Send one sentence home every week
A weekly one-sentence message to parents measurably cut course failure. The unit of family engagement is smaller than you think.
Aug 7, 2026 · 1 min read
Teachers put off contacting families because it feels like it needs a phone call and a spare evening. The evidence points somewhere cheaper. Kraft and Rogers (2015) had teachers send parents one-sentence weekly messages during a summer credit-recovery programme and course failure fell substantially; messages about what the student should improve did more than praise. One honest sentence a week beats a glossy termly newsletter, because it is specific to one child and it keeps arriving.
In practice
- Fix a weekly slot, Friday afternoon works, and write one sentence per family: what happened this week and what next week should look like.
- With large secondary classes, rotate: a third of the register each week still means every family hears from you monthly.
- Lead with improvement, not flattery: 'Maya should keep attempting the extension questions' tells a parent exactly what to encourage at home.
- Send it where parents actually look. Ask each family their preferred channel in September and record the answer.
Quick takeaway: one specific sentence, every week, beats a newsletter nobody reads.