Decode Your Family Engagement Data What It Means and How to Act on It
February 25 at 11 AM PT/2 PM ET
Every day, districts exchange thousands of messages with families, and those conversations hold powerful clues about what builds trust, strengthens connection, and keeps students showing up.
In this session, we’ll unpack insights from more than 3 million school-home interactions across SchoolStatus districts to reveal the communication habits that consistently drive higher reply rates, the moments when families are most responsive, and how early engagement shapes outcomes for the rest of the year.
Leaders will leave with clear benchmarks, real examples of high-impact engagement in action, and simple, evidence-informed strategies they can use immediately.
Decode Your Family Engagement Data What It Means and How to Act on It
During this free webinar, you’ll learn:
- What strong K-12 family engagement actually shows: Benchmarks for reply rates, response times, and engagement patterns across highly connected school communities
- Why early K-12 family engagement sets the tone for the year: How early-year communication predicts family responsiveness for every month that follows
- How family engagement and communication data connect to attendance outcomes: How consistent, well-timed outreach improves attendance and helps reduce chronic absenteeism
Meet the Speakers
Dr. Joy Smithson is a Data Scientist at SchoolStatus, where she works with districts all over the country to help educators use data to inform decisions and support student success. Dr. Smithson sees her role as a dual mission: understanding educators’ pressing research questions, and translating vast datasets into actionable insights to address those queries. Dr. Smithson leverages her expertise in analyzing, interpreting, summarizing, visualizing, and wrangling data to support educators and create better outcomes for students.
Dr. Kara Stern, Ph.D. is a veteran educator dedicated to helping schools create the conditions that allow students to thrive. Kara spent more than two decades in K-12 education as a teacher, middle school principal, and head of school. As Executive Director at Math for America, she designed and scaled a fellowship program for math and science teachers in the NYCDOE. Kara earned a masters as a fellow at Teachers College, Columbia (where she met Jen!) and her doctorate in Teaching and Learning from New York University. She has written extensively about school culture, communication, and family engagement. At SchoolStatus, Kara focuses on translating data insights into clear and usable guidance that helps educators strengthen attendance, communication, and student support.