Action Research EDU 690 Improving Home/School Communication Stephen Goss April 12, 2013

Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication Table of Contents Abstract - page 3 Introduction Rationale for the Study page 3 Statement of the Problem page 4 Primary Research Question page 4 Hypothesis page 4 Review of the Literature page 5 Methodology Research Design page 10 Data Collection page 11 Research Plan page 12 Data Analysis page 13 Results Data Presentation page 13 Key Findings page 13 Discussion of Findings page 16 Limitations of the Study page 17 Further Research Action Plan page 18 Conclusion page 20 References page 21 Appendices page 23

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication Abstract

Effective home/school communication plays a role in creating an environment that is conducive to student success and can lead to higher levels of satisfaction among all education stakeholders. This study looks at home/school communication issues in one particular school district (Edmonton Catholic Schools) and explores the nature of those home/school communication problems. The study also looks at ways of improving home/school communication from the perspective of principals and parents.

Introduction Rationale for the Study

When parents complain to district authorities (usually the superintendent of schools) about a particular school or principal or teacher, and when the root causes of the complaint are investigated, it seems that in many instances ineffective home/school communication is at the root of the problem. This study, then, is an attempt to see how closely parent complaints (or principal responses to these complaints) are linked to home/school communication issues and consequently what might be done to mitigate the circumstances and to inform school authorities so as to avoid ineffective home/school communication problems down the road.

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication Statement of the Problem

There are many disgruntled education constituents (especially parents). These negative circumstances can often lead to compromised student academic success. There is no need for this circumstance to continually repeat itself each school year.

Primary Research Questions To get at the heart of this problem, the following questions must be explored. Firstly, to determine the veracity of the perceived problem: Does poor home/school communications lead to disgruntled constituents (parents, students, school staff)? Secondly, if the problem were to be reversed: What does good home/school communication look like? Thirdly, if this is what effective home/school communication looks like, then: What effective strategies can be employed to improve home/school communications? Finally, in a summative mode we would ask: How widespread are home/school communication problems in our school district? Hypothesis

Many of the problems that stem from ineffective home/school communication can be avoided and effective home/school communication can lead to education stakeholders being happier and to students who are more likely to be successful academically.

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication Review of the Literature Methodology A search of the literature that deals with School/Home communications results in a plethora of studies and articles published in educational journals. There are also a lot of websites that focus on this topic. What there is a paucity of are substantive scholarly books related to this area. A few books that can be found might have short sections dedicated to School/Home communication, but thats about it. In evaluating the literature one has to determine criteria to be used in establishing how useful the information is going to be in relation to ones action research topic and, of course, how reliable it is, and of what quality it is. The operating principle in this literature review is the relevance of the literature to the problem statement posed in the action research project. In other words, how does the literature relate to the research questions posed in the problem statement? Only those pieces that related meaningfully have been chosen to include here. Of the four research questions posed, only three of them were addressed by one piece of educational literature or another. The fourth question, How widespread are home/school communication problems in our school district? can only be dealt with in the context of the action research project itself. To review, the other three research questions are as follows: 1. Does poor school/home communications lead to disgruntled constituents? 2. What does effective school/home communication look like? 3. What effective strategies can be employed to improve school/home communications?

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication In Action research a guide for the teacher researcher (Mills 2011, 45-46), the author points out that, Taking time to immerse yourself in the literature allows you to reflect on your own problems through someone elses lens. You can locate yourself within the research literature and find support for what you are doing or be challenged by what other researchers have done and how they have tackled a particular problem. This observation was definitely borne out by this literature review. There were dimensions of the problem that this author hadnt considered and will certainly inform the action research project as it unfolds. Home school connections: a review of the literature (McCarthy 2000) is one of three resources that are relevant to each of the three research questions. This collection of articles that deals with the subject of school/home communications raised a number of interesting points. For instance, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to effective school/home communication. In fact, effectiveness is dependent on understanding the specific socio-cultural circumstances of each family the school is working with. There are particular expectations, as an example, that parents from a specific ethnic background might have that parents from a different ethnicity might not have. The socio-economics of the families also comes in to play. Economically disadvantaged families might need help from the school to be able to take advantage of digital resources. Good school/home communication might be having a Computer Centre at the school accessible to families that cant afford a computer or Internet access at home. Furthermore, disadvantaged families might need extra support in the way of resources that support literacy initiatives, etc. The major thrust of this piece is that in order to have happy, engaged parents the school must reach out to them and offer them support and engagement in very personalized and specific ways. The message to principals, school leaders, and teachers is clear Get To Know Your Clientele!

