Educating potential students and parents on the strengths of your school

Once you have a mission in place, post it in the sidebar of your blog so all your visitors can see it.

2. Make it Shareable

The best way to spread your blog’s message is through organic social sharing. You want your readers to easily share your content with their friends and connections. There are three important facets to making your content shareable:

• Make it easy. Readers are more likely to share if it requires little effort. The best way to do this is to put sharing buttons at the top or on the side of your blog content. Have a button for all the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest. You can easily accomplish this with any good content management system.
• Make it compelling. People only share content that they find helpful, interesting, or fun. With every post you create, think about how you could take it up a level. One great way is to make it visual. Instead of writing a blog, could you make it an infograph? If you’re writing about a classroom activity, could you embed pictures of the activity? If you include a picture, make sure it’s at least 560 x 292 to maximize its impact on Facebook.
• Make it responsive. Much of your audience is going to access your blog through a mobile device. That means much of the sharing will also be done on mobile devices. Make sure your content management system offers a responsive design, so your blog will show up regardless of whether it’s being accessed on a computer, phone, or tablet.

3. Create a School Blog Planner

Is there a mad scramble for content every time you need a new post? You can avoid the chaos of content creation by planning out your blog schedule months or even a year in advance. The content should flow naturally from your blog’s mission. Select topics that meet the clear objectives that you and your team have laid out.

Once you have a list of topics, plot them on a calendar. Many content management systems offer calendar features that can facilitate this type of planning. With the topics on a calendar, you can start reaching out to relevant parties and creating content well in advance.

4. Post on Social Media

Ideally, you want your audience to share your content on social media. However, you should start the process by sharing the content yourself. You should post a link to the content on all social media channels as soon as you post it. Don’t stop there, though. You can keep promoting the blog post regularly long after it was originally written.

As an example, think about some of the publications you follow on social media. Maybe you read sites like Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, or Business Insider. Have you ever noticed that they’ll often promote blog posts that were written months or even a year ago? That’s because they know they won’t hit everyone the first time they promote it. You have to keep promoting on social to fully reach your audience.

Also, include an image in your post. This is especially true on Facebook, where images can help grab attention in a busy news feed.

Finally, think about how you present the content. Avoid blatant self-promotion like, “Read our new blog post!” Instead, try asking a provocative open-ended question like, “How can you help your child overcome homework struggles?” This drives curiosity and encourages readers to click through the link.

5. Promote Your School Blog

Getting your post out on social media is a great way to promote readership. However, it’s just a first step. You should continue to promote your blog through other forms of outreach.

• One effective way is through an email newsletter. Most content management systems offer templates to quickly build email newsletters with new content and with links to blog posts. You can then send the newsletter out to parents, students, and the community on a regular basis.
• Also, you should promote your newsletter on your blog. Make a spot in your sidebar for signup to the email newsletter. Again, this can be accomplished pretty quickly with a solid content management system.
• You can also promote the blog by inviting guest posters. Your guests could be teachers, parents, students, or other interested members of the community. You offer the guest the opportunity to express their views and possibly link back to their website, if they have one. In return, you ask your guest to promote their post to their friends, family, and audience.
• Finally, cross-promote your blog in all forms of outbound communication. Whether it’s a press release, a flyer sent home with students, or even banners at sporting events, reinforce the idea that your blog is a valuable source of school information.

Your blog doesn’t have to be a source of frustration. Just follow these best practices to maximize your blog’s potential. Another good source of information is your content management system provider. They can offer tips and best practices they’ve seen other schools implement with success.

Email. It’s the workhorse of school communications. It’s direct, measurable, and can be one of the most powerful tools in your communications mix. Unfortunately, however, few school administrators understand the science behind creating ones that get noticed, opened, read and acted upon.

So what makes an email effective—one that your families not only read, but then engage in the way you want them to?

A few savvy businesses know the formula. I’m not talking about the spammers who might slip through your spam filters. I’m talking about senders with whom you have some established relationship. The sharp ones know how to make the most of their email campaigns. Hubspot, an inbound marketing juggernaut, has taken a scientific approach to email, and breaks down the Anatomy of an Email in this super article by Meghan Lockwood.

In one of our recent surveys of school communicators, IT managers, and school administrators, we found that email is still the most preferred and effective way of reaching families. With the popular channels being used to engage families—school websites, social media, notifications, voice—email remains a very personal way to connect.

Email is still the most preferred and effective way of reaching families.

Pro tip: Smore is fully integrated with SchoolStatus Connect! Easily create responsive and translatable newsletters for your class, school, or district and share directly to your audience’s central feed and email inbox. 

Schools Have the Advantage

As a school, you already have a built-in connection with your families—they trust you as their child’s school. This relationship gives your emails an advantage over the clutter in inboxes. According to a recent survey of school administrators, communicators, and IT managers, email remains the most preferred and effective way of reaching families, despite the rise of websites, social media, and notifications.

Optimizing Your School Emails for Success

To ensure your emails reach and engage families, consider these key elements:

1. Craft an Attention-Grabbing Subject Line

Spend time crafting a concise subject line that hints at the content inside. Aim to pique curiosity or highlight value. Avoid generic lines like “Message from the Superintendent”—instead, get specific. The subject line is your gateway to clicks.

2. Personalize the “From” Field

Emails from a real person get more opens. Instead of sending from “XYZ School,” use the name of a trusted school staff member, such as the principal or communication director.

3. Maintain Clear School Branding

Consistent branding, from school colors to logos, strengthens recognition and trust. Make sure your email templates reflect your school’s identity and involve your communications team in the design process.

4. Personalize the Salutation

A personalized greeting, such as “Hi Brian,” creates a stronger connection than a generic “Dear Sir/Madam.” Personalization fosters trust and engagement.

5. Get to the Point

Show the reader the value of your message right away. Avoid fluff and be direct—e.g., “Attending the open house shows your support for your child’s education.”

6. Use a Clear Call to Action (CTA)

Whether you want parents to register for an event or visit a page, make it easy. Use prominent, clickable buttons or links to guide them toward the next step.

7. Include Relevant Images

Emails with images perform better. Use school-related photos or graphics to break up text and draw attention to your message. Just ensure the images are relevant to the content.

8. Add Social Sharing Buttons

Encourage parents to share your message on social media. Adding Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn buttons increases your email’s reach.

9. Provide a Secondary CTA

If your email has multiple objectives, include a secondary CTA. Direct parents to your website, calendar, or other important school resources to keep them engaged.

10. Include Unsubscribe Information

Ensure your email footer contains privacy details and a simple unsubscribe option. This is not just good practice—it’s the law.

