00:02.96

Zahra Massicotte

Hi everyone, welcome to Tech in EdTech, the show where we explore how technology can power teaching and learning at scale. I'm Zahra, and if you work in K-12, support multilingual or multicultural learners, today's episode is for you. We're digging into how parents can better understand and support student learning, and what EdTech teams need to change to make that possible. Joining me is Stephanie Parra, CEO of ALL In Education, an organization leading parent engagement, leadership development, and advocacy across diverse communities. We'll talk about what proficiency should look like for families, how AI can support rather than exclude multilingual or low connectivity households, and what real two-way communication and parent agency should be in 2026. Stephanie, welcome to Tech in EdTech.

00:49.86

Stephanie Parra

Thank you so much for having me. I'm glad to be here.

00:52.86

Zahra Massicotte

Absolutely. We're very happy to have you here as well. To start, I'd love to hear about your journey in education and what prompted your work at ALL In Education.

01:02.70

Stephanie Parra

Yeah, so I started ALL In Education as the founding executive director, now CEO, back in April of 2020, which was a crazy time to start a new organization. But I came to the work as a former school board member. So I served in a local high school district here in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm in the school board for 10 years. I also was working in education policy at the time, doing advocacy work at our state legislature. And so for me, the context I kind of bring and brought to ALL In Education was really rooted in the importance of community being involved in decision-making and the importance of parents and caregivers really having access to the knowledge, skills, and the support systems to really advocate for their children. And so when we started ALL In Education, if you remember what April of 2020 looked like, that was at the height of COVID and the height of the pandemic. And so that context and that environment is where we started our work. And, quite honestly, I think the pandemic taught me a lot when we were navigating distance learning. You know, I was getting questions. I was the school board president at the time, drew that short straw. And so in navigating that, in that leadership capacity, I had a lot of questions around what the Latino community needed at the time, coming from different communities, different leaders here locally. And so, rather than making assumptions about our community, I really wanted to take the time to listen to parents, caregivers, and educators to really understand what they were going through as we were navigating the COVID pandemic. And so that is what jump-started the work of ALL In Education. We kind of had to scrap any initial thoughts and plans that we had to adapt to the environment that we were living in real time. And so that became core to our work with families and our work with parents and caregivers because what we realized was that there was a lot of talk about the digital divide, but we really were focused on the communication divide that we uncovered at the at the time and and the divide between schools and families not kind of meeting each other, missing each other and needing to really strengthen that relationship and strengthen the bridge between schools and families. And so our work now at ALL In Education centers around families. It centers on the importance of parents and caregivers having access to knowledge, skills, confidence, and agency to navigate a complex system in order to effectively advocate for their children and support their students' learning journeys. And so that's really what our work is driving towards now. And after five and a half years, I'm very proud to share that we have supported over 800 parents and caregivers in that time. Our alumni network is now over 900 leaders. And so we're reaching families at scale, and want to continue to do that work.

04:58.65

Zahra Massicotte

Really amazing. Appreciate all of those details on your journey, and congrats on all the work that you're doing and the positive impact that you're having on the community. And I like a lot of things that you said there in terms of how you framed it and just making it a time for and having to shift, of course, quickly as we all did during COVID, but taking that time to listen and learn and not making assumptions about what the community needed and calling it the communication device. I think that's so huge and probably was so critical to your success and how you got going. So thank you. Thank you for all of that. I'd like to dive in a little bit about, to talk about proficiency and connecting learning at home. So families tend to act on what they understand, and proficiency can feel a bit like education jargon. How should schools talk about and define proficiency so parents and caregivers know what to do tonight, and they're not just trying to interpret a test score that their child got last week, and where they can really start to dig in and define some of those things?