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication Increasing parent involvement through effective home/school communication (Decker & Majerczyk, 2000) is the second piece of literature that covers each of the three research questions cited. Declining parent involvement in a Midwestern, suburban elementary school was the subject of this action research project. It was noted that the schools efforts to reach out to the parent community and engage them in their childrens school in a variety of ways paid huge dividends in increasing parent involvement in the school which also had the effect of increasing parents overall satisfaction with the school. Another spinoff effect of the increased school/home engagement was that the number of conflict situations between parents and teachers or parents and administrators decreased substantially. The increased engagement consisted of teachers making more direct contact with parents on a regular basis (and not just when something was amiss), a stronger communication strategy that involved personal invitations to school-related events (such as concerts), and a more flexible attitude to scheduling interviews which took into account the varied schedules of parents. The Harvard Family Research Project under the auspices of the Graduate school of Education hosts a website which act as a resource for parents and educators as they are involved as partners in education. Margaret Caspe moderates a segment of the site titled Home-School Communication whats all the commotion? Within this site she has included a workshop for schools and families, which was compiled by the Family Involvement Network of Educators (FINE) at Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP). In the description of this workshop there is recognition of how varying approaches to school/home communication can either strengthen or weaken school-family relations. In other words, it isnt enough just to haphazardly design some form of school/home communications; rather, it is essential to have a carefully planned out strategy for accomplishing this taking into consideration the specific contexts of your school situation and the situation of your families, in the 7 EDU 690

Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication same vein as McCarthy (2000). This resource was the third piece to address all three research questions. Effective practices in home-school communication (2010) sponsored by the E-Best Team (Evidence-based Education and Services Team) has some very specific application to research questions number 2 and 3. In a Summary of what works the authors suggest that school/home communications are best achieved through informal conversations with parents, student-led parent-teacher conferences, and a combination of digital and face-to-face communication opportunities. The more communication exists, the more satisfied parents generally are with their childrens school. In The teachers role in home/school communications: everybody wins (2008), Rick Lavoie examines the benefits of strong home/school connections such as the potential for lowering the high school drop-out rate and even improving student behavior. In this way he addresses research question 1 and then when he gets very specific about Web 2.0 tools that can help with home/school communications he targets strategies for improving home/school communications and thus addresses research question 3. Other literature that addresses strategies (especially digital, 21st Century Learning strategies) to engage parents and families are: School/home communication: using technology to enhance parental involvement. A project for the Illinois Century Network and Governor Rod R. Blagojevich (2004); Using a computer-based messaging system at a high school to increase school/home communication (Burden, 1995); and, Using school websites to support parent engagement (Piper, 2012). Finding literature that deals specifically with the principals role in advancing effective school/home communications is not as easy, but there were two that stood out. School public relations and the principalship: an

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication interview with Barbara Chester, president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals Journal of School Public Relations, (Steaffens 2011). In this article she advocates for effective relationship building. By carefully considering communications strategies between the school and the home, the principal can build effective relationships and thereby increase the instances of success for students. This also leads to a healthier school atmosphere for all concerned. The second piece specific to the principalship is The principal and communication elementary principal series no. 3 (Pawlas, 1989). While this is an older publication, the content is very timely. Pawlas speaks about the importance of soliciting feedback from parents and various other stakeholders in education before making significant decisions that will affect the entire school community. He goes into detail describing effective polling and surveying techniques and other techniques for engaging parents and the community and thereby involving them in the decision making process. After having looked at almost three dozen pieces of literature and narrowing it down to the few that would really inform the action research project (and especially the research questions outlined in the problem statement) this author has a better scope of the problem and is ready to tackle the action research project.