Reaching Mobile Audiences

More families are checking emails on their phones or tablets, so optimizing for mobile is crucial. Responsive design, concise content, and easily clickable buttons enhance the mobile experience, ensuring your message is accessible anytime, anywhere.

Pro Tip: Segment Your Emails for Maximum Impact

Not every email needs to go to every family. Segment your audience by school, grade, or involvement level to send the most relevant information. Families appreciate tailored communication, and this approach ensures higher engagement.

Engaging families today has become simpler, thanks to the variety of communication tools at your disposal. In this post, we’ll explore these channels and how you can maximize them to drive family involvement in your school community.

When families are actively engaged in their child’s education, students tend to perform better. Research from the Southwest Education Development Laboratory (SEDL) shows that increased parental involvement leads to higher grades, better attendance, and stronger social skills. Additionally, family-school partnerships are more important than ever for student success.

Joyce Epstein’s Framework provides six areas where schools can involve families:

1. Parenting: Help families support learning at home with resources and guidance on child development.
2. Communicating: Share important school updates through accessible channels.
3. Volunteering: Invite parents to contribute time at school events and in classrooms.
4. Learning at Home: Offer insights on how families can reinforce classroom learning.
5. Decision-Making: Encourage participation in school decisions through surveys, PTO meetings, and more.
6. Community Collaboration: Develop partnerships with local businesses to support school initiatives.

If you’re already working on these fronts but want to improve, let’s discuss four practical ways to enhance your family engagement strategy.

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1. Develop a Mobile-First Family Engagement Strategy

Modern families are always on the go, and they expect information at their fingertips. Creating a mobile-first strategy helps you meet them where they are.

Start with a responsive website that works seamlessly on any device. Include mobile notifications that alert parents of important updates through text, email, social media, and your website. Consider implementing a branded mobile app that integrates all your school’s communication efforts, giving parents a convenient, central hub for accessing their child’s assignments, grades, and upcoming events.

2. Encourage Family-Generated Content

One of the most effective ways to promote engagement is by letting families share their stories. Feature content from involved parents—like testimonials, blog posts, or newsletter contributions—to showcase the benefits of engagement.

For example, ask a parent volunteer to write about their experience helping in the classroom. This content can inspire other families to get involved, highlighting what they and their children gain from participation. Additionally, work with your PTO to maintain a dedicated family-run website or section on your school’s site for these stories. Just ensure all content is approved and aligns with your school’s communication strategy.

3. Embrace Social Media for Broader Reach

Parents are active on social media, which makes it a valuable platform for engagement. Use Facebook or Instagram to post event updates, student achievements, and school news. Social media is also an excellent way to share visuals from school events, making parents feel more connected even if they couldn’t attend.

Leverage tools like SchoolStatus’ built-in social media features to ensure your content is consistent across platforms, and track engagement metrics to see what resonates most with your audience.

4. Conduct Parent Surveys for Input

Want parent input on important school decisions? Get them involved early through online surveys. You can use a service like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to create and distribute online surveys to parents. The outreach can be done through email, social media, and even on the school website.

A short, five-question survey could be enough to pique a parent’s interest in a particular menu or to spark some online conversation. For example, assume you send out a survey on changes to the school’s art program. A parent may complete the survey and immediately become more interested in the outcome. That could drive them to attend meetings, become involved in planning committees, and help formulate the school’s decision-making.

Project Appleseed, a non-profit organization dedicated to public school improvement, has assembled a cool parent involvement survey/report card. Even if you’re a private or charter school, this survey is still a good one to use as a model if you’re serious about assessing parent involvement at your school.

Some content management systems have survey capabilities built right into their software, so the ability to measure opinion or start some healthy dialogue with parents is just a link away.

Family Engagement is the Key to Student Success

Building strong partnerships with families can dramatically improve student outcomes. By adopting a mobile-first strategy, encouraging family-created content, leveraging social media, and using surveys to foster dialogue, your school can enhance family involvement and, by extension, student achievement.

If you’re ready to improve how your school engages families, explore SchoolStatus, a platform designed to help schools connect with families, simplify communication, and track engagement for better outcomes.

One of the most common complaints from school communicators is that their website just sits there, static. Sure, the events and calendar pages get traffic, but how do you make your website more interactive and boost engagement with families? How can your website help meet your school communications and academic goals?

Two words: Landing Pages.

Landing pages are dedicated web pages designed to capture visitor information through targeted messaging and forms. Used widely in the commercial world for email sign-ups, webinar registrations, or demo requests, they are a powerful tool to pull visitors closer to your school community. When integrated into your school’s communication strategy, landing pages can help promote events, build enrollment, gather data, and more.

Your Website is More Than a Directory

School websites have traditionally been used as a place to list basic information—staff directories, event calendars, athletics schedules, and lunch menus. While this core content remains essential, school communicators need to evolve their websites into dynamic, interactive platforms. Even the most perfectly designed site with excellent navigation can benefit from the focused messaging and action-driven content that landing pages provide.

For more tips on optimizing school communication, read our blog on School Website Design Best Practices.

Why Landing Pages Matter

Landing pages prompt your website visitors to take action—whether it’s registering for an event, RSVPing for a school function, or purchasing tickets to a school play. By directing them to a clear, purpose-driven form, you create opportunities to engage with parents, students, and staff in a meaningful way.

Whether you’re encouraging a prospective parent to request more information, having an existing parent sign up for a parent-teacher conference, or asking a student to register for a field trip, landing pages are designed to meet communication objectives by turning visits into actions.

The Anatomy of a School Website Landing Page

A well-designed landing page follows some key best practices. But before we dive into that, it’s important to understand how visitors arrive on a landing page. Their journey could start from various sources—social media posts, email campaigns, blog articles, or another page on your website. Each of these sources should be paired with a clear call-to-action (CTA) that directs them to the landing page.

Here’s what every school landing page should include:

1. Headline

Your headline needs to grab attention quickly and summarize the page’s purpose. Be concise and direct, ensuring visitors know what they’ll get if they take action.

2. Brief Copy

The body of your landing page should be short and to the point. Your visitors are already interested—they’ve clicked through to this page—so keep the copy focused on explaining what they’ll gain by completing the form.

3. Relevant Image

Including an image that reinforces the content helps increase engagement. This could be a picture of the event, a cover image for a study guide, or a visual of a teacher leading an activity. People respond better to visuals, and they make the page more appealing.

4. Form

The form is where conversions happen. Keep it simple—ask only for the information you truly need (such as name and email). Many forms fail because they ask for too much. You’ll have future opportunities to collect more data through follow-up communications.