06:04.55

Stephanie Parra

Yeah, I think, you know, as educators, we love our alphabet soup. We love our acronyms and our language. I think it is part of our culture as a system, as a sector. And parents really need plain language explanations. You know, your child is here at X, and we need to get them to Y. And this is what you can do to support that journey. And so getting very clear about ‘the what we're trying to say’, rather than getting stuck in the jargon, I think, is critical. And we also have to, you know, make the proficiency data actionable for families, not have it live in the abstract, but really make it feel like it is something that they can work towards. That's what we've been seeing in our work with families. The more that we can, you know, bring it, remove the jargon, be very clear about what this means. If your child, you know, I think, for example, if we were to share with a parent where their child is reading, I think the most resonant point that families experience in our Parent Educator Academy is when we talk to them about proficiency and what that means. And then we explain it as a way of, you know, this means that your child is currently sitting in a fifth-grade classroom reading at a third-grade level. The reaction that you get from families is like, oh my goodness, how did this happen, and what can I do? What do I need to do at home in order to support my students' growth? And so again, it's getting them, getting out of the alphabet soup and the jargon that we love to live in as educators, and really using plain language to explain and make it easy for parents to understand. Because once they realize that their children, or their child, are sitting in a fifth-grade classroom reading at a third-grade level, they feel the sense of urgency around taking action. And that's really what we've seen, is our parents are like a fire is lit under them. We have parents that started in our Parent Educator Academy. That is a 10-week virtual training program where they are learning all of the ins and outs of the education system, how it's structured, what proficiency means, where their children are reading and doing math. And then, what they can do, what practical applications, what practical skills they can work on at home to support their students' learning. And so from that academy,parents are, you know, going off and demonstrating additional leadership by educating other parents and sharing information with other parents in their communities and their schools. And so it's really become, you know, not just an academy where we are sharing information, but it is a movement of sorts where parents are really driving and leading the solutions. But it is because we have gotten down to just clear explanations about what the data actually means and what it means for their kids.

09:45.47

Zahra Massicotte

Yeah, absolutely. And we're going to dive deeper into that academy because I think it's really awesome what you have built and what you were talking about as far as, you know, finding out, creating that urgency and finding out there their child is, you know, below level, but also having some comfort because that can be so daunting, and having that community, because it's not just their child. There's so many, you know, whatever the stats are, you know, 40% or 50% of students are below level. Like it's probably higher in a lot of areas. So just having that community. So like, you're not alone, but yes, this is important to address, but it's, you know, a lot of other students are also in that same position.

10:24.79

Stephanie Parra

Absolutely. Yeah. And I do think that that's a really important piece that you just named, is the fact that we're in this together, right? That this is a shared responsibility, and parents not going through this or experiencing these challenges in isolation, but having them be a part of a community, and then having that community include the teacher and include their educators, right? That we're in this to support your kids. And that really is another critical component of getting parents to understand that they have a role to play. We have a role to play. And in the collective interest of just having a shared responsibility, and how the relationship between the school and the family, the teacher and the parent, is super, super critical to supporting student outcomes. And I think that's what our goal should be, right? That this relationship is really important.

11:30.21

Zahra Massicotte

Yeah, and I think that's really powerful as far as what you have specifically built. And yes, it's a community of parents and caregivers, but that connected piece to the teachers and to the district and the school, so they make sure you know what they're doing actually aligns with what the school and what the classroom is trying to do. And on that sense, if you had a magic wand and could get every student portal and dashboard to show three consistent things to caregivers, things that would actually help them understand where their kids stand, what would those three things be?

12:06.58

Stephanie Parra

Yeah, so I would say, number one, where is their kid at proficiency-wise? So, the current proficiency level of their student, reading level, math level, et cetera. And then an explanation of what that actually means, again, in plain language, the skills that they need, whether or not they have met mastery. So just that very clear status update, if you will. Here's the status update. And then number two, I would say, like a high-level, here's what the actions that as a parent you can do, the actions to take at home that address any specific skills gaps. So if there is a vocabulary list, like what is the best practice on, you know, for reading and, off the top of my head, reading 20 minutes at home, like those are things that parents can do, and it feels accessible. And those high-leverage day-to-day actions that they can take that would support those specific skill gaps that are identified in the student status update. And then the third piece, I would say, is any short-term growth indicators to really drive motivation, right? So like, if there's like a tracker where parents can see, like, these are the things that we've, the interventions that we've been adopting at school and at home, and almost like a progress to goal tracker, and setting benchmarks for that, I think that those, when we keep an actual scoreboard, it helps with driving motivation. And so making it, I think, both for the student and the parents, something that they can look at and be motivated by and stay motivated by. The more that we can drive that piece of visualizing, almost like a scoreboard, gamifying it, if you will, would be really, really neat.

