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The Power of Data: Enhancing Communications with Your School Board

In an era where big data is integral in almost every sector, education is not left behind. The effective use of data can significantly improve communication and decision-making within a school district, especially when it involves interactions with School Board Members.

Data-Based Decision Support Systems (DDS) have emerged as a powerful tool for harnessing the power of data, facilitating stronger decision-making processes, and promoting transparency in communication at School Board meetings.

Related Resource:

Why School Referenda Fail: Research and Best Practices for Success

What are Data-Based Decision Support Systems?

Data-Based Decision Support Systems (DDS) are a combination of technologies, applications, and practices aimed at collecting, processing, and interpreting data to assist in decision-making processes. DDS harness data’s potential to facilitate informed, evidence-based decision-making, providing a systematic approach that significantly reduces subjectivity and bias.

Leveraging DDS for Enhanced Communication

Data-driven insights: The first step towards enhancing communication is developing an understanding based on facts rather than assumptions. With DDS, school district leaders can present data-driven insights about various aspects, such as student performance, staff performance, budget utilization, and school infrastructure, to School Board members. These insights help to paint a comprehensive and accurate picture, setting a solid foundation for constructive dialogue.
Transparency and accountability: DDS ensure data is readily available and accessible to those who need it, promoting transparency. When school district leaders share this data with School Board members, it fosters a sense of openness, responsibility, and accountability. It reduces confusion and possible misunderstandings, leading to more productive discussions and decisions.
Trend prediction and future planning: DDS not only provide information on the current state but also predict future trends using algorithms and data patterns. This capability can significantly assist in communicating future plans and proposals at School Board meetings backed by hard evidence.
Ease of understanding: DDS have the capability to represent data in visual forms like graphs, charts, and tables, making it easier for School Board members to understand complex data. This visual data representation enables board members to grasp key insights quickly, streamlining discussions and facilitating more informed decision-making.

How Three Districts Have Utilized DDS

Data and Data-Based Decision Support Systems can be powerful tools for improving communication and decision-making in school districts. By promoting transparency, providing data-driven insights, and facilitating easy understanding, DDS can support more effective discussions and strategic decisions at School Board meetings. It is essential, however, to ensure the system is correctly implemented and regularly reviewed and that all stakeholders have the necessary understanding to fully harness its capabilities. With these practices in place, DDS can significantly enhance the operation of school districts to the benefit of students, staff, and the school board.

Maximizing “Use It or Lose” It Funds: A Strategic Approach for K-12 HR Leaders

As K-12 HR leaders, you are well aware of the constant juggling act involved in managing budgets and resources within your school district. Among the many financial considerations on your plate, one phrase often looms large: “Use It or Lose It” funds. These funds, allocated to educational institutions towards the end of a fiscal year, present both a challenge and an opportunity for K-12 HR leaders to maximize their impact on schools and the individuals within them.

While the prospect of managing a lump sum of money within a limited time frame may seem daunting, with proper planning and strategic allocation, school HR leaders can turn this challenge into an advantage. By channeling funds towards initiatives that directly address the needs of faculty, staff, and students, HR leaders have the potential to maximize the effectiveness of their district’s human capital management program and create lasting positive change within their district.

In this post, we will explore how you leverage funds in order to support your efforts in recruiting, developing, and retaining top-quality educators.

What Are “Use It or Lose It” Funds?

“Use It or Lose It” funds are a financial mechanism wherein allocated resources must be utilized within a specific time frame or risk being forfeited.

Within K-12 school HR departments, these funds are typically allocated on an annual basis and are intended to support human capital management initiatives. While the exact nature and availability of these funds may vary based on district or state regulations, HR leaders can harness them strategically to drive positive outcomes in their district.

Investing in Recruitment and Retention Efforts

One of the most significant and ongoing challenges for school districts is attracting and retaining talented educators amidst a teacher shortage. “Use It or Lose It” funds can be channeled into recruitment efforts, such as targeted marketing campaigns, attendance at job fairs, or collaboration with teacher preparation programs.

By allocating these funds to initiatives that effectively communicate the school’s culture, values, and growth opportunities, HR leaders can enhance the chances of attracting highly qualified candidates.

Similarly, these funds can be instrumental in implementing retention strategies. Offering competitive compensation packages, targeted professional development opportunities, or teacher recognition programs can help create an engaging and supportive work environment. HR leaders should strategically allocate funds to initiatives that foster a positive and growth-oriented culture, ultimately enhancing employee satisfaction and reducing turnover rates.

Handpicked Content:

The Guide to Retention-focused Recruitment Read Now

Strengthening Employee Wellness and Work-Life Balance

Employee wellness and work-life balance are critical factors in attracting and retaining talented educators. “Use It or Lose It” funds can be allocated towards initiatives that prioritize the well-being of educators. For example, HR leaders can invest in wellness programs, mental health support, flexible work arrangements, or resources that promote work-life balance. By addressing the holistic needs of teachers, HR departments can create an environment that promotes overall employee satisfaction and reduces burnout.

