Students, staff, families and community members are invested in student outcomes and actively engaged in meaningful, collaborative relationships to support student success.
Areas of Focus
Communication: The practice of using multiple methods to share and receive information with internal and external stakeholders in a timely, clear, open, and consistent manner.
Outreach: Team members take ownership of identifying the needs of those they serve and seek the appropriate individuals, organizations, or businesses to support those needs.
Engagement: An intentional approach to ensuring families, students, team members and community members have a voice, and believe their feedback, input and participation is meaningful and valued.
Theory of Action
If we maintain open, honest and timely two-way communication with our team members, families, students, and community, take steps to partner with those who can support the needs of our students and schools, and ensure the voice of stakeholders is heard and used in decision-making, then we will have a community invested and engaged to support student success.
Why this is Important
The division must be intentional in how, when and why we communicate with team members, families and students to ensure our messages are not lost in the communication overload of a digitally connected society.
- Good communication increases family engagement, which in turn helps prepare students to enter school, promote student success, and prepare youth for their post-graduation future (Harvard GSE, 2022).
- Community partnerships provide opportunities to integrate resources and services, which strengthen school programs, support student learning and student development (Johns Hopkins University, 2022).
- Investing in education builds a strong foundation for economic success and shared prosperity (Berger and Fisher, 2013).
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
The key data and metrics identified most impactful in demonstrating meaningful progress towards the division's vision, mission and priorities.
Customer Service (Let's Talk! - AskYCSD)
In 2021, YCSD adopted Let's Talk! - AskYCSD to streamline communications and ensure we, as a division, are responsive, available, and service-oriented. This platform connects families, community members and staff with the school administrators and School Board Office team members best equipped to address specific questions and concerns.
The division monitors trending topics, how long it takes staff to respond, and how our community rates the service received through the platform. This Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is updated on the first business day of each month and can be filtered by date, category, or topic.
Family Engagement
Research shows one of the most effective ways to increase student achievement is for families to be actively involved in the education of their children. The division has selected six core family engagement concepts identified through extensive review of relevant research and state quality assurance efforts to consider in reporting family engagement programs.
The division monitors the purposes of events held, the target audience(s), as well as when and where events are held.
Shared Decision-Making
Engaging families, community members, team members and students in the decision-making process is crucial to the success of the school division. Implementing an intentional approach to ensure all voices are heard not allows for stakeholders to believe their feedback, input and participation is both purposeful and valued, school-home relationship are strengthened by building mutual trust and understanding.
The division monitors the types of division-level committees established annually, the number of individuals participating, along with the stakeholder representation by school/department and demographics. This data metric is updated annually.
Social Media
The division uses multiple platforms and tools to communicate with families, staff and community members. Social media is a high-profile, high-potential communication channel to share division and school news, expand our audience, and facilitate two-way engagement.
The division monitors the number of posts shared to the primary division and school Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, the number of followers, as well as the engagement and reach of the accounts. This Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is updated on the first business day of each month for division level accounts and quarterly for school level accounts.
Year One Strategies (FY23)
Perform a thorough review of current practices for gathering and evaluating student, staff, family, and community voice.
Create a Comprehensive Communications Plan to provide a clear and concise framework for communicating with internal and external stakeholders to increase knowledge and interest in the division.
Conduct comprehensive needs assessment at every school to identify areas, which could benefit from community partnerships, volunteers and organized family programs. Develop partnership criteria and expectations.
Create a work group to develop a matrix that outlines student, staff and family roles and expectations to support student success.
Year Two Strategies (FY24)
Increase use of all communication channels to serve as the primary source of information for students, families and community members.
Create positive experiences for all students, families and community members by providing exemplary customer service.
Increase stakeholder’s awareness of volunteering opportunities for families and community members to support student success.
Develop criteria and expectations for school and division-level partnerships.
Identify opportunities to expand participation in school and division committee membership using FY23 shared-decision making baseline data.
