How School Management Apps Keep Students And Parents Engaged

Most teachers know just how difficult it can be to keep students engaged. But, getting their parents on board can be just as challenging. 

To foster an ideal learning environment in your school, it’s important to bridge communication gaps between parents, teachers, and students.

So how do we go about engaging all participants in education? Technology of course!

With consumer tech taking over the classroom, school management apps that focus on increasing parent communication are filling an essential niche in education.

In this article, we take a closer look at some of the most important benefits student management apps can offer schools. 

We also outline:

➡️ What school management apps are. 

➡️ How parent involvement leads to student success.

➡️ Why parents and students in particular benefit from using school management apps. 

➡️ How school management apps like Teach ‘n Go improve parent and student engagement.

Firstly, What Are School Management Apps?

As more and more people rely on mobile devices, the market for school management apps has grown significantly in recent years. 

These school management platforms streamline communication between schools and parents and give everyone involved in your teaching business access to important information whenever they need it.

Some features of school apps include:

📝 Tools that allow parents to monitor and track their children’s performance.

📝 Messaging channels that ensure easy communication between the school and parents.

📝 File-sharing so teachers can exchange images and videos with parents to make the interaction process productive. 

📝 School fee payment channel.

📝 Tools to manage classes more easily.

School management apps have also become particularly popular due to the increase in demand for remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The last two years have taught us that collaboration and ongoing communication are fundamental to education. 

Whether you’re learning remotely or in-person, there needs to be meaningful interactions between teachers, students, and their parents.

These interactions can be facilitated with the right technology—this is where a parent-teacher communication app can come in handy.

We’ll take a closer look at how these centralized, digital platforms can meet the needs of all school participants a bit later in this article.

How Parent Involvement Leads to Student Success

A meta-analysis of more than fifty studies on the involvement of parents in high schools found a direct correlation between parent involvement and students' academic performance.

It also found that the earlier parents invest in their children’s education, the more likely it is that they will succeed.

According to the National Education Association, students whose parents are actively engaged in their schooling typically show the following:

1. Improved academic performance

Studies confirm that students whose parents are actively involved in their education show the highest academic performance. 

It motivates students to learn, which has the ability to improve their grades.

The most effective forms of parent involvement are those where parents engage directly with their children on learning activities in the home, such as:

📖 Reading to/with their children.

📖 Supporting their children with homework and assignments.

📖 Tutoring their children using materials and instructions provided by teachers.

2. Improved social skills, behavior, and adaptability

Parental involvement in education also has a strong and positive effect on children’s classroom behavior and can help improve their social skills. 

In 2017, Columbia University conducted a study on middle and high school parents.  

They sent weekly, automated alerts to parents about their child’s missed assignments, grades, and class absences. 

The alerts reduced course failures by 28%, increased class attendance by 12%, and increased student retention.

This shows that students are more motivated when parents and teachers are in communication, as it makes them feel like all parties are taking an interest in their education. It leads to:

🧡 A boost in the student’s self-esteem.

🧡 An improvement in their attitude towards school.

🧡 Less disobedience.

🧡 The ability of the child to build and maintain healthy relationships with peers and teachers.

🧡 Reduced inappropriate classroom behavior, such as bullying and fighting.

3. Higher likelihood of pursuing tertiary education

When parents are involved in their children’s education, it can also influence whether the student wants to continue studying after school.

This is because there’s reason to believe that parental involvement in education contributes positively to graduation rates, regardless of factors like income, race, or ethnicity.

A Summit Public Schools report suggests that parent engagement helps students in their decision-making about tertiary education when there is: 

🎓 Shared educational values. 

🎓 Active means of family support.

🎓 Access to positive role models.

4. Improved teacher performance

When parents have better communication with teachers, they’re more aware of the challenges that teachers face and learn to value their work.

Not only does this help teachers feel more appreciated, but it can also lead to educators teaching in a more personalized and effective manner.

All research points to the same conclusion: parental engagement in children’s learning makes a significant difference in their academic achievements. 

When families are involved in their children’s learning process, children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and pursue higher education. 

Teachers can also take advantage of the ability to manage their entire class and message individual students from one single platform. This helps them save time usually spent on administrative tasks.

The Benefits of Using Parent-Teacher Apps for School Management 

The main purpose of an online school management system should be to encourage active engagement and streamline parent-teacher communication. 

We’re living in a fast-paced world, and between balancing work and family, parents face many challenges in participating in their children’s education.

Pew Research Center conducted a survey asking working parents how balancing work and family had affected their careers. 

➡️ 27% said that being a working mother or father had made it harder for them to advance in their job or career. 

➡️ 38% reported that being a working parent had made it harder for them to be a good parent.

Some of the common barriers that prevent parents from engaging with their children’s education are:

🚧 A lack of time.

🚧 A lack of knowledge to help with schoolwork.

🚧 Native language differences between parents and staff. 

So, how can a school management app help improve parent engagement and overcome these barriers in their children’s education?

Time-saving

Despite their busy schedules, parents should be able to efficiently communicate with teachers from anywhere. 

School management apps offer many benefits to time-strapped parents by keeping them in the loop, and using simple school communication tools.

School communications apps also help in this regard by allowing for:

Effective, speedy communication

By allowing two-way communication through the app, parents can always contact teachers with questions or concerns. 

Similarly, teachers are able to use the platform to update parents on important information or changes—such as homework assignments, their teaching process, or field trip details. 

This can help increase family engagement and improve interest in the child's education.