14:32.68

Zahra Massicotte

Yeah, that's awesome. And I know a lot of, you know, edtech companies are trying to incorporate some of those different things, but it's not necessarily on the parent level, which would be really cool, so that they could see where their students are. And it just made me think of a question. I mean, that's a lot of great ideas as far as a communication piece. Do you ever get the feedback of like, there's over-communicating with parents, or like they're, you know, worried about going to bombard the teacher, or take too much of the teacher's time? Like, what do you say to folks like that?

15:03.47

Stephanie Parra

Yeah, you know, when we first started, it was a big moment, especially in the Spanish-speaking community, that when I mentioned the communication divide, it was the Spanish-speaking community that had the most experience with not receiving effective communication or regular communication from their school. So schools closed in mid-March, and I was the first person on the phone with families in mid-May talking to them about their child's education. And so they were, you know, you can imagine what the other end of the phone sounded like, very frustrated. And that's really where the communication divide and kind of grew out of these conversations that we were having with families. But I think that when it came to what we heard from parents often, it was like, well, you know, I don't want to ask too many questions, I don't really get involved because the teacher knows what's best; the teacher is the expert here; I'm not the expert. And it was really out of a sheer, deep, profound respect for education professionals that families were feeling like they couldn't reach out and communicate. So, I don't know that it was a concern about over-communication. It was really like, well, I don't know what I can contribute, right? I don't know what I have to add to the conversation. I'm just a parent. And so we actually flip that on its head with our families. What we tell them is like, look, you are the expert in your family. There is nobody in this world that knows your child better than you. You can actually help the teacher help your child because you know the little quirks of your kid, and you know what inspires them or what gets them excited every day. Like you can share those insights with the teacher, and that will be really helpful in the classroom. And that was really something that we saw in distance learning. There was a mom; it was spring of ‘21, our first cohort of the Parent Educator Academy. And a mom had a little guy at the time in kindergarten who was really just shy by nature. And so in the digital classroom, the way that would show up is they were on Zoom. He would get called on. He would panic, freeze, shut down, turn off computer, disengage, and they were done for the day. And so she had gone an entire semester of this. And then she found us, and she came to the Parent Academy. And at the end of the academy, you know, we had an activity that we have our parents do. We have them create a student profile where they identify all of those little characteristics, the little quirks of their kid, what they know about their kid, because they truly are the experts in their families. And honoring that expertise, we encourage our parents to go have a conversation with the teacher about what they know about their children and their children's needs.

And so she went in and had a conversation immediately with the teacher. And the next day in the classroom, they took on a different approach. So, mom and teacher are now working in collaboration in the digital environment. They took a different approach, and she said he lit up. He was excited. He was so excited, and everything changed for him. And she's fighting through tears, telling us, you know, how she realized just how much power she has to support his learning journey. And it was just something that she didn't realize before. And I think that that's when we honor the inherent wisdom and the lived experience of families, they can be powerful, powerful partners in the student's learning journey.

18:53.93

Zahra Massicotte

Such an amazing example. Thank you for sharing that. I love that. It's so important. I mean, you talked today about how to motivate and engage students, and you really need to tap into what their likes are, what they're interested in, and what their personality is like. And yeah, who better to have that and then provide that for a teacher than their parent or their caregiver. Staying on the lines of communication. We know email blast and robocall approach hasn't worked a lot for families. And, you know, you've touched on this a bit on what really, like what that two-way communication can look like, but can you explain a little bit more how districts can build out actual systems where families can reach the school and feel heard? Like, what are some of those key examples of specific communication tools? 

