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This series shines a spotlight on the innovative edtech companies working to make a difference for students and educators.
Through conversations with the founders and CEOs, partner organizations, and the educators who are using their products in schools today, listeners hear about solutions relevant to their chronic challenges and opportunity-expanding ideas to go into uncharted directions.
Alright, welcome everybody to the EdTech Startup Showcase.
I'm your host, Jethro Jones.
So excited for this podcast because this is where we tell the stories of amazing EdTech startups or close to startups people that are doing amazing things in schools.
And these are not like.
the big ones that everybody knows and is like all the attention is focused on them.
These are the people who are making a real difference.
And today we have Family Engagement Lab and this is the first of about six episodes that we're gonna do.
And we have Vidia and Elizabeth on.
And I'll let you ladies introduce yourself and tell us a little bit who you are.
But as you do, I want you to tell us about Family Lab.
Also and why you personally said this is the right thing to do.
So Elizabeth, let's start with you.
Great.
Well thank you so much for having us here.
And I'm Elizabeth O'Brien.
the co-founders of Family Engagement Lab and also our Chief Impact Officer.
And just a little bit about my background, I have a PhD in psychology and started my career in education as a bilingual school psychologist.
And I think this connection that I've been able to have.
Families, 'cause I speak Spanish has been really like fueled my interest and just passion around connecting families in schools.
And so a really big focus.
A lot of the research that I've done and my applied experiences have been around, all right, how can we support culturally and linguistically diverse students and families?
How can teachers and schools really support those culturally lead diverse families?
And what I really have seen is that there's this.
Huge interests and passion that families have in wanting to know what their children are learning and how they can help at home.
And often families don't get that information from schools.
And so part of the reason we, you know, founded Family Engagement Lab was to help really address that gap and help families really feel like partners and that those assets are really recognized that families bring in supporting their children's learning and collaboration with teachers in schools.
I love it Vidia.
Um, I'm Vidya Rum.
I am co-founder and CEO of Family Engagement Lab.
And, I became very interested in education and the role of education in, a student's like life and a person's life.
Very early on, growing up I was the first in my family to be born in the United States.
My parents had immigrated from India the early seventies, and they came because of educational opportunities.
My dad came here to do his PhD in engineering, and big deal because you know, even just this previous generation of like my grandparents' generation, you, you just didn't, you, it was a taboo to travel across the seas.
And so for my dad's generation he was the first, among the first wave of immigrants after you know, 68 and immigration opening up to people from more parts of the world.
It was a really big deal in my family for my dad to come here.
And he ended up you know, my mom came, my sister came my older sister came and ended up having me you know, and, and, deciding because of the educational opportunities in the United States to raise their family here in the us.
And so, it, that, that was my home story, my family story.
But at school it was a very kind of a different kind of experience because at school I, the messages from school was that, you know, school is where you did all your learning and that was it.
home is separate.
Like, and, and for me, my parents were very engaged and active and involved in helping me learn new skills and develop in different ways.
And it was huge, you know, dissonance there you know, that I trying to reconcile for a long time.
Then I started to study more of like what was, what was going on in in, in college.
I, I in grad school I got to take more classes in public policy or a degree in public policy and started to have this opportunity to really understand some of the dynamics in the education system.
And I got to talk with a lot more.
Parents had a wonderful opportunity to work with an organization called Great Schools during my, my graduate school through Education Pioneers.
So I definitely wanna plug ed Pioneers for the amazing opportunities I have to connect people with experience in the education sector.
It was a transformative experience for me to understand that my lived experience growing up and feeling this disconnect between my home life and school, was something that.
A lot of families experience today that school and home are, there's not a lot of, you know, flow of information.
There are a lot of, or a lot of recognition, especially among schools of the value the families bring and difference or that distance that I'd been trying to reconcile throughout my childhood I realized was my calling was something I wanted to spend my career focusing
on figuring out how to bridge so that more families who come here for educational opportunities feel welcome, feel part of their child's educational process, and can be activated in ways that really strengthen and support students' chance of being really successful.
