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MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: MARCH 2006 ISSUE
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WINNING WEBSITES: YOUR SCHOOL’S ESSENTIAL MARKETING TOOL
BY LYNN KEPFORD, NATIONAL CHARTER SCHOOL CLEARINGHOUSE
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Through your school’s website, you provide the world outside, as well as the school community, with information about your school. Here is the ideal
location to showcase your school’s achievements, enhance communication, foster positive relationships, highlight student accomplishments, and to provide
resources, instruction and professional development. Some basic factors essential to developing your school’s website include:
1. Purpose
2. Target audience
3. Content
4. Design considerations
In researching charter schools across the nation, I have noticed that a good number do not yet have websites. Many may not have realized the need for
a site or the benefits having a site can reap. A well-constructed website can serve many purposes.
What purpose does a charter school website serve?
1. Websites help potential enrollees find your school on the web. We are living in an age of information overload. When people want to find information
about something quickly, one of the first places they go is to the Internet. The Pew Internet & American Life Project surveyed 2000 people and found
that 60% regularly used the Internet to find information—over half of the people polled! Your school needs a web presence as a first line of contact.
A carefully crafted site is an essential marketing tool which will help potential students and their families find your school online.
2. Websites facilitate communication. Your school relies on local support to achieve its mission and must effectively communicate with different groups
to gain their confidence in your school’s ability to educate students and manage finances. Another Pew & American Life Project survey found that parents
with children under the age of 18 were more likely to use the Internet than adults having no children (70% v 53%). If you want to reach these parents,
you need an Internet presence.
3. Websites are an effective vehicle to showcase student achievement. Research projects, presentations, book reviews, collaborative work, online discussion
forums, artwork, poetry, videography, and music are a few suggestions for work that might be featured—projects ideas are limited only by your and your students’
imaginations. Using different formats to document learning creates a wider appeal for students as different modalities are engaged enabling a greater number
of students to achieve. Be certain that when publishing student work, no personally identifying information (last name, phone number, picture, address) is
included. For students under the age of 18, a Permission to Publish (http://supportnet.merit.edu/webclubs/permissionform.htm) form must be signed by a parent
or guardian.
4. Websites are excellent student motivators. The web connects students to a wider audience. Having their work available online is very motivating to students,
who strive to produce quality products that they can share with friends, family members, and other individuals in this global classroom. Students posting
their work online have the potential of receiving feedback from a broader audience increasing opportunities to improve and enhance their learning. When
students’ work is accessible to and used by a larger audience, students are motivated to greater achievement. They are more concerned about the quality
and accuracy of their work knowing that it might be read and used by others. One elementary school teacher reported to Schofield & Davidson (2002) that
involvement in a newsgroup “enhanced tenfold [my students’] enthusiasm for writing.” For examples of increased achievement read “WebBased Publishing”
(http://www.publishingstudents.com/Web-basedpublishing.html)
5. Websites reduce printing, workload and costs. When materials are available online, staff hours and associated costs are reduced. The saved time and
revenue can be reallocated to produce an efficient website and streamline administrative/parent communications.
Who is your target audience?
Once you have defined the purpose(s) of your school’s website, you will need to think about your target audience. Who do you want to visit your site? Such considerations will determine future steps and need to be determined early in the planning process. Having separate areas for different populations is an effective school website practice. Groups you might want to target could include:
- Students
- Parents
- Community members
- Volunteers
- Local Businesses
- Alumni
- News Media
Your website is a great place to begin to develop positive media interactions with your school. Approximately 75% of the news media use the Internet daily for their work. Your website is a valuable way to develop an active media relations program. Devoting a section of your site to the media is an excellent idea.
Features generally found in this area include:
- Fact Sheet
- Executive Biographies
- Press Releases
- News Articles
- Contact Information
Make this section of your site an easy place for the media to go to find information about your organization. Ensure that information can be easily found on your site. Prepare announcements regarding special developments, events, programs, accomplishments, or awards. This is a great area to communicate key messages about charter schools to help the media inform the public about this relatively new educational option.
What should be included on your school’s website?
Simply stated, you need to give visitors a reason to come to your site. You then need to give them a reason to come back! Charter school websites will be as unique as charter schools themselves. Given the individualistic nature of charter schools, their websites will have diverse purposes, and populations, and contents. Elements of school websites frequently include:
- School Introduction - mission, vision, curriculum offerings, etc.
- Target audiences
- Contact information
- Communication tools: email, bulletin boards, chat rooms, discussion groups
- School newsletter
- School calendar
- Classroom Areas
- Student work
- Homework
- School surveys
- School forms
- Lunch menu
- Useful resources available on the web to support curriculum
- Links to community organizations
- Counter
- Date of most recent update
Much planning goes into the creation and maintenance of a school website. The time spent in planning and creating is minimal compared to the time you and your staff save once the site is complete. The benefits that your school will gain from the effort is tremendous in terms of marketing the school; facilitating communication between the school and students, parents, and community members; fostering positive media and community relationships; and providing resources, instruction and professional development.
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