Sound The Alarm: What Happens When You Don’t Communicate

By Jennifer Wagner

EdChoice is located on the 26th floor of the tallest office building in Downtown Indianapolis.

This week, the building caught fire. Or at least something on the 35th floor did.

But we didn’t find out because the alarm went off or someone made an all-building announcement.

We found out because a couple of our team members had gone to grab lunch, and one of them texted:

The elevators weren’t working.

They weren’t letting anyone into the lobby, which had filled with smoke.

Several fire trucks were outside, and firefighters were doing their job nine floors up.

Were we at risk? Did we need to evacuate the building? What was burning, and did they have it under control?

Let me be clear: I don’t believe anyone in our office thought we were in imminent danger, but we had no clue what was going on. That can provoke all kinds of feelings you generally want to avoid: anxiety, anger, doubt.

For my part, I leaned into anger:

There may or may not have been some choice words exchanged with the building manager when he stopped by. Not my finest moment.

I bring this incident up because it’s an everyday reminder of how humans function when they either have limited information and seek more or find out later that something was hidden from them that they believe they should have known about.

This translates directly into K-12 education — and some of my favorite data from the work we do surveying parents about their kids’ schools.

Whether it’s an emergency situation or just getting the latest athletic schedule, families often express frustration about the lack of communication from their schools.

That’s why this finding from our 2017 survey of Indiana parents is so important:

Sixty-one percent of school choice parents reported communicating with teachers more often or much more often than in their previous schools.

We saw the same kind of results among tax-credit scholarship recipients in Florida:

As a mom, I can totally relate.

When my daughter was enrolled in a public magnet school, there were constant complaints among the parents that we didn’t know what was happening at the school — both little things like plans for field day and big things like whether the first- and second-grade classrooms would share the same teachers in the coming year. (Yes, that’s a big thing when the administration splits apart previously combined classrooms and your daughter suddenly doesn’t have the great teacher she absolutely adored for two years like she thought she would.)

Not to go full-on conspiratorial PTA mom, but it felt at times like there was an attempt not to share information with us.

But once she moved to a private school, the floodgates of communication opened wide.

I get quick responses back from my kids’ teachers, and the school sends at least six emails per week with reminders, updates and photos. That doesn’t include the emergency response notifications, which come in via text and email almost in real-time.

I don’t believe public school teachers don’t want to communicate; I just think it becomes more of a priority for private schools, who know that happy parents are parents who stay. (When I left the magnet school, no one asked me where I was going or why; they have a waitlist a mile long. I’ve been asked on multiple occasions by our private school to talk with potential families or ones who are considering leaving about my experiences at different schooling types.)

All of this brings us back to the building fire and something that should be common sense but apparently isn’t: People like to know what’s going on. When they aren’t in the know, their satisfaction levels drop, and they wonder why they’re being left out.

Imagine someone passing you in a hallway and saying “hi.”

Instead of saying “hi” back, you walk on by.

That person’s mind begins to spin: Did she not hear me? Does she dislike me? Did I do something wrong?

An inbound communication has to be returned, or it messes with our heads.

And when communication is lacking altogether — like if your building is on fire and no one tells you — that breeds even more contempt and dissatisfaction.

When it comes to K-12 education, we know that parents want academic quality, small class sizes, safe environments and values that align with their own. They also want to be heard, and when they’re given that chance, they’re pretty darn happy about it.

All schools should strive to provide a level of communication that makes families feel valued instead of forcing them to scavenge for information and wonder if they said “hi” loud enough.

Jennifer Wagner is a mom, a recovering political hack and the Vice President of Communications for EdChoice, a national nonprofit that supports and promotes universal school choice.