Issuu

What is Marketing, Anyway?

Report: The State of Cyber Schools

School CEO

How Cyber Schools Market Themselves

Superintendent Q&A

The School Marketing Magazine WINTER 2019

The role of school leadership is changing. How are you preparing for the future?

OUR STAFF: Executive Editor: David Allan Art Director: Sebastian Andrei Copy Writers/Researchers: Joy Spence, Rheannon Burnside, Melissa Hite, Barrett Goodwin, Jacob Neeley Graphic Designers/Illustrators: Corbin Lawrence, McKenna Taylor, Nicki Hennington, Dakota Felder Video Producers: Ryan McDonald, Cecil Dowdle Apptegy CEO: Jeston George

PUBLISHED BY:

Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Apptegy is an education technology company dedicated to helping school leaders build a powerful identity for their school. Learn more at apptegy.com

Contents 3

Superintendent Q&A How Dr. Rick Cobb is using marketing to transform his 14,000-student district.

ECOT: How America's Largest Cyber School Collapsed Overnight The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow's cautionary tale.

Report: The State of Cyber Schools Trouble in one of the fastest-growing trends in education.

A Space for All Learners How Dr. Carol Kelley is building equity in a diverse K-8 district.

What is Marketing, Anyway? Ten questions about marketing school leaders might be too embarrassed to ask.

The Cyber School Marketing Playbook Professional marketers are spending millions in the education space. Find out their strategy—from start to finish.

Vol. 1, No.2 © 2019 by Apptegy, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint or quote excerpts granted by written request only. SchoolCEO™ is published 4 times a year (November, February, May, and August) by Apptegy, Inc., 425 W Capitol Ave. Suite 800 Little Rock, AR 72201. Send address changed to SchoolCEO™, 425 W Capitol Ave. Suite 800 Little Rock, AR 72201. Views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the magazine or Apptegy, Inc. Accordingly, no liability is assumed by the publisher thereof.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Welcome back! The feedback from the first edition of SchoolCEO has been fantastic. Thank you to everyone who read and shared suggestions about the magazine. These conversations have allowed us to speak with dozens of school leaders from across the country. In this edition of SchoolCEO, we address a barrier that many school leaders struggle with: knowing what the heck marketing means for a public school. We give you a straightforward explanation of the basic concepts of marketing in “What is Marketing, Anyway?” School leaders have also told us that they learn more from other superintendents than anyone else. We interviewed Dr. Rick Cobb, who has transformed his 14,000-student district through marketing. He is a great example of a leader taking a leap into the unknown and coming out better on the other side. We also feature Dr. Carol Kelley, who has made equity a priority in her diverse district. She is using technology to promote these ideas throughout the community. The rest of this issue focuses on a single topic: cyber schools, specifically those run by for-profit education management organizations. As many of you know, study after study shows that the academic results from these schools have been, to put it lightly, terrible. In "The State of Cyber Schools," we provide an overview of the industry and dig into an interesting question: if the results of these schools are so bad, how have they continued to grow so rapidly? The answer is in their marketing strategy. We’ll show you how they do it in “The Cyber School Marketing Playbook." For me personally, as the editor of the school marketing magazine, it's been a struggle to figure out how to convey this information. On the one hand, there is a lot to learn about marketing from these companies. On the other, some of their campaigns are clearly being used to mislead their audience. The way I see it, marketing is like any other tool. You can use it for good or use it for bad. Everyday we see examples of school leaders using marketing to create better, more inclusive learning environments. We also know that schools can’t stick their heads in the sand. The reality is that change is here. Given the current state of education policy, school leaders can only expect more competition for students, teachers, and funding. Marketing needs to become a practice in every central office in the country. I hope you can take a few marketing techniques from the cyber sector and adapt them to help you build even stronger schools. Enjoy,

DavidDavid Allan Allan Executive Editor,Editor, SchoolCEO Executive SchoolCEO editor@schoolceo.com editor@schoolceo.com

SUPERINTENDENT Q&A

How Dr. Rick Cobb is using marketing to transform his 14,000-student district

Dr.

Rick Cobb kicked off his very first meeting at Mid-Del Public Schools by posting an all-staff selfie to his Twitter feed. Since that moment, he’s spent his superintendency building the district’s story around his staff and students through videos, social media, and good old-fashioned conversation. It’s paying off. In October 2017, Mid-Del’s social media campaigns influenced the success of a major bond issue, which gave the school district $130.6 million for facility improvements. Dr. Cobb told SchoolCEO how Mid-Del’s marketing strategy recruits teachers, wins elections, and engages the community. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

WINTER 2019

Dr. Rick Cobb I Superintendent I Mid-Del Public Schools SchoolCEO

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Why is marketing so important to your district? In terms of student population, we're pretty well set. We have a lot of students who transfer in because their parents see us as a good alternative to where they live. But more than that, we really have to market to recruit teachers. We want people who work in the education profession, in whatever capacity, to see Mid-Del as a desirable destination. We want them to see that this is a place with great kids, great support for the classroom, and great activities. We also partner with the Chambers of Commerce in our area and other entities to make sure that our employees also see this as a good option for where they live. Since our employees arenâ€™t required to live in Mid-Del, we want to make sure that as many of them as possible feel like they should live here, that there is something for them and their families. We do everything we can to make this community a destination, whether for enrollment or employees or families.

Mid-Del School District Stats

14,600

square miles

students

high schools

middle schools

elementary schools

virtual academy

tech center

Mid-Del Oklahoma City

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So how do you market Mid-Del? We’ve really stepped up social media as a point of emphasis over the last several years. Since before I even came to Mid-Del, I’ve been involved in statewide education Twitter chats every Sunday night. Now more and more of our Mid-Del teachers and administrators have gotten involved in those chats as well. It’s really done a good job of branding our district as a progressive place for educators, where people with fresh ideas are welcomed and encouraged. We don’t try to put all of our employees in a box, or make them carbon copies of each other—we really try to bring out the best in what makes people unique and showcase that.

You’ve had a lot of successful engagement with your #MDpurpose hashtag. Can you tell us about that? We get caught up in words like “vision” and “mission” too much. If you read any leadership book out there, the definitions for those words have just become muddled. “Purpose” is a much more powerful word: identifying your core values and sticking to them. I think #MDpurpose truly captures who we are. The things that we’re posting are central to the purpose of the school district. When we’re championing our kids and our staff, that’s our purpose.

I’m also not afraid to let TV stations call us. When something newsworthy happens, even if we don’t like it, we give the story to the press and tell them exactly what’s happening, because it’s better than burying our heads in the sand. But then when there’s a positive story, or just a chance to talk about the education climate, those same reporters call us and want us to be on set. We’ve done a really good job reaching out to our community—finding people where they are.

The #MDpurpose hashtag highlights what makes Mid-Del great, from championship wins to holiday cheer.

WINTER 2019

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Itâ€™s not just administration; teachers are posting the hashtag, too. How did you encourage them to post? Over the last few years, we in the central office have emphasized getting out to our buildings and getting to know our staff. There are typically so many layers in a large school district between the superintendent and the teachers. The only way to bridge that gap is to get to our schools and talk to teachers as much as possible. When I do that, teachers start following me or other members of the central office staff on social media. Then they pick up that hashtag and post.

Teachers are also participating in marketing Mid-Del on their personal Twitter feeds.

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You’ve talked a bit already about marketing to attract teachers. How does Mid-Del recruit teachers differently than other districts? First of all, I’m shameless. I will take any platform and any microphone to preach the gospel of Mid-Del Public Schools. I also teach adjunct classes for two universities— not for the money, because it doesn’t pay very well, but because it’s a platform to recruit people. I take any opportunity I have to talk face-to-face with people about what we do in Mid-Del and why this is a good place to teach or work. The face-to-face element is bigger than any other teacher recruitment tool.

Last year, you used video as a tool to market a major bond issue. Can you talk about the campaign and the process of marketing for the bond? Marketing the bond was a year in the making before we even had one word on social media about it. It started with us going from school to school and asking faculty, “What are the physical needs of this building?” Even two years before that, we’d had a facilities study done by a company, but those are people walking through the building in a day or two. The people who have been in that building for 30 years know a lot more about it than some analyst. We spent a year having critical conversations with our people and our community leaders about establishing priorities, before we even took a bond resolution to our board. Once we really started marketing, we put out 12 to 15 short videos talking about different bond projects our voters would be deciding on. Some of the videos were spurred by questions we were getting on Facebook. The timing of the bond was critical: having an October bond so that we could talk about it in faculty meetings and with parent-teacher associations. Again, that face-to-face impact, that’s where you find the people that actually go to the polls.

WINTER 2019

As part of an October 2017 bond campaign, Cobb and his team leveraged video to inform the community.

Lots of superintendents know video is important, but aren’t sure where to start. Do you have any advice for developing a video strategy? Have someone who is willing to look at you and say, “That wasn’t any good—let’s film that again.” Someone who’s brutally honest. I think that helps. Be clear about what you want to say, and be quick. People don’t necessarily want to listen to or watch anything that goes beyond 45 seconds. And just don’t take yourself too seriously. If you’re filming a video at a school, get on the swingset with the kids and see who can swing higher.

SchoolCEO

We noticed your #ThankYouVoters hashtag on Twitter after the bond passed. What made you decide to do that? We have a very old fleet of buses, and one of the big bond initiatives was that over the next several years, we will be replacing every single bus we own. In August, the first fleet of new buses was out on the roads, picking kids up, and our transportation department put signs on the back of buses thanking the voters. Nobody over here asked them to do that. It’s been a year since the bond was passed, and on the one-year anniversary we started posting updates on where we are currently, just so voters can see the progress being made. Whether it’s our buses, our textbooks, the construction projects that we’re starting, the safe rooms—all of those things impact a lot of kids, and I think that our people are starting to see the differences. It’s been really easy to take pictures and show people, “Hey, you did this. Thank you for your vote." You can follow Dr. Cobb on Twitter at @middelsupt.

After marketing helped Mid-Del pass a $130.6 million bond issue, it also helped them thank the voters.

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ECOT: How America's Largest Cyber School Collapsed Overnight

the late '90s, before smartboards or Wikipedia, when electronic learning was nothing more than a futuristic dream, William Lager scribbled out his idea for the Electronic Classrooms of Tomorrow (ECOT) on a stack of napkins at an Ohio Waffle House. New charter regulations had recently passed in 1997, carving a path into the education sector for private management companies. At the time, Lager wasn't doing so well. His office supply business, Officeworks Inc., had gone bankrupt in the ‘80s, and he was coming out of a five-year divorce and custody battle for his daughter. “He was flat, busted broke, worse than we were,” a former Waffle House waitress, Chandra Filichia, told the Columbus Dispatch. He once reportedly tried to pay for his coffee with photocopied coupons. Lager’s napkin scribblings eventually came to fruition. In 2000, the Lucas County Educational Service Center granted him a charter for his electronic school, allowing him to move his operations out of the Waffle House. Almost immediately, Lager hired Filichia, his former waitress, to recruit students at ECOT. Filichia earned $5 for every student she enrolled or $10 before the final enrollment weekend.

