In service to Commissioner Morath’s desire to create more meaningful parent engagement and increased data literacy, we – during our years as part of the HCM Strategists team, conducted parent research on TEA’s score report and school accountability report. This led to a partnership on the original design and recent rebranding of their ongoing Log In, Learn More campaign, along with providing consulting services on texasassessment.gov. This included messaging, talking points, and other communications materials for the Commissioner as he communicated the value and importance of the STAAR assessment to parents.

The campaign reached more than 1.2 million parents who logged into the portal during the initial rollout. The campaign continued in 2021 and saw a 100% increase in unique logins. Using Learning Heroes’ Parent-Teacher Planning Tool template, we co-created a Texas version along with supporting materials for the implementation of HB 4545, which focuses on new family engagement policies imposed by the legislature on schools and districts. We also partnered with Texas 2036 on a body of research to better understand the value proposition of the STAAR as well as parents’ expectations around COVID recovery.