Why Google Analytics is Essential

Before diving into landing page creation, you need a solid understanding of how visitors currently use your website. Tools like Google Analytics are invaluable for gaining insights into user behavior. You can track where visitors come from, how they navigate your site, and what actions they take. This data is essential for refining your landing pages and measuring their success.

For more on this, check out Google’s Guide to Using Analytics for Education Websites.

Google Analytics, part of the free Google Apps for Education suite, enables schools to track everything from mobile usage to the most popular pages on your website. By leveraging this data, you can design landing pages that resonate with your community and align with your school’s communications metrics.

Shift Your Thinking: Landing Pages Are the Future

Incorporating landing pages into your online communications strategy may require a shift in thinking. But think of them as an opportunity to engage your school community using methods most people now prefer—fast, direct, and actionable interactions.

With attention spans shrinking and the majority of users browsing on mobile devices, schools need to adapt to the way people engage with information. Landing pages offer a straightforward solution for making that engagement happen.

Start Small, Think Big

Begin by integrating landing pages into your most time-sensitive campaigns—such as event promotions. Landing pages are perfect for gathering RSVPs, selling tickets, or sharing details about school events. As you see the benefits, you can expand their use to other areas of your school’s communication strategy.

For more guidance on leveraging landing pages, explore this HubSpot Guide to Creating Effective Landing Pages.

If your current website team isn’t familiar with landing pages, consult your school website provider. They should offer tools or support to help you incorporate landing pages into your broader communications plan.

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Landing pages are an underused but highly effective tool to increase family engagement and improve how your school communicates. By implementing them strategically, you can transform your website from a static directory into an interactive, goal-driven platform that meets the needs of your entire school community.

Ready to take your website to the next level? Contact SchoolStatus to learn how landing pages can enhance your school communication strategy.

In the past, school websites primarily served as a basic directory, offering little more than contact information and a calendar of events. If you were lucky, the information might even be up to date.

But today, schools have a huge opportunity to use their websites for far more than just the basics. While staff directories and event calendars remain important, a strategic approach to website content can greatly enhance engagement with families, staff, and the community.

Enter the Web Content Rule of Thirds—a balanced strategy that ensures your school website isn’t just functional but engaging and inspiring.

The Core Content: Your Website’s Standard Plays

Before diving into the content rule of thirds, it’s crucial that schools get the basics right. These “standard plays” form the foundation of any successful school website and should be readily accessible:

• Contact information and staff directories
• District and school calendars
• Teacher web pages
• Links to Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Student Information Systems (SIS)
• Lunch menus and family resources
• Athletics schedules
• Important forms (permission slips, registration info)

These foundational elements are essential, but if that’s all your website offers, you’re missing out on its full potential. Once these are in place, it’s time to take your content strategy further.

The Web Content Rule of Thirds

To truly engage your school community, diversify the content on your website. The Web Content Rule of Thirds recommends dividing your content into three key categories: News and Events, Human Interest, and Ideas. This approach adds depth to your website and gives your audience a reason to keep coming back.

Here’s how to implement the rule of thirds to maximize engagement:

1. News and Events

This is the heart of your school’s ongoing activities. Beyond just listing events on the calendar, think of this as your school’s “front-page news.” Whether it’s promoting upcoming events, sharing real-time updates, or celebrating achievements afterward, your school website should keep everyone in the loop.

Make sure your calendar:

• Allows users to customize their view (district, school, or department-specific)
• Syncs with personal calendars like Google or Outlook
• Provides event details beyond just dates (event highlights, registration info)

Don’t forget to share these updates across your other communication channels—social media, email, and newsletters—to reach as many people as possible.

2. Human Interest

People connect with stories, and your school is full of them. Share the experiences and milestones that make your school community unique. This content doesn’t need to be long or complex—a simple photo or short video can tell a powerful story.

Ideas for human interest content:

• Student and staff achievements
• Behind-the-scenes looks (sports practices, theater rehearsals)
• Alumni updates and throwback moments
• Family and student interactions

These are the stories that foster pride and connection within your school community.

3. Ideas, Tips, and Insights

The final third of your content should focus on offering valuable information. Think of this as your chance to educate and inspire. Curating relevant content from trusted sources (such as NSPRA, PTO, NEA, etc.) can provide useful insights without requiring constant content creation on your part.

Content ideas for this category include:

• School statistics and achievements
• Education news and trends
• Homework tips for parents
• Family resources and helpful guides
• Inspirational quotes or messages for the community

This type of content not only informs but also reinforces the value your school brings to families and staff.

It All Adds Up: Increasing School Value Through Engagement

By applying the Web Content Rule of Thirds, your school website can go from a basic tool to an essential resource that builds engagement and trust. A mix of news, human interest stories, and helpful ideas paints a fuller, more vibrant picture of your school’s value.

Start today by reviewing your own website. Are you relying solely on the basics, or are you offering a variety of content that speaks to all aspects of your school community? This approach doesn’t just increase engagement on your website; it can also enhance your broader school communication strategy across social media, emails, and newsletters.

Remember, a school website should do more than just meet the minimum requirements. It should be a dynamic space that serves students, families, and staff by offering content that informs, inspires, and engages.

Ready to boost engagement? Learn howSchoolStatus can help you elevate your school communication with the right tools and strategies.

Published March 11, 2024 on TeachThought

Recognizing school/home communication’s profound impact on student success and well-being is crucial. 

We need to understand school communication as much more than disseminating information—it’s an integral pillar supporting student achievement, as fundamental as curriculum and instruction. Effective school/home communication is essential to an educator’s strategy to nurture student success.

Elevating School/Home Communication: A Vital Component of Family Engagement

The Impact of School/Home Communication 

School/home communication shapes a student’s educational experience and overall well-being. Research consistently demonstrates that students with actively engaged families exhibit higher academic achievement, improved attendance, enhanced social-emotional development, and higher graduation rates.

The collaborative efforts between educators and families create a supportive environment, fostering a sense of belonging and motivation crucial for sustained success. It bridges the gap between what happens in the classroom and a student’s life at home. When home adults are informed and involved, students receive consistent support across various aspects of their development.

Beyond Communicating Information

To truly understand the importance of family engagement, it’s essential to recognize that communication isn’t an isolated event—it’s a continuous, integral component of the entire learning process. When families actively participate in their child’s education, they become partners in the learning journey. 

Effective school/home communication plays a pivotal role by fostering collaboration between educators and families. It bridges the gap between what happens in the classroom and a student’s life at home. When home adults are informed and involved, students receive consistent support across different aspects of their development.

Truly useful communication ensures that educators and families are on the same page, working together to create a nurturing, holistic environment where students can thrive academically and personally. In this way, school/home communication is as integral to a child’s learning and development as curriculum and instruction.

