Opinion
School & District Management Opinion

A Crisis Sows Confusion. How District Leaders Can Be Clear in Their Messaging

Choosing a go-to source of information is a good starting point
By Daniel R. Moirao — July 23, 2021 2 min read
A man with his head in a cloud.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Almost without notice last year, educators did a 180 degree turn from teaching and learning to become health and safety facilitators. Who was prepared for this new role? Who had experiences on how to lead others through this pandemic?

What didn’t change was our communities’ expectation that we would ensure the safety of their children. Like never before, educators and administrators found themselves dependent on others to provide reliable, accurate information.

In our district, our first move was to find a reliable, accurate, timely go-to source of sound medical information based on science. Sources varied in credibility and accuracy, and much of the early advice during the pandemic was incomplete or conflicting. So, where could we turn? The local health director? Regional health offices? State health officials? National health sources?

About This Series

Over the coming weeks, we will be rolling out 17 lessons from experienced district leaders who spent the last year leading from home. Learn more and see the full collection of lessons.

Choosing one wasn’t enough; we had to then do a critical analysis of each source for its track record with accuracy. What research did they rely on? Were they consistent in their premise and their messaging?

For our community, the director of health services in our county’s department of health provided current, local data regularly and consistently that was easily accessible and timely. Designated staff and I established a regular twice-monthly meeting with that office, along with as-needed check-ins, to serve as our school district’s source for guidance.

With our go-to source in hand, we communicated with our school community frequently, being careful to use clear and consistent messaging and vocabulary. We adopted a common vocabulary both in our school system and in the larger community. And as we prepared each missive, we asked ourselves: Why are we sharing this information now? And why does our school community need to hear it from us?

Perhaps this communication approach sounds like a blinding flash of the obvious. But the pandemic has demanded all of us stay accurately informed, while needing to learn a whole new language and startling new routines. The wrong words can clash with what we believe to be right. For example, we often hear our students have suffered a “learning loss.” What if we instead focused on “accelerating learning” for students?

When a district doesn’t provide clear and consistent communication in the midst of a crisis, a school community will create its own stories. We all seek patterns to make sense of a world that feels senseless. What story do you want your community to believe as you care for your students and staff? Who do you want to write your school’s or district’s story?

Words have the power to either instill fear and panic or to calm anxieties and help a community stay better informed and safer. How we communicate can help our community create the story they will use to move forward. It begins with finding a go-to source of accurate information and then communicating that information with purpose.

Complete Collection

Superintendents discuss ideas at a roundtable.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week and Getty Images

Related Tags:

Coverage of leadership, summer learning, social and emotional learning, arts learning, and afterschool is supported in part by a grant from The Wallace Foundation, at www.wallacefoundation.org. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management Q&A When This Principal Talks About Mental Health, People Listen. Here's Why
The NASSP Advocacy Champion of the year said he used stories from his school and community to speak with his state’s legislators.
6 min read
Chris Young, a principal from Vermont, poses for a photo in front of a Senate office building in Washington, D.C.
Chris Young, a principal from Vermont, stands in front of a Senate office building in Washington on March 13, 2024. Young was among the secondary principals to meet with legislators urging them to keep federal funding for schools stable.
Olina Banerji/Education Week
School & District Management Teacher Layoffs Are Mounting. How Districts Can Soften the Blow
Layoffs are coming in districts large and small. Here's how district leaders can handle them.
8 min read
Pencil Eraser Erasing Drawn Figure
AndreyPopov/iStock/Getty
School & District Management Opinion 5 Strategies to Combat Student Disengagement
When principals get serious about building a more inclusive school community, it doesn’t just benefit students, but teachers as well.
Michelle Singh
5 min read
Illustration of a bright vibrant school where students feel welcomed. In the background the sky is filled with enthusiastic raised hands.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
School & District Management Advocacy or Electioneering? Education Leaders Walk Fine Line in School Voucher Debate
Texas is cracking down on district leaders' allegedly political speech—in what others see as a pretext for quashing anti-voucher sentiment.
5 min read
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton walks away after announcing Texas' lawsuit to challenge President Obama's transgender bathroom order during a news conference in Austin, Texas, on May 25, 2016.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton walks away following a news conference in Austin, Texas, on May 25, 2016. Paxton recently sued several Texas school districts for allegedly engaging in electioneering before the March 5 primaries.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP