How School Leaders Manage Follow-up on Parent Sentiment and Questions

Learn how Trevor Ivey, Executive Director and School Founder of Liberty STEAM Charter School, plans report follow-up with his team

1. Make clear to your team where ownership lands, and shared goals
2. Block off time on calendars to read the reports, as individuals and as a team
3. Identify follow-up that needs action and who is going to own the action
4. Create a plan for responding to sentiment

Listen to this two minute-long clip to hear the process in Trevor's words, or see the transcript below!

Step 1: Make clear to your team where ownership lands, and shared goals. 

Transcript: "We have our Academic Counselor team own Possip, so it's part of their evaluation that everybody shares the 85% family engagement satisfaction goal. But our Academic Counselors oversee the process, and so, they have really stepped up to own a more refined process this year."

Transcript: “When we get our report, usually our Possip goes out on a Thursday, we get our report on a Monday, and within 72 hours we have to have a Possip council meeting and it's just an understanding that it has to happen. So, usually, the morning after we get the report the AC Team has already disseminated the reports to us for us to read on our own.  We have a standing rule that you need a calendar 30 minutes to read Possip reports so that you can come to Possip council ready to talk about your glows and grows. But the AC Team puts together this rework presentation if you will before Possip council actually convenes."

Transcript: “If Possip council runs like it's supposed to, it should only be a 30-minute meeting. We can talk all day long about the naysayers and all the positive things that are going on. But what we want to take action on is who needs a follow-up."

Transcript: "And so it is an understanding that the AC's  go through the Yes's, the Mostly's, and the No's, and so any parent that answered Mostly or No, they get an automatic follow-up within 72 hours. And, so it's a general question that the parents get on the phone. "Hey, we saw that you answered mostly that you had a positive experience the last two weeks. What can we do to move you from mostly to a yes next time?'  And so we give some really good feedback, right?

For example, one parent just got trigger happy on the phone, the child got in trouble, the child had a severe consequence assigned to him and Dad was really upset. So you know, he gave us an N and he said, I apologize. I just was, you know, really upset. 

But what I like is that when this meeting starts, this is done within the first five minutes. We know that everybody who's already answered M or N has gotten a follow-up and the additional follow-up action that needs to be taken. For the meeting that we spend our time on is who is going to own the action steps for the trends."