Read the full article on TeachThought

Does your school’s communication plan feel like a one-way street? Are you constantly sending information to families but have no way of gathering their thoughts, opinions, or feedback on key school issues? If so, you may be missing a crucial opportunity to improve engagement.

Schools today need to take advantage of the technology that allows them not only to share information but also to collect valuable input from families. Surveys are a powerful tool that can help you make your school website and digital communication channels more effective in connecting with your audience.

Planning is the First Step

Planning is the first step in building a new website, and a family survey is a great place to start. They’re unquestionably the most important audience segment of your website, so understanding their concerns up front in your planning process can be instrumental in making your website more effective.

With all the studies and mountains of evidence that drive home the mantra of family engagement equals successful students (i.e., successful schools), it’s time schools seize the power of technology to better understand one of their most important stakeholders.

A simple survey program using email, an online survey service, or even your school website and social media can improve engagement, community support, achievement and much more—while saving money in the process.

Email—a preferred method of school-to-home communications—is your school or district’s best opportunity to get a survey out in front of your families.

Your school’s most effective survey program is easily within reach using an email strategy following some simple steps:

1. Tell families what’s in it for them.

Be very clear about the importance of the survey and the significance of participating. That is, you not only want to better communicate with families, but ultimately improve the entire education experience for everyone.

The email should be from an actual person, not the school. You pick: superintendent, principal, communications director, whomever. Studies show people are far more likely to respond when an email is from an individual rather than an institution.

We also recommend creating an incentive for participation. Beyond an improved and ongoing communications channel with two-way responsiveness, there can be further motivation to increase participation in a survey. Use incentives like tickets to school events, a chance to win an i-Pad, school spirit wear, etc. Everyone likes a chance to win something.

2. Make your family survey short and sweet.

Clarity and simplicity are key when putting your survey together. Give your survey respondents an idea of how long the survey will take and the number of questions. Everyone’s time is so compressed these days, and the last thing you want to do is make participation a chore or more than they bargained for.

Make it friendly too. Use multiple choice, 1-5 rating scales, and short-answer format questions so your respondents can complete the survey easily. This brevity makes it easier too for you to make sense of the results and put them in practical, actionable summaries.

If you need some help with putting a survey together, Survey Monkey, a leader in online surveys, tapped Dr. Hunter Gehlbach of the Harvard Graduate School of Education to create a parent survey template for you to use.

Some school website software enables administrators to easily create a survey on their website. If you have that capability, you can then use email, social media, and other website promotion to drive families to the survey using embedded links.

3. Choose your words wisely to promote your survey.

With email being the simplest and most popular way for schools to reach families, it’s important you give your survey a fighting chance to get completed.

Hopefully your community open all the email you send them, but by choosing inviting words in the subject line of your email you can greatly enhance the participation rate. Also, keep the email message short and to the point, so you don’t dilute your message. Your goal here is to drive your reader to the survey, so don’t confuse them with extraneous information.

Simply embed the link to your survey in the email and make it easy for your reader to find the link.

4. Thank them for participating.

Be certain to follow up soon after the survey to thank your families for participating. Some online surveys enable you to do this automatically and even personalize the message. Like the initial email asking them to participate, make sure the thanks comes from an individual.

5. Share and share alike.

Once the results are in and tabulated (which is easier than ever these days), be sure you share the results as soon as you can. Participants don’t want to feel as though there time was for naught.

Beyond sharing the results, if there’s a plan of action that grows out of your findings, give your audience a clue as to what the next steps will be. Linking their participation in the survey to some tangible actions or benefits will go along way to further participation in surveys.

Results should be shared, at the very least, in the the same channels from which they were gathered. If you used email to enlist their responses, then share the results in an email. Don’t be bashful, however, about using additional channels like your website, news releases to the local community press, and social media to share your survey results, where and when appropriate.

Anne O’Brien, a blogger for the Learning First Alliance who has a keen interest in family and community engagement, cites the importance of schools using surveys and the web to reach out to parents.

She emphasizes how school leaders need to make the effort and invest in the time to discover what families want to know about their child’s school.

O’Brien also points out how, “People want information now; they’d like schools to be proactive in their communication.” This underscores how families are looking to the schools to be the primary source of school information.

Use Family Surveys to Spark Discussion and Boost Engagement

In addition to using email to distribute surveys, leveraging social media and other digital tools can significantly improve how your school gathers feedback. Effective communication is about creating a two-way connection—it’s just as important to listen as it is to share information.

Social media has become a key tool in school communications, offering real-time updates and helping schools connect students with educational or career opportunities. But beyond just announcements, social media platforms are excellent for gathering feedback from families, students, and the broader community. By integrating surveys into your school’s social media strategy, you can engage a wider audience and gain valuable insights.

Have you ever wondered what people think about your school? One quick way to find out is to simply Google your school’s name and see what pops up. Whether you’re aware of it or not, people are leaving reviews online, and those reviews can shape public perception. In this article, we’ll explore how you can start building positive online reviews for your school and why it’s crucial to your school’s reputation.

When you think of online reviews, you may picture searching for restaurant recommendations or researching the latest kitchen appliance. Increasingly, though, families are using review platforms like Google, Yelp, and even educational sites to research schools before making enrollment decisions. As the landscape of school choice grows, so does the importance of positive online reviews.

Why Reviews Matter: Digital Word-of-Mouth with Clout

In the past, families had limited school choices, but today, options like open enrollment, voucher programs, charter schools, and private schools mean that parents are actively shopping for the best educational fit for their children. Word of mouth—a personal endorsement from a trusted source—remains one of the most powerful influences on school choice. But with the rise of digital platforms, online reviews have become a critical extension of word-of-mouth recommendations.

In addition to traditional reviews, families often visit school websites and base decisions on the quality of the site’s design, navigation, and content. A poorly maintained website can leave a bad impression, just as much as a negative review. To keep your school’s website in top shape, check out our guide to effective school website design.

Popular School Review Sites

If you’ve Googled your school’s name, you may have noticed a “Reviews from the web” section, which pulls reviews from multiple sources like Google, Facebook, and educational platforms. Here are four popular review platforms that you should be aware of, and tips for improving your presence on each.

1. Google Reviews

Google Reviews is one of the most widely used review platforms. Anyone with a Google account can leave a review, which will appear alongside search results and Google Maps.

How to Get More Google Reviews: Ask families, staff, and even students (where appropriate) to leave a review. Encourage them to rate your school on a scale of 1-5 stars and share a few comments about their experience.

Start building positive Google reviews today.

