Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Janice Bevan
Committee Member
Jo Nash O’Neal
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
academic expectations, campus tours, children, community leaders, controlled choice plans, diversity, faculty, facilities, Florida, friendly communication, Hillsborough County, leadership development, marketing schools, multicultural society, parent involvement, parent-school relations, parents, program evaluation, public relations, prospective parents, school choice, school districts, school information, school leadership, school management, school personnel, school promotion, school visits, safety, staff development, student performance, students, training programs, welcomes to parents
Abstract
The School District of Hillsborough County, Florida is implementing a controlled choice plan which will give parents increased opportunities to select their children’s schools. School choice has posed new challenges for public school leaders, that is, marketing their schools to the public. Thus, a new plan to train school leaders to promote their schools at a grass roots level was needed. Specifically, school leaders needed a trained cadre of faculty to serve as on-site public relations specialists to provide information relevant to parents who are making decisions about where to send their children to school. This project complemented concurrent efforts in the district by focusing on successfully managing school visits by parents.
The purpose of this project was twofold: (a) to develop a detailed training program that would enable faculty members to efficiently and effectively discuss with visiting parents, in an organized fashion, their school’s offerings and characteristics, and (b) using appropriate organizational leadership approaches, to assist the school leadership in developing positive welcomes to the broad diversity of parents deciding their children’s schools.
There were five research questions addressed in this project: (a) what information would parents find helpful in choosing a child’s school? (b) what content needs to be presented and discussed with prospective parents to promote a school? (c) what would comprise a valid and appropriate content for a public relations training plan? (d) how should such a program be implemented and evaluated? (e) what is the potential benefit to the district of this plan?
This study began in April 2003. After formative and summative committees of parents, students, school personnel, and school and community leaders reviewed and gave input on proposed public relations training content, final versions of the training were created for use by school leaders.
The researcher concluded that parents need school information presented in a friendly and helpful manner. School personnel need to be trained, prepared, well informed, and able to greet all parents in a multicultural society and answer their questions. Parents participating in this research were most interested in knowing about key faculty/staff, student academic expectations and performance, safety, facilities, and a tour when visiting a campus.