19:43.47

Stephanie Parra

Yeah. You know, what we have seen, this is one of the things that we saw with the communication divide that I mentioned, is, you know, what we were hearing, because we were speaking to both parents and educators simultaneously. And parents were saying like, I'm not getting phone calls and I'm not, you know, there's no communication from the school. And then school leaders were like, well, but we sent the email, we sent the robocall. And, and again, it's like, there was effort on both sides, but there was just a huge miss in the communication approach. I would say, you know, replacing those email and robocalls, email blasts or robocalls with really almost what we have seen most effective in working with our families is a WhatsApp-style messaging channel. So they are on these applications.

Most of the parents do have access to smartphone technology. And so how can you adapt and create, you know, secure message portals that can share information? I'm sure that there are several edtech companies that have provided these tools and support for schools, but that kind of frequent, easy-to-use two-way communication is super important. In multilingual communities, I would say making sure that there is real-time translation, that a parent can drop a voice note, and that voice note, you know, if they leave the voice note in Spanish, that it can be auto-translated for a teacher that might be a monolingual English speaker. So, real-time translation is critical. But allowing, you know, just thinking about accessibility when it comes to the communication there, I would say, is making it as low-friction, mobile-friendly. And then, of course, like I said, the translation is super critical because that, in multilingual households or monolingual Spanish-speaking households, parents still need access to the information. We need to have the tools to support them. And I think that's really where the latest technology can be a real game changer.

22:11.47

Zahra Massicotte

Yeah, absolutely. It's so hugely important being able to meet parents where they are and what communication methods really work best for them. And speaking of technology, maybe we shift a little to talk about AI and potential inequities this might bring up, or even potential ways this can really support. Like, you know, you're talking about translation and different things that AI could be so powerful in that communication piece. You know, AI is starting to be embedded a lot more in education, although, you know, certainly there's hesitancies for good reasons. But what do you think families should understand about AI this year? And what are some of your thoughts on that knowledge, to getting that knowledge to them without widening inequity or low connectivity households?

22:57.57

Stephanie Parra

Yeah, I think, you know, first and foremost, I think families in general, parents and caregivers really need an introduction to AI literacy, digital literacy. You know, they don't, they're not going to necessarily need the technical expertise, but what AI is and what it isn't. I often realize or even find myself, you know, just in reflection, oh, we've been using AI for many years now. I don't think that we called it AI before.

And so, as the new language is being introduced, like explaining, providing that as a key constituency, providing that in plain language for families is super critical. I would also say that, you know, the safety, protecting their families' data, protecting their student data, safe and appropriate use for learning, and making sure that families know how to leverage it. Because I think with everything, you know, I was having a conversation this morning, I'm like, nothing is really good or bad. It is how we use it. And so I certainly would put myself on an “I'm an AI optimist” because I do believe that this, you know, new technology, anytime we have new technology, it can be leveraged to maximize our impact and our reach.

How we use it and how we adopt it, I think, is gonna be super critical, right? And so, making sure that families know what are the appropriate uses for learning, how to ensure that their students don't become overly reliant on AI, but that they are helping. They, along with their children, are helping to, you know, to learn how to leverage the tool to maximize their learning. So how parents can leverage it to support their students' learning journeys.

We actually ended up leveraging it in one of our parent leadership programs. Our work is called Juntos Leemos, Juntos Crecemos. (Together We Read, Together We Grow) So together we learn, together we grow. It's a parent-led initiative that is supporting third-grade parents and caregivers on understanding proficiency, reading proficiency data where their kids are, and then how parents can support growth and student growth in literacy. And so in that, we have an introduction to ChatGPT as one of the modules in that program. And so giving parents really that act, you know, foundationals, here's what it is, here's what it isn't, here's how to safely use it. And then here's how you can use it to actually maximize and build your own confidence in supporting your kids' learning journeys. I think what I'm excited about is especially for the families who want to know how to help their kids but don't know where to start. This, I think, is where AI can be really, really helpful if we provide parents with the foundations of how to best use it, right?