2. Facebook Reviews (Recommendations)

Facebook recently transitioned from a traditional review system to “recommendations,” but the platform still provides a 5-point rating based on user feedback.

How to Boost Your Facebook Recommendations: Encourage your followers to recommend your school page and share their positive experiences. Be sure to regularly update your Facebook page to keep your content fresh and engaging.

3. GreatSchools Reviews

GreatSchools.org is one of the most popular review platforms for schools, with a 10-point rating system that includes reviews and data from state and national education agencies.

How to Get More GreatSchools Reviews: Direct parents to leave a review on GreatSchools by searching for your school by name, state, or zip code, and clicking “Review.” Families can rate your school and provide comments about their experiences.

Start building your presence on GreatSchools.

4. Niche Reviews

Niche.com is another platform that ranks schools based on a 5-star system. Niche takes into account reviews, test scores, teacher quality, and other key data such as clubs, sports, and diversity.

How to Improve Your Niche Reviews: Encourage parents and students to leave a review on Niche by finding your school and selecting the “Write a Review” option. These reviews can help elevate your school’s profile, especially for prospective families comparing schools.

Visit Niche.com to see how your school is rated.

Steps to Build Positive Online Reviews

Building a positive online reputation starts with taking control of the review process. Here’s how to begin:

1. Rate and Review Your Own School: Go to Google, Facebook, GreatSchools, and Niche and leave a positive review about your own school. This helps familiarize yourself with the process, so you can guide others.
2. Encourage Staff and Families to Leave Reviews: After reviewing your own school, ask select staff and parents to do the same. A strong collection of reviews will improve your overall rating and influence others to participate.
3. Survey Your School Community: Consider conducting a family survey to gather insights about their experiences. Once they’ve provided feedback, kindly request that they share their thoughts on one or more review platforms. If you’re not sure where to start, check out this article on creating effective family surveys.
4. Don’t Fear Negative Feedback: Occasionally, you might receive a less-than-stellar review. While it may seem daunting, negative feedback can provide valuable insights into areas that may need improvement. Authentic and constructive feedback—positive or negative—can add credibility to your reviews.

By encouraging positive reviews, you can strengthen your school’s digital footprint and reputation. The more reviews and ratings your school gathers, the more influence you’ll have in guiding potential families’ perceptions.

Conclusion

Online reviews are here to stay, and they play an increasingly significant role in how families choose schools. By actively managing your school’s presence on review platforms like Google, Facebook, GreatSchools, and Niche, you can build a positive online reputation that attracts new families and strengthens community trust.

Curious to know what people think of your school? Start building positive online reviews today and take charge of your school’s digital reputation.

Facebook has become an essential communication tool, with over 70% of U.S. internet users active on the platform. For schools, Facebook is a vital tool in the communication strategy. Many of your school’s families—and likely your students over 13—are already on the platform. A school Facebook page can help you share updates with these groups, as well as prospective students and community members.

Why Schools Need a Facebook Page

A school Facebook page provides a direct line to your community. Many of your school’s families and students are already on the platform, making it an accessible tool for announcements, event promotion, and meaningful community engagement. Here’s how to get your school’s page up and running and start making the most of its features.

Step 1: Create Your School’s Facebook Page

If you have a personal Facebook account, setting up your school’s page is straightforward.

1. Log in to Facebook and click the drop-down arrow in the top-right corner.
2. Select “Create a Page.”
3. Choose “Company, Organization, or Institution” and narrow down to “School.”
4. Name your page after your school. This will be the official name displayed to followers.

Need more guidance? Check out Facebook’s Create a Page Guide.

Step 2: Add Images to Your Page

Images make your page look professional and welcoming. Set a profile picture—your school logo or mascot is a great choice—and add a cover photo, like a picture of the school building or students. These visuals make your page more engaging and establish it as an official school resource.

Step 3: Write a Short Description

Use Facebook’s 255-character space to add a brief description of your school and the purpose of your page. This helps visitors quickly confirm they’re on the official school page.

Step 4: Assign Page Administrators

To keep the page active, assign a few key staff members as administrators. This could include your marketing or community relations director, a principal, and possibly a teacher.

1. Click “Edit Page” from your page settings.
2. Go to “Manage Page Roles.”
3. Assign different roles to your chosen administrators, ensuring they have access to post updates and manage the page.

For tips on managing administrators, see Facebook’s Page Roles Guide.

Step 5: Attract Followers

To start growing your audience:

• Like the page from your personal account to share it with friends.
• Encourage staff and administrators to share the page.
• Post valuable content regularly. Even with a small following, consistent posts establish your page as a trusted source.

Once you have 25 followers, you can create a custom URL like “www.facebook.com/ABCelementaryschool,” making it easier for families to find your page.

Pro Tips for Growing Your School’s Facebook Presence

• Like the Page: When staff members like the page, their friends are more likely to see and follow it.
• Share the Page: Encourage staff to share the page to grow an initial following.
• Post Consistently: Regular updates on school closures, events, lunch menus, and more make the page useful.
• Create a Custom URL: After reaching 25 followers, set up a custom URL for easier promotion.

Looking for more social media tips? Explore our School Communications Planning Guide.

Final Thoughts

There are lots of tips you can use to strengthen the impact of your school’s Facebook page. Facebook is too important to not be in your communications strategy. It’s also incredibly simple to set up and manage. You might be late to the Facebook party, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss it altogether. Get started on your school’s Facebook page today.

Published February 6, 2024 on District Administration

In the face of ongoing challenges posed by pandemic learning disruptions, K12 schools are recognizing the increasing importance of data in their efforts to drive positive change. District leaders are grappling with such issues as opportunity gaps, chronic absenteeism, educator burnout and funding constraints. The encouraging news is that state and district leaders, educators, and families now have access to an array of powerful tools that can support them on this journey, and one such tool is integrated data.

Data, particularly integrated data, helps educational leaders gain valuable insights and make informed decisions to enhance student outcomes, optimize resource allocation and communicate effectively with stakeholders. As a data scientist, I have had the privilege of collaborating with districts, schools and administrators across the nation to help them extract actionable insights from their data to help improve communication and facilitate better student outcomes.

Together, we work towards bridging the gap between data and decision-making, empowering educators to leverage the full potential of data-informed communication for the benefit of K-12 students. Here are four ways that schools and districts can effectively use data to support student success:

1. School data shows the big picture

Access to quality and comprehensive data allows educators and administrators to monitor and assess the academic performance of students within their school district. It provides insights into individual and group achievement, identifying areas of strength and areas that need improvement. By analyzing this data, superintendents can make informed decisions to enhance teaching strategies, curriculum development, and resource allocation.

