Tell your story with conviction
Use data and storytelling to persuade and influence
By:
Laurie Weidner, APR
When I was a little girl attending Topaz Elementary School in Placentia, my favorite time of the day was after recess, when my sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Lathrup, read us a story. He’d bring the storyline to life with funny voices and animated facial expressions and gestures. The power of storytelling is a lost art. For most of us, we abandoned effective storytelling as our own children grew and lost interest in this favorite bedtime ritual. Yet it’s a skill that every board member should harness in order to tell the real story of success and the challenges our schools face regarding depleted resources and meeting the educational needs of the nation’s most diverse student population.
Effective storytelling includes the use of relevant data and facts in combination with stories, metaphors and synecdoches.
“Boards have the opportunity to demonstrate leadership and advocacy by using data to not only inform decision making but also to monitor the effectiveness of programs,” says Valerie Chrisman, Ed.D., assistant superintendent of educational services for the Ventura County Office of Education. “Telling your story with data and appropriate examples is central to accountability. It’s also necessary for garnering grant funding and expanding partnerships.”
As with any good story, timing is everything. We, as the public education community, have an opportunity to capitalize on the surge of positive public opinion in support of public education, as evidenced through the passage of Proposition 30, and the political support we are enjoying in the initial promises made for increased funding by Gov. Jerry Brown. This is the ideal time for board members to hone their storytelling abilities to spread goodwill and educate the public and lawmakers about our emerging statewide and local priorities—from the adoption of the state’s new assessment system and the implementation of Common Core by 2014 to two potential statewide ballot measures—one lowering the threshold for voter approval of parcel taxes and the other a statewide facilities bond. When school districts and county offices of education effectively tell their story of success with data and firsthand accounts, good things happen: Enrollment stabilizes or grows, partners come forward to offer support and resources, and bonds receive voter approval. If you are planning to approach your constituents about a local bond or parcel tax, if you endeavor to expand your partnership base—embrace storytelling as a strategy.
Effective storytelling tips
As a governance leader, you have a unique opportunity to become a master story teller. Harness the use of data—and combine it with examples from your school community to advance your district or COE’s visibility and community support.
1) Learn more about the data
Many districts and COEs spend time to educate their board members about the AYP and API. “Most boards receive an overview of the achievement data,” explains Chrisman, of the Ventura COE. While understanding the AYP and APR is central to local governance decision making, board members also need to access, understand and use other kinds of data.
2) Use data judiciously
Relevant data is central to effective storytelling regardless of the audience. In her book “Policy Paradox,” author Deborah Stone explains that in policy debates, in particular, numbers are not only commonly used to tell a story, they are necessary for authenticating the story. “Figures are invoked to show that a problem is getting bigger or worse, or to project present trends into the future,” she writes.
Numbers substantiate the success of our schools and the achievements of our students. In your legislative advocacy efforts, the use of appropriate data is critical to piquing the awareness of lawmakers about the significance of an issue, its urgency and scope. Legislation is neither introduced nor amended without data that demonstrates a pressing need or issue that can be solved with a legislative fix or intervention. Parents, grant funders and prospective partners also rely on data to form perceptions about our schools and students.
Work with your superintendent to identify the best data points that illustrate your district’s success in closing the achievement gap, student success, the success of new programs, and the areas of your academic program that the governance team is working to strengthen to support student success.
3) Embrace the ‘dark side’
Districts and COEs are complex institutions serving highly diverse student populations. Many have a lot of positive, constructive data to share with their constituents. Yet each one also maintains data on dropouts, school crime and vandalism, child abuse, bullying, truancy, teen pregnancy, and the like—issues and topics that show the depth and complexity of our work beyond academic performance. While, the book “Policy Paradox” underscores the importance of numbers and data in authenticating the story, the author also bemoans the dark side of numbers and categorizations: “Like metaphors, numbers make normative leaps. Measures imply a need for action because we do not measure things except when we want to change them or change our behavior in response to them.”
Work with your superintendent to identify the data points that could be used to tarnish your district’s public reputation. Then, work together as a governance team to develop a storyline that shows effective, proactive local governance leadership. What is your district doing to demonstrate continuous improvement and a commitment to providing all students with a rigorous education? How are you actively working to reduce the dropout rate? How is your district addressing bullying? Just as it is critical to combine data with a constructive example in affirming good news, it is critical that board leaders are also armed with the stories that illustrate their district or COE’s positive actions in addressing negative indicators.
4) Simplify, simplify, simplify
As you identify the best message data points to tell your story, consider crafting the data into short phrases that can be easily understood and make a powerful statement: “One of every five children in our district lives at or below the national poverty level,” for instance. A few well-chosen kernels of information are more powerful than pages of charts and graphs.
In both your explanation of the data and in your storytelling, avoid the use of jargon. Simplify your message so that it can be understood by non-educators. Synecdoche—a figure of speech that relies on a distinctive aspect of something to stand for the thing itself, such as “ABCs” for “alphabet”—can conjure a visual image in your audience’s minds.
