Understanding Heterogeneous Patterns of Family Engagement With Educational Technology to Inform School-Family Communication in Linguistically Diverse Communities

This mixed-methods study examines how families engage with educational technology when schools offer both a free literacy app and two-way text messaging, with a focus on understanding heterogeneous engagement patterns in linguistically diverse communities. Using detailed app log data and text message records from over 3,500 families across the summers of 2019 and 2020, the authors apply latent profile analysis to identify distinct family engagement profiles. They find that most families prefer either independent use of educational apps or interaction-supported engagement through text messaging, rather than both. As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted access to school-based resources, many families—especially those who had previously used apps independently—shifted toward greater reliance on two-way messaging for support. Importantly, Spanish-speaking families were significantly more likely than English-speaking families to engage with technology across profiles, particularly as interaction-supported users, highlighting the role of linguistically accessible communication in promoting equitable family engagement. Interviews with parents further reveal that two-way texting helped reduce barriers related to language, technology confidence, and access to resources, suggesting that schools should adopt flexible, multilingual engagement strategies rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.