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Flash forward ten years, and the New York Times reported ECOT enrolling more students than any other school in the country—despite an uncomfortably high four-year dropout rate. Jeb Bush spoke at the school’s 2010 graduation. “ECOT provides a glimpse into what’s possible by harnessing the power of technology,” he told the crowd. If you aren’t familiar with the story, there isn’t a happy ending. Filichia, who had worked at the company since its start, finally left after 16 years, unable to stomach the goings-on at the school. She told the Columbus Dispatch, "[Lager’s] phrase was, 'It’s not about the f—ing kids, Chandra; it’s about the money.'” In January of 2018, the school was shuttered, leaving almost 12,000 students without a school in the middle of the year. One teacher, Andrea Bond, pleaded with the school’s sponsor to stay open until the end of the year. “I want to stay here, with my family,” she said, looking at other teachers and students at the school's final meeting. At the time, ECOT’s closure seemed abrupt. Local press, however, showed breadcrumbs of an enrollment conspiracy as early as 2000, the year ECOT was authorized. According to the Columbus Dispatch, the school's first superintendent, schoolceo.com

Coletta Musick, resigned after only three months on the job. Her departure was allegedly due to the school's attendance claims. She signed a $124, 233 non-disclosure agreement upon leaving—paid for by tax dollars amounting to more than three teachers’ salaries. Around the same time, the state auditor, Jim Petro, found that only seven of ECOT’s 2,270 students had logged on to any of the school’s computer systems. Somehow, ECOT remained largely untouched, graduating 21 students in its first year. “Their 21 diplomas will be collector’s items someday,” Lager wrote in his book, The Kids That ECOT Taught. “As the kids might say, ‘This is tight!'”

Besides investing in real estate, Lager was a top political donor in Ohio. According to the Dispatch, Lager “used some of those profits to give $2.5 million to state candidates and political parties.” Upper-level employees at ECOT or Altair Learning repeatedly donated to political campaigns as well. In 2006, one couple without a prior history of donating gave $24,500 to a gubernatorial candidate friendly to ECOT. Filichia reported to the Columbus Dispatch that Lager used to ask employees to set aside money for political contributions, which has instigated an FBI investigation.

Lager formed especially strong As the school grew, so did ties with Dave Yost, Ohio's state “It took the state almost two two companies supplying its techauditor from 2011 to 2019. Yost nology and running its day-to-day accepted at least $29,000 in decades to figure out that there’s a operations: IQ Innovations and campaign donations from scam going on ... It was as if a bear Altair Learning. Lager operated employees associated with ECOT. was at the door, but they didn’t look Pictures of members of the Ohio and was heavily affiliated with both out the window.” companies. Over the years, IQ and Department of Education (ODE), Altair billed ECOT for over $170 including Yost, hung shining in the million. halls at ECOT’s office space. Yost even spoke at the school’s 2014 commencement, giving For Lager, the relationship paid off. He began amassing real ECOT the Ohio Auditor of State Award, with distinction. estate in 2002, first purchasing a high-rise condominium in Besides congratulating students for being self-starters, he downtown Columbus for $300,000. Next he spent $276,900 gave a glowing speech about the school’s finances, explainon another home in Columbus, then in 2010 bought a log ing the award. “We see no problems with their audit," he said. cabin by Seneca Lake for $433,500. Between 2013 and "It means their finances are in good shape.” The records 2014, he went on to spend almost $5 million on mansions in that earned Yost's praise showed ECOT paying students to Upper Arlington and Key West’s tourism district. Lager was attend graduation ceremonies and take standardized tests. known to transfer property to family or other companies using Altair lawyers. Sometime over the next year, their cozy connection broke. During the 2015-2016 school year, Yost's office, along with While Lager went on his spending spree, ECOT’s graduation the ODE, challenged ECOT for reporting around 15,000 sturates, attendance, and test scores were lacking. The school dents, when the school seemed to only have around 6,000 reported 100% attendance in 2006, but only after expelling students who were meeting the state's attendance 1,946 students for chronic truancy. Becky Higgins, presirequirements. Thus Ohio began the process of “clawing dent of the National Education Association, called ECOT back” around $60 million for the 2015-2016 school year, “the poster child for the worst of Ohio’s struggling charter then an additional $20 million the following year. schools.’’ The Dayton Daily News reported in 2018 that “ECOT consistently ranks near the bottom of Ohio’s schools As a protest, ECOT’s administration scheduled a rally on the on state test scores, earning five F’s and a D on the 2016-17 steps of the state capitol in May of 2017, which Superintenstate report card components.” Despite the warning signs, dent Rick Teeters required staff to attend. Lager took the the school continued to operate without interference. stage in an ECOT baseball cap and blazer. “We had an idea to make the first electronic school in the country,” he said, “It took the state almost two decades to figure out that hands in his pockets. Behind him stood a crowd of students there’s a scam going on,” said Bill Phillis, a former Departholding handmade cardboard signs. He repeated ECOT's ment of Education administrator. “It was as if a bear was at boilerplate messaging: an inclusive, personalized online the door, but they didn’t look out the window.” school option. There was no mention of money. WINTER 2019

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Despite ECOT’s best efforts, the protest didn’t work. It wasn't until January of 2018 that the charter’s sponsor, the Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West, finally shuttered the school, blindsiding thousands of students and teachers. Many families found out about the closure on the news. “I just feel so lost,” a 9-year-old girl told a local news station. She had joined ECOT to escape bullying at her old school. “I’m losing my favorite teacher."

Today, more than a year after the school's closure, ECOT's story has become largely political. The charter is one of many cyber schools immersed in scandal nationwide— some related to their finances, some related to their effectiveness. The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, USA Today, and Edweek have reported issues concerning virtual schools across the nation. Cyber charters are undoubtably controversial; even the school choice movement is divided over their support of these schools. Some, like Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, are strong supporters of cyber charters (DeVos was an early investor in K12 Inc.). Others fear that the schools' academic failure may disrupt the choice movement as a whole.

Days before the school’s closure, an ECOT staff member stole Yost’s picture off the wall at the school's office; some guessed it would become a dart board. At the end of the day, this may have helped Yost’s case. After “Many families find that an online option is The rub, however, is the schools' closure, politicians have been that online schools are really the best or even the only option for cutting ties with Lager serving a unique audience them ... There is a fundamental need and as quickly as possible. base. Many families rely desire there that the market of schools “Deciding the money on online education to needs to meet to ensure that the children isn't worth it, the Ohio meet needs that aren't Republican Party is accomodated in brickare really accomodated.” returning $76,000 in and-mortar schools. Anya campaign donations Kamenetz, NPR's lead from Electronic Classeducation blogger, told room of Tomorrow founder Bill Lager and one of his top SchoolCEO that she started her work focusing on cyber associates,” reported the Dispatch. charters' lobbying organizations, but left with a different interest: the community enrolled in cyber schools. The ECOT administration has since used nearly $250,000 of taxpayer money on attack ads against the ODE—billed “Many families find that an online option is really the best to Third Wave Communications, which is owned by Lager's or even the only option for them,” Kamenetz said. “There daughter. is a fundamental need and desire there that the market of schools needs to meet to ensure that the children are really Outside of the political tussle, students and staff have been accomodated.” left to pick up the pieces. ECOT employees were formally laid off at 10:30 p.m. on January 31, 90 minutes before they Cyber schools reach a new demographic of students: those would have been credited for the year for their retirement incarcerated, chronically ill, highly mobile, or escaping from plan. social pressures at school. At best, cyber management organizations are working to create a space for these ECOT's community gradually disbanded, but some teachers students, despite questionable academic ratings. At worst, and students couldn’t find other spaces or positions. By they're siphoning money off of student enrollment, as we've July of 2018, the Cleveland Associated Press reported that seen in ECOT's story. Turn the page to find out more about “state officials don't know what happened with about 2,300 the landscape of online learning in our report on the state of students” who didn’t reenroll in another district. cyber schools.

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See school marketing done the right way.

We've printed a custom marketing booklet for every attendee of AASA NCE. Come to booth 208 or request one at apptegy.com/booklet

AD: Crowdshift

Report: The State of Cyber Schools Trouble in one of the fastest-growing trends in education.

“Can you see me?” asks a little girl with braids in her hair, sitting outside on her picnic blanket. It’s a sunny day. Uplifting music plays in the background. The clip cuts to a boy flipping through books in a library. “What do you see when you look at me?” he asks.

Ads like this one seem to be working. In the 2016-2017 school year, full-time online learning programs enrolled around 300,000 students nationwide. Almost half of those students are enrolled in schools powered by two for-profit companies: Connections Academy (owned by Pearson Education) and K12 Inc. Obtaining charters from the state, As the music builds, kids of all ages play outside, model these education management organizations, or EMOs, clay sculptures, or laugh with operate their online friends. All of them ask variations schools, hiring principals As a whole, however, full-time online on the same questions: “Do you and making calls on schools are proven to be ineffective for see what makes me unique? curriculum. Do you see what makes me the vast majority of students. Virtual brilliant?” But the true picture of students spent the same amount of time cyber schools may not with a teacher in a week as traditional In this commercial, K12 Inc., the be as sunny as their public school students did in a day. country’s largest cyber education advertising suggests. company, paints a compelling While the most recent picture. Asking the audience to academic reports show consider what makes each child improvement in their “uniquely brilliant,” they offer up their tuition-free, online ratings, cyber schools have proven ineffective for the vast public schools as a space for that brilliance to thrive. With majority of enrolled students. its abundance of sunshine and smiles, the ad makes virtual education look like an experience worth buying into. A 2015 report published by three independent research institutions, including Stanford’s Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO), indicated that some

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K12 Inc. issued a statement contesting CREDO’s methods, but the research on full-time cyber schools is damning. In their annual report on the national landscape of cyber schools, the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) consistently records poor academic results. According to the NEPC, only around 37% of full-time cyber schools received acceptable performance ratings in 2017.

Statewide Enrollment (in thousands)

Virtual School Growth 2011-2016 300

600

200

400

100

200

Number of virtual schools

online students were essentially losing “72 days of learning in reading and 180 days of learning in math, based on a 180-day school year.” In other words, these students were performing as though they hadn’t attended math classes for an entire year. Virtual students spent the same amount of time with a teacher in a week as traditional public school students did in a day.

0 2011

2012

2013

Schools

2014

2015

Enrollment

2016

Data from NEPC

Virtual Schools' Enrollment Share by Provider for 2016 Connections Academy 17% Other For-Proﬁt EMO 12% K12 Inc. 30% Nonproﬁt EMO 3%

Dr. Gene Glass, a research professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, summed up the issue in an interview with SchoolCEO. “The impersonal laptop on the kitchen table is just not delivering an adequate education,” he said. WINTER 2019

Independent Schools 38% Data from NEPC

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Connections Academy

K12 Inc.

FOUNDED - 2001 FOUNDERS - Barbara Dreyer Mickey Revenaugh Dr. Steven Guttentag

FOUNDED - 1999 FOUNDER - Ron Packard CEO - Nate Davis

Managing Director - Tom ap Simon

Core Message: "Connections Academy is a tuition-free online public school for grades K–12. In this virtual classroom, students can spend the school year reaching their highest potential through a uniquely individualized learning program."

