Methods

This study used a new web-based tool called Talking Points as a means for teachers to
deliver information to parents about their childs experiences at school through simple text
messages (also known as SMS or short message service). In addition, the tool featured two-way,
multilingual communication, which gave parents an opportunity to provide feedback to the
teachers about their interactions with their child. The feedback loop allowed teachers to gain a
better understanding of which families they were reaching, while also providing some possible
insight into how students were experiencing school. A key feature of the tool was its ability to
automatically translate the information into the parents language of choice, thus increasing the
access points for parent-teacher communication.
During the two month intervention period, we (myself, in collaboration with a 7th grade
teaching team) used the Talking Points tool to send text messages home to enrolled parents 2-3
times per week. Each message provided the parent with information about something the student
has done or experienced at school, and requested feedback from the parent (see Table 4 for
example message chains). The purposes of this communication tool were to increase parents
understanding of what students are doing at school and provide them with talking points they
could use to initiate conversations with their child about their education. The goal was that,
through such conversations, parents would have opportunities to communicate their expectations
about the value of education, connect school to real life events, or encourage goal-setting (all key
components of academic socialization).

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Table 4. Example text message chains sent via Talking Points tool.

Participant Enrollment
Parents. At the beginning of the study, the 7th grade teaching team and I reached out,
both in person and via email, to the parents and guardians of the students is their classes,
providing them with information about the project and text messaging tool. Parent outreach
occurred during the first month of the study and parents enrolled at various points: 12 parents
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enrolled in person at their students fall exhibition, 9 parents enrolled as a result of a direct email
from the researcher, 9 additional parents enrolled in response to an email from their childs
teacher, and 3 parents enrolled by filling out a bilingual (English-Spanish) flyer sent home with
their child (see Appendix A for an example flyer). A total of 33 parents enrolled in this study
and elected to receive text messages. The majority, 29 of the 33 parents enrolled, were female.
The racial/ethnic composition of the study participants was relatively similar to the composition
of the 7th grade student population (see Figure 3). Five parents elected to receive the text
messages in Spanish and English, and 28 elected to receive the messages in English only.

Figure 3. Demographics of study participants by race/ethnicity compared with overall 7th grade
student population.

TALKING POINTS Methods

Students. The 7 grade children of the participating parents were given an opportunity to
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participate twice during data collection, at the midpoint and at the end of the study.
Teachers. Four teachers, all members of the 7 grade teaching team, actively participated
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in this study by helping to construct text messages to be sent home to parents and by giving
feedback during focus group sessions. The teachers had distinct teaching roles within the team: a
humanities teacher, a math/science teacher, a multimedia teacher, and an inclusion specialist,
whose main role is to support students with individual education plans (IEPs). All four teachers
interacted with all of the students in the cohort on a daily basis.
Communication with Talking Points Developer
Throughout the project, I communicated with the developer of the Talking Points tool.
I shared information regarding how we were using the tool and the feedback I had received from
teachers, parents, and students. In addition, I provided information about various errors or
challenges I came across using the technology and worked to help troubleshoot some of the
issues.
Data Collection and Analysis
Talking Points Analytical Data. Throughout this study I collected data from the
Talking Points tool. The tool provided response analytics, which supplied information about
which parents were actively interacting with the text messages. After sending each text message
to parents, I tracked which parents responded to the message via text. I recorded the percentage
of parents that responded to each message, and compared the response rates to the day of the
week, time of day, and type of question (open-ended vs. multiple choice) sent to try to
understand if any of those factors influenced parent response rates.

TALKING POINTS Methods

Parent Surveys. Participating parents completed three surveys during the study. The
first survey was administered when the parent signed-up to participate; 18 parents completed this
survey. The second and third surveys were administered in one-month intervals, and were
designed to provide feedback about how the parents were experiencing the text messages sent via
the tool. Thirteen parents completed Parent Survey #2 and 22 parents completed Parent Survey
#3. The parent surveys can be found in Appendix B. The survey data was coded and
summarized in data tables and graphs.
Student Surveys. Participating students completed online surveys during class at the
midpoint of the study (Student Survey #1 - 21 students) and at the end of the study (Student
Survey #2 - 20 students) as a means of assessing the level of student-parent interaction at home.
The surveys can be found in Appendix C. The survey data was coded and summarized
graphically.
Teacher Focus Groups. At the beginning of the study, I conducted a focus group with
the four teachers on the intervention team to gain an understanding of how they communicate
with families and to better understand their needs. The questions asked during the focus group
were:

How do you currently communicate with families? What methods are most effective?

How do parents communicate with you? How frequently do these things occur?

What are some ideas you have for increasing communication between teachers and
parents, and vice versa?
Throughout the course of this study, I informally checked-in with the teachers regarding

their experience with the text messages. During these check-ins, I shared some of the survey

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data we had obtained from parents and students, and the analytical response data from the tool
itself. We frequently discussed the type and content of the messages to be sent home.
Near the end of the study, I convened a focus group with the participating teachers to gain
an understanding of how they communicated with families during the intervention period, and
how they viewed the effectiveness of the Talking Points tool as a parent communication tool.
Their feedback was also used to help design the final survey for both parents and students. The
questions asked during this session were:

What is useful about the Talking Points app? How might this app be used differently?

What suggestions for improvement do you have in regards to the Talking Points app?
What would make the app more useful?

What are some barriers you foresee in teacher use of the Talking Points app?

What should we ask parents for the final survey?

What should we ask students for the final survey?