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» Winter 2007: Building Strong Districts

From the Field

Getting Your Message Across By Simona Boucek

Headlines proclaiming that a school is “failing” or that a district “needs improvement” have become routine in the fifth year of No Child Left Behind. School and district administrators struggle with those labels and the inevitable public relations fallout. NCLB requirements for parental notification also have forced districts to scrutinize how, when, and what they communicate to their stakeholders.

Simona Boucek of the Salem-Keizer (Oregon) School District offers some advice on addressing these challenges. Boucek served as the district’s communications coordinator for six years and currently holds the title of special projects facilitator. Before joining the district, she worked as a broadcast news producer. She is the president of the Oregon School Public Relations Association.

Are federal labels making your message a little fuzzy? Do you feel like you are spending more time explaining the No Child Left Behind Act than talking about the mission of your school district? Is your message of success and achievement getting lost behind federal labels?

You’re not alone. Many school districts across the nation have the same challenge. Here are seven tips on how to keep the message clear and the focus on student achievement:

  1. Keep a calendar marked with the dates that NCLB reports will be released. Your state’s Department of Education should have these key dates. Use your calendar to create your own timeline as to when you should have talking points, press releases, and fact sheets ready to go out to staff, media, and the community.
  2. If possible, get your message out to your staff and community before it hits the news media. In the Salem-Keizer School District, an electronic news service is in place that can send out messages to more than 600 subscribers. A message is sent to subscribers as soon as NCLB data are released and well before they’re published in the local newspaper.
  3. Take time to really understand what all the parts of these federal labels mean for your district. Write it out in terms that someone who isn’t in the education business can understand. Note your choice of words. These become your talking points.
  4. Do not wait for these labels to be applied to your schools before you explain how your district is doing. Communicate your successes, challenges, and improvements often. Your community wants to hear from you.
  5. Take the time to explain data to reporters. Note the dates that NCLB reports are to be released. Contact your local reporter to set a time to go over the report. Remember, the more information and clarity you provide to the reporter, the more accurate the story should be.
  6. Plan ahead. The NCLB law explains each section and the sanctions attached to the section. For example, if you have a school that is in Year 3 of “not meeting” adequate yearly progress, and it appears it will go into Year 4, start talking to parents and staff about it as soon as you can. Explain what will happen, how your school or district will deal with it, and what it means for their child or student. When the report and label comes out, it will not be a total surprise to your stakeholders.
  7. And most important, don’t make excuses—even when the reports or labels don’t seem fair. Once you explain the report and the label, then focus on what you are doing well or how you plan to improve. If your test scores are low, admit they are low and confirm that you are already working on improvement. Establish that you have a plan, your staff understands this plan, and you are moving forward to make sure all students are succeeding.

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