I just, I love that so much, and one of the things that is.
Is so powerful to me is that I personally believe that education, wherever it happens, learning wherever it happens, should be valued and recognized.
And parents are kids first and last teachers, and what whatever we do in schools coming from a school perspective, whatever we do.
Whatever is happening at the home is going to be the driving force and the thing that really makes the impact.
And it's a rare occasion when we can take a kid out of their home environment and expect any major change to be impacted on them.
And you, you mentioned Vidia about this idea of.
Of schools not knowing how to connect with parents and not seeing the value that parents bring and how detrimental that is because they, they know their kids better than anybody else and, and they know how to, how to help them, but that doesn't mean that they know.
The answer to everything.
Right?
And, and so if we, if we take that approach of respect for who they are and where they're at, and find ways to incorporate what they're doing at home with what we're doing in school.
Then we can create this super powerful dynamic team that helps the kids be as successful as possible.
And that's why when I first read about Family Engagement Lab, I was like, oh, we gotta do this.
We gotta, we gotta talk more about them because this is so powerful of what it can do.
So talk to us about the, the little things or the big things, whatever, either way, the things that you do that make a big impact on what.
What kids are experiencing from home and school.
I can get us started there.
So what we do is we really like to bring to life for families what is happening for children during the day and in classroom as part of that instruction that's happening between their teacher and the the class.
And so what we wanna do is what.
Give families in really accessible, actionable ways an idea of like, alright, what's an important thing for my kindergartner to know and what can I do to help reinforce that and continue to build those skills outside of the classroom?
And I think, Jethro, you mentioned something really important that it's like the teacher has, you know, 20 kids and maybe 18 different needs there.
And the adult, you know, that, that.
Child's parent or caregiver, you know, is so focused on that one kid.
And to be able to activate all of those parents or caregivers as you know, someone who can be supportive of that child's learning is huge for a teacher and for that child's learning experience.
And so what we do is we learn a lot about, you know, what are the grade levels, standards, skills, objectives, and like the curricular objectives.
And we turned that into like bite sized.
Actionable text messages for families with ideas of things that they can do at home to reinforce that learning.
I love that idea because parents want to know how they can help.
They don't always understand like what it means.
And we have so much jargon in education.
It's very easy for them to feel like I don't know what guided reading is.
I just read to my kid and it's like, that's great.
Keep doing that.
But here are some things that you could do in addition.
What would you add to that video?
Yeah, I think is a big black box for parents to know what their kids are learning and know how to support it at the right time.
So, for example one thing that was very interesting to me when I was working on, on helping families understand the new, you know, at the time, like the new common core state standards.
The idea of standards and then, and testing kids on standards was a really big challenge, I think, for a lot of parents.
'cause it's like, like no, my child is unique, my child is special.
But when you start to talk about really concrete skills, like your child count to a hundred?
you know, in the first grade, like it's like, oh yeah, I want my child to be able to do that.
Like, can they add and subtract within 20, like when you start to refer to really specific concrete skills, parents start to understand, oh yeah, that's really important and.
Those are things That I can actually support.
I think there's a lot of fears about supporting math in particular where it's like, oh, I don't have enough confidence or like, I, you know, after fourth grade, I, I can't touch math anymore because you start getting your fractions and I. I'm done.
Like, so there are a lot of areas where parents are may one they don't know, but also even when they kind of know at a very abstract level, it's intimidating.
So what we do is we break it down to really specific concrete things that parents can do just day to day.
So very early grades, like if you're out and you're walking down the street and you see a sign.
at the letters in the sign.
Can your child identify the letters?
Can they identify the sounds that those letters make?
And can you talk about the meaning behind characters in a story?
If you're reading a story, stop and ask questions.
What do you think this character is going to do next?
Based on what we know about this character now?
And so.
There's all sorts of things in literacy and math that can help parents build their confidence as their child is building those skills.
