Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
Prepared by SACS Project Team April 25, 2011
Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page Title Text
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Purpose Goal 4 Objectives 4
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Message Platform Target Audience 5 Communication Channels 5
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Key Messages
Communications Strategy Leverage all opportunities to communicate the board’s commitment to maintaining the accreditation of APS high schools 8 Demonstrate to all audiences a willingness to work collaboratively to meet the needs of APS students 8 Build awareness and appreciation, and improve the reputation of APS 8 Improve community outreach 10 Bring target audiences up to speed with APS 10 Clearly define the educational challenges facing APS 10 Strengthen the connection between schools and their communities 10 Articulate what we stand for 10 Determine how others see us and respond to feedback with action 10 Craft key messages about program initiatives and crisis management 11 Improve internal communications 11 Manage a proactive media relations program 11
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Tactics Schedule (SACS Recommendations) Evaluation
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Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
Purpose The purpose of this document is to provide a communications framework that advocates a more relevant and transparent communications posture for Atlanta Public Schools (APS) and the Atlanta Board of Education. The plan provides a framework to address SACS required actions and a long-term strategy for communicating with and engaging stakeholders in the work of the district to achieve the board’s mission of educating the students of APS, while regaining stakeholders’ trust and confidence in the governance and leadership of Atlanta Public Schools.
GOAL Enhance public perception of APS, whereby all stakeholders feel valued, informed and engaged in the work of the district, allowing the board and the district to regain the trust and support of stakeholders, while maintaining the accreditation of the district’s high schools.
OBJECTIVES • To demonstrate to stakeholders the board’s ability to communicate, govern, and function effectively and meet the governance needs of the district. • To craft and distribute communications regularly. • To utilize technology that delivers real-time information to stakeholders faster and efficiently. • To effectively communicate challenges and accomplishments of the board and district. • To operate transparently, communicate clearly and demonstrate a commitment to meeting the needs of APS stakeholders. • To effectively communicate with stakeholders by developing, implementing and utilizing a set of communication tools that closes the feedback loop between board members and stakeholders. • To increase outreach to stakeholders by establishing a stakeholder engagement committee. • To listen to and respond to stakeholder concerns. • To utilize a variety of communication tools to ensure that messages reach all stakeholders. • To establish forums to meet with a variety of stakeholders regularly, outside of the scheduled Board or SACS meetings. 4
Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
Message Platform At Atlanta Public Schools, we maintain a friendship with the community around a common goal-educating our youth. We are committed to providing our stakeholders with schools that deliver a vibrant, high-performing learning environment with excellent teachers, the latest technologies and best practices that know no geographic, racial or economic boundaries. We will demonstrate our commitment by working collaboratively as a governing body to protect the value of the education that we deliver to our students.
TARGET AUDIENCES The following key stakeholder audiences have been identified. A variety of tools will be used to better connect and strengthen the bond with them. Selected tools will deliver approaches that stress “audience-centered” messages that encourage two-way communication and feedback. • Parents • Elected Officials • Students • Higher Education • Employees • Philanthropic • Clergy • National Audience • Taxpayers • State Government • Business Community • Nonprofit Organizations • Education Associations • News Media While our communications strategy includes all of the listed audience groups, the primary target audiences are parents, students, employees, and our school communities.
