When I talk to educators across the country, I hear a common refrain: They’re drowning in data but starving for insights.
A survey analyzing over 1,000 K-12 educators and administrators found that while 82% believe stronger family engagement could significantly reduce chronic absenteeism, only 25% find it “very easy” to connect with families. This disconnect isn’t just a communication problem—it’s a technology problem.
As education technology leaders, we’ve inadvertently contributed to this challenge. We’ve created an overwhelming array of specialized tools—each solving a specific problem—but collectively contributing to a feeling of “tech fatigue” in our schools.
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Educators are juggling multiple platforms: from family communication platforms (38%) to spreadsheets (37%), attendance management software (35%), and remarkably, paper-based records (32%), according to the same survey.
This fragmentation is costly. Siloed data is inconvenient and creates barriers to student success.
Hidden cost of fragmented data
Consider this: 43% of educators in the survey are uncertain whether families even receive their messages. That means nearly half of all teachers and administrators don’t know if the crucial information they send—whether about attendance, grades, or behavioral concerns—is actually reaching parents.
Meanwhile, according to a 2024 report, only 28% of families feel “very well-informed” about their child’s academic progress.
The impact is particularly severe for our most vulnerable students. The research shows that 32% of educators face language barriers with families, while 34% struggle to integrate critical data from different sources like student information systems, health records and behavior logs—making it harder to give families a clear and complete picture of student progress.
The problem becomes even more acute when it comes to attendance. While 73% of educators say attendance is critical to student success, only 37% of schools communicate regularly with all families about attendance.
Why? Because the data needed for these conversations is often scattered across multiple systems—making it difficult for educators to proactively flag attendance issues before they escalate. Instead, most attendance messaging remains reactive, kicking in only after a student has accumulated excessive absences or tardies.
Educators are clear on what they need to bridge this gap. 42% say better translation tools would help them connect with more families, and 36% want more accurate, timely access to student data. The challenge isn’t just getting the data—it’s making it actionable, accessible, and easy to share with families in a way that builds trust and engagement.
Power of a single source of truth
The solution isn’t adding more technology—it’s integrating what we already have. Nearly half of educators want more time for parent communication and would prefer to do so in a way that ensures consistent information across all communication channels.
Both outcomes would undoubtedly improve family engagement, which has been proven to directly impact student outcomes. When educators have a single source of truth, they can:
- Quickly identify trends in student performance
- Proactively reach out to families before small issues become big problems
- Share real-time updates that help families support their children’s success
- Focus on teaching instead of data wrangling
New path forward
Schools will increasingly demand proven, efficient and accessible tools that integrate seamlessly into their existing workflows. The era of standalone solutions is ending. The future belongs to products that can:
- Unify communication channels
- Consolidate student data
- Provide actionable insights
- Support multiple languages
- Offer real-time access to information
The urgency for this shift is clear: 56% of educators report gaps in the tools needed for effective family engagement. Perhaps most telling is that 31% of educators face challenges simply integrating basic data from different sources.
In an era where data-driven decision-making is more critical than ever, these technological barriers impede student success.
Our responsibility as edtech developers and researchers extends beyond creating new tools—we must reimagine how existing solutions work together. Creating unified resources and tools is how we can help teachers and staff do what they do best—connect with students and families to drive better outcomes.
The most powerful technology isn’t the one with the most features, it’s the one that yields meaningful connections.