The Promise of Online Schools For some students, online learning is essential to their education. Lexxus, a girl who developed an aggressive bone disease in elementary school, attends a virtual charter in Oklahoma. Without the opportunity to take classes online, she would have struggled to graduate; her parents needed the extra support provided by the charter program. Isaac, a student with autism, had trouble navigating class changes. The online format allowed him to continue his education without interference. And over the years, more successful models of online education have emerged. The blended learning model, in which students split their days between online work and time in a physical classroom, earns moderately higher academic results than cyber schools alone. For example, Dr. Michael Barbour, Associate Professor of Instructional Design at Touro University California, mentioned a blended learning facility in Michigan that is successfully serving a previously overlooked group of students: those who have been incarcerated. Teens in the Virtual Learning Academy have a few key advantages over traditional cyber students. Before enrollment, prospective

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Core Message: "We are educators. We are teachers and administrators, moms and dads, students and former students from all over the U.S. We all have one common belief that every child is uniquely brilliant and deserves a high-quality, personalized education. We're excited to be celebrating over one million students who have chosen public school at home with K12!"

students get certified in online learning skills, which also allows faculty to determine the type of online learner they are—and if online learning is indeed for them. Since the program’s base of students often requires extra academic support, teachers are available on campus throughout the week to answer questions and offer help. The school assigns only two courses at a time instead of the traditional six in order to reduce cognitive strain, which better addresses the needs of their population of students. As a result, dozens of students who might otherwise have fallen back into the criminal justice system are receiving their diplomas. All it took was focus on students’ needs. Some of the best blended learning programs can match—or in some cases, even surpass—results from brick-and-mortar schools. Some superintendents are opening district-run virtual programs as another developing alternative to full-time cyber charter schools. Chalkbeat reported on a small school district in Indiana that was close to shutting their doors—until they added a cyber school option. Within a year, they tripled enrollment, saving the district. Alternatives to cyber charters' full-time online learning model are gaining traction across the educational community. Anya Kamenetz, the head blogger for NPR Education, schoolceo.com

mentioned that schools might evolve to accommodate “work from home days,” implementing a more blended model. Many teachers are already “flipping the classroom,” says Barbour. Students watch a video of their professor's lecture at home and work on activities in class. That being said, both district-run and blended learning programs are still often operated by larger companies like K12 Inc. and Connections Academy. And while blended and district-run virtual options show promise, the most common online school option is still full-time cyber schooling, which accrues the worst academic ratings.

Cyber Schools or Virtual Schools While the two terms are often used interchangeably, several researchers we spoke to told us that “virtual schools” refers to the larger category of schools providing online learning, while “cyber schools” refers to schools that are exclusively online.

Blended Learning

Problems and Profits So what keeps cyber schools from providing a quality education to the majority of their students? The first issue may be the nature of full-time online learning in general; few students are actually well-suited to be virtual learners. Dr. Gary Miron, Professor of Educational Leadership, Research, and Technology at Western Michigan University, explained that successful virtual students share several key characteristics: they are self-motivated, have a supportive adult in the household, and work in a structured learning environment. However, many cyber students don’t share these skills and advantages. But it would seem that cyber schools could adjust to accommodate different learners—by lowering student-teacher ratios, for example, or providing more personalized instruction—but most for-profit programs have gone in the exact opposite direction. As a result, schools operated by for-profit management companies are consistently racking up the worst academic scores. Is there a link between the problems and the profit model? As we’ll see, some of cyber schooling’s largest weaknesses, like high student-teacher ratios and false claims of personalization, seem to be directly related to the push toward greater profits.

Students take a portion of their classes online and a portion of classes in a physical building.

District-Run Cyber School Just what they sound like—cyber schools run by a school district, rather than the state

Breakdown of Cyber Schools' Enrollment 2016-2017

Charter District

24.3% 75.7%

Data from NEPC

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High Student-Teacher Ratios According to the NEPC’s research, the average student-to-teacher ratio in nonprofit cyber schools in 2017 was around 34-to-1. Compare that to the average ratio for traditional public schools, which is 16-to-1, skewed slightly by low student-teacher ratios in remedial classes. The average ratio in for-profit cyber schools? 44-to-1. “Their so-called teacher actually does the monitoring, and they will intervene if the child hasn’t done any work in two to three weeks. They’ll try to send a personal email,” Miron told SchoolCEO. "It’s just no personal contact.” With the cost savings the online model provides, cyber schools could have some of the lowest student-teacher ratios in the country. Instead, they move in the opposite direction. “So not only are they saving money on facilities, transportation, lunch programs, student support services— they also save money on teachers, which is the biggest budget item right now,” Miron concluded.

The Myth of Personalization Most online schools market personalization—it’s on the front page of K12 Inc.’s website. A look into online programs’ structure, however, reveals a fairly standardized instructional model.

Barbour took us through the organization of a typical lesson in a cyber charter program. Students start with a multiple-choice test on the material for the day. The instruction they’ll receive in the lesson depends on which questions they miss on this test. For example, a student who misses two questions about reptiles in a biology lesson will then receive material about reptiles. Another student who misses questions about both reptiles and mammals will spend their lesson on not just reptiles, but also mammals. The material doesn’t change per student; students just get more or fewer questions depending on what they get right and wrong. The differentiation only takes into account students' prior knowledge—not their unique needs or learning styles. “For all of the talk of the personalization or the individualization or the customization, these programs are fairly standard,” concluded Barbour. “You, as a student, are just a widget on this instructional assembly line.” Like their high teacher-student ratios, cyber schools’ lack of genuine personalization goes back to a push towards cost-efficiency, and by extension, higher profits. Accommodating student needs in an individualized, meaningful way would demand more staff and differentiated curriculum tracks—both of which come at a cost.

Staying Alive Virtual School Performance by EMO Type 2011-2016

How are cyber schools continuing to grow when their students are historically unsuccessful? The success of virtual schools comes down to three factors: their high student turnover, their accountability structures (or lack thereof), and their marketing strategies.

Average % with Acceptable Ratings

40%

30%

High Student Turnover 20%

It's difficult to track enrollment demographics for cyber schools—partially because students who drop out are often quickly replaced by new ones.

10%

For-Profit

Nonprofit Data from NEPC

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According to Dr. Luis Huerta, Professor of Education and Public Policy at Columbia University, some schools have churn rates of up to 50%. But in K12 Inc. call centers, Personal Admission Liaisons (PALs) usher new students schoolceo.com

through the door. “They're able to replenish these kids very, very fast,” Huerta said. “The churn rates of kids coming in and dropping out is astonishing.” While cyber schools manage to keep their enrollments up, this high churn rate weighs down the traditional public schools who deal with the aftermath. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that 40% of students enrolled in virtual schools in Wisconsin eventually withdrew, got kicked out, or dropped out during the 2016-2017 school year. Many students were reabsorbed into brick-and-mortar schools, putting strain on their zoned districts. We see this same story repeated across the country. This high turnover rate once again indicates that profit is taking priority over student success. These companies don’t seem to care whether they’re filling minds as long as they’re filling spots.

Lack of Accountability ECOT’s story (see page 10), while extreme, highlights many of the central problems with the cyber school sector, including its lack of meaningful accountability. Because the sector is relatively new, legislators haven't developed accountability systems to correspond with cyber charters’ unique structure, an issue which played into the scandal. Since Ohio's legislation concerning online student attendance was muddled, ECOT was able to claim not to have attendance records when the state eventually demanded them. These gaps in accountability are particularly glaring when you consider the amount of funding cyber schools receive. In 2011, the Virtual Public Schools Act became law in Tennessee. Written by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a prominent conservative policy organization, the Act ensures that cyber schools are "provided equitable treatment and resources as any other public school." This means that cyber schools receive the same funding as brick-and-mortar schools—without having to pay for the proverbial bricks or mortar. So how are they spending that money? K12 Inc., for one, paid their executive team a total of more than $18 million in 2018, according to its annual proxy statement to the SEC. They're also spending money buying out shareholders. In May 2018, K12 Inc.'s board of directors authorized a buyback of 1.83 million shares, at a purchase price of $27.5 million. They funded the buyback with cash on hand. WINTER 2019

As Miron put it, “it’s hard to serve the interests of taxpayers when, at the same time, you’re serving the interests of stockholders.” With few accountability structures in place to keep cyber schools in line, it's easy for them to focus more on their business interests than their students. Experts like Huerta point out that the huge differences between brick-and-mortar and cyber schools—from their teacher-student interactions to curriculum—should demand that they answer to different policies. “These distinct mechanisms require the development of new accountability systems if policymakers are going to continue promoting virtual schooling,” Huerta said. At least publicly, K12 Inc. and Connections Academy appear to agree. They have each called for more specific accountability structures for virtual programs. Some of the researchers we spoke with, however, weren't convinced of their sincerity. Glass, who’s been covering virtual charters since their creation, was incredulous. “These companies are just running a scam,” he said. “They don't care about whatever the kids want; they just want to collect money from the state.” Looking into financial reports and investigations on for-profit cyber schools, his point is difficult to contradict. In 2011, the Washington Post reported that K12 Inc. consistently sets up

K12 Executives' Compensation in 2018 Nathaniel A. David Chairman and CEO

James J. Rhyu Chief Financial Officer and President, Product and Technology

Howard D. Polsky Former Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

Allison B. Cleveland Forver Executive Vice President, School Management and Services

Stuart J. Udell Former CEO

Kevin P. Chavous President, Academics, Policy and Schools

$6,435,889 $1,883,779 $1,236,762 $1,345,325 $5,454,987 $1,885,316

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headquarters in a state’s poorest regions. This allows them to collect the highest possible funding amount per student, even if the students themselves are zoned to higher-income areas. On a quarterly earnings call in 2018, K12 Inc.’s Chief Financial Officer told shareholders that for each student enrolled, the EMO earns an average of $7,183 in revenue. Again, these are tax dollars.

Lucky Charms Marketing In our interview with Miron, he asked us a puzzling question: Why do Lucky Charms keep flying off the shelves? If you’ve ever tasted one of those rainbow marshmallows, you know the brand’s popularity has nothing to do with its nutritional value. In Miron’s view, Lucky Charms’ success comes from its marketing strategy. “You don’t market Lucky Charms to parents, you market to children,” he said. “And that’s the same with these for-profit companies.” When a student goes through a breakup, gets in a fight

with a friend, or embarrasses themselves in class, the opportunity to finish school at home becomes more and more attractive. K12 Inc. and Connections Academy, ready with hefty budgets and experienced marketing teams, pounce on those insecurities. According to a 2012 study by USA Today, some for-profit cyber companies leverage millions of dollars in advertising budgets—and they spend that money targeting students. The study noted commercials on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, as well as ads on social networking sites for teens. Today, advertisements for cyber education run on the radio, on Facebook, in the margins of websites, even on tour buses. And they work. “The marketing instruments of these organizations have been extremely successful in enticing a lot of applicants to enroll in virtual schools,” said Huerta. The “Lucky Charms” approach is powerful, but it’s not the only marketing tool at cyber schools’ disposal. To give public school leaders an idea of who they're up against (and which ideas they can use themselves), we've analyzed the largest cyber charters' marketing strategies in "The Cyber School

School Choice in the United States Charters

Virtual Schools

Both

Neither

Private School Choice

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Marketing Playbook” (see page 46).

