Practices and/or techniques to improve school-community relations and develop confidence in the public schools

Public confidence in education has received considerable national interest. Educators seek new ways to build and maintain confidence in schools. This study identifies and classifies what community members say influences them to lose confidence in the public schools, what practices/techniques are used build confidence schools according to 181 high-confidence public school principals, and what school-community relations strategies are used by high-confidence schools. The study also includes the identification of school-community relations practices/techniques used in high-confidence schools.

This study examined the perceptions of 409 community members and school principals of 81 elementary and ICQ secondary high-confidence schools in the United States. The literature review, the community-based surveys and the school-based questionnaires provided data on confidence-building practices and techniques. A strategy for developing and maintaining confidence in public schools is suggested.

Perceptions of community members (community-based data) and of principals (school-based data) were similar. Top-ranked confidence-building practices/techniques for both data sets showed .that the attitudes of the people closely associated with the schools--teachers, principals, students, and parents—have the most influence on the gain and/or loss of confidence in the public schools. Communications, community involvement, curriculum, and staff quality also ranked high in the community-based and school-based data sets. Three broad categories of school-community relations practices/techniques were identified: communications, public relations, and marketing. Principals of high-confidence schools used more marketing than public relations practices/techniques and more public relations than communications practices/techniques. High-confidence schools use those practices/ techniques that community members say cause them to gain confidence in the schools.

This study supports the basic premise that confidence is a school-community relations issue. School personnel and community members have the potential to create a cooperative, healthy climate which promulgates high public confidence by utilizing strategies such as those described in The School-Community Relations Confidence-Building Model.