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication

Research design
The importance of working with primary source information comes out time and time again when exploring the whole landscape of research (and not just action research). When conducting action research the primary source of information comes directly from the people impacted by the research question and is extant in the products of the research (i.e. responses to questionnaires, surveys, etc.). In thinking about the data collection scheme this researcher couldnt help but focus on the main players in the school/home communication continuum - the parents and the staff of the school. In the interest of time and efficiency, the sample to be surveyed has been narrowed down to the parents and the principals. These two groups provided ample data for analysis (given the questions in the problem statement). The Event Tracker is one of the tools that was used to gather data for analysis. This proved to be an excellent source of primary source material.

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication

Data collection plan

Questions 1. Does poor home/school communications lead to disgruntled constituents

Data Matrix

DS 1 - Event Tracker

DS 2 -Interviews w parents

DS 3 -Interviews w principals

(parents, students, school staff)? 2. What does good home/school communication look like? 3. What effective strategies can be employed to improve home/school communications? 4. How widespread are home/school communication problems in our school district? *DS = Data Source - Event Tracker -Interviews -Interviews w parents w principals -Interviews -Interviews w parents w principals

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication Research Plan -Permission was sought from district authorities to interview principals and parents. Principals were asked to inform those parents that will be surveyed and potentially interviewed. -The two main groups that were surveyed were a random sample of principals and a random sample of parents. Some of the parents and principals were also identified based on an analysis of the Event Tracker. - Data was collected through the use of an Event Tracker. This is a software application designed by this researcher and by a colleague in School Operations Services (Edmonton Catholic Schools). *See Appendix A. - A questionnaire was sent to identified principals and parents seeking information about home/school communications. - Interviews with a sampling of principals and parents were conducted by phone. - Search filters were built in to the Event Tracker that allowed the researcher to narrow down the events to those that are related to home/school communications and to those that are related to principals and parents. A careful examination of these relevant events ensued. - Questionnaires were gathered and looked at. Responses were tabulated and categorized based on the research questions. - Interviews were recorded and the recordings analyzed for relevant information.

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication

Data Analysis Data analysis involved a critical look at the data culled from the Event Tracker items selected, from questionnaire responses, and from telephone interviews conducted.

Results This action research study relied on three sources for the collection of data relative to the research questions identified. Source #1: Calls/E-mails logged in the Event Tracker Source #2: Questionnaires e-mailed to principals and mailed to parents Source #3: interviews conducted (either on the phone or in person) with principals and parents Key Findings at each stage: 1. Of the 122 Event Tracker items that had something to do with one or more of the research questions it was determined that 18 had very little to do with them, 56 had a modest connection to them, and 48 had a lot to do with them. {Based on this statistic, it was determined to set aside the 48 items that had a lot to with the research questions for further analysis.} Of the 48 items 33 originated with parents, 11 originated from school administrators, and 4 originated from other sources (for example, the Alberta Association for Community Living) The parent calls were almost exclusively in the way of complaints about a school, principal, or teacher.

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication The principal calls were largely heads-up calls indicating that a parent might be calling our office because he/she is upset about something in the school The calls from others were in all cases advocacy calls, agencies calling on behalf of constituents who didnt feel able to call on their own behalf. Parents were upset with: o Poor day-to-day (or weekly) communication between school and home (Friday envelopes, homework journals, etc.) o Incomplete or missed information regarding key school events (newsletters, web site notifications, sign boards) o School discipline policy (especially inconsistencies in the application of such policies) o Lack of articulated bullying policy o Poorly articulated Emergency Response plans (evacuations, lockdowns, and communication with parents regarding these events) o Academic progress reporting (inconsistent updating of information on the parent portal or ParentConnect) o Identification of academic and social supports put into place for struggling students 2. Principals, for the most part, believe that their systems/procedures for communication with the home are adequate. They all agree, however, that their efforts in this regard could be greater. i. Principals point to systemic issues which thwart them in their attempt to better communicate with parents (at least electronically). ii. Principals point to parents as being a big part of the communication problems. (For example, many of them dont

