Kara Stern, Ph.D., is the Director of Education and Engagement at SchoolStatus, a provider of K-12 data-driven communication, attendance and professional development solutions.
1. Tell us about your company and the problem it solves, or its benefit to learners or educators.
At SchoolStatus, we’re tackling one of education’s most pressing challenges: the disconnection between schools and families. We recognize that meaningful family engagement isn’t just about sending automated messages or hoping parents check a portal – it’s about building real relationships that support student success, and doing so in a way that reaches every family. Our platform breaks down communication barriers by enabling educators to connect with families in their preferred language and through multiple channels, ensuring accessibility for all communities. By combining this inclusive communication approach with actionable data about attendance, engagement, and student progress all in one place, we’re helping schools move beyond basic parent communication to create true partnerships with families, regardless of language, technology access, or ability status.
2. What is the challenge educators face today that is fixable?
Right now, we’re seeing unprecedented rates of chronic absenteeism across the country, with some districts reporting that 30% or more of their students are chronically absent. The good news? This is a solvable problem. The key lies in early intervention and building strong school-home partnerships. When schools can identify attendance patterns early and immediately reach out to families in ways that are accessible and culturally responsive, we see real change happen. Too often, schools wait until absences have already stacked up to intervene, or they rely on one-size-fits-all approaches that don’t address families’ real barriers to attendance. By combining real-time, actionable attendance data with tools that make it easy for educators to have meaningful two-way conversations with families, we can catch attendance issues before they become chronic and work collaboratively with families to remove barriers to attendance.
3. What is the challenge educators face today that will persist?
The fundamental challenge of creating genuine engagement, belonging, and connection in our schools isn’t going away—in fact, it’s becoming more crucial as today’s students navigate an increasingly complex world. Students are telling us through their attendance patterns and engagement levels that traditional school models aren’t meeting their needs. They’re looking for an education that connects directly to their future aspirations and the rapidly evolving world they’ll enter after high school. While we can improve our systems and communication tools, the deeper work is in reimagining schools to be more relevant and responsive to today’s realities. This means moving beyond industrial-era schedules and standardized curricula to create learning experiences that reflect the skills, knowledge, and competencies students will actually need in their futures.
The core work of building relationships and creating learning environments where every student feels valued and connected will always require ongoing attention and innovation. This is especially true as our student populations become more diverse and their needs more varied. Schools must continuously evolve to ensure they’re not just teaching students, but truly seeing and supporting them as whole individuals with unique paths ahead of them. Yesterday’s approach to education simply won’t prepare students for tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities.
4. What are the areas of education or training and workforce development that are being overlooked?
There are three critical areas where education needs to evolve. First, the student voice itself. While there is an unprecedented amount of data about attendance, grades, and test scores, there isn’t a process for systematically capturing and acting on students’ own insights about what makes learning meaningful to them. When students choose not to attend school, they’re sending a clear message about engagement and relevance that needs to be better understood and addressed.
Second, there’s an opportunity to reimagine family engagement for today’s world. Most school communication systems still operate on a one-way broadcast model, when we need true two-way partnerships that leverage modern technology to meet families where they are. This isn’t just about translating messages into multiple languages, it’s about creating genuine dialogue about student success that works for diverse family schedules, cultures, and communication preferences.
Third, we need to fully utilize the intersection of attendance data and engagement metrics to drive systematic change. When districts or states see patterns of declining attendance in specific courses, grade levels, or student groups, that’s valuable intelligence about where our educational system needs adjustment. Yet too often, this data sits in separate silos instead of informing real-time decisions about curriculum, scheduling, and support services.
5. What do you foresee will be a challenge in education in three to five years?
In the next three to five years, we’ll see two major forces reshape education in ways that many districts aren’t yet prepared to handle. First, the continued rise of alternative pathways to success will fundamentally challenge traditional high school models. Students and families are already voting with their feet, seeking options that better align with their goals and circumstances. Districts will be forced to reimagine their programs and schedules not just to compete, but to truly serve students who need more flexible, personalized pathways to graduation and career readiness.
Second, AI will transform not just what we teach, but how entire school systems operate. While schools have historically been slow to adapt to technological changes due to the complexities of implementation and cost, AI’s impact will be impossible to ignore or delay. It will reshape everything from administrative workflows to classroom instruction, requiring schools to rethink fundamental aspects of teaching, learning, and operations. The challenge won’t just be adopting new tools, it will be adapting entire systems and structures that have remained largely unchanged for decades.
The districts that thrive in this new landscape will be those that can move quickly to embrace these changes, despite the traditional barriers of budget constraints and institutional inertia. This will require new approaches to decision-making, professional development, and family engagement, all while ensuring equitable access to these new opportunities for all students.
