Classdojo: Helping Schools Break Through Language Barriers

One of the greatest challenges teachers face across the United States, and even all around the world, is breaking through the language barrier that keeps a number of families separated from school life. Instead of letting this stand, Classdojo took action to address this issue making it possible for schools such as Amanda E. Stout Elementary to communicate with families in a district where majority of the students have one or both parents that are non-native English speakers.

For anyone that works as a teacher, it is no surprise how big of an issue language barrier can be for teachers, families, and students. Kyle Crater, the principal of Amanda E. Stout Elementary in Pennsylvania, along with the teachers in the school face the issue of language everyday due to majority of the families of the students they teach speak little to no English. Looking beyond one school, statistically there are 15% of adults in the U.S. alone that don’t speak English in the home. This directly affects children of school age. After conducting a survey focused on top concerns of teachers in regards to non-native English speaking parents we learned that:

• 71% teachers claim that parents are not able to assist their children with homework
• 50% believe parents have trouble understanding learning difficulties their child has
• 40% worry whether parents will show up for parent teacher conference
• 45% believe that language barriers prevented parents from being able to volunteer for school trips.

Language barriers is the biggest challenge for schools in Pennsylvania’s Reading School District. However, despite it being a problem only 55% of schools in Pennsylvania’s Reading School District use translating services to communicate with families. Of that 55% roughly 36% rely on other teachers to translate while 16% use professional translation services. Principal Kyle believed there had to be a better way, and there is! Three years ago, Classdojo developed translate, and the idea for it came directly from you. Every week over a quarter of a million messages have been translated through this app making a difference for countless school communities.

Since the teacher’s at principal Kyle’s school started using Classdojo they noticed the difference it made immediately. Almost 3 in 4 teachers have taught children whose primary language was not English. More than half of these same teachers have express concerns of the parents to be able to engage in school life without sufficient language skills to do so. When Kyle first talked to us about this believing that as a school more should be done. For the past two Classdojo translate has been used, and since using this feature the gap keeping families disconnected and at a distance has been bridged. It has become easier for parents to be part of the school community. For this reason it was decided for Classdojo to be used district wide allowing for thousands of families to be able to communicate directly with their children’s teachers. Teachers can now effectively give updates on how a child is doing to families and provide strategy tips that families can understand and use at home.