And what we found that's really cool is that when you give them really bite-sized tips, then understand, oh wait, I can support these skills in so many other ways.
And you start to see parents talk about, oh, well I didn't, I may not necessarily did, I didn't do that specific thing.
But when we were having a bath we were doing bath time.
We were.
You know, measuring, we are using our measuring cups in, in in the bathtub and doing different things with it to show half and quarter and, you know, things like that that a parent may not have necessarily thought of,
could be learning time, but we're exposing a parent more to a way of thinking about how learning is everywhere and what's developmentally and grade level appropriate based on what the kids are learning in the classroom.
So creating that connective tissue for parents is just like.
It's like opening up a whole new lens on the world that not only helps the parent support learning skills, but the amazing thing is that parents learn new ways to become closer to their children and to develop stronger relationships with them that just continue over time.
I, I'm so glad you said that part because the, the real value in this is not that.
Schools are connecting with families.
The real value is in building that relationship within the family and by extension within the school because it, that is just so valuable and when the way that it typically goes with every kid.
How is school today?
Fine.
What'd you learn?
Nothing.
We all know that's not true.
It was either a great day or a terrible day because they're kids and those are the two options, right?
And so it was one of those two, so fine.
Probably not.
Did you learn anything?
Yes, you absolutely learned something.
You learned that Susie is a total jerk and will turn on you in a heartbeat, but you're not gonna come home and tell your parents that, right?
You learned that your teacher favors another kid and doesn't give you the time of day, and you feel really hurt about that, but you're not gonna come and tell your parents about that.
But when, when your parents can ask you a question in a different way and get engagement in a different way.
Then you can feel more comfortable coming out about these things that you're experiencing and struggling with.
And so much of education is, is happening within the kid's head that they don't talk about and they don't share it, and they're learning all the time and nobody gives them enough credit for that.
What would you, what would you add to that?
I mean, one thing it's making me think of is I have a first grader who, right, the same thing is like, what did you learn today?
Nothing.
He started talking about Mesopotamia the other day and I was like, wait, what?
So, you know, it's so common that families just don't have that lens into what children are.
Discovering and really getting creative with during the day.
And so, you know, what we're trying to create is that bridge so that families have an idea of like, what's that conversation starter that's really gonna hook my child?
'cause that's what they were doing that day.
And so, you know, things like, alright, we're eating oranges and we're talking about fractions or.
Folding laundry and fractions, things that kids can sort of show off what they know and they're surprised that their parents are like, wait a minute, you know, they, my parents know what I'm doing.
It's, it's this, it's great opportunity for just kids to end up being sort of the teacher and for children and their families to have this special moment of connection.
And we really do hear from families, like, I feel more connected to my child and the teacher and the school 'cause I'm getting all this information really regularly.
And that's something that parents are not used to experiencing.
Well, and, and what you provide is giving that information to them so that it's not a burden on teach.
Now, let me, for example, my daughter's math teacher does a fantastic job of sending out an email of what math is looking like this week, and she calls it a family math update.
And it's great and she puts a lot of work into it.
And I'm an very involved parent and an educator myself, so I know how important it is.
And guess what I don't do?
I don't read her email.
Because it's just so much and it's like, okay, like, and now it's overboard and it's over communication, and I'm just not gonna read any of it because I'm gonna have to devote 15 minutes to reading through everything.
And she's, I love her for it, but it's just too much and it's too hard for me to, with all the other stuff I've got going on.
And my kid's not struggling with math, and so I'm not really worried about it, like.
It, it just doesn't become something important.
If there was a bite size, Hey, this week we're studying fractions and so do this to help your kid.
That would be a lot different than the six paragraph email with charts and graphs and tables that she's sending and, and I want to be in involved and engaged.
But you know, to be honest, as a, as a busy parent, there's just, there's not a ton of time for it, and it's easy to get distracted.
So what you guys do is provide those bite-sized pieces.
Right.
And how else would you describe that video?