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Ideas to Keep Great Educators Read Now

Enhancing Professional Development Programs

Investing in the professional development of educators is crucial for fostering growth and improving instructional practices. HR leaders can leverage “Use It or Lose It” funds to enhance existing professional development programs or develop new initiatives tailored to meet the specific needs of their educators. These funds can support activities such as workshops, conferences, online courses, or coaching programs that promote continuous learning and skill development.

Ultimately, HR leaders can empower teachers to implement innovative teaching methods, leverage emerging technologies, and stay up to date with the latest research in education. This, in turn, leads to improved instructional practices, increased student engagement, and enhanced overall academic performance.

Handpicked Content:

Effective Professional Learning Strategies (That Actually Work) Read Now

Monitoring and Evaluating the Impact

To ensure the effective utilization of “Use It or Lose It” funds, HR leaders should establish a robust system for monitoring and evaluating the impact of their initiatives. By collecting data on recruitment metrics, employee retention rates, professional development participation, and educator satisfaction, HR leaders can make data-informed decisions and continuously improve their human capital management strategies.

The Takeaway

K-12 school HR leaders play a vital role in maximizing the effectiveness of human capital management programs. Through strategic allocation of “Use It or Lose It” funds, these leaders can create a positive impact on recruitment effort and professional development initiatives and in turn foster educational excellence.

Just remember, the key lies in thoughtful planning, data-driven decision-making, and a relentless commitment to providing the best possible educational experience for every student.

Ready to maximize the effectiveness of your human capital management program? Get Started

The Role of Data-Based Decision Support Systems in Improving Collective Bargaining and Teacher Negotiations

Data-Based Decision Support Systems (DSS) play an essential role in collective bargaining and teacher negotiations by providing access to accurate and relevant data to inform these negotiations. Collective bargaining is a process where representatives of teachers and school district officials negotiate the terms and conditions of employment, including salaries, benefits, and working conditions.

In order to make informed decisions during these negotiations, both teachers and school district officials need access to accurate and relevant data about the district’s financial situation, teacher salaries, and other relevant information. A DSS can provide this information by collecting data from various sources, such as financial reports, teacher contracts, and demographic information, and presenting it in an easily accessible and understandable format.

Using a DSS can also help ensure that negotiations are transparent and well-informed. By providing access to accurate and relevant data, a DSS can help build trust and understanding between teachers and school district officials, making it more likely that negotiations will be successful.

In addition, a DSS can help to streamline the negotiation process by automating many of the manual tasks involved in data collection and analysis. This can free up time for both teachers and district officials to focus on more important tasks, such as working through the details of the contract with accurate data.

Related Resource: Field Trip: Analytics in Collective Bargaining

In this conversation with Kim Knight, Executive Director of Business Services at Dieringer School District in Lake Tapps, Washington, we look at the role that analytics play in providing that financial picture, and how Kim and her team prepare to come to the collective bargaining table.
Read Here

So how can you ensure that your school district uses a DSS effectively in collective bargaining and teacher negotiations? Here are a few best practices to keep in mind:

1. Ensure that data is up-to-date and accurate:

2. Use visual aids to present data and results:

3. Involve all relevant stakeholders in the negotiation process:

The role of Data-Based Decision Support Systems in collective bargaining and teacher negotiations is to provide access to accurate and relevant data that can inform these negotiations. By using a DSS effectively, school district officials can help ensure that negotiations are transparent, well-informed, and successful.

The Importance of Community Involvement

In teacher contract negotiations, community support can make or break the success of this negotiation process. Achieving a fair and satisfactory agreement requires support and understanding from the broader community. When community members are engaged and supportive of the negotiation process, it can lead to better outcomes for both teachers and the school district.

Community buy-in can help create an atmosphere of collaboration and trust between teachers, school district officials, and the community. When community members understand the challenges educators face and the importance of attracting and retaining talented teachers, they are more likely to support reasonable demands and necessary resources.

To foster community buy-in, open communication, and transparency are key. Engaging with community members, parents, and other stakeholders early in the negotiation process can help build understanding and support. Sharing relevant data and information and the reasons behind specific proposals can help community members grasp the complexities of teacher contract negotiations.

Community buy-in is a crucial foundation for successful teacher contract negotiations. When the community understands the value of quality education and supports the needs of teachers, it paves the way for fair agreements that benefit both educators and the students they serve.

Learn more about how Fox River Grove Consolidated School District prepared for collective bargaining
Read the Case Study

7 Burning Questions for School HR

What makes a school tick? People.

From the students who bring vibrancy and energy while learning about the world around them, to the staff that ensures they’re in a healthy learning environment, human connection is at the very core of education.

Your role as a leader in your district is to ensure that connection remains strong. When your educators develop genuine, positive relationships with students and the students feel a sense of belonging to their environment, the likelihood of student engagement and success dramatically increases.

That’s where data comes in. If you use Frontline solutions for human capital management, you already have the data you need to answer important questions about your approach to human capital — and now it’s easier than ever to analyze that data to see what it’s telling you.

