Step 2

Get Ready

Parents, community leaders, and other members of the public should review websites and materials of local school districts and/or local schools to gain a clear understanding of major challenges and issues facing your local school system.

If you are a local school board member or administrator with access to local school district public affairs/communications offices, be certain to coordinate directly with these offices to identify guidelines around spokespeople and ensure that your communications adhere to the policy, practices, and priorities of your local school district.

Study the Issues

We realize that it is important to use your limited time wisely. To communicate effectively about public education, tap into the best available resources. We provide a list below.

  • Research and analysis: Interested in accurate, timely, and credible information about public education? Need the lowdown on what works from pre-kindergarten to high school? Want the facts about issues affecting your schools from Common Core standards to school schedules to teacher evaluation? Then check out NSBA’s evidence-based Center for Public Education.

  • High-achieving schools boards put student achievement first. Discover the eight characteristics of effective school boards at CenterForPubliceducation.org/Eight-characteristics-of-effective-school-boards.

  • Learn why voting in school board elections is your investment in the future of kids and your community CenterForPublicEducation.org/allinfavor.

  • Need credible information about education hot topics at your fingertips? From Common Core State Standards to pre-K to trends in teacher evaluation and much more, explore the “All Issues” drop-down on the CPE website at www.centerforpubliceducation.org. American School Board Journal, NSBA’s flagship magazine, gives a national perspective on cutting-edge education trends and issues at www.asbj.com (subscription-based).

  • Top education stories: Education blogger Alexander Russo, author of This Week In Education, identifies the most notable education stories from 2013 in The Atlantic.

  • Education blogs: In addition to national, state, and local media, explore sites like Teach100 that provide a user-friendly daily ranking of education blogs. Each blog lists a “Teach Score” that examines blogs by key ranking factors, such as “Social,” “Activity,” and “Authority”. (A free, downloadable “Teach100” widget keeps this "must read" list at your fingertips.)

Set Goals and Objectives

For the national campaign to thrive, it is important to create an “echo effect.” Join local school boards in helping to tell the important story of public education by spreading the word: Share this site and the national campaign itself with key influencers in your region, state, and local community. Set goals and objectives that tap into local media outlets and other dissemination channels to help drive awareness and get the word out.

Think of the campaign as a door-opener or conversation starter. When you set out to reinforce, strengthen, or shape an opinion, it requires studying your local market to identify key messages that are receiving coverage or engaging public interest in your area. To customize the national campaign for your regional, state, or local community, set specific goals and objectives that:

  • Acknowledge the baseline – to what extent are key influencers informed about the issues and to what degree are they willing to engage in dialogue?
  • Prioritize key influencers –important individuals or active community, civic, business, social, and faith-based organizations or informal groups should receive priority attention.
  • Identify preferred channels – how and in what ways key influencers prefer to receive information (i.e., through digital or social media, in publications, media releases, video scripts, community events, in-person engagement, etc.).

One size NEVER fits all if your goal is to communicate effectively! To reach your target(s), make use of the very same source(s) they rely on for news and information. Successful communication starts by clearly identifying the people or groups you need to reach, then delivering that content via the channels the people or groups you seek to reach rely on, whether traditional, social or digital format.

Back to Step 1: Get Informed << | >> Go to Step 3: Get Connected