Considerations For Writing Documents to a Diverse Community

Considerations For Writing to a Diverse Community

The main point is clearly defined & easily understood by non educators.

• What is the one thing you want parents to come away with?

• Will non educators understand the point of the document if they read just the first paragraph?
• What will be important to the reader?

Don’t use any language that needs to be defined.

• Remove acronyms & educational language.
• Use simple language.
• Think about how the document will be translated. Do you think all the words are easily translated?

The layout should be easy to read.

Provide multiple ways for the families to connect with a contact person.

• Break up long or complex ideas into small sentences.
• Use bullets to convey your ideas rather than long paragraphs.
• Less is more!

• Always remind families that you welcome and encourage questions.
• Make sure there is a specific contact person.
• If the document is translated, is there a contact person that speaks the language?

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MCPS Office of Strategic Initiatives

• Educators often want to get as much information as possible in one document. Yet, parents get a lot of information home and will not read a document if it looks too overwhelming.

• Many parents and guardians read the first paragraph to see if the document is useful to them.

• Many of our parents assume they won’t understand the information.

• Educators often want to get as much information as possible in one document. Families and guardians get a lot of information home. Most will not read a document if it looks too overwhelming.

• Many parents and guardians read the first paragraph to see if the document is useful to them.

• Many of our parents and guardians assume they won’t understand the information.

• Many parents and guardians come from cultures where it is considered disrespectful to question school staff. They need to be told in multiple ways that MCPS encourages parent advocacy.

• Many parents are intimidated to speak to the school.

• Parents who do not speak English well do not think there are people at the school who can help.

• Many school documents are crowded with long sentences, little white space, and dense paragraphs.

• This kind of layout makes it hard for families with low literacy skills to decipher the main points.

• Many school documents are crowded with long sentences, little white space, and dense paragraphs.

• This kind of layout makes it hard for parents with low literacy skills to decipher the main points.

• Educators often falsely assume that parents understand education language. Examples include:
• Enrichment
• Assessment
• Standards
• Clusters
• Rather than helping parents be advocates for their children, many parents and guardians say that the language used in school documents disempowers them and makes them feel stupid and frustrated.

• Educators often want to get as much information as possible in one document. Yet, parents get a lot of information home and will not read a document if it looks too overwhelming.

• Many parents and guardians read the first paragraph to see if the document is useful to them.

• Many of our parents assume they won’t understand the information.

• Educators often want to get as much information as possible in one document. Yet, parents get a lot of information home and will not read a document if it looks too overwhelming.

• Many parents and guardians read the first paragraph to see if the document is useful to them.

• Many of our parents assume they won’t understand the information.