Lots of research

Much research shows that students do better when the key supporters in their lives communicate about how they are doing and what they can do.

We know that youth do better when they get regular feedback from teachers on their classroom performance (Hattie 2008). Teachers teach better when youth communicate how their teaching is affecting them (Jones and Yonezawa 2008/2009; http://www.tripodproject.org/index.php/about/about_background/). Parents and teachers support children’s school progress more effectively when they communicate about their children’s performance in the other setting (Taveras et al 2010; González, Moll, and Amanti 2005; Lawrence-Lightfoot 2003). Administrators lead school reforms better if their staff talk about improving their work (Daly et al, 2010) and about data on student progress (Boudett et al 2005). Teachers teach better when they talk about effective teaching with other teachers (Daly et al 2010; Cochran-Smith and Lytle 2009).

Research on organizational learning and behavior (Spence 2009, Jewell-Sherman 2008); data-driven decision-making (Boudett et al 2005); assessment (http://www.tripodproject.org/index.php/about/about_background/), community organizing and “family engagement” (Mediratta et al 2009, Oakes and Rogers 2006; Henderson et al 2007) and youth engagement and motivation (Jones and Yonezawa 2002, 2008, 2009; www.efficacy.org, Grossman and Bulle 2006) all indicates that students are served better if the people in the student’s social network communicate about how youth are doing, what they can do, and the resources available to help. At any moment, each partner knows something that the others need to know in order to promote student success. Each actor in the social network holds a useful “fund of knowledge” (González, Moll, and Amanti 2005) that would help the others serve the young person better. If people come to trust and value each other as contributing partners (Tatum 2008), and if they have high expectations for student outcomes (Ferguson 2008), information circulation can help supporters attend to the experiences of every learner, reinforce moments of success more quickly and effectively, and reduce moments of failure with more timely and appropriate intervention. Such communication also helps people build relationships that keep them invested in the work.

Adding more communication infrastructure in public education means helping to ensure that the people who need to communicate information and ideas to collaborate in young people’s success can do it (Pollock forthcoming).