26:32.98

Zahra Massicotte

Yeah. And then they're learning by doing, and it's a specific example that they can go through of where they can support their kids. And at this stage, we're all novices, right? I mean, it's changing so fast, and there's so much to learn and even teachers the same way if they're trying to, kind of, support their students and helping them use it in creative and interesting ways. And it's same for parents, like, okay, how can I support? How can I learn? And how can I help my child move leverage it in the most effective way, like you were saying?

26:59.75

Stephanie Parra

Absolutely, yeah. And I think that, you know, just as we're, I've been in a lot of conversations around AI and education. And, I think for me, one of the biggest reflections is that, you know, parents aren't usually in those conversations. They're not usually sitting in the stakeholder room. We're in a room full of educators, school and system leaders, business leaders, community leaders, policy leaders, et cetera. And very, very key constituency are the families.

And I think this is where we can't forget that in this technology adoption, or as, you know, as the sector adapts and evolves, this is a super critical constituency that needs to be at the table and actively informed alongside all of us. As you said, we're all novices, we're all learning, and they certainly need to be a part of that experience as well.

27:52.46

Zahra Massicotte

Yeah, absolutely. And, to that regard, are there any particular things that you would, you know, encourage ed tech companies to look at to have in place for parents or as they're designing these different tools? Any thoughts or on guardrails or specific things you'd look for in designs?

28:13.44

Stephanie Parra

Yeah, I would say like and some non-negotiables. Certainly, we are a multilingual society. And so making sure that language accessibility is paramount. It needs to be work as seamlessly in an English like speaking household as it does in a Spanish-speaking household or any other multilingual household. Just language accessibility for me is super, super critical. Also, making sure that you know, tech companies are being mindful and thoughtful about sensitive family data without informed consent. You know, not extracting data and actually explaining to families what, how their students' data is being used, how their data is being used. I think that without that, you know, when the data is extracted without real consent from families, that's where we erode trust, and it could cause harm. And so being mindful of that. And then again, making sure that we are explaining things in plain language for families to understand that we're not overly complicating our explanations of things, but that it's super, super plain language so that any family, whether they college educated, not college educated, come from no education backgrounds, that they can all understand what the technology is doing and how what supports it can provide. I would also say making sure that the tools can work with being offline or with low bandwidth functionality. So, you know, when Wi-Fi is not accessible in a lot of communities, whether you're in urban or rural areas, how can the apps continue to support student learning with those offline functions or low-bandwidth functions? And then, you know, providing some clear boundaries so that this is, you know, AI is here to support learning. It is not going to replace a teacher. It's also not going to replace certainly parent, you know, parental oversight or judgment around what's best for their kids. But that they're here to enrich the student experience. They're here to support the learning journey, you know, and especially for well, you know, some of my favorites are the tech companies that are working on, you know, supporting students with dyslexia, for example. I know there's a lot of work being done there. Students with learning differences, how the tools are adaptive to supporting that, the student's learning journey, but, you know, that there's still a need for the educators and that expertise as well.

31:43.68

Zahra Massicotte

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, that will never go away. And like you said, hugely important just to remember, it's there to enrich and create, you know, these unique experiences for students that have those individualized needs. But you know, the parents are there for that support, that critical thinking, thinking outside the box, and just helping that thought process along. And like you said previously, they know their child best and how they can support them and really connect the learning and connect the dots with things. But really important things that you mentioned throughout there. And again, we're all thinking about the sensitivity to data and making sure we, you know, me particularly, I work for a very technical company, always asking for things in plain language, you know, and certainly, especially if you're if English is not your first language, really making sure that that's all accessible. So thank you for bringing up those points.

I'd like to dive a little bit deeper into the Parent Educator Academy, which you touched on a bit, and I know it's a huge differentiator for your organization, and really amazing what you've built out there. And I just want to talk a little bit about what makes your approach different and any evidence that you have within a parent and tool engagement that you've seen really change behavior and support proficiency for students.

