Texting parents can improve childrens' learning, trial suggests

Texting parents about upcoming tests and homework can help to boost secondary pupils’ maths results, according to a new trial published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

The Parent Engagement Project involved almost 16,000 students across 36 English secondary schools. Parents were sent an average of 30 texts over one school year, with content ranging from dates of upcoming tests and warnings about missed homework, to conversation prompts on what their child had learnt that day.

The trial was delivered by researchers from the University of Bristol and Harvard University and independent evaluators from Queen’s University Belfast found that pupils receiving the intervention made an additional month’s progress in maths compared with a similar group whose parents didn’t get the texts.

In addition to the improved progress, the trial found that sending texts to parents also helped to reduce absenteeism.

Sir Kevan Collins, chief executive of the EEF, said: “We know that it can be very difficult to get parents more involved, particularly when their children get older. It would seem that the simple and cheap approach of regular texts could be a better bet for schools than expecting parents to turn up at school for classes of their own."