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS There are more communication tools and techniques available to spread the word about APS, and our stakeholders are choosing to get their information in many ways. Our challenge is to make sure that our key messages reach across the wide variety of communication options from which people select. These options go beyond traditional media, such as newspapers, television and radio, and extend to platforms such as the Internet, webcasts, podcasts, blogs, and websites: • Email • District Website • School Websites • Text Messages • Facebook • Twitter • YouTube • Face-to-Face Meetings • Telephone Conferences
• Robo Calls • Print Media (Op Ed and Guest Columns) • Radio • Television • Public Speaking Opportunities • Partner Tools/Channels • Newsletters (School, Board) 5
• Organized Community Organizations • Forums/Town Hall Meetings • Board Meetings • NPU Meetings • Postal Mail • The Atlanta Educator Newspaper • Talk Up APS Blog
• APS Telephone On-Hold Messages • APS School Marquee • APS Guidebook • APS Annual Report • Infinite Campus Parent Portal • School PTA Meetings • Cyber Chats
Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
Key Messages All messages are audience centered. We will emphasize a more listenerbenefit-centered approach—that’s easily understood, explains the benefits to the audience, and connects more strongly with the concerns and interests of stakeholders. Feedback is a critical element to the success of the communications plan. We will build credibility by expanding our communications approach to a more targeted, two-way, grassroots up communications strategy that increases feedback.
Audience
Key Message
Desired Outcome
Parents
Parental input and support are key elements in APS’ delivery of a quality education to students.
Parents feel engaged and trust that their children are receiving a quality education.
The board’s primary goal is student achievement.
Feeling secure; trusts APS.
Our immediate goal is to meet the required actions of SACS and maintain the accreditation of APS high schools.
Trust in the Board to meet the required actions. Advocacy to change perceptions about the effectiveness of the boards SACS work.
Student well being is the key focus of Atlanta Public Schools. The education that you receive allows you to compete on any front.
Students feel confident about the education they are receiving and are empowered to be engaged, productive, competitive students and citizens.
The board’s primary goal is student achievement.
Feeling secure; trust APS.
You will graduate from an accredited high school with the skills to be globally competitive.
Feeling of trust, pride, motivation.
The faculty and staff of Atlanta Public Schools are the key resource that enables the system to deliver a quality education to students.
Employees feel supported, valued and connected to the successes of the district.
You are valued and appreciated.
Feeling valued.
We are good stewards of tax dollars. We are committed to enhancing the value of an APS education, including maintaining our accreditation, to enhance the value of the communities we serve.
Trust in our stewardship and commitment to maintaining the accreditation of the district.
Students
Employees
Taxpayers
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Audience
Key Message
Desired Outcome
Business Community
We need and value your support. We are committed to enhancing the value of an APS education, including maintaining our accreditation, to keep and attract new business to the city of Atlanta.
Support and advocacy.
Education Associations
We value employees.
Support for the district and district employees.
Elected Officials
We need and want your support. We are good stewards of tax dollars. We are committed to enhancing the value of an APS education, including maintaining our accreditation, to enhance the value of the communities we serve.
Support and advocacy.
Higher Education
We are preparing students for higher education with rigorous, meaningful studies.
Successful transition of students to higher education.
Philanthropic Community
We are good stewards of the resources provided to us. Our students deserve the best educational resources available.
Support and trust in our stewardship. Unwavering commitment to supporting instructional initiatives.
State Government
Our students deserve and need resources from the state to obtain a quality education. We are good stewards of tax dollars. We are committed to enhancing the value of an APS education, including maintaining our accreditation, to enhance the value of the communities we serve.
Adequate funding, trust in the Atlanta Board of Education and to allow the Atlanta Board of Education to resolve the accreditation probation issue without action from the Governor.
News Media
We are committed to providing a quality education to students. Our immediate goal is to meet the required actions of SACS and maintain the accreditation of APS high schools. We are working collaboratively and diligently to meet the required actions.
Fair coverage.
Clergy
We are committed to our school communities. We are committed to maintaining our accreditation and properly educating the communities we serve. Help us help our students. We need your support.
Support and advocacy.
Non Profit Organizations
Your services support student success. Partner with us to make a difference.
Support and advocacy.
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Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
Communications Strategy Leverage all opportunities to communicate the board’s commitment to maintaining the accreditation of APS high schools. The risk of APS high schools losing accreditation is the primary concern of all of our stakeholders. The board will put personal opinions aside to move the agenda of the board and the students of APS forward. The board will take advantage of every public and private opportunity, to reassure all stakeholders that they are committed to meeting the six required actions of SACS and maintaining accreditation.