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication avail themselves of the information, news, etc. that is easily accessible.) iii. Principals point to FOIP (Freedom of Information and Privacy Policy) legislation that prevents them from providing some of the information that parents are looking for, especially in relation to discipline matters (such as what consequences were meted out to other students involved in their childs disciplinary situation). iv. Principals often blame staff members for not being good home/school communicators that has an effect on the reputation of the whole school. v. Principals suggest that parents who complain about poor school communication are often those that do not get involved in school matters until there is a perceived problem. 3. Parents are: i. Often impressed or not impressed by the organization or lack thereof in regards to school/community events such as Parent/Teacher interviews, Demonstration of Learning evenings, Meet the Teacher nights, Parent Information Evenings, etc. (Their impression of how well the school is run is dependent on the level of organization they perceive to be present at these events.) ii. Distressed by the perceived level of bullying in their childrens schools and appalled at the lack of well-articulated and policed anti-bullying policies. iii. Looking for more specific and direct ways of interacting with their childrens teachers and consequently getting involved in their childrens education. iv. Expecting more detail in IPPs (Individualized Program Plans) for students who are challenged in one way or another.

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication v. Expecting a higher level of awareness of students (by the school) who have significant medical issues (such as severe allergies or other life-threatening conditions).

Discussion of Findings
The data collected from each of the three sources (Event Tracker, Questionnaires, and telephone interviews) has informed the research questions quite clearly. The events tracked in The Event Tracker all 122 of them- that had to do with home/school communication issues clearly pointed to the fact that poor home school communications do indeed lead to disgruntled education stakeholders. In over 80% of the events the parents were the disgruntled party while in the remainder, it was school personnel who were negatively impacted by poor attempts by parents to communicate and stay in touch with the school.

The second research question was dealt with more thoroughly within the context of the questionnaire and subsequent telephone interviews. Principals pointed to the many communication mediums that are routinely used to keep all constituents informed of important school events and parents informed of student progress. The following is a list of the communication mechanisms cited: School web site, monthly newsletters, outdoor signs (static and electronic), weekly back-pack envelopes (elementary schools), ParentConnect (web-based application for communicating student progress and attendance status), and SynerVoice (telephone-based application for phone emergency fan-out messaging. Some schools also listed protocols for regular contact with parents by phone. When asked about how home/school communications could be improved (the third research question), parents indicated that they

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication valued regular face-to-face meetings/interviews with their childrens teachers and would like to see this scheduled more regularly. They liked the district move to Demonstrations of Learning but valued even more the one-on-one time with the teachers. Most parents seemed content with school handbooks that were produced yearly and included significant information about the school and its attendant policies and regulations and liked the fact that these were readily available as downloads from the school web site. The primary criticism of these school communication documents was that school discipline policies or school conduct policies were not specific or meaty enough. They wanted to see items such as bullying dealt with more specifically. Principals, on the other hand, wanted to see a greater percentage of parents take part in school activities. They pointed to relatively weak attendance at School Advisory Council meetings as evidence of a general malaise among parents that needs to change. A conclusion could be drawn from the data collected that home/school communication concerns make up a relatively high percentage of the school concerns that are routinely brought forward to central office in Edmonton Catholic Schools. It can also be concluded that both the school and the home (parents) need to constantly work on improving home/school communications in order to ensure student success.

Limitations of study One of the limitations of the design methodology for this action research project was that the data sources were quite diverse. The Event Tracker provided a lot of snapshots of situations that involved home/school communication issues and required the researcher to pull out trends and other salient topics. The questionnaires and interviews were sources of live information that allowed people to extrapolate and provide

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication in-depth responses to specific questions. The challenge was in pulling these two somewhat disparate primary sources together. One way that this researcher looked at this situation was that the Event Tracker events informed the design (and content) of the questionnaires and provided a bank of parents/principals who had obviously dealt with this topic of home/school communication perhaps more intensively than some this particular school year.

Action Plan The research that has been conducted confirms that there is much that can be done to improve communication between the school and home and that this in turn makes for better home/school relations, more satisfied stakeholders, and leads to improved student achievement. To review the research questions, they are as follows: 1. Does poor home/school communications lead to disgruntled constituents (parents, students, school staff)? 2. What does good home/school communication look like? 3. What effective strategies can be employed to improve home/school communications? 4. How widespread are home/school communication problems in our school district?