It's, it's so as you were describing, you know, these long emails that it was reminding, reminding me, I think it was a, it was a Truman.
Who has that quote about like, if I'm giving a you know, an hour speech I can prepare it and, you know, this short amount of time, but if I have to give a, you know, and then it, the amount of time it takes to prepare the shorter and shorter speeches, like
Yes.
exponentially longer and longer.
So figuring out what to say in a very short and impactful way is is very.
It takes a lot of time, right?
If you were to ask you know, that same teacher to distill six paragraph email into 160 characters, which is, you know, what we, we do with our messaging, it's literally the size of text message.
But with enough information and a call to action in that that then results in improved learning outcomes has a very challenging task for a teacher, especially given the statistic that fewer than 40% of teachers feel adequately trained in in, in family engagement.
And so.
It's so important to equip educators with really good quality content and support so that the families can receive information that is relevant, actionable, and is also accessible.
So the other.
Sort of dimension I was thinking of as you were talking about you know, this communication is that sometimes like literacy, like if you have, if you have a low, low level of literacy, even getting through six paragraphs would be very challenging.
Right.
But getting through a shorter message.
Would be much more accessible language.
Are those, are, are the materials that are sent home, are they accessible, like by language?
Does, would the parent even have email?
Most parents universally will have text message SMS and so, you know, accessibility can take a lot of forms and shapes and having the training in order and, and support and the tools to be able to communicate effectively across a wide range of needs.
And given like.
The attention bandwidth and time constraints that a lot of families have and experience takes a lot of thoughtful planning, careful consideration upfront
because ultimately parents do wanna act on the information, but have a lot of time to sift through and figure out what's the right next step for me.
Yeah.
So you brought up impact and I think that that is a good next place to go.
What is the impact that you're seeing from this?
And thankfully Elizabeth, as the Chief impact officer is here.
she's getting all ready for it.
what's some of the impact that you're seeing with this?
Yeah.
You know, it's been really important for us from the beginning to be getting, you know, the stories from families hearing, like, you know, what is it like when you have these conversations or engage with these activities with your children?
So there's like a qualitative angle there of, of hearing what, what, how it's impacting sort of your life and relationships.
And then of course, it's important for us to get, you know, more quantitative data.
We do a lot of surveying with.
Families and teachers to make sure the program is really working as intended.
And then ultimately, you know, our goal is that it affects student learning outcomes.
And we've done different quasi experimental research to show that it really does impact student learning.
And what we've found is that the impact is most pronounced for students whose families don't share a common language with the teacher.
Which one piece that's really huge for us and you know, is.
Intentional by design, as Vidia mentioned in terms of accessibility.
And then also that the program really increased literacy outcomes the most for students whose had started the year behind their peers academically, in terms of, of where they, they started the year with literacy.
And so those are the type of learning outcomes, you know, we're continuously striving for and that we, you know, get data in new communities so we can make sure we're continuing to have that intended impact.
But it's just been so important for us.
To really understand that it's working and for the communities in which it's really intended to have an impact.
Yeah, that's great.
One of the things that I was was looking up as we were getting prepared for this is, is some of your impact research showing increased months of literacy gains.
And and, and that is really cool because that's.
Like once a kid can read, then they can do anything else and they can learn anything else.
And that's one of the most powerful things that we can do is, is help people.
Learn how to read so they can, they can see that, that kind of growth.
So I wanna talk a little bit about some of the future things that we'll be talking about on this series.
One of the things that I'm curious about is the the fast talk and the fast talk ai would you talk, kind of hinted at, but didn't say, this is fast talk and this is what it looks like.
But tell us a little bit about that and then.
About some of the other things that you, you want people to look forward to hearing about Nvidia.
We'll start with you and then go to Elizabeth.
Yeah.
So, really as Elizabeth mentioned, like focused on understanding how we can strengthen the communication between schools and families, specifically around what students are learning and ways that build a capacity of families.
The model we developed is called, is called FAST Talk.
It stands for Families and School Stock.