Demonstrate to all audiences a willingness to work collaboratively to meet the needs of APS students. The most effective communication is often not spoken or written. Audience groups interpret all messages, including messages that they create from observing the ongoing interactions of the board. Board members will commit to working collaboratively, professionally and demonstrating their commitment to putting the work of APS students first. The board will follow the established board communications protocol. The board, while working through challenging tasks, will remember that to meet the six required actions, the board must not only operate as a functioning body, but must also ensure that the perception of the board is one that is a functioning governing body.
Build awareness and appreciation, and improve the reputation of APS. Highlight the success of APS in using innovative and effective approaches to increase student achievement, raise expectations, increase accountability, and successfully meet the educational needs of our students and the Atlanta community. Frame the messaging around the sustained successes of APS, ensuring that the district is positioned in a larger context than specific challenges that it faces.
TALKING POINTS The following talking points are in addition to the SACS six required actions: Graduation Outcomes Under its High School Transformation Initiative, APS has completed a five-year ambitious endeavor to redesign all of its high schools. Now, every public high school in the city of Atlanta is a collegepreparatory, smaller, more personalized learning environment. APS is believed to be the only urban district that has brought high school transformation, or redesign, to scale. Research shows that these types of environments produce more graduates and better prepare students for college-level study. At the New Schools at Carver, APS’ first transformed high school complex, the graduation rate has risen dramatically. The old Carver Comprehensive High posted a graduation rate of 14 percent in 2002. The new Carver delivered the following graduation rates in 2010:
• 99 percent – Carver Early College • 97 percent – Carver School of Technology
• 99 percent – Carver School of the Arts • 87 percent – Carver School of Health Science and Research
Of the state’s 60 schools that have 2010 graduation rates above 90 percent, five are traditional high schools within the Atlanta Public Schools system (i.e., three above-listed schools at Carver, as well as Mays at 90 percent and Grady at 92 percent). 8
Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
In two years, APS graduates have doubled the amount of college scholarships they’ve earned. In 2008, APS graduates earned $64 million in college scholarship offers. In 2009, APS graduates earned $92 million. In 2010, the graduating class brought in a record $129 million in college scholarship offers. For the class of 2010, three in four students were accepted into college. Included in the 2010 scholarship awards are 29 Gates Millennium Scholars, the highest number of Gates Scholars of any district in the nation. In 2010, 100 percent of the first group of 21st Century Atlanta Scholars graduated from college in four years. These scholars earned lucrative scholarships to the prestigious liberal arts colleges known as the Little Ivies – e.g., Amherst, Bowdoin, Hampshire, Holy Cross and Middlebury. As a result of APS’ reforms to date, the graduation rate districtwide has increased from 39 percent in 2002 to 66 percent in 2010. Facilities Improvements Because of taxpayers’ support of three SPLOST referenda, APS is on its way to completing the largest comprehensive facilities initiative in the school system’s 139-year history. Over the last decade, APS has closed 28 schools, built 18 new schools, completed approximately 65 renovations, and made systems upgrades at numerous facilities in order to create state-of-the-art learning environments for students. Business/Civic Support APS is a district worthy of investment. Since 1999, APS has obtained more than $160 million in local and national philanthropic support. In 2007, the GE Foundation awarded APS a $22 million grant – the largest private grant ever awarded to the school system – to accelerate its Math and Science Initiative.
In 2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the district $10 million to accelerate APS’ Effective Teacher in Every Classroom initiative, an innovative teacher performance and accountability system. In 2007, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also awarded APS more than $10 million to fund the school system’s High School Transformation Initiative. More than 90 percent of APS schools have dedicated partnerships with the business and civic community. In all, more than 400 community partnerships support APS schools. Test Scores From 2000 to the year 2010 – when aggressive testing procedures were put in place and state testing monitors were in schools – APS students demonstrated steady and consistent progress across the curriculum. The progress is documented in the attachments that include the following example:
In 2000 – 47 percent of APS fourth-graders met/exceeded standards in reading.
