Project 1

The “plain language for existing websites” project

In some city, county and school systems, thoughtful professionals spend a great deal of time and effort trying to design perfect websites, with intuitive time listings of student and parent support services offerings, easy-to-read maps to get you to such services and other features making it much easier to figure out how to sign up for school-based support programs. Also, do community schools clearly explain the services and benefits they offer students and their parents? Your mission is to figure out whether your school districts are taking this opportunity to simply and efficiently explain on their websites what supports are offered, offer downloadable and printable brochures and schedules in all relevant languages, or present information through an app.

Deliverables: Research all county community school sites (or those schools on the verge of becoming community schools), those with school-based health centers and local government websites to identify community school programming. Identify what is being said about the current capacity of schools to serve students and parents. Present your findings to the 100% New Mexico team and local stakeholders in school supports. After feedback, network with local community school advocates and other such folks (including web designers and graphic designers) to explore creating user-friendly text and images to improve current website. The goal is fully describing the benefits of community schools on all current websites. (Suggested time frame: 3–6 months)