The Takeaway for School Leaders Unfortunately, cyber charters aren’t just failing to provide their students with a quality education; they’re detracting from the experience of traditional students as well. Cyber schools play into an issue facing public schools nationwide: increasing competition due to school choice policies. When students transfer to the next district over—or a cyber school—they can pull as much as $20,000 in funding with them. Of course, it costs just as much to keep 350 students in an air-conditioned building as it does 400, but a lower enrollment means less money to pay for that air conditioning. Keith Richards, a former superintendent from Newark, Ohio, lost an average of $350,000 each year to students enrolling in ECOT. “We actually broke that down,” he told Mother Jones. “And we’re talking about four teachers [for each of those years]. We’re talking about whether we have aides for special-needs kids.” The district ended up canceling high school busing and implementing pay-to-participate activities. We consulted experts in cyber education on how they would advise school leaders to respond. Their answers varied from debunking the myths about cyber charters to exploring alternative online learning opportunities. The most prevalent advice, however, was to market the community aspect of brick-and-mortar education.

The Public School Advantage Traditional public education is rooted in community. From the first public schools—one-room schoolhouses built and run by community members—to our current districts, a great school is the centerpiece of the neighborhood, even the town.

In a brick-and-mortar school, children sit side-by-side with next-door neighbors or friends from church. They meet kids from different backgrounds than themselves, broadening their horizons. They learn to socialize. They become invested members of their local community. “We do a lot of things in public schools,” said Miron. “Our goal is not just to educate [students] in terms of math and reading, but to socialize them. It’s also to prepare them for productivity; it’s also to prepare them as citizens.” Cyber schools, as they currently stand, not only fail to provide quality education—they offer fewer opportunities to connect. Without these opportunities, these kids aren't learning the crucial interpersonal skills they'll need in their adult lives. Of course, as we've mentioned, some children genuinely need an online option, whether because of chronic illness or other factors. Perhaps over time, cyber schools will adapt to provide more civic and social engagement. As we've seen, blended learning programs might offer both the online option some circumstances demand and the social engagement that students need. K12 Inc. and Connections Academy offer after-school activities and clubs online, but participating in a "virtual puppy club" like the one marketed by K12 Inc. won't offer the same growth and learning opportunities as the teamwork of an after-school sports program or a quiz bowl club. At its best, cyber schools’ marketing put students at the forefront of their campaigns. By focusing on the experiences afforded by public schools—the community, the relationships—school leaders can offer the unique competitive advantage of public education.

“Your strongest weapon is always going to be your community and your relationships,” said Kamenetz. “In rural communities, the schools are really important hubs.”

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The History of Online Schools 1986

1997

Margaret Morabito tests out the first online learning program at QuantumLink Community College. The company running the program, Quantum Computer Services, will later rebrand to “America Online,” or AOL.

2011

Pearson acquires Connections Academy for $400 million in cash.

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K12 Inc. is founded by Ronald J. Packard, receiving over $40 million in venture capital to get the company up and running. ECOT opens. Three months later, their first superintendent resigns, signing a non-disclosure agreement.

2014

A bill passed in Tennessee ensures that cyber schools will be provided equitable treatment and resources, despite the fact that they don’t cover facility maintenance, transportation or food services.

The Virtual High School and Florida Virtual School open.

2000

Teachers from California Virtual Academies vote to unionize, becoming the first union to form around a virtual charter school.

2015 The groundbreaking National Study of Online Charter Schools highlights online schools’ ineffectiveness, with students losing up to a year's worth of instructional time in math. Pro-charter foundations begin distancing themselves from the cyber charter movement.

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2001 The National School Boards Association mentions more than 50 schools running online programs, showing huge growth in the first five years.

2016 Scandals spread across the country. Education Week reports only 24% of students logging on to Colorado’s Goal Academy each day. The founder of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School defrauds the state of $8 million.

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2006 Michigan’s state government requires that all students take at least one online course before graduation.

2017 The state of Ohio requests $80 million from ECOT due to enrollment conspiracy.

2008 Connections Academy enrollment reaches 10,000 students, doubling from the year before. At the end of the school year, they air their first commercial, “Kids Are Different.”

2018 Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy graduates just 2% of students.

States like Indiana and Ohio propose The NEPC reports only 37% of full-time higher accountability for cyber charvirtual schools receiving acceptable ters; however, few laws are passed. performance ratings.

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Finally, marketing software designed for K-12 leaders. Launches May 1st

Accepting only 200 districts this year. Get on the waitlist today. crowdshift.com

A Space for All Learners HOW DR. CAROL KELLEY

is building equity in a diverse K-8 district

Dr.

Carol Kelley had never planned on becoming a teacher. In the early ‘90s, fresh from an M.B.A. program at the University of Virginia, she had landed a job in New Jersey, working in project management at Johnson & Johnson. She was a successful engineer with two degrees under her belt, but her heart was somewhere else. “As I got into my mid-20s, I just wanted to do more to make our society better,” Kelley told SchoolCEO. “I was doing a lot outside of work, volunteering” —tutoring and mentoring boys from a nearby middle school who had been expelled for fighting.

Dr. Carol Kelley

SchoolCEO

Superintendent

District 97

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Housing Center from the 1970's

Picture courtesy of Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Kelley says she’s always been “intrigued by the potential of public school.” She knows the system can work, because she’s personally experienced its benefits: invested teachers and mentors who saw her potential and gave her opportunities to succeed. “But I think it worked for me because I was able to fit,” she says. And as she saw firsthand through her volunteering, not every kid fits. When Kelley’s book club read Jawanza Kunjufu’s book Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys, it all came together for her. “Research was showing that these kids were coming into schools really enthusiastic, but over time, by fourth grade, they were totally disengaged, didn’t like school, had poor performance, high discipline rates,” she says. She knew it wasn’t the kids that were broken, but the system. That’s why she ultimately felt called to teach: ”to create spaces where all learners could be successful.” In 1994, the principal of her local middle school—the same school that had expelled the boys she volunteered with—offered Kelley her first teaching job. After seven years in the classroom, Kelley took an administrative position in her district. From then on, she ran the gamut through school administration: dean of students, principal, math supervisor, director of curriculum instruction.

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In 2002, she returned to her undergrad alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, to pursue a doctorate in education. “I was not interested in the superintendency," Kelley told us—at least not initially. She had planned to apply for assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction, but a mentor encouraged her to go for the open superintendency at Branchburg Township Public Schools. She got the job, and brought her passion for equity with her. “I started my first superintendency sort of as I did teaching, not because I was really seeking that position, but because of the promise of public schools,” she says. “My work has always been to try to create what I had for all kids, not just kids that fit in.”

he issue of equity is baked into the history of Oak Park, Illinois, a village on the west side of Chicago. In the 1960s, neighborhoods around Oak Park—like nearby Austin—faced "white flight" and resegregation when they attempted to integrate. Many residents who were passionate about equity suspected that unless they intervened, Oak Park's integration would fail as well. In 1968, Oak Park passed a fair housing ordinance, outlawing discrimination in the housing market. Beginning in 1972, the Oak Park Regional Housing Center worked to expand

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housing options for minority families and fight segregation. The result, 50 years later, is an extremely diverse community, socially, economically, and racially. Its schools—including Oak Elementary School District 97—are no different.

Household Income Distribution of The Village of Oak Park - 2018 < 10K

When Superintendent Al Roberts announced his retirement from District 97 in 2015, the newly open position caught Kelley’s eye. She had been at Branchburg for three years, but this Illinois district offered “the potential for transformative change," she says, "which is what you need for an equitable and inclusive community."

Annual Gross Income

10K - 25K

40K-60K 60K - 100K 100K - 150K 150K - 200K

Once the job opened, 48 candidates from 11 states applied to be District 97’s next superintendent—including Kelley. That June, she got the job. The school board’s decision was unanimous.

> 200K

“She strikes me as an individual who leads with integrity, one who’s committed to equity and excellence,” Roberts told the Chicago Tribune after Kelley was hired. She's proven herself to be just that.

25K - 40K

rom the beginning of Kelley’s tenure at District 97, she’s prioritized equity. “For me and for the district, equity means attempting to provide a learning environment—a culture and a climate—where every student can reach their fullest potential,” Kelley says. In a truly equitable school, she explains, neither race nor economic background nor neighborhood should be reliable predictors for a student's academic performance. Every kid should feel that the faculty sees their potential, and that support should drive students to believe in themselves. Most of all, all students should feel "that they are welcome and that they have a sense of belonging,” Kelley says.

10%

15%

20%

Equity is "not the same as equality, where you’re trying to provide the same experience to all students,” she points out. “We’re trying to give all students what they need to be able to be successful.” It might sound simple, but the reality of creating this kind of environment is much more complicated. “I think one of the challenges for all schools, but particularly here at Oak Park, is that the school is just an example of the larger picture of society in America,” Kelley says. “There are institutional systems in place that prevent students from experiencing life in general the same—whether it’s housing, whether it’s healthcare, whether it’s the employment market.”

Population Breakdown by Race 5%

21%

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14%

The Village of Oak Park

17%

12%

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18%

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Hispanic

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Black or African American

Asian

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Oak Park Elementary School District 97 Stats 6,165

96%

Students

Student Attendance

Average Class Size

Middle Schools

Elementary Schools

District 97 Chicago

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Map created in Mapbox

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For me and for the district, equity means attempting to provide a learning environment—a culture and a climate—where every student can reach their fullest potential.