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication The action research has informed these questions and has suggested to the author a number of elements that need to be included in any action plan. 1. Poor home/school communications does indeed lead to disgruntled constituents and therefore improving home/school communications is worthy of spending time on. This topic should always be on the leadership agenda in the early stages of planning for a school year. 2. A cadre of best practices can be identified and shared with principals and would include the following: a. Staff need to be encouraged to communicate regularly (and often) with parents. b. Communication should be for both positive and negative reasons. (Parents should never be dreading the phone call home from school.) c. A wide array of communication tools should be employed by the school and should include both electronic and manual means. d. The school should always be a welcoming environment for students, staff, and visitors. e. Events (such as parent/teacher interviews or demonstrations of learning) should always be well advertised and well organized. Personal touches should always be in evidence. f. Teachers should not wait for a major incident or blowout to contact parents. g. Major situations that affect students should be communicated to the home in a timely fashion. (Parents should not have to hear about an incident affecting his child from another parent.) h. School leadership teams should ensure that their School Conduct Policies or Discipline policies are clearly articulated in their Student handbook or on their school website. i. Specific sections of the policy should deal with bullying issues. j. Specific sections should deal with cyber-bullying and other electronic transgressions. 19 EDU 690

Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication k. Discipline should be handled fairly and consistently and discipline procedures should be clear and well advertised. l. Academic updates should be frequent and readily available for each class (preferably on secure site that can be accessed by parents, such as ParentConnect or PowerParent.)

Conclusions

Home/School communication issues are relatively common in our school district. This leads to constituents being disgruntled and negatively impacts school or even school jurisdiction reputation. Leadership Teams need to take home/school communication seriously when preparing for the school year. Better home/school communication often results in happier school communities and in increased levels of student achievement.

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication \References Burden, M. K. (1995). Using a computer-based messaging system at a high school to increase school/home communication. (Doctoral dissertation, Nova Southeastern University), Available from Eric. (ED396702)Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED396 702 Caspe, M. (2013). Home-school communication - what's all the commotion?. Retrieved from http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our- publications/home-school-communication-what-s-all-the-commotion Decker, J., & Majerczyk, D. (2000). Increasing parent involvement through effective home/school communication. Informally published manuscript, School of Education, aint Xavier University & IRI/Skylight, Chicago, Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED439 790 E-Best. (2010, February). Effective practices in home-school communication. Retrieved from http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/e-best/wp- content/uploads/2011/03/Home-School-Communication-BLAM.pdf Lavoie, R. (2008). The teacher's role in home/school communication: everybody wins. Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/28021/ McCarthy, S. J. (n.d.). Home-school connections: a review of the literature. (2000). Journal of Educational Research, 93, 145-153. Pawlas, M. K. (1989). The principal and communication. In Elementary Principal Series (No. 3 ed.). Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication Piper, T. (n.d.). Using school websites to support parent engagement. (2012). Leadership, 42(2), 36-38. doi: Eric School.home communication: using technology to enhance parental involvement. a project for the illinois century network and governor rod r. blagojevich. (2004). Informally published manuscript, Center for the Study of Education Policy, Illinois State University, , Available from ERIC. (ED514357)Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED514 357 Steaffens, S. J. (n.d.). School public relations and the principalship: an interview with barbara chester, president of the national association of elementary school principals. (2011). Journal of School

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Appendix A
The Event Tracker is an application designed by me and by my colleague in School Operations Services. As calls or e-mails come in from an array of people we log them according to the date, the origin of the call, and the nature of the call. We then add comments and track the resolution of each situation. Event Tracker Details Table A Add Event Screen

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication Table Two Caller Screen (Caller demographic)

We use a dropdown menu to select the origin of the call. Is it a parent, a principal, a government agency, etc.

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication Table Three Call Type (Category)

The Call Type is a dropdown menu whereby we can select the nature of the call. One of the call type entries is home/school communication.

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Stephen Goss Improving Home/School Communication Table Four Comment/Resolution Screen

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