This time of year, schools are completing their diagnostic testing of students and developing an awareness of their students’ strengths and areas of growth. As an effective school leader, you are supporting the discussions of your staff to dig into those areas and create action plans for the staff and campus to maximize growth for ALL students. It’s important to remember that these plans are multi-faceted, just like our students. As a strong campus leader, you must also include your students’ families in the goal-setting and planning.
Family engagement plays a crucial role in student success, but its importance has become even more apparent in the wake of recent learning challenges. Now, more than ever, educators face a challenging landscape in ensuring student success. Fostering meaningful conversations with families about academics is more critical than ever. Schools need strong partnerships with families to address the learning gaps and ensure students stay on track. The school cannot shoulder this burden alone, and as school leaders, we need to empower our staff and our families to foster engagement and solution-oriented discussions about how to support students.
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Here’s how school leaders can engage families in discussions about their children’s academic progress, alongside actionable tips for educators to build collaborative partnerships that combat learning loss and promote long-term success.
The Current Landscape: Learning Loss in Education
Recent data reveals the extent of learning loss experienced by students due to disruptions in education. According to a 2022 report by McKinsey & Company, students globally are, on average, five months behind in math and four months behind in reading compared to pre-pandemic levels. Disparities are even greater for students from low-income backgrounds, where learning loss in some areas is as much as six months in math. The NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) has similarly found that students in the U.S. continue to struggle, with middle and elementary students showing the most significant drops in achievement growth.
This decline in academic performance is concerning, particularly because students who experience learning gaps may struggle to catch up in the future without timely intervention. While educators are working hard to close these gaps, schools need family involvement now more than ever to mitigate the impact of learning loss.
Tips for Engaging Families
Use Multiple Forms of Communication
With many families still adjusting to new routines, reaching them through diverse communication channels is essential. This ensures that all families stay informed, even if they can’t physically attend school meetings or events. Use phone calls, emails, newsletters, text messages, and social media to update families on students’ progress and school initiatives to address learning loss.
Tip:
Create a weekly or biweekly routine that utilizes different formats for various types of information—emails for detailed updates, text messages for quick reminders, and social media for broader school announcements. This keeps families consistently in the loop, and the consistency will help them know where and when to look for updates.
Offer Flexible Meeting Times
Are you getting a low response rate? Remain curious about the barriers preventing family engagement. Work schedules and home responsibilities may make attending in-person meetings difficult for students’ families.
Reach out to your families to discover what barriers prevent them from engaging in parent-teacher conferences. To boost family engagement, offer a variety of meeting times, including virtual options that can accommodate different schedules. This flexibility is beneficial for families managing post-pandemic challenges, such as job instability or limited access to transportation.
Tip:
To accommodate different schedules, offer various time slots, like lunchtime or right after school hours. Share times for “on-demand” appointments, where families can request a time that works best for them within a given window, providing more personalized flexibility.
Ask Parents for Their Input and Insights
Families are key partners in recognizing their child’s challenges and where learning loss has occurred. They are also quite familiar with their child’s behavior and may have learned wisdom about what works well for their child.
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Ask parents how their children have been adjusting since returning to school, what challenges they face, and what support might be helpful. Families’ insights can give educators a fuller picture of the challenges that students are encountering both in the classroom and beyond.
Tip:
Start meetings with open-ended questions such as “What questions or concerns do you have about your child’s learning progress?” and “How can we work together to support your child at school and home?”
Share Data in a Way That’s Accessible and Clear
When discussing learning loss with families, it’s critical to present student data clearly and jargon-free. Use visuals, such as graphs or charts, to highlight academic progress or gaps. Explain the data in terms of grade-level expectations and how the student is performing according to those standards.
Share what is working well for the student and determine an area for improvement. Generate concrete goals around specific skills and set the next steps that the student, teacher, and family will take to achieve the goal. For example, Students will improve in multiplication by practicing multiplication facts daily at school on (program) and reviewing multiplication flash cards at home.
Tip:
When reviewing data, include time for the family member to ask questions about the information you share. Provide families with a simplified explanation of how you measure academic growth and offer strategies they can use to help support learning at home.
Focus on Small Wins and Growth
Discussions about learning loss can feel overwhelming for families. To keep the conversation constructive, focus on celebrating progress, even if it’s small. Acknowledge students’ hard work and the steps they’ve taken to recover academically, even as you identify an area for growth. This positive reinforcement helps to motivate both students and families to stay engaged in the process.
Tip:
Send regular “success notes” or brief emails to families highlighting their child’s improvements. When paired with conversations about learning gaps, this can help build a positive, forward-focused relationship.
Final Thoughts on Engaging Families
Engaging families isn’t a one-time event—it’s an ongoing partnership. School leaders can create a culture of engagement by training educators to maintain regular, transparent communication with families, providing resources for families to support learning at home, and making sure that all families, regardless of their background, feel welcome in the school community.
The evidence is clear—engaging families is one of the most effective ways to support student recovery from learning loss. Research from the National Education Association shows that students with engaged families are more likely to earn higher grades, improve their test scores, and enroll in more challenging courses. By working together, schools and families can help close the learning gaps that have emerged in recent years and set students up for future success.
As students work to overcome learning loss, consistent family-school partnerships will be pivotal in driving academic recovery. By engaging families now, we can ensure students are on a path to educational growth and long-term success.
Natalie is an Educator Evaluation and Leadership Administrative Specialist at ESC Region 13.
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