Those same institutional barriers bleed into the school system. Take the issue of tracking, for example. Study after study shows that even at diverse and nominally progressive schools, AP and honors classes are filled with predominantly white students, while students of color remain behind on the basic track. Examining these patterns in their book Despite the Best Intentions, researchers Amanda E. Lewis and John B. Diamond consider the historical basis for tracking. “The history of tracking in American public schools is rife with racist strands, deeply connected to Social Darwinism and the eugenics movement,” they write. The prevailing belief that non-white, low-income children had less intellectual potential than their white, affluent counterparts drove schools to create separate, more “proper” tracks that prepared these students for the workforce, not further learning. Although the language we use to talk about and justify tracking has changed today, the effects are, for the most part, the same—even in diverse districts like Kelley's. “In many instances, because of the systems that are in place in our schools, we basically reproduce the inequity we see in society as a whole,” Kelley says. This issue reared its ugly head in the district’s Gifted, Talented and Differentiation (GTD) program in 2017. According to Oak Park's Wednesday Journal, only 10 of the program’s 329 students that year were black. Just 14 were Latino; 219 were white. In August 2017, Kelley got to work. With the help of an outside expert, she formed and facilitated an ad hoc committee, made up of parents and community members, to analyze how the GTD program selected students. The district began requiring cultural competency trainings for its teachers. Instead of shuffling GTD kids away to separate classrooms, teachers began giving their specialized instruction in the

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regular classroom, allowing students who aren’t in the program to benefit as well. The GTD program brings up an important point, one central to Kelley’s approach to equity: it’s not kids that need to be “fixed.” It’s the system itself. “To eliminate the inequities, it takes some systemic examining,” she says. “What are the barriers causing these large gaps? Let’s break down those barriers.”

ocial psychologist Claude M. Steele takes the title of his book Whistling Vivaldi from an anecdote by Brent Staples, a columnist for the New York Times. As a young, black graduate student, Staples found that when he walked down the streets of Chicago’s Hyde Park at night, negative stereotypes flurried around him. “I became an expert in the language of fear,” Staples writes. “Couples locked arms and reached for each other’s hands when they saw me. Some crossed to the other side of the street.” Of course, Staples meant no one any harm—but because of powerful stereotypes, people in Hyde Park expected young black men to be violent, dangerous. This not only kept Staples from moving comfortably through the world, but also damaged his self-concept. “I did violence to them just by being,” he writes. So he found a way to deflect the stereotypes: he walked down the street whistling classical music. When he did this, “the tension drained from people’s bodies,” he says. “A few even smiled when they passed me in the dark.” Negative stereotypes exist everywhere. And as Steele goes on to explain in Whistling Vivaldi, the fear of conforming to a negative stereotype about one’s social group—whether it’s race, class, gender, or something else—can lead to poor performance. Kelley is determined to mitigate the effects of stereotypes in her district. schoolceo.com

This school year, District 97 is reading Whistling Vivaldi as a district. Everyone from administrators to students to parents is invited to participate. “It’s been a really good book for us to explore how stereotypes, or even the things students have in their minds about themselves, can threaten them from putting themselves out there in the classrooms,” Kelley says. Through a “slow chat” on Twitter, she’s encouraging the community to engage with the book, and directly apply its lessons to the district. “Black students at one small prestigious campus that Steele visited gave him the sense that ‘campus life was racially organized,’” one tweet reads. “Is D97 also ‘racially organized’? Where, specifically, can you see that?” Kelley has already begun incorporating some of the book’s ideas into district programming. For example, Steele suggests that to break down stereotypes, students of different backgrounds need to interact with each other. “He was sharing these examples of study groups,” Kelley says. “The black students in his graduate program were thinking they were the only ones struggling with the learning material.” But in the integrated study groups, they learned this wasn’t the case; the white students were struggling just as much. “It helped them break down the myth they had in their heads,” Kelley says—the idea that the white students were somehow smarter or more capable. So in District 97, Kelley is spearheading more ways to bring students together. Alluding to its mascot, the hawk, Holmes Elementary has started “nests”—small meeting groups made up of students ranging from kindergarten through fifth grade, led by a faculty or staff member. Other schools are implementing mentoring programs to get kids to venture beyond their cultural comfort zones. “We’re just trying to break down the barriers that sometimes exist even with the kids, where they don’t go outside their circles,” Kelley says. “Helping them to expand their circles, so they can demystify some of the myths they’ve heard about students of other cultures”—and about themselves.

elley’s advice to other school leaders who want to build equity in their districts? “Pray for patience," she laughs. It might be easier for people inside an organization to make changes, but if (like her) you’re coming into your district from the outside, it will take time. “You’re going to have to spend a lot of your time just building social capital in the community,” she says. Even four years into her superintendency, Kelley is still continuing to build that social capital. She hosts monthly Community Cafe events at local coffee shops, and actively promotes the district on Twitter. “I look at what I’m doing on Twitter as being a classroom teacher, but my students now are the community,” Kelley says. “It’s an opportunity for people who follow me to learn about what we’re doing and why it’s important.” She gives the example of Holmes Elementary's "Leader in Me" program, designed to build more equitable environments by helping students advocate for themselves. “When I say, ‘We’re really trying to help students use their voice,’ that’s hard,” she says. “You can communicate the vision, but sometimes people need to see actual examples of what it looks like.” When community stakeholders get those concrete examples, they trust Kelley, and the district, more. Kelley also emphasizes the need for a support system external to the district: other superintendents and school leaders embarking on the same kind of equity work. “You’ll need a support team,” she says—people who can provide you with not just technical resources, but encouragement and a listening ear. But what you need more than anything is drive—something Kelley certainly has. You can hear it in her voice, the way she talks about the kids, every kid. You can tell she feels a sense of responsibility to the work. “I believe every person has a gift, something that’s intended to help others,” she says. “I think this might be my gift."

I believe every person has a gift, something that’s intended to help others. I think this might be my gift.

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CAMPAIGNS

MESSAGING

SOCIAL MEDIA

$ 200

$ 400

$ 600

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BRANDING

$ 200 $ 400 $ 600

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What is Marketing, Anyway? Ten questions about marketing school leaders might be too embarrassed to ask If you look at books about marketing on Amazon, you’ll see subtitles like “how to set fire to your business’s growth” and “making your product indispensable.” The vast majority of information about marketing is made for people working in the private sector. But if you are reading this magazine, it means you recognize the need for schools to market themselves. Before you can get started with marketing, it’s worth your time to ask: if I’m not a company in the private sector, what is marketing, anyway? In this article we’ll answer the most common questions we get from school leaders about how to market their schools. We’ll also offer a case study showing how a superintendent in Washington is implementing effective marketing strategies in the real world.

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When Dr. Nathan McCann arrived in Ridgefield, Washington as the new superintendent, he saw the district’s unlimited possibilities. “I came here specifically because I thought Ridgefield could become the state’s premier school district,” he says. But not everyone shared McCann’s vision of Ridgefield. Unclear on what the district had to offer, area students flocked to a 4A high school the next district over, seeing the promise of a larger school. But McCann had a plan to change the community's perspective of the district. His solution? Marketing. McCann took concrete steps toward a strong marketing strategy. Working with faculty members and even students, he gradually changed the community's perspective on Ridgefield, building a strong district brand.

What is a brand?

In simple terms, a brand is a symbol that represents your organization. Brands can be logos, names, images, or even people. Anything that represents your district is part of the district brand. But in a broader sense, brand is your district’s reputation. The status of your brand is the way people currently think and feel about your schools. Brands have always been about distinguishing one thing from another. The first “brands” were shapes seared into a cow’s skin to denote ownership, or patterns pressed into pottery as the artist’s signature. Thousands of years later, companies distinguish themselves from their competition by branding their products with names, colors, and logos.

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As we'll see in the case studies that follow, marketing helped McCann and his team streamline their communication, disseminate their core message, and even quell community tensions after a teacher strike. Through marketing, Ridgefield took control of the ongoing conversation about its schools, and changed it for the better.

“Someone’s going to tell the district’s story whether we do or not,” says McCann. “So we’d better be telling this story."

For example, you don't get Tide laundry detergent in a plain cardboard box; it comes in a distinctive orange bottle. In the same way, your brand should distinguish your schools from others in the area. When the community hears your district’s name, you want them to feel something positive and unique, something distinct from the way every other school or district makes them feel. From speaking to school leaders, we know a great reputation means more than warm fuzzies—it can make or break a community’s support for the school. It determines your school’s potential for financial support, your ability to attract high-quality talent, and even a student’s confidence in their own education. But how do you build that reputation—your brand? The answer is marketing.

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DAILY DOUBLE 2

What is marketing?

It’s a common misconception that marketing is just another word for advertising: branded T-shirts, billboards, and pop-up ads. You might also confuse marketing with public relations: getting your district into (or out of) the local press. But really, advertising, branding, and PR are just pieces of an overall strategy. Marketing is the practice as a whole. In the context of schools, marketing is the practice of influencing how people think and feel about a brand. Right now, people already have an opinion about your school's brand… but maybe not the opinion you wish they had. Marketing aims to build your brand—to make your audience think about your schools the way you want them to. Your brand is the destination; marketing is the path that takes you there. You make this shift in perspective through associations. Let’s look at an example from the private sector. When you think of Coca-Cola, what comes to mind? If you’re like most Americans, it’s not just a bottle with a red label. It’s anything from having fun with friends to Santa Claus to polar bears frolicking in the snow. Of course, nothing in the taste of Coke calls polar bears to mind, but the company’s marketing team has trained you to associate their soda with other ideas—through what marketers call impressions. An impression happens anytime someone interacts with your brand. When someone walks into your school, the

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In the context of schools, this is the practice of influencing how people think and feel about a brand.

way they are welcomed is an impression. So is a call home from a teacher. Football games, theater performances, report cards, and newsletters are all places where the public interacts with your district’s brand. They’re all opportunities for marketing. Each impression you make should leave your community with a sense of what your schools are all about. This means that to market your district effectively, you need a core message. Ridgefield Case Study As Ridgefield’s superintendent, McCann has stepped up the district’s branding game. “The expectation of what we publish and put out there has gone up considerably,” McCann says. “Everything looks much more professional.” For example, the district’s community report, once four black-and-white pages, is now 12 pages in full color. But McCann realizes it’s about more than professionalism; it’s about brand recognition. Everything that leaves the office needs the distinct Ridgefield touch. This means getting precise about things like fonts, slogans—even the perfect shade of Ridgefield orange. (It’s Pantone 1495 C, if you were wondering.) “Anything that leaves our hands looks and feels a certain way now,” says McCann. “We’re just getting more intentional about protecting and building our brand.”

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I want to make marketing a priority for my schools. Where do I start? 3

Before you do anything else, you need to determine your district's core message: a short statement that indicates a problem and provides your solution. A great core message will highlight a need in the community, argue how your district uniquely meets that need, and define your school's identity. Start building your core message by making lists that answer these three questions: •

•

What do families in your district desperately want from a school? You know what parents in your particular community value. Maybe they appreciate a small-town feel, world-class football coaches, or innovative arts programs. But go beyond these concrete concerns to imagine more abstract wants and needs: safety, or diversity, or a sense that their child belongs. List everything a parent's ideal school would offer. What does your competition offer? What's pulling students away from your district? What do other districts claim to offer? Take note of every asset your competition has—whether or not your schools can match them. What makes you most proud of your schools? What are the things you love telling people about your district? Some districts talk about their STEM programs, personalization, or exceptional teachers. List every positive aspect of your district, from excellent resources to strong values.

Now, take a look at your lists. Which of your parents' wants do you provide that your competition doesn't? The intersection of what parents need and what your district uniquely offers is the sweet spot—your core message.

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Ridgefield Case Study You barely have to glance at any of Ridgefield’s materials to realize exactly what their core message is. Right at the top of their district’s homepage, you can see their purpose statement:

Ridgefield School District aspires to be the state’s premier district, leveraging strong community partnerships to provide each student with personalized learning experiences, opportunities, and skills that ensure success and unlimited possibilities. McCann and his team have crafted a clear core message. For parents who might be moving to Ridgefield (and there’s a lot of them—it’s the fastest growing city in Washington), the statement highlights Ridgefield’s unique community connections. For those who might be tempted by the nearby 4A high school, it plays up the benefit of a smaller school’s more personalized experience. They’ve figured out what the parents in their community want and offered unique solutions, all in just one sentence. Because this narrative is the backbone of their brand, it’s everywhere. “We watch the big brands, and they just constantly push their message,” McCann says. “It’s a lot of repetition." So Ridgefield is learning from the best: they’re repeating their message over and over again. They read their purpose statement before football games and board meetings, and even include it in the footer of district emails. A boiled-down version—simply “Pursuing Premier”—shows up in logos, on school walls and even on Twitter as a hashtag. As a result, practically anyone in the community, even people who aren’t directly involved with the district, can tell you exactly what Ridgefield’s about. “If you ask somebody in the district, just a resident, about Pursuing Premier, they’ll say, ‘That’s the Ridgefield School District,’” McCann says.

