Family Feedback

Overview

Schools can continue improving their model and better serving their students and families when they engage in an ongoing feedback loop. Collecting regular feedback about the student and family experience can help school leaders identify successes as well as pain points that may be affecting students along their academic journeys. If schools have the resources, capacity, and time, they can commit to tackling these challenges and doubling down on successful initiatives to ensure they are providing the best possible experience for their student body.

Approach

Schools can collect feedback from families in a number of ways to ensure the voices of parents and caregivers are heard. The Forest School Online works closely with families and leans on them as partners in their school’s growth. Here are a few ideas that the school implements to collect ongoing feedback:

• Weekly feedback form: A school leader sends out a simple four-question Google Form every Friday asking parents and students about their weekly experience and suggestions or ideas they may have for improvement. These responses are collected anonymously, synthesized, and then shared back with the school community in a timely manner.

• Parent coffees: The school hosts monthly virtual meetups with families called “parent coffees,” during which a school leader shares updates about the school, invites parents/caregivers to share their questions and thoughts in small groups (virtual breakout rooms), and discusses suggestions on how to better support students. Parents/caregivers commit to joining these events at the beginning of the year.

Schools can also collect feedback from families through school communication apps (e.g., Class Dojo, Remind, Bloomz), the parent dashboard on the school’s LMS (e.g., Edmodo, Canvas), or by using Family Facebook Groups.