Get more students into your schools: A free + easy guide for public school districts
Written by niki Juhasz
When we see threats to our public schools – such as continuing declines in student enrollment, and politicians pushing for privatization and school voucher programs – we want to help.
That’s why we created our free downloadable guide: How to (Re)+Build Your District’s Numbers: Your Planning Guide to Personalize Communications.
As leaders tasked with increasing your district’s enrollment numbers, your job is HARD. But you are not alone.
This resource will help you create a well-rounded, evidence-based communication plan to motivate parents and students to enroll in your district.
The hands-on guide walks you through seven steps to create this plan! It includes data, best practices AND worksheets that you can fill in as a team!
See a sneak peek of what’s inside here:
Once you complete the step-by-step packet, you’ll leave with a personalized, strategic communication plan customized to your community. Better yet? It’s easy to update! And remember, we are in this together. If you have any questions, feel free to send them our way!
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I have a short, cautionary tale brought to you by my early-career mistakes. Here’s what’s in it for you:
My blunder is your happy guide to modeling a culture where asking great questions empowers everyone and makes your work better.
Early in my career in the U.S. Senate, I got a call from another Senate office asking my boss to sign onto important legislation.
There was just one teeny tiny problem… I didn’t know what to do next.
Have you noticed that people… aren’t reading stuff very closely right now? (Not you, you’re doing a great job reading this blog so far!)
Do you notice colleagues are more checked out than usual?
Burnout, compassion fatigue, cognitive overload – you name it, our audiences have it. We’ve got short attention spans, and even shorter fuses.
So what’s a communicator to do to get attention? Throw a party, of course.
While ghostwriting is absolutely one of my favorite projects, it's taken me years to get it right. (Or should I say write?). Today, I'm sharing some of my favorite best practices.
I’ve ghostwritten for more superintendents, CEOs and leaders than I can count. Here are the steps I never skip.
And for you CEOs and leaders who are getting ghostwritten for – these same tips apply!
My first job after college was at a PR agency.
I was working with – and I’m not sure how else to phrase this – men’s men. Think: veterans starting their own government contracting businesses, construction CEOs, cybersecurity leaders and more. There was plenty of little lady-ing.
But there were also many, many lessons that I’m still using in my career today, 15 years later. I’m including one of my favorites, and some additional best practices, below.
You know those days where you just want someone to tell you where we're going to dinner?
Sometimes, I get really tired of making decisions – partly because as busy leaders, we make decisions at work all day, every day.
We ask questions such as:
Should we complete this grant application?
Which events should we go to?
Is that conference worth it?
And sometimes, your teammates don’t agree on the answer.
That’s why at Forthright, we use – you guessed it – a data-backed approach to make these decisions.
In our world of child and family advocacy, few communicators have navigated the trenches quite like Marrianne McMullen.
From managing high-stakes crises in the Obama administration to shaping narratives at DC Public Schools – where I had the immense privilege of working for her – Marrianne has spent her career masterfully championing policies that support children and families. Today, she serves as the Director of Communication & Dissemination at Chapin Hall, an independent research and policy center focused on child and family well-being.
To celebrate the two-year anniversary of her book, Persuasive, I sat down with my former boss and mentor to reflect on what it takes to effectively move the needle.
When I say the word hope, I can hear some of you out there sighing through the internet tubes. And honestly, fair enough. In our field right now, hope can sometimes get packaged up like a vague platitude or a promise that misses the point.
But, hear me out. Today, I’m talking about the kind of hope that’s fierce and very, very practical.
Data consistently tells us that messaging has to trigger a sense of hope if you want to make sure your audiences don’t default to defensiveness.
Age gaps exist all across the organization.
From your eager intern to your seasoned board members (and your program staff to your executive director), you're likely communicating across up to 40 years of generational differences.
Here are some tips and tricks to help you stay aligned.
When we launched our research process – the one that led to our new Frenemies + Jargon: Breaking the Habits That Stall Child and Family Advocacy report – I had suspicions about what we’d find.
We heard that as a field, we’re often fake friends.
Let’s break down what we heard and what we can do about it.
Our average coaching client is a communications director. For the sake of this blog, let’s call her Chloe.
Chloe typically works at a public school district, a foundation or a nonprofit.
She landed in her director role coming from the policy, program or development team. She may only have a few years of direct communications experience, but she’s a natural.
Most of the time, she’s a team of one, and she’s carrying everything communications for her organization.
That’s where we step in as a coach.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes peek at what we normally help out with.
So, you need to tell your board of directors or your school board some bad news.
First, blerg. Sorry about that!
Second, we’re here to help.
I've had the opportunity to be involved in some excellent examples of how to do this well – and, unfortunately, I’ve also had to help clean up a few, um… shall we say, less-than-stellar attempts.
Here is a key approach that I’ve seen work well over the years.
My cats have me trained.
Yeah, you read that right.
THEY trained ME.
Are we suckers? Oh, absolutely. No question.
Yet, there are some very solid communications lessons to be learned from being a human… trained by… a cat. Here’s what we can all learn.
We’re so used to chasing perfect. Perfection in our work, presenting the perfect image online.
But the thing is, people are tired of perfect. And that needs to impact the way we do our work and the way we advocate. Here’s what’s going on – and what to do about it.
I’m the first to admit it: I’m a nerd for data.
If something is going wrong – I want to know why, so I can fix it.
If something is going well – I want to know why, so I can keep doing it.
That’s why I love a good communications audit. Here’s why you should join me in my nerd-dom and hop on the communications audit train.
An organization (yours, in fact) needs a succinct and centralized set of messages that say what the organization does and how you do it.
When done well, core messages are data-backed ways to describe your work that everyone uses when they talk about your organization.
They typically tell a cohesive story about your organization. You’ll want them to include why you exist (what needs are you fulfilling?), what your mission and vision are, and how you accomplish them.
We’re sharing more about core messaging and how to get it right here.