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Right now, I can’t do a full refresh on our messaging. Is there anything I can do in the short term? 4

Even if you don’t have the resources to launch a full-scale rebrand for your district, you should be telling positive stories that connect what students are experiencing to the value of your schools. By flooding your school communication channels with these stories, you can begin to change the public narrative surrounding your schools—and you can start right now.

ATTEND OUR SESSION:

Stealing Marketing Ideas from the Private Sector Dr. McCann will join us on stage to talk about how public schools can implement cutting-edge marketing strategies.

Next time something makes you proud of your schools—an innovative teacher making waves in her classroom, faculty volunteering at a community event, or a marching band performing at halftime—whip out your phone, and snap a picture. Write one line that ties what you’re seeing to your district's core message, and post the photo on your district’s social media. Just like that, you've become a storyteller for your district. Marketing doesn't have to be expensive and time-consuming; it can be simple, quick, and completely free. Just find the everyday moments that exemplify your school's identity, and share them with the community.

What you provide CO RE ME SS E AG

Community needs

What others provide

It’s only stealing an idea if you don’t improve on it… which you will. Feb 15th at AASA NCE in Los Angeles. 3:00-4:00 Room 512

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What’s a marketing campaign? 5

If your district’s overall marketing strategy is a TV series, a marketing campaign is an episode. It still fits inside the overall story—your core message—but it has its own structure and goals. More technically, a marketing campaign is a plan for how you will get a specific audience to complete a specific action in a specific time.

Each marketing campaign has four main components: audience, messaging, communication, and conversion.

Audience: Who do you want to influence?

Communication: How do you get your message to your audience?

Since your marketing campaign is helping your district toward a specific goal, you'll probably want to focus on a specific audience. For example, if you're trying to boost attendance at parent-teacher conferences, you'll target people who aren't usually coming.

Next, you have to decide which communication channels will best reach your target audience. For example, say you're trying tomarket your district's after-school programs to single parents. Since single parents typically have a harder time making it to school events, you might not want to use a parent-teacher conference to convey this information—you might choose an email or phone call instead.

As you'll see, this affects the way you frame your messaging. In the private sector, a shoe company trying to boost their sales among businessmen, won't market their loafers as having “the best style and comfort." They'll choose a slogan more relevant to their target audience: "Make an impression in your next meeting.” In defining your target audience, you'll learn their unique needs—which is key in crafting your messaging.

Messaging: Why should they listen to you? You'll build the message of your marketing campaign pretty much the same way you crafted your core message. What are the specific needs of your target audience, and how does your district meet them? Your audience might want something concrete (like new sports facilities), or something more abstract— like peace of mind following a teacher strike. In either case, outline how you'll provide for those needs.

Marketing campaigns help build your brand, but more than that, they can help you accomplish defined district goals. They can encourage people to come to events, urge voters to pass a bond campaign, or even convince new families to enroll in your schools.

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Conversion: What specific action do you want your audience to take next? Campaigns focus on a single goal. In your district, you might want your audience to fill out a form online, show up for an important conference, or vote yes on a bond measure. Good marketers figure out ways to make it easy for their audience to “convert,” or meet the campaign's goal. For example, if you want your parents to fill out a form online, you might include a button linking to the form at the end of your weekly newsletter. Whatever your end goal, building the campaign around a single target action helps focus your efforts.

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Ridgefield Case Study As Ridgefield entered the 2017-2018 school year, the district was growing—and trouble was brewing. With around 3,000 students enrolled, and 400 more expected the following year, every school in the district was over capacity. “The growth in Ridgefield created a lot of tensions,” McCann explains. Teachers grew concerned about not just their salaries, but problems like growing class sizes and large caseloads for the special education program. Those tensions finally came to a head in August 2017, when Ridgefield's teachers went on strike.

Can I just hire someone to do this for me? 6

We get it—as a school leader, you have limited time and resources. By this point, you might be thinking this marketing thing is going to take more effort than you have time for. Can’t you just hire a marketing professional to do all this for you? Well… not really.

Teachers and administrators found common ground in just three days, and went back to school almost immediately. But McCann knew the strike would cause concerns among parents and the surrounding community.

On the one hand, you do have to know your limits. If you don’t have skills in photography, video production, or writing, you might need to hire people (or recruit students) who do to make sure you’re pushing out high-quality content. You might even hire a consultant to help you shape the way you think about marketing.

The strike’s timing was also less than ideal. After just passing a bond in 2017, Ridgefield was already in the beginning stages of yet another bond campaign. “We knew it was going to be a heavy lift,” McCann says. “We’re asking voters for an awful lot in short periods of time.”

But on the other hand, you can—and should—take ownership of your district’s marketing strategy. As a school leader, you know your community’s needs, your district’s unique benefits, and your schools’ goals better than any external entity could. You’re uniquely positioned to lead your district’s marketing efforts.

What McCann and his communications team needed was a marketing campaign that would put worries to rest and persuade voters to push the bond measure through. They targeted people in the community—including parents—who were concerned that Ridgefield’s growth was changing it for the worse. The message? “We wanted to remind people that while the growth has created a tremendous amount of tension throughout the community, a lot of great things are happening, and some of them are directly related to the new, great people moving into our community,” McCann says. Ridgefield isn’t just growing, he explains. It’s “Growing Together”—and Ridgefield School District is the epicenter of that community closeness. For their communication method, Ridgefield chose video. “We think people consume video more readily than print,” McCann explains. The campaign’s overall goal? To soothe the Ridgefield community’s concerns—and convince them to vote yes on the bond measure. WINTER 2019

My teachers are the face of my district—how do I involve them in marketing? 7

You probably already realize the power teachers have to influence public opinion about your school. So how do you turn your teachers into brand ambassadors—informed, passionate champions for your district? First, make sure you’re sharing your core message with your staff. Just like your audience, your teachers can’t buy into what they don’t know. Conduct brand trainings to teach your staff how to talk (or Tweet) about your district. As your “boots on the ground,” they need to be using the correct school colors, logos, and language in their materials just as much as the district office. Remember: every time your parents and students interact with your district’s brand, including their teachers, they should be taking away the same consistent messages. SchoolCEO

But more than that, marketing can be a tool to show teachers they’re valued, both inside and outside your organization. According to a survey from Career Builder, 65% of people who are dissatisfied in their jobs cite feeling unvalued as their reason for dissatisfaction. What’s more, only four out of every ten teachers feel like their opinions count at work. Your employees won't engage other people with your district unless they feel engaged themselves. Highlighting teachers in your marketing materials, whether on video or in print, reinforces their great work, building their credibility—not to mention the district’s. Teachers become a part of the brand, giving them ownership over a section of your marketing. What’s more, telling teachers’ stories on their best days provide your community a window into the amazing job your staff is doing.

McCann says the extra focus—both internal and external—has “created an additional appreciation and respect for teachers.” More than that, it has “unleashed them to go out and take some calculated risks” in their classrooms and beyond. Across social media, you can see the effects. Just look up the #PursuingPremier hashtag and you’ll see passionate teachers promoting the Ridgefield brand.

“If people don’t see our teachers at work, they don’t recognize how complex that work is. People understand that a doctor’s work is complicated, but with teachers, they assume it’s simple.”

Not every teacher will become an impassioned brand ambassador, but with the right combination of information and engagement, they’re much more likely to promote your brand in their personal lives. Ridgefield Case Study

In resolving a three-day teacher strike, McCann came face-to-face with the issue of teacher engagement. “If people don’t see our teachers at work, they don’t recognize how complex that work is,” he says. “People understand that a doctor’s work is complicated, but with teachers, they assume it’s simple.” Upping the visibility of teachers became a focus of Ridgefield’s marketing efforts. The district began offering patron tours, which allowed members of the community to visit campuses and see a school day firsthand. Teachers are also a major focal point of the "Growing Together" video campaign. “We were very intentional early on to get voices of teachers, post-strike,” McCann says. One video is a feature on Alan Adams, an art teacher who is also president of the teachers’ union.

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How can I get people to quit being mean on our Facebook page? 8

The truth is, you can’t. Even if you’re doing everything right, there will always be naysayers, and they’ll always have a voice on social media. So you have a few options. You could decide to leave social media completely. If you force your parents and community to get your district’s information through your app and website, you completely control their experience with your brand. With this approach, you make your audience play by your rules. But people look for information about your brand on social media, and if you leave, you'll be creating a gap. Of course, social media also has major perks, and in general, we think multi-channel communication is the best approach. If you do choose to stay on social media, you have to decide how you’ll deal with the negative comments you’ll inevitably receive.

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You may decide not to respond at all. That’s a perfectly valid approach (and sometimes the best one). But if you do feel compelled to respond, here’s what we recommend: take it offline. Invite the dissatisfied commenter to your office, or offer to pay them a visit. Give them the opportunity to have a one-on-one, private conversation about their problem. Maybe they’ll take you up on your offer, maybe they won’t—but you’re showing them (and anyone else who might be watching) that you care about your community’s concerns. You know your district better than we do, so you know what the best approach for you will be. Just use your best judgment. No matter what you choose, be sure to push out your district's positive stories, whether on social media or on your app and website. Drown out negativity with positivity.

How do I avoid sounding like I’m bragging? 9

Lots of educators feel uncomfortable with marketing ; they feel like they’re boasting. Many don’t feel comfortable promoting their facilities or programs because they don’t want to seem arrogant or condescending to other districts. But if you’re like most school leaders, you probably got into education in the first place because you care about the kids. Channel that priority into your marketing. The reality is that the best private sector marketers aren’t talking about their products. Instead, they’re talking about their customers. They do this through storytelling. Take Nike, for example. They don’t focus their marketing on their new technology or designs—they tell the stories of great athletes doing great things, all while wearing the Nike logo. Coca-Cola rarely talks about their new flavors or pricing. Instead, they show friends and families building relationships, all while enjoying a Coke. To avoid sounding braggadocious, introduce your audience to the students succeeding in your district. Let’s say you want to highlight the way your STEM program gives students access to coding classes, laboratories, and WINTER 2019

industry experts. Instead of saying, “Our chemistry labs and teaching staff can’t be matched,” focus on students. Talk about the program’s impact. Tell a story. When you frame your posts this way, you make the message about the student — in the context of your programs. Parents hear about the innovation in your district, and the community gets to know your students and faculty.

