Research Says School Leaders Need to Engage Communities on School Turnarounds -- and Think Twice Before Closing Schools

NEW YORK, Dec. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new report from Public Agenda offers a blueprint for education leaders on how to engage communities in transforming persistently failing schools so that they create the conditions under which teachers and students can succeed. The report includes best outreach practices culled from education, communications and engagement experts that hold varying perspectives on how to approach school reform. 

Some 40 percent of American students attend school in districts that have been identified by the U.S. Department of Education as in need of improvement, leaving leaders with the daunting challenge of making necessary changes that will end the cycle of failure in these schools. What's Trust Got to Do With It? A Communications and Engagement Guide for School Leaders Tackling the Problem of Persistently Failing Schools helps leaders understand some of the primary ways in which communities react to various school turnaround efforts – and why – and offers eight clear and actionable steps to help leaders effectively communicate with and engage communities facing school turnaround.

Those eight principles to help build community support for school transformation reflect discussions with education practitioners, policy experts, community leaders and communications and engagement professionals across the country and are rooted in Public Agenda's experience in the education and engagement fields. A few of these principles may seem basic to some, yet based on interviews by Public Agenda with parent advocates and education leaders, they still need to be consciously included. They are:

1. Lay the groundwork: Talk with parents, students, teachers and community leaders early and often. Doing so after the decision has been made is too late.
2. Have a vision: Help the community envision exactly what it looks like when school conditions that empower students and teachers to dramatically improve are in place, why those conditions are necessary, and what will be required to get there.  Dwelling on the negative aspects of school turnarounds without giving people a sense of hope can contribute to negative community reactions.
3. Invite the community to help shape the vision: For a school turnaround effort to take root and become sustainable, a common vision for change must be shared by a fairly broad swath of parents, teachers, students and the general public.
4. Provide information—not too little and not too much: Audiences also need enough information to be able to understand – and independently judge – the worth of a turnaround effort.  However, too much unnecessary information can become overwhelming and not useful.
5. Remember to tell stories: Many people—perhaps most people—learn and retain more from a compelling story than from being exposed to a litany of statistics. Stories—of other schools, parents, teachers and students who have successfully undergone similar transitions – help people understand and envision possible courses and what to expect.  Stories don't replace more traditional, statistical data, but they can give statistics life and meaning.
6. Avoid the "public hearing" format—or at least don't rely on it as your sole communication vehicle: Smaller, informal discussions with key stakeholders like parents, teachers and students in the school on a regular basis help build communication and mutual respect.  In contrast, large public hearings do not encourage thoughtfulness or any viable exchange of viewpoints.
7. Communicate through trusted sources: Recognize that parents and teachers often want to hear from additional voices – beyond just district and school leaders – regarding school turnaround approaches. For example, parents often want to hear from local employers and local higher education officials.
8. Don't surprise people—and don't mangle the communications basics: The basics of good communications are not mysterious. They include planning, empathy and taking a moment to think about what audiences need to know.  Yet many school leaders working on turnarounds often make a tough situation even worse by making clumsy communications mistakes.

"Leaders facing a decision on what to do with a persistently failing school often see only two choices: back away from reform to mollify the community, or push through reform, leaving alienation and distrust in the communities. Both of these options are undesirable," said Jean Johnson, Executive Vice President of Public Agenda and Director of its Education Insights. "There is a third option for leaders: effective public and parent communication and engagement before decisions are made. Leaders should avoid approaching the community with a preordained decision; rather, they should invite the community to help shape a vision for the future."

The report also provides valuable insights for leaders about community needs, views and interests, based on new research stemming from extensive parent and community member focus groups, combined with existing research on public and parent views on school turnarounds. Those insights include:

• Most parents with children in low-performing schools do want change.
• Many low-income parents also voice a genuine loyalty to local public schools despite their dissatisfaction with them.
• Many parents do not recognize how brutally inadequate local schools are.
• For most parents, academic problems in local schools are intensified by broader social problems.
• Many parents are deeply suspicious of information from "downtown" or the central district office.

Find Out More

Download a PDF of the entire report with full methodology and view additional resources for leaders, at http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/whats-trust-got-to-do-with-it.

What's Trust Got to Do With It? A Communications and Engagement Guide for School Leaders Tackling the Problem of Persistently Failing Schools was funded by three foundations that support efforts to dramatically improve America's public schools: the Broad, Joyce and Skillman Foundations.

Public Agenda

Public Agenda helps communities and the nation work through tough challenges by closing the gaps between leaders and the public and building common ground on solutions. Public Agenda does this through research that illuminates people's views and values; engagement that gets people talking, learning from each other and working on solutions; and communications that spreads the word and builds momentum for change. Public Agenda works on a wide variety of issues, including K-12 and higher education, climate change and health care. Our goal is to contribute to a democracy in which problem solving triumphs over gridlock and inertia, and where public policy reflects the deliberations and values of the citizenry. Public Agenda is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that was founded in 1975 by social scientist and author Daniel Yankelovich and former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.

SOURCE Public Agenda