Student and school data are often scattered across different platforms or manual spreadsheets. From grades and attendance to state assessments, benchmarks, and discipline logs, crucial insights and areas requiring attention can easily go unnoticed when data resides in separate silos. Implementing school analytics and communications platforms that integrate with existing district systems and data sources, and consolidate data into one cohesive view can provide a more comprehensive look at real-time data trends at the district, school, and student level.

For instance, when exam and attendance data are displayed together on a single platform, administrators can identify students who have been chronically absent while simultaneously assessing the impact of these absences on academic outcomes. At-risk profiles can be refined, incorporating multiple criteria, and the relationships between variables can be explored and uncovered. Early identification allows for timely intervention and targeted support services to help these students succeed.

I recently collaborated with a district to customize its at-risk feature, which is intended to help educators identify students at risk of dropping out or not graduating on time. The district leadership team had previously met, identified their primary areas of concern, and established criteria for which variables to include in the risk profile as well as associated thresholds for earning higher points on the risk scale. Wrap-around support and social wellbeing were a core part of this district’s 4-year strategic plan, so they had already contracted with a vendor to collect information on students’ social-emotional learning. We were able to incorporate this data into the risk feature in addition to academic-focused data we already integrated for the district. The final result was a more robust at-risk feature that the leadership team felt better addressed the unique needs of scholars in their district.

Read the full article on District Administration

You’ve set up your school’s social media profiles—Facebook, Twitter (now X), Instagram, and maybe even LinkedIn—but now what? With so many channels, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by what to post, where to post it, and how to engage your audience effectively. Should you share news stories, event updates, or school closings? What about photos from last night’s volleyball game?

The key to maximizing your school’s social media presence is understanding the strengths and limitations of each platform. By tailoring your content to fit the unique nature of each social media channel, you’ll improve engagement with parents, students, and the broader school community.

Facebook: Engage Your Community, but Know the Limits

Facebook remains a dominant platform, especially among users aged 35 to 50, which makes it an essential tool for reaching parents and community members. However, its complicated algorithm, Edgerank, determines which posts are shown in users’ feeds. This means that not all of your posts will reach every follower, and real-time, critical updates may get lost in the shuffle.

Here’s how your school can make the most of Facebook:

• Event Photos: Share pictures from school events like games or assemblies to boost community pride.
• Event Calendar: Use Facebook’s built-in event feature to promote upcoming events.
• News and Stories: Share positive news about students, teachers, and community initiatives.

While you can’t depend on Facebook for time-sensitive updates, it’s a great platform for building a sense of community. Consider using Facebook Boosts to ensure that important posts reach a larger audience. Boosts are relatively inexpensive and allow you to target specific demographics, such as parents of students at your school.

For more tips on using social media effectively, check out the SchoolStatus blog.

Twitter (X): Your School’s Real-Time Newsfeed

Twitter (now rebranded as X) is fast, versatile, and widely used by students, media, and younger families. It’s ideal for real-time updates, news announcements, and instant communication. Tweets appear in chronological order, making it easier for followers to stay updated on the latest happenings.

Here’s how your school can use Twitter effectively:

• Real-Time Updates: Share updates on events, sports scores, or school closings.
• Engage with the Community: Use hashtags to categorize content, and connect with local influencers, media, and other schools.
• Professional Development: Share educational resources, articles, or events aimed at faculty and staff.

To make Twitter work for your school, aim for frequent, timely posts. You can also create X Lists to organize followers, such as alumni, faculty, community leaders, or local media. This makes it easier to track and engage with specific groups.

For more insights on how social media can enhance school communication, check out this guide.

Instagram: Show Your School’s Story in Pictures

Instagram is the fastest-growing social media platform, particularly popular with younger audiences. It’s perfect for sharing your school’s story through images and short videos. With its simple, mobile-only design, Instagram allows schools to personalize their online presence and connect with the community in authentic ways.

How your school can use Instagram:

• Behind-the-Scenes Photos: Show the daily life of your school, from classrooms to pep rallies.
• Short Videos: Post 15-second clips of students, teachers, or events to capture quick, engaging moments.
• Visual Announcements: Use Instagram Stories for time-sensitive updates or reminders.

Instagram’s hashtag feature also helps to organize your posts around specific themes or events, making it easier for users to find relevant content. Start using hashtags like #schoolpride or #yourcommunityname to enhance engagement.

Pinterest: A Visual Bulletin Board for Schools

Pinterest may not be as widely used by schools yet, but it offers a unique platform to organize and share visual content. Think of Pinterest as a digital bulletin board where you can group images into collections, or “boards,” that are relevant to different aspects of school life.

Ideas for Pinterest boards:

• Classroom Projects: Showcase student artwork, science projects, or class presentations.
• Teacher Resources: Pin helpful educational resources for teachers and parents.
• Event Highlights: Create boards for events like graduations, plays, or sports games, grouping together images from each occasion.

Pinterest can be a powerful tool to showcase your school’s accomplishments, but like all social platforms, it requires consistent engagement. Share, like, and follow other Pinterest users to build your school’s following.

LinkedIn: Professional Networking for Your School

LinkedIn is traditionally viewed as a professional networking site, but schools can benefit from using it to connect with alumni, teachers, and prospective staff. Many universities already use LinkedIn to help graduates find jobs, and K-12 schools can use it to foster professional development and networking opportunities.

How your school can use LinkedIn:

• Recruitment: Promote job openings and attract top-tier candidates for your school district.
• Professional Development: Share articles, training opportunities, and resources for teachers and administrators.
• Networking: Connect with educational organizations, local businesses, and other schools to foster collaboration.

LinkedIn is also a valuable resource for students preparing for the workforce. Schools can create groups or pages that offer networking opportunities, resume tips, and insights into different careers.

Crafting a Comprehensive Social Media Strategy

To make the most of social media, your school needs a well-rounded strategy that leverages the strengths of each platform. Here’s a quick overview:

• Facebook: Great for community engagement, sharing stories, and posting event updates.
• Twitter (X): Best for real-time updates, emergency information, and connecting with students and media.
• Instagram: Ideal for personalizing your school’s image through photos and short videos.
• Pinterest: A creative way to organize and display school-related content.
• LinkedIn: Useful for professional networking, recruiting staff, and fostering alumni relations.

Conclusion

The world of social media offers schools incredible opportunities to connect, engage, and grow their communities. However, it’s crucial to understand the specific benefits and limitations of each platform. A one-size-fits-all approach won’t work—customizing your content to fit each channel will maximize its impact.

