Dash

The Future We Are Creating

Dash reinvents Client Relationship Management for education—the result is a data-conscious Parent Relationship Management system.

According to Science Daily, “Schools would need to increase per-pupil spending by more than $1,000 in order to achieve the same results that are gained with parental involvement.” Yet, teachers do not currently have efficient systems for communicating with parents and accelerating their involvement in their students’ education. Our preliminary market research includes a survey of 100 teachers, out of which 1% state that “my parent contact system is currently working for me.” Out of those same teachers, 77% of them claim they would benefit from a mobile platform portal. Our mobile application fills this void, making it easier for teachers to make frequent and well-informed calls to parents. We believe it will ultimately revolutionize the future of parent-teacher communications.

Past the initial Dash application, Dash Technologies could stay in EdTech and become a more expansive suite for managing parents in gap-closing schools; in that same space, it could transform into a suite of nimble data-conscious apps that can be seamlessly linked together for either teachers or schools; and in other industries, it could become a powerful networking tool for anyone who needs a smarter way to prioritize their rolodex.

How We Are Creating It

When a teacher opens the Dash app, she is able to view her complete student roster. Then, with the click of a button, the teacher can translate a fleeting thought to call a parent into a name on a playlist on their phone. The playlist, which is a to-do list linked up to up-to-date parent phone numbers, includes information on whether the call should be made for a positive or negative reason.When the teacher has time to make calls, she can go through the playlist, and the app automatically records call history to each student's family.

Additionally, the app gives statistics on what percent of the calls have positive intent, which nudges teachers to make more positive phone calls home. Because the communication system is integrating with a tracking system, teachers do not have to spend any more time or lose any more data as a result of making calls on one device and tracking on another.

Our Story & Why You Should Support Us

Three Teach For America corps members founded Dash as an innovative and simple solution for a common pain point of teachers. Teaching over 100 students everyday, it is difficult to leave work and remember what parents to call and even more of a hassle to have their phone numbers and a computer to track the calls when the teacher is finally able to make the phone calls. We decided that we should never have to spend time or frustration doing what technology could do for us. After fleshing out a system that would work for teachers in an efficient and simple way, we brought the idea to New York Startup Weekend. We left the weekend with a prototype, a second place award, and a team of technology experts including a graphic designer, iOS developer, and web developer as well as specialists in finance and marketing. Three weeks later, we flew the team down to New Orleans to make our app ready to be beta-tested.

We have an innovative idea to an institutional problem and a talented team to execute that idea. With your support, we will be able to offer the app to millions of teachers around the country who, in turn, will have the ability to better engage millions parents and their students.