Are you sure I can do this? 10

Absolutely! Marketing professionals don’t have any secret magic; they’ve just been in the business longer. They’ve learned over time how people consume information and how to impact their thinking. To keep getting better at marketing, be sure to use your resources. McCann, for example, reads books on social media and branding to expand his knowledge on the subject. Plus, we know this great magazine called SchoolCEO (if you want, you can subscribe at SchoolCEO.com). And don’t forget that other schools count as resources. Keep tabs on what other schools across the country are doing with marketing, and don’t be afraid to steal any good ideas you come across. “I’m always looking up what another district will do,” says McCann. “If we see a good idea somebody else is using, we will take that idea, make it Ridgefield, and we will use it.” The whole point of marketing is to stand out from the crowd, so you don't want to take ideas from your direct competition. But if you see a great Twitter chat theme from West Virginia, and you’re in Colorado? Use it. Here’s the bottom line: marketing is a practice, a professional skill you can improve with experience. Keep practicing, keep distilling your message, and above all, keep telling your stories.

You’ll be a pro in no time.

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The Cyber School Marketing Playbook Professional marketers are spending millions in the education space. Find out their strategyâ€” from start to finish.

The private sector holds ideas and strategies that have been battle-tested for decades. With experience building brands and engaging audiences, professional marketers have developed ways to improve any marketing initiative. Private sector strategies are geared towards selling goods and services that will make a profit. However, an education is not a consumer product; itâ€™s an experience, a public good. The marketing of cyber schools, especially that of K12 Inc. and Connections Academy, offers unique insights into marketing an educational experience. They have seasoned digital marketing teams spending millions of dollars to attract students, and they are directly competing with public school leaders. To show you how they do it, weâ€™ve conducted a variety of studies to understand their playbook, with insights into their best ideas. Whether or not you're competing for students, there's something to be learned from the strategies employed by cyber management companies.

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Audience: targeting focused groups The first step to marketing is choosing the specific audiences that will best help you meet your marketing goals. K12 Inc. and Connections Academy are casting a wide net, then using targeted sales and marketing to reel in the families who are most likely to enroll. By analyzing data from both companies’ marketing spends, as well as the structure and placement of their advertisements, we can see how they are tailoring their messaging to particular groups. OUR RESEARCH METHODS K12 and Connections target families who are researching school options on Google. Google allows advertisers to serve their ads on specific terms that they expect their audiences will search. You have probably seen these ads in the top few results with the word "ad" marked next to them. The terms, chosen by advertisers, are called keywords. For example, a company advertising apples might want their advertisement to show up when someone searches “Gala” or “Granny Smiths.” Search engines want to show people the content they are looking for. If Google thinks your ad is relevant to the search, then your ad will show up higher on the page. The more traffic you get on your ad — or the more times people click on it — the more relevant they will deem an advertisement.

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We analyzed three data categories using a tool called SpyFu, a program that searches millions of terms a day to discover which ads appear. Keywords: Analyzing the keywords the companies choose gave us insights into which audiences they target. For example, if they chose the keyword “homeschool,” it suggests that they are targeting homeschool families. Ad Ranking/Relevancy: Analyzing how high their ads are ranked on each of these terms—or how relevant Google is deeming the advertisement—shows us how effectively these EMOs are targeting their audience. Traffic: Analyzing which keywords are garnering the most ad traffic shows us who is interested in Connections and K12's ads. schoolceo.com

Homeschool students At its start, K12 primarily targeted homeschool families. Their offer—an accredited teacher, free curriculum, and extra support—speaks directly to these families’ needs. In some rural areas, cyber companies even give their customers free internet and laptops, which can be life-changing assets for low-income families. K12’s ads garner the most traffic on the search term “best homeschooling programs,” meaning that the company likely pays a high price to target their ads to families searching that term. Judging by the sheer amount of traffic these ads are getting—over 25,000 clicks since 2015—that investment is paying off. Connections is also targeting terms related to homeschooling, and getting even more attention: around 112,000 clicks. And even without any data analysis, it's clear that both K12 and Connections care about this specific audience. Both companies dedicate a section on their website to providing information to homeschool families. A peek at Connections’ homeschool page shows they understand the struggles homeschool parents face, and are positioning themselves as the solution to those struggles. “Deciding to homeschool your child is a big commitment,” it says. “What if you could have the benefits and personal involvement of homeschooling without bearing all of the responsibility yourself?”

Students with illness or disability Online schools fill a hole in the market for students who can’t attend traditional schools due to disability or chronic illness. They also serve as a safe haven for students who have been bullied or struggle with anxiety. This audience group is especially highlighted in companies' online presence. Connections has a “student spotlight” section of the website, which tells the success stories of several students with disabilities, like Evan, a middle school student who uses a wheelchair and ventilator. K12 reposts blogs and news stories of students writing about their experiences in online school after being bullied in a brick-and-mortar school. One student wrote that online school "was truly the best thing that ever happened to me." When these stories come from students themselves, their impact becomes more powerful.

Connections speaks directly to the needs of homeschooling parents by offering "extra help."

Highly mobile families Transferring schools can be hard on students, and cyber schools have clued into this concern. Both K12 and Connections target parents who are serving in the military, working as truck drivers, or who are similarly prone to moving around. Military families are of a particular focus; one section of K12’s website centers specifically on these families. Elsewhere, the site’s “day-in-the-life” section tells the story of Mari, a K12 student whose father is in the military. All over their site and advertising, they’re hammering their targeted message home: “With K12, learning can take place wherever you are.” As they describe their curriculum, they bold the word “consistent.”

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Students behind on graduation requirements To students struggling to graduate in brick-and-mortar schools, online schooling can be seen as a more attainable option. This category ranges from students who were incarcerated to students who failed one or two classes. Connections and K12 ads are favored by Google, meaning that they are relevant, for words associated with graduation. When families search “how many credits to graduate” or “high school diploma online free,” Connections' ads are favored on Google in almost 3,000 combined searches. Similarly, K12 ranks for keywords like “online high school courses” (6,000 searches), “credit recovery high school" (2,800 searches), and “high school credit recovery” (2,500 searches). Cyber schools also target this audience group on their websites. Connections has a resource section built for teens, complete with "Helpful Tips and Info for Talking to Your Family" about the benefits of online school. They've made content that targets students, rather than parents, ensuring that their target demographic gets in the door.

Gifted students Online programs’ flexibility allows gifted students to schedule their day around extracurricular training—or to work ahead if needed. Both companies share news stories and blog posts of students utilizing the flexibility of online schools to train for the Olympics or start their own business. These stories are often picked up by local news stations. Connections features Taylor, a competitive horseback rider, and Lydia and Logan, twin sisters whose rigorous dance schedule requires them to work at home. Needless to say, gifted students' stories are popular in cyber schools' promotional material. This flexibility is also angled towards accelerated students. Connections regularly posts news stories about students who graduate years early from their

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program. Matthew Hartzell, an alumnus of a virtual school powered by K12, wrote about his experience jumping ahead several grade levels using the EMO's program. Hartzell's story is featured front and center on the "Student Success" section of K12's website. Similarly, both companies use ads to market their academic flexibility for gifted students. One television ad says, “Does your child need a more challenging education?” Another ad features a K12 student talking about her experience with online school, “When I want to finish five lessons in one day, I can do it,” she says. Their messaging not only attracts exceptional students, it also gives the program more credibility as an educational institution.

Takeaways Cyber schools spend extra time on the front end identifying who needs their product. They then create messaging that specifically targets those particular audiences. • Identify which audiences are most likely to respond well to your campaign. • Figure out their needs and interests. • Explain how your district uniquely meets your audience’s needs.

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Messaging: emphasizing strengths, anticipating objections Your messaging should explain how your product addresses your audience’s deepest needs. Cyber schools build messaging that emphasizes their strengths and combats their weaknesses. The three most common messages in their marketing are:

Tuition - Free Accredited Personalized "Tuiton-free" and "personalized" both highlight qualities in their program that are most attractive to their audience: families looking for free academic support and accommodations for their students' unique needs. Both companies also use their messaging to combat their bad academic reputation, focusing on the fact that the teachers and curriculum are fully accredited.

OUR RESEARCH METHODS We wanted to know what these companies are saying. To do so, we ran a text analysis (n-gram analysis) on all of their Google advertisements, on unique ads running on their Facebook pages near the 2018-2019 fall enrollment deadline, and on 16 of their TV spots. This analysis shows us which words and phrases were used most frequently in these advertisements, as well as how often each word or phrase was used. These numbers give us an idea of which messages K12 and Connections prioritize and highlight most pervasively. Getting the text: We used SpyFu’s analysis on K12’s and Connections Academy’s Google advertisements to procure the text from each of their Google ads—nearly 10,000 of them from 2015 to 2018. Facebook makes ads available to anyone if they click “info and ads” on their Facebook page. Finally, we transcribed eight television commercials each from K12 and Connections Academy. WINTER 2019

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Repetition All across their communication channels, K12 and Connections share the same messages: tuition-free, accredited, and personalized. Their messaging stays consistent on their website, commercials, and social media advertisements.

Connections' pictures show collaboration, highlighting relationships.

Though their messaging has a consistent throughline, the content in their ads is varied. They tell student stories, show experiences like volleyball and robotics, and highlight teachers, using similar wording to describe each experience. The following ads ran in spring of 2018. Ads like these are served to targeted audiences in hundreds of specific locations around the country.

TUITION-FREE

"Free" is used in 62% of Connections' ad titles.

K12 markets the safety of "home."

"Tuition-free" is the first word on the headline.

K12 makes ads specific to each state, running hundreds each day.

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ACCREDITED

Jennifer says, “The quality of education that we have at K12—it’s rigorous. It’s engaging. The kids like what they’re doing, and they want to learn more.”

This TV spot was actively airing in January of 2019.

K12 provides their phone number and URL to encourage enrollment. PERSONALIZED

The phrase "anywhere and everywhere" markets the flexibility of location. Student stories make ads more personal.

One-on-one connection indicates personalization.

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Focusing on Paola's "passions" shows ways that different students use the program.

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Tuition-free

Personalized

Alternatives to public education, like tutors or private academies, are out of budget for many American families. To respond to this challenge, both schools consistently reinforce that they are "tuition-free."

The message of personalization powers K12 and Connections' most impactful, story-driven content. In every school, parents want programs that meet their students' individual needs. Through their marketing, these companies claim to offer just such programs.

The phrase “tuition-free" appears on the banner of Connections Academy’s homepage—and smack-dab in the middle of K12’s. According to our analysis, the word “free” appears in 62% of Connection Academy’s ads. “Tuition-free” is the fifth most common word in K12's ad copy, showing up in about 19% of their ads. Why such an emphasis on this point? When you consider the needs of homeschool families—a curriculum supplement or extra support—this strategy makes sense. A free online option gives some low-income families more control over their child’s education without the cost of private school. It's telling that the next three most common words in K12's ads are "homeschooling," "home," and "homeschool."