While Facebook and Instagram build community through visuals and stories, Twitter serves as a real-time newsfeed for updates and alerts. Meanwhile, Pinterest and LinkedIn cater to more niche audiences—visual learners and professionals.

To stay ahead of the curve and deepen your school’s digital engagement, check out the latest insights and tools from SchoolStatus, designed to simplify and enhance school communications.

With the right strategy, social media can become a powerful tool in your school’s communication arsenal.

In today’s competitive school landscape, your marketing efforts are essential. From investing in your school’s website to producing a four-color newsletter and running email campaigns, schools are trying multiple strategies to reach their audiences. But what about using Facebook advertising?

If you’re thinking, “We keep our Facebook feed updated, isn’t that enough?”—you might want to reconsider. Many schools already use Facebook to engage families, but to amplify your reach and impact, the platform’s paid advertising offers an opportunity you shouldn’t overlook.

Why Facebook Ads for Schools?

Facebook advertising has become more effective than traditional media like television in some sectors, according to AdAge. This shift in audience behavior means that schools can now tap into these same strategies to reach parents, students, and communities more efficiently.

If you want to stand out and attract more families, Facebook ads can help promote your school’s key messages and improve engagement.

Boosting Enrollment with Facebook Ads

For public schools, Facebook ads can support school choice campaigns and help win open enrollment battles. For private and charter schools, they can help meet enrollment goals by reaching families directly. Whether it’s promoting events, gaining support for tax levies, or sharing success stories, Facebook offers schools the ability to deliver targeted messages to their community in a highly efficient manner.

How Facebook Ads Work for Schools

Facebook ads target specific audiences based on users’ interests and demographics. You can customize your ads to reach parents, students, or even community members within a specific geographic area. Ads can be shown at key moments, appearing between posts or as users scroll through their feeds, ensuring they remain part of the user experience.

Types of Facebook Ads

Facebook offers various ad formats that schools can leverage. Whether you’re promoting an event, selling tickets, or sharing important updates, Facebook’s tools allow you to create targeted campaigns that drive engagement.

Each ad consists of:

• Call to Action (CTA): A button guiding users to take the next step—whether that’s visiting your website, registering for an event, or completing a survey.f the ad: someone reads more information on your website, someone registers for an event, buys some spirit wear or some other fundraising goal, etc.

• Title: A compelling headline that grabs attention.

• Body Text: A message that explains the offer or information.

• Image: A visual that catches the user’s eye.

Ad Display Areas

As mentioned before, Facebook ads will be displayed on different areas of Facebook’s site. This provides more opportunities for a families, students, teachers, or community members to click the ad.

On a mobile device—and we know that’s how more and more families are engaging your school’s communications—there are even multi-image carousels where you can place multiple images and messages that are swiped by the user for a more engaging experience. This also provides ways for you to show more information and even target each image in the carousel to a different URL landing page somewhere else.

Benefits of Facebook Ads for Schools

• Cost-Effective: Creating a school Facebook page costs nothing, and you can start running ads on a limited budget with highly targeted campaigns.
• Targeted Audience: Ads allow you to zero in on users by location, interests, demographics, and behaviors.
• Increased Reach: Facebook ads can extend beyond the limited reach of organic posts, ensuring your message is seen by more people.
• Improved Engagement: Ads with images and clear CTAs encourage clicks, conversions, and further interactions with your school’s content.

A Low-Risk, High-Reward Strategy

If your school already has a strong social media presence, Facebook advertising is a natural next step. With its highly targeted approach and ability to track performance, Facebook ads offer schools a low-cost, high-impact way to reach more families and grow engagement.

Final Thoughts

Schools of all types are finding success by incorporating Facebook ads into their marketing strategies. By understanding how these ads work and tailoring them to your school’s needs, you can amplify your message, increase enrollment, and build stronger connections with your community.

Facebook has become integrated deeply into the fabric of everyday communication. Many schools realize Facebook is a powerful way to reach an audience. However, as commonplace as Facebook is in everyday life, some schools are still lagging behind in using it as an official communication channel.

Since communication with families is such an important issue, schools should consider ways to leverage the opportunity Facebook presents as a quick and easy way to engage families, broadcast news and information, and build an audience around the school itself.

First, we’ll mention why you should use Facebook pages for schools. Then we’ll review some of the challenges and potential pitfalls of social media and education. That way, you’ll be able to avoid these. Finally, you’ll see some examples of how schools and school districts are using Facebook pages to their best effect. Learn more about how to create an engaging Facebook page here!

Colleges, private schools, and public school districts are all using Facebook pages effectively. As long as you follow a few straightforward guidelines, you can take advantage of the communications clout this social media platform has to offer your organization.

Your Facebook page is about a lot more than “Likes” and sharing when holidays or closures are scheduled. It can be a strong marketing tool that gets your message directly to your most interested audience.

The first thing a communicator should understand is what you’re doing with Facebook and why. The purpose of Facebook pages for schools is to communicate with potential and attending students, their families, and the community. It’s your opportunity to get the message you want out in front of the most interested audience.

Avoid Pitfalls of Social Media for Schools

One of the biggest concerns with social media for schools is over legal issues and overall governance of information and communication. When a teacher or administrator makes an unwise statement on social media, it can quickly lead to a whirlwind of activity leading up to possible disciplinary action or firing. These employees represent the organization they work for, after all.

Therefore, to protect students and the school, it’s best to consider the content you will be sharing before you begin. Check with your school board or college governance, as they may already have policies in place clarifying what content is acceptable and what is not.

Concerns of legal matters and student protection can be completely avoided by deciding what kind of content you will be sharing before you begin. Make sure you’re in line with any existing governance policies.

Examples of Engaging Facebook Content for Schools

As a quick example, let’s look at Indianapolis Public Schools. You can see how they’ve broadcasted an alert about an event being postponed due to inclement weather.

Anyone who likes and follows the Indianapolis Public Schools page may see this alert appear in their timeline. Since Facebook is used so heavily, there’s a good chance this alert will be seen by someone using Facebook on their computer or via the Facebook mobile app.

Having a Facebook page also gives a great opportunity for you to share branding, as Cincinnati Public Schools has done here:

The next question school staff members typically have is “What content should I share?” The best advice I can give is to think like a student or parent. What information would you want to discover if you attended the school or had a child attending the school?

The school calendar and photos of those events are easy answers. With a little more introspection, you can think of ways that stimulate engagement between the viewers and your page.

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Read the School Social Media Guide here

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Success with Facebook pages for schools means engagement with the audience: visitors are responding to your posts, asking meaningful questions, and increasing the interest level of other students and parents who see it. This kind of engagement is far more powerful than mere “Likes,” as they indicate a level of emotional involvement with your school to anyone reading.