Quick and effortless access

By being mobile-friendly, apps allow parents to access their child’s information anywhere and anytime their schedule allows.

Encourage engagement

School management and parent-teacher communication apps are great tools for keeping parents aware of what’s going on in their children’s lives at school. 

By keeping parents in the loop, they feel more like active participants in their children’s education. This is because communication apps allow parents to:

Stay on top of things 

Keeping parents on track with upcoming events, parent-teacher meetings or last-minute announcements, school community policies, fee structures, exam schedules, and much more.

Access information about their child at the touch of a button

Parents and teachers can easily chat about their child's performance and keep track of attendance through the mobile school app. 

Plus, push notifications lets parents know about the homework assigned for each subject.

Send documents online 

There’s no need for parents to go to school to present a leave application when their children can’t attend school. Instead, they can easily submit it online via the app.

Increasing Student Engagement with Technology 

Here’s the thing about student engagement: engaged students grow into active learners.

Nowadays, when students are more in touch with tech trends than ever, and cell phone usage is almost universal, schools have to keep up. 

With technology becoming part of their everyday life, it makes sense to mix traditional teaching with modern tech tools. 

Schools that understand how to use technology efficiently are one step ahead in meeting students’ changing needs. 

Every opportunity to engage students should be uniquely tailored. With the right apps, schools can optimize the learning experience and promote a more responsive education system.

The benefits of using a school management app for students

Students use their smartphones for almost everything. Having their timetables and school information one click away makes them far more likely to engage with their schoolwork.

So before we can talk about engaging students, let’s take a closer look at some of the barriers we may need to overcome.

🚧 Social barriers

Many students can become disengaged if they feel isolated or if they don’t get to interact with their educators about their coursework. 

🚧 Administrative barriers

Students may get frustrated if they don’t know how or when to contact their teachers with their questions or concerns. 

They may also become discouraged if they can’t see progress in their courses or if school expectations aren’t clearly communicated.

🚧 Motivation barriers 

Feeling disengaged and lacking support or encouragement from parents can all lead to a student losing motivation to participate at school.

School management apps help students overcome these barriers by helping them:

Manage their time more effectively 

Students have 24/7 access to timetables, homework, and resources shared by the teachers within the app. 

Get answers in a matter of seconds

Whenever they need help with homework or have a specific question, students can send messages and communicate with the school anytime. 

Keep track of the latest school updates

Students can check out their school’s mobile app for last-minute announcements regarding holidays or functions, exam schedules, and much more.

How School Management Apps Improve Parent and Student Engagement

We’re living in a world where we use mobile phones for everything, so technology is key to getting things done and making connections.

There’s an app for almost all aspects of life: socializing, ordering food, booking holidays, staying organized, etc. 

It only makes sense there’d be one for building engaged communities with parents and students. 

Here’s how school management apps keep everybody in the loop and boost engagement.

#1. Enhance student-teacher collaboration

Student-teacher collaboration should go beyond the classroom. 

Collaborating involves building healthy relationships, which happens when teachers are comfortable giving advice and students are not afraid to ask for help. 

A mobile app enables teachers to keep in touch with their students. It gives students the freedom to reach their teachers for emergency questions. 

When teachers are available to engage in discussions anytime, they’re not only helping students with their academic progress but also promoting a friendly environment and fostering a sense of community.

#2. Provide access anytime, on the go

A lot of paper notifications from school end up in the trash or build up a pile of ignored reading material. 

Through mobile apps, schools are able to put relevant information right into the hands of parents and students.

They can access it from anywhere, anytime—with easy-to-read content saved all in one place. Remember, a connected parent is an engaged parent.

#3. Brings parents, students, and schools closer 

At the beginning of this article, we outlined how parent and student engagement go hand in hand. 

What we’ve learned is that having engaged parents will help students be engaged in their school work, leading to better school performance. 

Having dedicated school apps for parents can help keep them in the loop. Not only does this increase engagement but it can also create healthier relationships with their kids.

It also leaves room for active conversations because whenever they have doubts, parents can reach out to teachers for help. 

Both parents and students can check out timetables, grades, and homework, which creates a sense of transparency in the relationship and improves communication.

#4. Keeps everybody on the same page

Many school management apps can send push notifications to keep parents and students updated with the latest events in the school timetable. 

Whether it's school closings, last-minute changes, or parent-teacher meetings, this information system will keep teachers, parents, and students in sync.

Most mobile apps provide services such as mass text communication, class and teacher updates, parent conference schedulers, attendance reports, and reminders—to name a few. 

👋 Over to You

Communication apps are helping to break down barriers that have limited parent engagement in the past.

The digital revolution has generated new ways for parents to follow up with their children’s performance in the classroom while encouraging a strong parent-teacher relationship. 

As we’ve seen in this article, school management apps keep parents and students on top of what’s going on at school. 

From homework and events, to last-minute news and due fees, it supports students, teachers and parents in the learning journey, from start to finish. 

Not to mention, using a direct and instant teacher-parent communication app can save everyone a lot of time and money.  

Teach ’n Go offers all the strengths of a perfect school and classroom management tool.

🥇 Our platform is mobile friendly, so parents and teachers always have access to their relevant portals and information—anywhere, anytime.

🥇Our impressive group messaging system makes sure both parents and students get the school news and information they need, whenever they need it.

🥇 Most importantly, our system provides ideal ways to facilitate communication for all school members, creating an environment of collaboration.

Want to start engaging your parents and students? Get in touch with us today to book a demo or enjoy your 7-day free trial.