Accredited Both K12 and Connections utilize targeted messaging that counteracts parents' worries about their programs' effectiveness. Words that build trust, like "official" (used in 1,020 ads), "quality" (477 ads), and "accredited" (476 ads) all appear in the top 20 most frequently used words in K12's ad titles. In the "How Learning Works" section of K12's site, they describe their program as a "high-quality, personalized education experience." Though the average student-teacher ratio for cyber schools is 44-to-1 (see page 20), both K12 and Connections heavily feature teachers in their marketing. In our analysis of both companies' TV spots, we found that the word "teachers" appeared in 88% of the ads. Additionally, "curriculum" showed up in every single K12 commercial and in half of the Connections spots we analyzed. Unsurprisingly, any message about teachers ties into a conversation about qualifications. On the "Meet Our Online Teachers" page of K12's website, they tout their instructors as "fully qualified to teach online." Even if they're not actually providing quality educational experiences, K12 and Connections aren't dummies. They know what their target audiences might have heard about their programs, and they're deploying marketing to counteract those negative perceptions.

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In 50% of their Facebook ads, K12 used the word "personalized"; and in 25%, the word "passions." Connections also emphasized personalization in 30% of their ads. Both companies market students' ability to work from home, learn at their own pace, and explore their interests—all factors attractive to a number of their target groups, from gifted students to those with disabilities. "Whether your student is curious, inventive, passionate, analytical, or anything in between," says one ad, "the K12 program makes the most of each child's unique brilliance." Both programs fail to specify exactly how they personalize their curriculum or learning experiences—probably because these programs aren't actually very personalized (see page 20). They divert minds away from that question by highlighting success stories: students starting their own businesses, joining the Olympics, or competing in chess tournaments.

Takeaways Great messaging is simple, clear, and built for a specific audience. Each message either highlights a strength or counteracts a negative perception. •

Identify how your program meets your audience's needs.

•

Create simple messaging.

•

Repeat your message everywhere you can.

•

Use student stories to support and reinforce your messaging.

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A smiling student looking right at the camera grabs your attention.

Each student story shows off a different aspect of K12's program.

By constantly pairing the phrases "personalized" and "online learning," they reinforce the connection.

Photos are brightly lit, showing students in action.

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Communication: staying consistent across channels Website K12 understands that their public-facing website is a marketing tool. The site is built for prospective students, not current ones. The company doesn't waste any space in their design, spelling out their main arguments in the organization of the website. To grab prospective families, they strategically place their vision on their website’s main banner. “We all have one common belief that every child is uniquely brilliant and deserves a high-quality, personalized education," they claim. Parents already see the unique brilliance in their own children, a fact K12 capitalizes on. They create a vision that's easy to buy into. The company organizes the rest of the website around their messages. The first two sections of the site tackle the issue of quality, showcasing awards, student success stories, and a sample of their curriculum. If an argument has been made against K12, a page on their website exists to contradict that argument. Take the issues of personalization and teacher engagement, or lack thereof. K12’s video profiles of teachers refocus the conversation. Set to upbeat music, they show a teacher’s organized office, explaining how she makes a special effort to reach out to students and parents. Stories are hard to argue against, and so K12 has made a point to share as many stories of students and teachers as possible. They even hold video contests where students can upload themselves singing or sharing a poem. In one video, Katerina sings “Katusha,” a traditional Russian folk song, wearing a princess costume in her room. Tymberlyn, a Junior All-Around Clogger, freestyle clogs in front of her fireplace. By showcasing these videos, K12 is letting students do the marketing work for them. They lend credibility to the idea that the company values individuality and personalization—while skirting around the actual question of how they personalize their programs. K12 also focuses on sharing the best version of their product. Another corner of the site allows you to navigate through a “day in the life” of several of their students. Prospective families put themselves into students’ shoes. On a timeline in this section, you can choose a time, then see

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what the student typically does at that hour. Again, enrollment is the main push. After you watch Zachary speed skate with his friends after history class, or Elayna post about her online puppy club, you're encouraged to “find a school,” “enroll now,” or “speak to an agent.”

Social Media Advertisements Almost every K12 and Connections ad includes photos of students; K12 often shares student stories from the timeline feature of their website. Each advertisement is framed around their best features. Both companies use photos to highlight the flexibility of location afforded by online schooling. In many K12 ads, students sit on their bed, on a stool in the kitchen, or in front of an interactive science project. They’re often pictured in a relatively domestic situation with a loved one—in the ads we analyzed, often a father-figure or a friend. K12 markets the comfort of home and family. “Anywhere” is one of the top 20 most frequently used words in K12 Facebook ads, used with the tagline, “Because learning happens anywhere and everywhere.” Similarly, Connections ads try to detach online learning from the idea of a child sitting at a computer all day. They showed students outdoors, working on robotics, or visiting a science museum. If Connections students were pictured with a laptop, there was usually a hologram of the material they worked on next to them. Similar to the website, every pixel of both companies’ Facebook ads are built to feed families through the enrollment pipeline. Most of the ads we analyzed had a “learn more” button that directs to the website, or text that encourages students to enroll for the fall. While Connections ran mostly unique ads, K12 had dozens and dozens of repeated ads, most likely targeting different subsections of Facebook users or optimizing each ad’s format.

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Television and Video Video gives marketers the opportunity to guide a viewer through an experience, showing the audience how to feel about the company while reinforcing messaging. K12 and Connections maximize their ads' potential by sending them during critical enrollment seasons. “For the past six weeks I would say that—especially during the evening news—probably every third commercial break includes commercials from K12,” said Dr. Michael Barbour, Associate Professor of Instructional Design at Touro University California. “They do a good job on both TV and radio targeting particular audiences during particular times of the year.” Again, both companies make sure to highlight their key messages. They mention “tuition-free, online public school” and emphasize their teachers, curriculum, and the flexibility of the program. Analyzing the text on K12 and Connections ads, we found that many commercials repeated the same phrases word-for-word. Connections often repeated: "Connections Academy is the tuition-free, online public school serving grades K-12 with caring, certified teachers; a comprehensive, high-quality curriculum; and a program that works for families like yours."

Video ads allow both companies to build their ideas in dynamic, compelling ways. A series of Connections commercials centers on the catchphrase, “Success today, success for life," featuring students—Jordan, Tyler, Ryan, and Morgan—standing next to adults that represent their future selves. They explain the moment they chose their career path—to become a chef or an architect—and the tools from Connections that helped them achieve success. Similar to their Facebook ads, K12’s TV spots focus on students’ individuality. In a commercial titled “Uniquely Brilliant,” K12 students garden, hold up a trophy after winning an entrepreneurship competition, and test out a handmade robotic car. As uplifting music plays, the shots progress to show students’ graduation gowns, projecting the future the program promises. True to form, each of their commercials finished with a call to action. Some of the 20 most-used words and phrases in their commercials were “connectionsacademy.com,” which appeared in 75% of the Connections ads we examined; “visitk12.com,” which appeared in 63% of the K12 ads we examined; and “call” in 75% of K12 ads we examined.

Connections uses videos to paint a vision of the future.

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Public Relations Leveraging local media can be an important tool for engaging the community. K12 and Connections Academy interact heavily with local media by sharing social media posts, providing relevant information to the local news, and publishing press releases. Put simply, they are present. K12 makes sure to include blog posts and notes from their CEO in posts on their website; quotes are often picked out of these posts to be shared in news articles. While this may seem grandiose for a small school district, the reality is that you can be present in many different ways. Even attending city forums and posting on social media puts

your name into the public eye, which is part of the idea behind public relations. From the frequency with which stories of cyber students are shared in the news, we suspect that management companies are supplying stories with local news organizations preemptively. In our experience, many school leaders are quick to speak on the importance of "building a relationship with local media. When a story is shared, you want media to turn to your district for details. At the end of every blog post or press release, they include a short description of their programming, often including their contact information.

K12 makes videos of student victories, which can be used by news stations.

They showcase student success to cultivate credibility.

Connections Academy shares press of major victories, no matter how common.

By providing details right off the bat, Connections gives news sources material to work with.

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Local news programs are often desperate for content to fill their programs. Reaching out can get you on the air.

A teacher and student from a Connections Academy school assisted a local news anchor, getting their brand on television.

Takeaways Both companies share their messaging across a variety of platforms, building a consistent identity by repeating their messages. They keep their messaging fresh by telling student stories that support each value. • Cyber schools highlight their strengths and anticipate weaknesses across each communication channel.

One of K12's school leaders wrote an opinion piece for the local news, getting the company in the press.

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• They repeat their messaging again and again, keeping their content fresh by focusing on student stories. • Cyber schools constantly provide a call-to-action, encouraging their audiences to enroll.

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Conversions: simplifying action steps If you want to get married, you don't start by asking a stranger to go to Vegas—but you might start by asking them on a date. In the world of marketing, a conversion funnel is a series of simple action steps leading up to a final ask. If your audience agrees to enough "dates," they might eventually accept the sale you propose. Marketers expect that lots of people will see their ads, a smaller set will go to their website, a fraction of those users will request more information, and only a few will “convert”—or, in the case of cyber schools, enroll. K12 and Connections offer a number of opportunities throughout their platforms for people to enroll. To get a feel of what the enrollment experience is like for families, our research team reached out to both organizations, filling out “contact us” forms on each website. Within 20

There are more than ten opportunities for users to engage with the company on the website's front page.

minutes, we got a call back, and those calls continued over the next few days. Connections mailed us a 49-page booklet within a week. On the front page of K12’s website, you’ll find at least ten opportunities to find more information about enrollment. In most cases, users are asked to fill out forms that supply K12 with their contact information. K12 can use this data to send targeted advertisements to an interested base of customers, or to reach out to them in the future. In order to usher visitors through the conversion funnel, marketers build easy-to-navigate processes. Asking customers to fill out a long form could turn people away, so K12 spreads questions across multiple pages, improving the customer’s overall experience.

K12 provides options for their users to engage: they can call, message, fill out a form, or enter their zip code.

Marketers use the term "above the fold" to talk about the part of a webpage that can be seen before scrolling down. 60

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Takeaways In every correspondence we received from these companies, they always asked us to either fill out a form or call them. Whether through an email, social media ad, or print mailer, the call-to-action was the same. These messages came in like a flood. Knowing that most people will forget about their services soon after leaving their websites, K12 and Connections use every available opportunity to get their message in front of interested, potential customers.

Both K12 and Connections make it simple for families to complete their target action—enrolling in one of their schools. No matter what schools hope to accomplish in their marketing campaigns, they should make it easy for their audience to complete the final action, whether it's attending an event or enrolling in school.

We also noticed a significant amount of advertising on our personal Facebook and Instagram accounts after reaching out to K12 and Connections. This means that they are using software to target people who visited their sites, just like Amazon shows you ads about products you recently viewed.

• Repeatedly provide opportunities for your audience to enroll, subscribe, or otherwise engage.

The big takeaway here is that cyber schools’ sophisticated digital marketing teams carefully construct an experience that will get a maximum number of families to set up a phone call. From there, they can continue sending them materials, answering their objections, and nudging them to enroll.

• Optimize websites, social media pages, and district communication for engagement.

• Give them all of the information they need to do so.

Like K12, they ask people to enroll multiple times on the page.

For those who aren't sure they want to enroll, there are still opportunities to move down the conversion funnel.

Right in the center of the screen, they place one of their keywords: "free."

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