We recently surveyed over 5,000 parents and small school administrators around the country, and became well acquainted with the way today’s schools communicate with parents. Here are our TOP TEN findings:

Over 70% of Montessori schools primarily use standalone newsletters and websites to communicate with parents.

  • It takes an average of 5 hours for a school to create, edit, compile, and send out a newsletter (using an existing template, with input by several school staff members).
  • The average school newsletter consists of over 750 words, or approximately two and a half pages of text.
  • Parents spend less than two minutes of their time reading newsletters, which translates to a maximum of 360 words. This means that over 50% of school newsletter content goes unread.
  • 85% of school newsletters sent to parents remain unopened.
  • Parents receive more than 70 emails daily, including newsletters, credit card statements, and payment reminders. Personal emails make up less than 20%of their inboxes.
  • The human brain cannot process and retain more than seven (plus or minus two) pieces of information in short term memory (Think social security, phone number, driver’s license, license plates, etc.)
  • School websites are primarily marketing tools that allow new (prospective) parents to find out more about schools.
  • Once a child is enrolled in a school, parents visit school websites to retrieve information; they prefer to receive information.
  • Annually, Montesori schools spend over $ 6,000.00 – $ 8000.00 on newsletters and websites, in an attempt to market to and engage with parents.

For all small schools, whether charter, montessori, or private, administrators might want to question whether their current method of communication is truly the best.