33:05.14

Stephanie Parra

Yeah, so you know, I mentioned, so our flagship program, the Parent Educator Academy, was really born out of necessity. It was born out of the wanting to address and support bridging this communication divide between schools and families. And so a lot of the approach to the work is making sure that what we provide is culturally relevant and accessible for families. We do offer the program in English and in Spanish, trying to make it as accessible as possible. And we also really focus on the importance of relationships. I think it can't be overstated that when we are working with families, it's super relational work. I think it takes time for families, organizations to build trust in families. It takes time to do that. And so our team is very, very intentional about being present, being accessible, and certainly being a support to families. And so I think that those are some of the key differentiators of the Parent Educator Academy. It's also delivered online. So I mentioned we, you know, we started in the pandemic, so we were, we had to be online. But we actually have maintained the 10-week curriculum is delivered virtually. When we were asking families about whether or not we should switch to an in-person model, they  quickly responded with, you know, it made it more accessible to be online. I could log in from anywhere. I didn't have to worry about childcare or transportation. And so just reducing those barriers to entry or barriers to participation, we're super critical. So, keeping that and providing opportunities for some in-person touch points. So our team has incorporated some in-person touch points with families.

But again, the accessibility of being online is what parents preferred. And then I think for us, a lot of our work, the Parent Academy and the additional parent leadership work that we do, you know, we really view this work as being, you know, we and I'm not here to save anyone. We are not saviors of our community. We are here to build with and not for families. And so we design; all of our work is really designed with parents and caregivers at the center. They inform everything that we do. We ask for consistent and constant feedback. Our team gathers, you know, weekly exit tickets. They gather survey data from families. We run focus groups. So there's a constant feedback loop that for us has been super critical in adapting our curriculum, making improvements to how we deliver content, and also to addressing current needs, right? Because we're in 2025 now. We're no longer in 2020. And so environments have changed. Obviously, families' needs have changed. And so that level of communication and relationship allows our team to really stay connected to the community and to uplift any additional new barriers that they might be facing. And then on the advocacy side, that then helps us to advocate for the new needs that they might have. and they And then the other, the final, biggest piece of the academy, like the content is the content, right? Like it's navigating the education system. It's understanding what grade level your students are performing at, those very practical and foundational skills and tools that we provide. But, at the core, it is about improving their confidence because, as I mentioned, parents are showing up to these, you know, showing up to the academy, not incredibly confident about whether or not they have a role to play.

37:33.86

Stephanie Parra

And so, building their confidence and supporting them in knowing that they have agency, they have everything that it takes to navigate the education system. We're just here to really unlock that confidence that they need. And so that's a central piece to our academy as well.

37:56.47

Zahra Massicotte

I love that. And I like what you said as building with and not for. I think that's probably huge to the mentality and the way that you design the program. And one question I had was about, like you mentioned, co-designing things with parents, how super important that is, but it also can be tricky, and how you navigate things like compensation, language barriers, timelines, which you've mentioned some of those things. But are there any other things that you'd want to bring up that has worked really well for you?

38:24.33

Stephanie Parra

Yeah, I think, you know, when we started, we were able to offer, you know, this was a pilot, so we had incentives for providing input and feedback to parents. And so as we've scaled, I think for us, it is about, like, how else can we acknowledge and recognize their participation and really honor their commitment to participating in the academy. So, making the, you know, providing a recognition or a reward for participation, I think, for what's been really cool is for some of the parents, this is their first certificate of completion of anything, right? Their first real award or recognition. And so honoring that, I think, is super central to how we recognize that they made an investment of their time. They made a commitment to do this work. And then as parents scale up, so from the Parent Academy, we actually have seen additional leadership opportunities. So the Parent Academy is really kind of like a catalyst. We have parents that have gone on to become a parent leader. So that is a stipended role where parents are leading in their communities, they're building coalition with other families, educating them on, you know, the status of proficiency in their neighborhood schools, and then the role of parents in improving those proficiency rates. So those parent leaders are compensated for their time. In South Phoenix, in particular, we had three parent leaders that built a network of over 60 parent champion ambassadors and a volunteer network of over 600 parents in one community alone. And so that's the power of when I say it's not just a leadership program, this is really a movement of families making a choice to lead in their communities. And so that's what the Parent Academy is igniting. And then on the other side, you know, we also have a pathway where parents have unprompted from us after their experience in the academy, they went on to pursue careers in education. So we had parents that became, you know, everything from a parapro to a librarian to a crossing guard, like they were taking on these entry-level positions and roles in schools with little to no support from us, just sheer inspiration from the academy. 

