Modern tech boosting parent engagement and student success
Digital mechanisms, including online report cards via digital portfolio service Freshgrade, and teacher-parent communication app Bloomz, are increasingly being used by parents and teachers in the US to improve children's school experiences. Other services include automated report making app brightwheel, learning resource sharing app Parenthub, and Signup.com, reminding parents of school activities including fundraisers and special events.

Parental engagement is a critical component for student success, as most everyone who works in a classroom setting can agree with.

Many people are trying to get in on finding new ways to improve parental engagement, including everything from mobile apps to even legislation.

You’ve probably heard of one Mississippi legislator’s attempt to force educators to “grade parents,” a controversial attempt at making parental engagement mandatory in the state’s schools.

For teachers who want to keep grading for their students, there are plenty of other modern ways teachers can look into better engaging with parents this year. Check out some of the ways below.

An Update to the Report Card Via Digital Portfolio Services

Many educators are unhappy with the one-dimensional way report cards work. If you’re one of these educators, services like FreshGrade are for you. FreshGrade is a digital portfolio service that lets parents keep track of their student’s achievement on a daily basis instead of only when its time to review report card marks.

Read more about FreshGrade and find out what educators think about it here.

An Ideal App for All K-12 Teachers

Parental engagement? There’s an app for that. Bloomz, already used in over 10,000 schools, helps teachers communicate important events like field-trip deadlines, assignment expectations, and parent-teacher conference dates.

Read more about Bloomz here.

An App Specifically Designed for Early Education Teachers

Early education teachers are a group that especially wish they could communicate with parents in easier ways than e-mail communications and playing phone tag.

That’s why early education app brightwheel experienced success when seeking investment through the popular show Shark Tank.

Brightwheel offers teachers the option to provide parents with daily automated reports. Soon enough, the app will even allow parents to check-in from their own device to see how their young ones are doing in the new classroom setting.

The app touts itself as being an app that enables strong language development at home as parents can easily talk to their children about their day without having to worry about their kids being tight-lipped after a long, eventful day of learning.

Read more about brightwheel here.

An Easy Way to Encourage Participation by Creating a School Channel

Parenthub allows schools to create channels for classes, sport groups and after-school clubs.

Engagement happens in one step: as soon as parents subscribe to the channel, engagement immediately begins!

According to parenthub’s website, the channel provides teachers and administrators the opportunity to “add in web links and attachments to give parents access to handy learning resources to use with their children.” Not to mention event invites sync immediately into subscribers’ phone calendars, meaning they never miss an update on an important date.

Read more about parenthub here.

A Stress-Free Way of Organizing Events with the Click of a Button

Need help recruiting parents for school activities, fundraisers, as class helpers or for staff appreciation days? Signup.com has you covered in just three steps.

You plan, parents sign up and Signup.com takes it from there by reminding them of their commitments.

Signup.com says it the best:

"By minimizing the stress and tedious hassle of coordination, you can focus on what matters most to you. Whether it’s more time with friends and family, workplace recognition, giving back to [a] cause you care about, or any other goal that brings you happiness, SignUp.com will help you do more.”

Check out their site here.

Nicole Gorman, Senior Education World Contributor

9/8/2016