In 2010, 81 percent of APS fourth-graders are meeting/exceeding standards in reading.
In Grade 8 writing, APS has closed the achievement gap with the state. On the 2011 Georgia Grade 8 Writing Assessment, the percentage of eighth-graders meeting or exceeding standards is 83 percent, both for APS and the state of Georgia. The test requires students to write an essay. Because of its instructional reforms, APS continues to show significant improvement on the independently administered and rigorous Nation’s Report Card (National Assessment of Educational Progress):
On the NAEP writing exams from 2002 to 2007, APS scores rose by a strong 15 points, more than seven times the national rate of growth.
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Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
On the NAEP reading exams from 2002 to 2009, APS fourth-graders posted a strong 14-point gain, and eighth-graders also posted a strong 14-point gain; when compared to other urban districts, states and the nation, Atlanta’s students posted the highest NAEP reading gains between 2002 and 2009.
On the NAEP math exams from 2003 to 2009, APS fourth-graders posted a strong 13-point gain, and eighth-graders posted a strong 16-point gain.
Bring target audiences up to speed with APS. Launch a new and aggressive communication outreach effort to increase our connection with key stakeholder audiences throughout the community, using an array of communication tools, tactics, and feedback mechanisms.
Clearly define the educational challenges facing APS.
Absenteeism With help from community partners, APS has implemented aggressive strategies to monitor and improve students’ attendance.
Engage the support and participation of key stakeholder groups in helping address district challenges, and communicate the challenges in a forthright and open manner.
As a result, from 1999 to 2010, absenteeism has improved dramatically; the percentage of APS students missing 10 or more days dropped …
Strengthen the connection between schools and their communities.
From 33 percent to 18 percent in elementary school
From 47 percent to 12 percent in middle school
From 61 percent to 40 percent in high school
Employ a variety of communication tools, techniques, and templates that schools can easily use to increase community outreach. These tools would include an emphasis on developing more audience-centered messages that speak to the interest, needs, and concerns of parents, and that stress feedback mechanisms.
Improve community outreach.
Articulate what we stand for.
We must sharpen the focus of our outreach efforts by creating more opportunities for two-way dialogue, and shaping our messages to speak clearly to community needs, concerns, and interests. In addition to increasing our interaction with communities through traditional communication vehicles, such as community meetings and forums, we will connect more closely with communities by increasing our story placement efforts in community radio stations and newspapers, as well as by using new media tools to provide additional touch points.
Our values, strengths, accomplishments, challenges, and vision for the future are all key elements of APS’ reputation. Articulate a clear and concise statement of how we see ourselves. Always stay on message and adhere to the board’s communications standards and protocol.
Determine how others see us and respond to feedback with action. 10
Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
The board has begun this work through the establishment of the Community Engagement Committee that is providing feedback on the six required actions. However, additional community feedback loops should be developed and an evaluation of the results conducted to determine how the image of APS and the board compares with public perceptions. The gaps between the two defines the communication challenge we face, and helps guide us in developing messages that assure we are reaching the right audiences with the right messages at the right times.
Craft key messages about program initiatives. Reach key stakeholder audiences through a robust message platform that aligns all communication to close the identified gaps between public perceptions and attitudes, and the APS self-image, and that speaks directly to the concerns identified by key target audience segments.
Improve internal communications. To many audiences, APS staff—administrators, teachers, custodians—are the schools. They are important sources of highly credible word-of-mouth information. Communication with internal audiences will be ramped up to ensure that all APS staff receive timely and consistent communication about the district’s goals, challenges, and successes.
