Key points:
- School-home communication plays a large role in district success
- 4 takeaways for superintendents to drive real change
- Maybe it’s time to change up high school to improve student attendance
- For more on district management, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership hub
Half of educators and administrators struggle to access necessary student data, with 86 percent noting that data gaps limit their ability to support academic success and attendance, according to a SchoolStatus survey.
The majority of respondents (90 percent) believe school-family communication is important for achieving student success, but many struggle with issues like inconsistent communication tools, data access gaps, and family disengagement. To address these issues, educators advocate for translation services or tools (42 percent) and AI-driven solutions (26 percent) to enhance communication and reduce absenteeism.
“These findings underscore the importance of timely, comprehensive student information in helping educators provide the support students need,” said Juan Duenas, M.Ed., Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Sheldon Independent School District. “With the right tools and unified systems, we can better understand each student’s needs, collaborate more closely with families, and make data-driven decisions that truly impact student success.”
Key insights from the 2024 Educator Report: The Critical Role of School-Home Alignment include:
Family engagement remains a priority, but challenges persist
- 77 percent of educators surveyed believe school-home communication is essential for improving student outcomes.
- 43 percent report uncertainty about whether families receive school messages, and 32 percent face language barriers; time constraints (38 percent) and incomplete student data (34 percent) were also cited as challenges.
- Only 32 percent use student information and insights for data-driven discussions with families, revealing an opportunity for schools to better leverage data to engage families.
Supportive interventions and family engagement are key to tackling chronic absenteeism
- 73 percent of educators identify attendance as crucial for academic success, yet 46 percent say they struggle to get families to prioritize student attendance.
- Only 27 percent report having highly effective tools for identifying at-risk students, with many relying on outdated, manual, or inconsistent processes.
- 67 percent of respondents believe schools focus too much on punitive measures rather than supportive interventions to address absenteeism.
- 82 percent believe that targeted strategies to engage families could significantly reduce chronic absenteeism, highlighting the importance of family involvement.
Data gaps and access challenges hinder student support
- Only 37 percent of educators surveyed feel they have all the necessary information to address student needs; 86% feel these gaps impact their ability to support students.
- 37 percent are still using spreadsheets and manual methods to track student data, highlighting inefficiencies in current processes.
- Insufficient time to analyze and apply data (38 percent), lack of training on how to use data (32 percent), and fragmented data across multiple systems (31 percent) are the biggest obstacles to using data to improve student outcomes.
“This survey highlights the critical need for unified data systems that not only support individual classrooms but address broader, systemic challenges in education,” said SchoolStatus founder and CEO Russ Davis. “The fragmented and inaccessible data that many educators struggle with isn’t just an isolated issue–it impacts family involvement, student attendance, and ultimately, academic outcomes across entire schools and districts. These findings underscore the importance of closing these data gaps to create a more connected, informed approach to student support that can drive meaningful, long-term improvement in education.”
This press release originally appeared online.
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