Family Engagement Takes Center Stage ~ A Look Back on Our First 1EdTech Event
This November, Team Actionaly met with leaders from school districts, EdTech companies, virtual schools, and research institutions at the 1EdTech Digital Curriculum and App Innovation Summit and Leadership Retreat in Baltimore, Maryland. This unique setting gave us a natural launchpad for introducing our "FRM" (Family Relationship Management) vision to a select, forward-looking audience of education leaders and innovators.
The status quo is not working for educators or parents. So many of the people we met in Baltimore shared personal experiences with the challenge of home-school communication. The status quo is a patchwork that misses the mark for all involved. Whether they have seen this problem in their lives as an educator or as a parent, attendees almost immediately understood the need for parent-focused solutions in the edtech ecosystem.
The FRM Approach Resonated with Our Peers
Our approach, as an FRM, resonated strongly with 1EdTech Leadership and other participating vendors. During the plenary panel with reps from Actionaly, ClassLink, Infinite Campus, and Cengage, the conversation kept circling back to the importance of family engagement. There was universal recognition that current systems and approaches fall short. Actionaly appealed to this audience in a few key ways:
- SIS, LMS and SSO systems aren't specialists on family engagement.
- An FRM could be another pillar in the digital ecosystem.
- Actionaly's evolution could enhance how the whole ecosystem works together. Data captured by an FRM could support a SIS or LMS function.
Education Leaders Want Alternatives to the Status Quo
District and statewide leaders told us they are looking for better ways to engage families. Their existing patchwork of tools and methods fall short. We heard their existing products often:
- Fail to reach families in their language on the devices they use
- Leave out 1-1 chat or calling features
- Confuse parents with clunky apps and accounts
- Cause message fatigue from excessive notifications
- Offer communication at just one level, e.g. school-wide but not for classrooms
- Require too much training
- Don't work well for a whole district, from K to 12. K-5 tend to use different services than middle or high school.
We also learned that the 1EdTech audience of leaders see interoperability as essential. They demand products that meet 1EdTech standards and seek out vendors that demonstrate a commitment to this specific community and its work.
We Found Our Community!
1EdTech creates a unique space for collaboration between the players working within and alongside schools.
Innovators Within School Systems
We felt honored to be spending time with school system leaders doing such transformative work. Leaders like Shana Rafalski, Chief of Staff of Clark County Schools in Nevada, who are working hard to break down barriers to authentic engagement for undocumented families. We are excited to keep our conversations about how an FRM can support districts in their efforts to engage family members equitably. We were excited to meet leadership from five Georgia districts at the K-12 Leadership Retreat. After insightful conversations about their search for unified, interoperable communication tools, we scheduled virtual demos and made plans to spend some time in Georgia this winter!
1EdTech Staff and Working Groups
Everyone we met on the 1EdTech staff, including CEO Rob Abel, believes in Actionaly's trajectory and the value of family engagement in the landscape of education and tech. The doors are open for us to help evolve the OneRoster standard!
OneRoster ensures data flows smoothly between systems. We are also excited about leading the charge on a working group on family-relationship data and helping define upstream integration standards.
Peer Companies That Care
The 1EdTech community of vendors is focused on creating products that work well for districts. They collaborate closely with stakeholders to offer innovative solutions like the GRAD Score and Early Warning system, a product of work between Infinite Campus and Kentucky schools.
Thought Leadership on Family Engagement and Interoperability
We know that 1EdTech and its membership will be looking to Actionaly to define the future of family engagement tech. We are also excited to contribute to interoperability and education innovation thought leadership happening at institutions like the Christensen Institute. Thomas Arnett from the Christensen Institute presented the Summit's keynote address. He shared his research on how educators move forward to adopt learner-centered models of education, and how leaders can overcome inertia by understanding the unique motivations and needs of individuals. We are eager to see how this type of research could apply to the family engagement context. Stay tuned for more on this!
Onward!
We left Baltimore feeling energized about leveraging our newfound connections to help realize a future where all students are supported by a cohesive and integrated "village!"