With social media, engagement tends to create further engagement, which means a little goes a long way. Prospective students seeing strong post engagement will be much more impressed than by a high “Like” total but a dry and unengaged page.

Kinds of School Content to Share

When it comes to the actual content, think like a visitor. As a parent or student, what would you want to see? What would interest you the most?

Plan a calendar for a steady release of information on your Facebook page, and the work will not only be much easier for you—it’ll begin to have an underlying theme. Instead of leaving it to chance, plan your content. Planning out your content with a release calendar will also help your branding and keep the content from becoming a mishmash of disconnected posts.

Facebook pages for schools allow you to reach an existing, highly interested audience and communicate with them. They are straightforward to set up and maintain. Check out Andrea Gribble’s article on Top 10 Best-Performing Facebook Posts for Schools for not only some great ideas but a breakdown of why they’re high-performing and engaging.

You’ve seen why you should use Facebook pages for schools: that’s where your audience is. This is a powerful opportunity to market to prospective and existing students and parents, as well as the community.

If your school’s social media presence feels a bit neglected, it’s time to revitalize your Facebook page to maximize its impact. Whether you’re a private school looking to boost enrollment or a public district seeking to engage your community, maintaining an updated and engaging Facebook page is essential for showcasing your school’s achievements and offerings.

Social media platforms, especially Facebook, are powerful tools that can transform school communications. Think of social media as digital networking—it’s not just about what you share, but how you connect. Presenting a polished, clear, and current image is key to making the most of your online presence.

Here are some quick and easy improvements for any school’s Facebook page. These tips will help enhance your social media presence, attract more followers, and keep your community engaged. A well-maintained Facebook page will increase your school’s reach, meaning more parents, students, and staff will be exposed to the valuable content you share. Additionally, fresh content isn’t just loved by your audience—Google prioritizes updated content, improving your school’s visibility in search results.

Ready to give your school’s Facebook page a boost? Here are a few tips to make your school’s page more engaging, relevant, and effective.

1. Change Your Cover Image Monthly

Let’s start with the cover image. With the short-attention-span world we live in these days, keep your Facebook homepage fresh and intriguing by changing your cover page photo at least once a month. Look around, there’s a new pic as closer as your smartphone. Pick a horizontal view and one that’s inviting. Give credit where credit is due on the photo and drop in your school logo on the cover or profile picture while you’re at it. Each time you change the photo it is shows up on all of your fans newsfeed. What better way to share something nice that is also inviting to you community.

Other ideas:

• Add the appropriate image related to the holidays. Think about how nice a Veteran’s Day ceremony picture at your school would look right around the patriotic holidays
• Add timely images related to current events at school (e.g., school festival, talent show, sporting event)
• Add images related to the seasons (e.g., your school back-dropped by fall foliage, snow, spring and summer images)
• Add images of a teacher or students receiving awards
• Images related to your mission
• Technology in the classroom

2. Improve Your Descriptions

Optimize Your School’s Page Description

Make sure to complete both the short and long descriptions for your school’s Facebook page. These descriptions are important not only for visitors to your page but also for how your school appears in search results.

Short Description:

• Go to the “Settings” section of your Facebook page
• Find and complete the “About/short description” field
• Be descriptive and highlight what makes your school unique
• Explain why people should follow your page
• Include your school’s website URL at the end (consider using a link shortener if the URL is too long)

Long Description:

• In “Settings,” scroll down to “Page Info”
• Locate and fill out the “Long Description” field
• Include keywords relevant to your school (e.g., “Chicago public school” if applicable)
• Provide more detailed information about your school’s features and image
• Be thorough but concise

Remember, both descriptions contribute to your school’s visibility on Facebook and in search engines, so use them effectively.

Short description example:

• LPSS is committed to helping children become better people and prepare for the real work. Stay connected to the latest updates as we prepare kids for the future and serve the community. www.lpssonline.com

Long Description example:

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• Mapledale Academy is a private school located in the northern suburb of Mapledale, Texas. Ranked 9th in the nation among both public and private high schools, Mapledale features a competitive environment that develops students intellectually and socially. A combined junior high and high school, Mapledale has approximately 800 in each grade 7 through 12, and over 55 faculty members.

• While academic excellence is the primary goal for each student, the Mapledale faculty and staff work to develop the whole student, making sure he or she strikes a balance between the rigors of one of the most demanding academic curriculum in the state, and all the extra-curricular activities Mapledale has to offer. 20% of our graduates in the past 10 years have been admitted to Ivy League universities, 90% received academic scholarships, 9% athletics scholarships, and we boast a 97% participation in clubs, sports and other extra-curricular activities.

• Admission to Mapledale is based on a comprehensive entrance exam consisting of math, English, and an essay writing section. All students must take the entrance exam. As of 2013, potential students must achieve an establish 8 junior high schools in the Mapledale High School District, with admissions for 25 students from each corresponding school. A minimum GPA must be maintained for all students, and if students fail to stay above the minimum for 2 semesters, they are dismissed from Mapledale and enrolled in their home district’s junior high or high school.

3. Properly Size Your Images

We recognize not everyone is a designer, but it is important to develop skills for image preparation for social media. With all the hard work you do managing these channels, you wouldn’t want to look inexperienced because you did not make an image the right size by taking some easy technical steps.

It is certainly okay to upload photos off your smart phone and camera when needed, however, if you have important images that are to be featured, such as the main header image, put the extra time in and make it look great. Facebook recently changed all of its dimensions and made everything larger, for the most part. It is also important to prepare the images for the pages from your website you are sharing, such as the superintendent’s blog, to ensure they look their best.

4. When Sharing Links, Engage the Audience

Let’s not forget why you are sharing links. When articles are being shared, provide a short, concise description and let your fans know why you are sharing it. They are going to see the title of the link and the description, so there is no need to repeat that. Also, don’t be afraid to ask a question.

Remember, long descriptions (see tip no. 2 above) on your post won’t even show up without the viewer clicking the “See More” to continue reading. Use a short description of your post along with the URL.

5. Be Timely When Scheduling Posts

Schedule your posts and news releases when they’ll do you the most good. There are several web analytic services (Stat Counter, Google Analytics, Clicky) that show you such valuable information as the amount of traffic per hour. Check the peaks and valleys of your traffic, then publish posts accordingly.

So, take these 5 tips on how to improve your school’s Facebook page, get your school’s web team up to speed on them, and then watch how the improvements change how your Facebook page is used. Then once you have these down, like the shampoo folks say: Lather. Rinse. Repeat. That is, re-visit these tips routinely to keep your school’s Facebook page fresh and working for your school.