Practical PR: Don’t Just Compare, Share How Your District Stands Out
By Eric Steckling
We live in a society that likes a good list. The morning news will tease that “3 of the Nation’s Best Schools” are right in our backyard so you stay tuned after the break. U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 Education Rankings, citing a number of factors, sits Illinois at 11th out of 50 states. Another ranker, WalletHub, puts us in the middle of the pack at 23rd in the nation.
So which one is it? Is 11th good? Or is it a failure that we didn’t crack the top 10?
We tend at times to get caught in data and rankings. Test score data is a critical lens into the classroom and a measure of student achievement, progress, and opportunities for growth. Using test scores is likely never going away, but rankings, regardless of the category or metric, can and do change over time.
The ones mentioned above include some data from the 2018-2019 school year as part of their calcula-tion. I would venture to say a few things in our world, chiefly a global pandemic, have impacted our educational system since then.
As school leaders and communicators, context must be at the heart of what we consider when for-mulating a game plan for sharing information with our communities. Superintendents, board of educa-tion members, and other administrators all serve in this role, particularly if your district does not have a full-time communications professional on staff.
Often you hear about comparisons involving your school district, usually with a neighboring district or entity. Why don’t we have the program they have? Why are we spending more on a particular program this year than last year? When these situations arise, it’s important to establish your narrative through clearly defined avenues that offer differing levels of detail.
Most importantly, you need to meet your constituents where they are. Paying attention to how your constituents consume information in 2022 is incredibly important. You can’t reasonably expect the general public to read a 20-page report attached to the board packet. Some just want a high-level overview. I’m the parent of a kindergartner, preschooler, and infant. I’m lucky if I get 20 minutes to read or watch what I want on a given day.
In District 109, we publish a BOE Recap — within 24 hours of the meeting — that gives a general sum-mary of everything that happens. It’s also included as a link in the next district newsletter, because we don’t assume people are closely following every event as it happens in our district. Just as importantly, some constituents will want to read or listen to every single word spoken about a particular topic, so it still is important to include that comprehensive report in the public packet.
There exists a real opportunity to create a conversation focusing on the positive. As my superinten-dent has been known to ask, what do you think people are talking about at the water cooler? It could be test scores or that recent board meeting, but it could also be the adorable businesses that sec-ond-graders at Kipling Elementary School opened up, learning how to sell goods to classmates. It could also be that students at Caruso & Shepard Middle School have the unique opportunity to choose one of four languages to learn at the middle school level (Hebrew, Mandarin, French, or Spanish).
Your district could be the one that others compare themselves to, if you highlight the unique and spe-cial things that your district has to offer and empower students as part of the process. These are mo-ments that aren’t measured by a number or figure. In Deerfield SD 109, our storytelling brand is called “What’s Good in 109” and it has been recognized with state and national awards through the National School Public Relations Association.
In District 109, we have a standalone web page that showcases our “What’s Good” stories and it has become a mainstay on district social media platforms. The signature moment at the end of each month is the “What’s Good” presentation at our Board of Education meeting. This is something that every district can replicate, even if you don’t have the services of a communications professional on your staff.
Our district tagline is “Challenge, Collaborate, Create!” and during the presentation, I briefly showcase pictures and video clips of good things that have happened at five of our six buildings during that month that exemplify those 3 Cs. We feature one “School of the Month,” where we work with princi-pals and teachers to show all 3 Cs in action at that building. Then, the whole segment is capped off by a student presentation from the School of the Month. This past month, it was three kindergartners dis-playing “sticky learning” by labeling a very gracious Board of Education member with Post-It notes and getting some laughs and plenty of smiles from the room. On average, the whole segment lasts about 15 minutes. These presentations are a fantastic way to set a positive and uplifting tone for each meet-ing and give our board members valuable face time with students.
That’s what we want people talking about on social media and around the water cooler the next day. Positive moments and interactions we create by reminding people why we are here and why we do this every day. Test scores and financial analysis will always be part of the process when your constit-uents look at your district and compare it to others next door, but I would implore you to make sure that those peak moments and opportunities for students to shine are put into the conversation as well.