5) Pick one compelling example to illustrate your point
Illustrate both your successes and your challenges with no more than one short, relevant example, story or metaphor for each point you wish to emphasize. Highlight why you are sharing the example and why it is an illustration of the larger issue, success or challenge. As you tell the story, reference parents and students by first name. Bring your story to life with firsthand accounts.
6) Show and tell
A picture really is worth a thousand words, and it can make your story and key messaging memorable. When you share data and illustrate it with a story, incorporate tangible examples—a photo, sample student work, a short informal student video or audio recording, for example. Better yet, bring the person or people whom you’re trying to inform and persuade—potential strategic partners or your legislator—to your campuses to meet your students and see your programs in action. The more firsthand experiences that the public and influencers have with your students and school programs, the more likely they will be your cheerleaders.
7) Unify your messaging— sing from the same song sheet!
The Dublin Unified School District (see page 45) has created a culture of accountability anchored on achievement data that is carried out through a strategic plan. Every board member participates in the strategic planning process, serves on relevant strategic planning committees, and is empowered to deliver data and information to the community. The superintendent and staff deliver a “data walk” to ensure the board is well versed in how every school and its students are doing overall with regard to the statewide assessments.
“We work to collectively build our image, and we sustain that positive image through the good work of our board and the great people who work for and with our district,” says Stephen Hanke, Dublin Unified’s superintendent. Hanke attributes his district’s strong public image, in part, to the governance team’s deliberate efforts to unify the use of data, messaging and constructive storytelling.
Chrisman, at the Ventura COE, advises that board leaders seek direction from the superintendent to identify the most appropriate data to use when sharing their district or COE’s story. Then, determine together how to best share your story with your community.
8) Persistence pays
Getting out the good news about your schools and helping the public, media and lawmakers to understand the achievement gap and other pressing issues takes persistence. Endeavor to seize every available opportunity to tell your story.
Traditional media have long abandoned the art of positive storytelling. For that reason, they should never be your first line of communication with your community or influencers. However, there is an exception: if your story (and data) is an illustration of a regional, statewide or national trend, you have a chance to be featured in a positive light. Yet, most often when traditional media demonstrate an interest in our schools, it is to our detriment. Fortunately, social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, patch.com and YouTube) provide governance leaders with endless possibilities to share our collective good news to a broad audience without concern about modifications to the storyline. Many districts and COEs are masterful at using the new media to keep the good news and relevant data about their schools and students continuously before the public and local and state elected officials.
Laurie Weidner, APR, M.A. (lweidner@csba.org) is CSBA’s senior director of communications.
Dublin Unified: A case study on how to do it right
The story of the transformation of the public reputation of the Dublin Unified School District is not unique. Many districts across the state battle a perception problem not grounded in reality.
“There was some conversation in the community that Dublin High just wasn’t as good and didn’t have the breadth of programs as the high schools in other neighboring districts,” Dublin Unified Superintendent Stephen Hanke explains. Some of that perception was true. More programs were needed to make the high school competitive with other schools in the area.
“However, what wasn’t true is that the school was inferior. Students were achieving at high levels, but we were not championing their successes consistently,” he says.
Under the board’s leadership, the district adopted rigorous standards with the intent of “raising the bar for all students.” In addition to raising the graduation requirements to embrace a-g requirements, the district adopted a differentiated diploma that was put in place to hold all students to the highest set of performance expectations.
“The goal was to raise the bar, hold higher expectations for all students, to continue to improve the district’s image and to give students more opportunities at the same time,” Hanke adds.
In addition, the district initiated a strategic planning process that guides all decision making, resource allocation and messaging. The district integrates a cross-section of the community in the planning process each year and holds community forums to affirm the direction of the district and educate the public and local influencers about the district’s student achievement efforts.
One of the outgrowths of that process was the formation of a Communications Committee that includes parents and volunteers who help to ensure that Dublin’s good news is everywhere in the community. Committee volunteers maintain a robust website and specialized media site—www.OneDublin.org—and distribute news releases to traditional media on a regular basis. By using multiple channels of communication, good news about the district abounds. Visit www.OneDublin.org for a taste of their excellent work.
By all indications, Dublin’s strategy is working. Student enrollment continues to grow by more than 5 percent per year. The district has successfully passed both a parcel tax and a general obligation bond in recent years by significant margins, and it’s fostered a strong relationship with the city and community groups—so much so that the city funds crossing guards and two school resource officers, and provides teacher grant opportunities. In addition, the city and district continue to collaborate on joint facilities projects and work together on traffic mitigation and other issues that impact the schools and the community. Moreover, discussions continue with the city to place a joint user/utility tax on the ballot for voter approval to help underwrite common interests.
“The exceptional partnership with the city and the city’s interest in a future joint ballot measure is evidence of the caliber of our collaboration and the recognition of having high-quality schools in the community,” Hanke says.
—Laurie Weidner