Parents & Principals Differ on the Most Effective Forms of Teacher-to-Parent Communications
What is the most effective way for teachers to communicate information to parents about class activities or academic progress? | Principals | Parents |
Personal emails | 65% | 70% |
Text message | 45% | 52% |
Face-to-face meetings | 67% | 37% |
Personal phone calls | 70% | 36% |
Handwritten notes | 22% | 28% |
Push thru mobile app to phone | 22% | 24% |
Auto phone messages | 29% | 21% |
School portal | 34% | 20% |
Parents & principals agree on top 2 most effective forms of school/district-to-home communications: Email and auto phone messages.
Take note:
Big disconnect though on website and social media effectiveness:
While 66% of parents are satisfied with teacher to home communications,
there are big differences by grade levels.
Parents of students in… | Dissatisfied | Neutral | Somewhat satisfied | Very satisfied |
Elementary School | 14% | 11% | 33% | 42% |
Middle School | 21% | 18% | 38% | 23% |
High School | 24% | 23% | 35% | 19% |
Source: Speak Up Research Initiative, 2016 Findings - the results of the authentic, unfiltered views of 514,351 K-12 students, parents, and educators from around the world, including 29,309 parents. Speak Up is an annual research initiative of Project Tomorrow, a global nonprofit organization. Learn more about Speak Up and other research findings from Project Tomorrow at tomorrow.org.