Manage a proactive media relations program. In many cases, if people don’t see what we do on television, read it in the newspaper, or hear it on the radio, then it never happened. That’s why the news media is so important—it is a powerful tool we can use to reach key stakeholders. It’s key that we aggressively take our stories to the media and, at the same time, broaden our strategy to reach out to community newspapers and radio stations throughout Atlanta. Turn up the volume in the community about APS by developing story packages that feature the people and programs that are making a difference in our schools. A media pitching matrix for print, electronic and Web media will be developed to position a series of positive articles about APS in an ongoing, consistent and powerful process.
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Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
TACTICS SCHEDULE: SACS SIX REQUIRED ACTIONS TACTIC
MEDIUM
SCHEDULE
AUDIENCE
Send SACS meeting summary to APS stakeholders
Email Blast (using board and district distribution lists)
Every Wednesday
Clergy, Business APS Board Office Community, Education Associations, Elected Officials, Higher Education, Philanthropic, National Audience, State Government, Nonprofit Organizations
Publish SACS meeting summary on online with e-Alert
APS District Website
Every Wednesday
All Audience Groups
APS Communications Staff
Publish SACS meeting summary link on school websites homepage
APS School Websites
Every Wednesday
Parents, APS Employees, Students,
APS Communications Staff
Tweet link to SACS meeting summary to followers.
Every Wednesday
All Audience Groups
APS Communications Staff
Publish Facebook wall posting of SACS meeting summary
Every Wednesday
All Audience Groups
APS Communications Staff
Record and post message directing callers to view SACS website
APS Telephone System
May 3 - October 5
Parents, Employees, Students
APS Communications Staff
Publish story on SACS meeting summary in Talk Up APS blog
Talk Up APS Blog
Every Wednesday
All Audience Groups
APS Communications Staff
APS customer service operator pitch to inbound calls
APS Telephone Operators
Daily until October 5
All Audience Groups
APS Communications Staff
Summary of weekly SACS meeting to APS leaders
APS Weekly Leadership Packet
Every Friday through September 30
APS Employees
APS Communications Staff
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Responsibility
Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education
TACTIC
MEDIUM
SCHEDULE
AUDIENCE
Responsibility
PSA on WABE Radio
Radio
TBD
All Audience Groups
APS Communications Staff
Interstitial 2-3 minute “Commitment to Meeting the SACS Recommendations
Cable Channel 22
TBD
All Audience Groups
APS Communications Staff
Weekly SACS video update; summary
Cable Channel 22; APS Web
TBD
All Audience Groups
APS Communications Staff
Produce and air SACS updates
Cable Channel 22
Every Tuesday
All Audience Groups
APS Communications Staff
Face to Face Meeting
Community, Parent, Student Meeting(s)
TBD
All Audience Groups
APS Board of Education
Online Stakeholders Chats
Online Cyber Chats
TBD
All Audience Groups
APS Board of Education and APS Communications Staff
Publish Animated Actor that directs visitors to SACS site
APS District Website; APS School Websites
May 10 - September 30
All Audience Groups
APS Communications Staff
Professional, collaborative interaction during all Board exchanges
Community Meetings, Board Meetings, SACS Meetings.
Ongoing
All Audience Groups
APS Board of Education
Publish media advisory for SACS milestones
News Media (Radio, Television, Print)
As Needed
News Media
APS Communications Staff
Media interviews for SACS milestones
News Media (Radio, Television, Print)
As Needed
All Audience Groups
APS Board Chair
Board updates via formal meetings
APS Board During scheduled Meetings; meetings SACS meetings 13
All Audience Groups
APS Board of Education
Atlanta Public Schools Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education April 25, 2011
Evaluation The effectiveness of the communications will be measured based on ongoing stakeholder feedback, via surveys, face-to-face input and other feedback metrics. If necessary, we will adjust the communications plan accordingly. In addition, the Atlanta Board of Education will incorporate the communications plan’s tactics into the Board’s balance scorecard to ensure accountability.
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Communications Plan Atlanta Board of Education Prepared by SACS Project Team April 25, 2011