And so that really was the inspiration behind our latest innovation, which is a two-week summer institute for parents to become education professionals with a literacy focus. So we had eight parents participate in the pilot this summer. Out of that, we had 100% job offers. So all eight parents were offered full-time employment in schools. In South Phoenix, with either a classroom aid role or a paraprofessional role. And now seven out of the eight are working full-time in schools this academic year. And so that is how Parent Academy is really igniting the leadership and the motivation and inspiration of families to take on leadership roles, whether it's as parent leaders in their communities or as parent educators in their schools.

42:17.32

Zahra Massicotte

That's so amazing and really speaks to, you know, what you've built in the community for, for building that confidence and igniting, like you said before, igniting what's within them and giving them that confidence to move forward. And for those parent leaders, really paying it forward, right. To other parents that were in their shoes and continually building it out. So I love that. Thank you so much. All right, Stephanie, we've made it to the lightning round. I'm going to ask you just a set of questions, and just answer whatever first comes to mind. Does that sound good?

42:50.32

Stephanie Parra

All right.

42:51.20

Zahra Massicotte

Great. Okay. One thing schools should stop doing when it comes to family engagement.

43:00.51

Stephanie Parra

One-way, like one-way communication or information blasts, whether it's an email or a robocall that has no follow-up or no translation.

43:10.42

Zahra Massicotte

Great. One simple, low-tech thing that consistently builds trust.

43:16.96

Stephanie Parra

I think it's that open communication and really authentic relationship building between educators and parents and caregivers.

43:29.01

Zahra Massicotte

Perfect. And one AI use at home you'd green-light this year.

43:36.04

Stephanie Parra

I would say... how AI can generate a personalized reading or learning literacy routine for parents at home. Like what, almost like creating like a toolkit for an individualized plan for their kid, and what parents can do to support at home.

43:58.75

Zahra Massicotte

Love it. One dashboard change that would help parents act tonight.

44:06.38

Stephanie Parra

I would say just a very clear and specific “Here's what you can do this week.” And like “Here's the actions that you can take this week.” And then, I think, having it designed like a little scoreboard that they can track their progress-to-goal on their weekly dashboard.

44:31.03

Zahra Massicotte

Very cool. Okay, so last question, and you spoke a lot to this already, but if you could get every educator, edtech company, and policymaker to change one thing this term that truly centers family and student success, what would it be?

44:49.42

Stephanie Parra

Oh man, I would say I think the biggest thing for district and or, you know, school and system leaders making proficiency legible, like understandable, making it actionable, making it clear using plain language. That would be my call for school and system leaders. For tech companies, I would say really thinking about the importance of co-designing tools with multilingual families from day one. It's not the afterthought. But that's where we begin, because if it's accessible for them, it will be accessible for everyone.

45:43.58

Zahra Massicotte

Absolutely, yes. A lot of edtech companies know it's important, but actually building it into their process and building in that support from actual families and communities would be really impactful. Well, that's a wrap for today's session and episode of Tech and EdTech. A huge thank you to Stephanie Para for sharing such practical insights on family engagement, AI literacy, and parent leadership. We'll drop links in the show notes, including resources from ALL In Education. If today's episode resonates with you, please follow or subscribe, leave a rating, and share this with a colleague who cares about families at the center of student success. I'm Zahra, and this is Tech and EdTech. See you next time.