And it is a technology-based, research-based model that leverages a lot of the existing capacities and and it, and integrates really well with the instructional and communication focus and goals of schools that we've worked with.
We've worked with more than 50 school districts across the us and supported more than 70,000 students and their families to strengthen these connections around student learning.
And what we've learned through this work is that as a model, not only is Fast talk really effective, but the, the thing that I think is really compelling
about it is that once you start it at, start it up, unlike a lot of other educational programs it's a, a model that it can run mean a mostly automated way.
That families, they sustain their engagement and interest because continually sharing information about what kids are learning day to day.
So it's very compelling for families.
They always wanna know what their kids are doing in, in school.
But the setup of it is such that once you've set it up,
It runs, it doesn't take ongoing like implementation or sustained like a effort within the school system, which can be a, almost like a death sentence for so many programs where it's like, oh, you gotta have sustained engagement.
How do you keep that going?
Or that, you know, that, that other f word fidelity that can be really challenging for schools to maintain after, you know, maybe that first initial push.
Fast Talk.
We've implemented successfully for many years in different school systems with a lot of success over time and even growing engagement and satisfaction rates from families, which is really promising and exciting.
What we found too with this model, and I think we're really excited to get into, is that sometimes that initial implementation and setup is something that.
Requires cooperation and collaboration within systems that can be a little non-intuitive because we're asking different stakeholders within school systems to coordinate on activities that they're not used to generally coordinating around specifically family communication,
coordination with instructional priorities, Establishing shared responsibilities and coordination milestones also having the right tools and support for stakeholders to really get things going in a, in a effective way is something that we've learned and honed our expertise in.
And we are very excited to be sharing more about the effective strategies for.
Implementation, especially in systems that are looking to get a lot of ROI on their investments in staff time when budgets are getting tighter and squeezed like we really need.
High impact and you know, very like low cost solutions.
And this is low hanging fruit.
Like these are, these are family engagement strategies that any district can implement with the tools they already have.
But with thinking with a new hat around coordination and and, and thinking about things as a shared responsibility across functions that may not have considered that before.
The idea of, of having the communications expert work with the curriculum folks at a district level like that can unlock a lot of things.
And letting them each use their skills to lend to the.
The process and, and make it better for everybody.
That's, that's really powerful.
Elizabeth, anything you wanna add there?
Yeah, just, you know, something else that we're, we're thinking and learning a lot about right now that we're excited to, to dive deeper into in the future is, you know, we're doing more work around ai naturally and, know, in, in the spirit
of listening and learning from families in those cycles of research that we continuously do, we heard from families, you know, like, oh, I love getting these messages each week about, you know, what my kids are learning and how to help.
However, my child, you know, insert X, Y, Z about their personalized or individualized interests or needs.
And the bottom line is they just want even more personalized information, which makes a lot of sense as a parent.
And so that's something that we.
Took in and we've developed an AI learning coach that sort, that is aware of, you know, the, the fast talk messages that are going out, you know, what those
grade level standards and skills are, and it allows a parent to then ask questions like, oh, my child is frustrated about this, or, what is a 10 frame?
I don't even know where to
Yeah.
this new math.
You know, and so we're giving this safe.
Space too for families to ask questions, to personalize the activities even further for their children, and also just build their own confidence and just their own knowledge of, you know, what, what are the terms that kids are using and how can I most effectively support my child?
So we're, we're doing a lot of work there right now and, and excited to share more about what we're learning.
Very cool.
I love it.
So as you've been listening to this, we're gonna do more episodes with them and talk about other things more deeply.
Talk about fast talk, more fast talk, ai more the impact that they're making and, and all of that.
So if you wanna learn more about them, go to family engagement lab.org and you can see what they're about and then connect with them.
And.
Talk about how they can help your district as well.
Vidia and Elizabeth, thank you so much for being part of Ed Talk, ed Tech Startup Showcase, and I so look forward to the rest of our episodes, learning about what you do.
Thank you.