I get it.
As a parent, I understand exactly why teacher communication matters so much.
I’ve read the feedback in our Possip reports. I’ve lived the anxiety. I’ve seen how devastating it is to learn your child is failing a class at the end of a grading period- or worse, to discover they’re off track to graduate when there’s very little time left to fix it.
Those stories are real. And they’re painful.
Parents aren’t expecting perfection. They just want to know what’s happening. They want a chance to help their child before the stakes are irreversible.
And yet- the stories and needs from teachers are just as real.
The Math of a Teacher’s Day
If we want to solve this, we have to consider the reality of a teacher’s schedule as it stands.
Many teachers arrive between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m., racing to run copies before the machine jams or a line forms. By 7:50 a.m., students pour in. From that moment on, it is non-stop for anywhere between 25 and 200 kids:
- Teaching & differentiating instruction
- Managing behavior & social dynamics
- Covering duties (cafeteria, dismissal, hallways)
- Using a single planning period to grade, plan, and meet with teams
The school day runs until 3:00 or 3:30. Then come the games, the events, and the faculty meetings.
And after all of that? There are still papers to grade. There are still emails to send. And there are messages from families waiting in the inbox.
It is no surprise that parent communication is often the first thing to fall off the list. Not because teachers don’t care- but because the math of the day simply doesn’t work.
What the Possip Data Shows
When we look at feedback trends across our partner schools, this tension isn’t just anecdotal. It is structural.
Do you see the conundrum? Families are asking for more communication. Teachers are asking for less overload.
These aren’t competing priorities. They are two sides of the same system challenges.
The Design Problem
The problem isn’t motivation – or professionalism – or even parents being too demanding. And it certainly isn’t a “teachers vs. parents” problem.
It is a design problem.
Communication fails because we expect it to happen in the margins of an already maxed-out day. We treat it as an “add-on” rather than a core function of the role.
So, what is the solution?
One of our partner districts decided to stop guessing and start asking. They asked teachers: “What can we realistically take off your plate?”
The answers were simple but powerful. They found small changes that saved real hours. But more importantly, they started asking the bigger, creative questions:
- Does every teacher need every period filled in their schedule?
- Could we redesign schedules so teachers teach fewer periods, perhaps with slightly larger classes, to buy back planning time?
- Where is the time for family communication explicitly protected in the master schedule?
At my own children’s school, they made a distinct choice: more adults teach, but each teacher teaches fewer periods. The result? More time to still work hard – but on other things that support students’ and parents’ school experience.
The Leadership Opportunity
When families ask for visibility and teachers ask for relief, they are actually asking for the same thing: Intentionality.
The schools that get this right rely on more than heroics. They don’t add more to teachers’ plates or make parents feel like their asks are unreasonable.
They design schedules that make success possible.
That’s not just good for families or teachers. That is good leadership.
We’d love to hear from leaders: Have you found a creative way to protect time for teacher-family communication in your schedule? Let me know in the comments.