Answering Questions Around Absences

Teacher absences are a fact of life for school districts. But they all introduce some level of unpredictability to the school day. Tools like Frontline Absence & Time can make it easier to manage that unpredictability. But taking a deeper dive into your data can also help you answer questions like, “Do we have enough substitutes? Can we fill absences in a timely manner?”

When it comes to answering these questions, increasing predictability helps you plan for and respond to future challenges more effectively. The best way to do that is through accurate and efficient analysis of the absence data you have access to. Data can put confidence in your strategic decision-making around absences by answering some of the most confounding questions.

1. Are you able to fill absences with substitute teachers?

It’s easy to understand that national averages indicate a teacher — and by extension, qualified substitute teacher — shortage. But those numbers may not reflect the reality of your situation. A closer look at your district fill rate trends might reveal that your schools fill absences reliably, or perhaps the opposite is true.

Regardless, the only way to know for sure which way your district is trending is by tracking it. There are several metrics that, when taken together, can help you truly understand your substitute situation and ultimately allow you to communicate your ability to fill staff absences and/or allow you to strategically plan how to improve fill rates within your district.

2. How does our substitute usage compare year over year?

Data helps you understand your district’s story on a macro level as well as a micro level. While it can help you identify the ways in which your schools struggle (or not) to fill absences with substitutes in the short- and medium-term, it can also help you judge how effective your district has been at addressing those struggles long-term.

3. What are the reasons for staff absences?

Just as different employee group absences affect schools in different ways, so do the reasons staff members are absent.

Some absences from the classroom activities may be intentional, such as for critical professional development opportunities. Other reasons are inevitable but unforeseeable, such as illness. In both cases, identifying when and why staff are absent can provide districts with the opportunity to ensure that despite the reason for absence, students have a qualified professional in the classroom that will keep them on track with their learning goals.

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Understanding Your Recruiting Efforts

Everyone knows that great teachers maximize the chances of student success. Of course, finding those teachers is easier said than done. Frontline Recruiting & Hiring can help you execute your recruiting strategies, and if you can analyze the data from your hiring efforts, you can track how effective your efforts have been over time.

There are two ways to approach the issue of recruiting. You could stick to your old plan and hope for the best, or you can analyze the effectiveness of your efforts so far and make data-informed changes going forward. With data you can gain a deeper understanding of the answers to these questions.

4. What positions are still available and for how long?

To target prospective teaching candidates, the first step is identifying which positions are open and in what areas. Often, this can be a labor-intensive process of data collection and aggregation.

Analytics can support district and building leaders in quickly identifying which positions are open and how long have they been available. From there, strategic recruiting strategies can be put in motion to connect with and attract the top talent to your district.

5. Do we have a diverse candidate pool?

Diversity is essential to the learning environment. Diverse role models and perspectives in your schools have a positive impact on students. But the only way to attain this is through diversity in recruiting. By knowing the demographics of your potential candidate pool, you can get a better idea of what to expect, as well as how to ensure the opening gets the exposure it deserves.

Hand-picked content:

The Local Teacher Shortage

Assessing Professional Growth Progression

Professional learning is the heartbeat of continuous teacher growth: sustained, intensive, job-embedded, collaborative, data-driven, classroom-focused professional learning has vital role to play in improving educator quality, increasing teacher retention, and impacting student outcomes.

Those are high stakes — so making data-informed decisions about your professional learning program is critical to ensuring that the time and money spent on that learning is put to the best use. Analyzing your data in Frontline Professional Growth can help you answer questions like:

6. What learning opportunities are we offering to our staff?

You craft professional learning goals each year — not because you want to check a box, but because you want to make an impact. When it comes to the learning opportunities offered throughout the year, are you making progress toward those goals? If you set out to offer more collaborative, job-embedded opportunities for growth, can you show that your catalog of professional development activities is making progress in this direction?

What formats of professional learning can your teachers and staff select from? How many hours or credits are available for teachers to earn? Do they have access to the kinds of professional learning they need that will make a difference in the classroom?

Being able to track your progress over a period of years will not only help you determine where you’ve been, it will help you know where you are and where you should go next to support your professional goals and ultimately, student performance.

7. Who has completed training sessions?

You spend precious dollars on professional development for a reason — it’s vital for your educators to take the next step. That money that comes from grants and taxpayers, and those key stakeholders will want to know whether those funds are effectively helping to improve teaching and learning.

Tracking the training sessions that have been completed — by department, building, category, course code, school year, and even looking at the individual level — allow you to identify your return on investment by ensuring that your staff’s professional development plan is in alignment with district goals and state/federal guidelines.

Money and time are at stake in all of these questions. While the ultimate goal is to drive student success, it’s important to remain accountable and strive toward success as efficiently as possible. Analyzing the treasure trove of data you’ve already collected can help you answer these questions and better ensure alignment to the ultimate goal of every school district, preparing students for college, career and life.

Hand-picked content:

Effective Professional Learning Strategies (That Actually Work)

Human Capital Analytics can help you answer these burning HR questions and more. Learn More

Is Your District Mental Health Ready?

Mental health is a critical component of student success. When students are mentally healthy, they are more likely to be engaged in learning, have better attendance, and achieve better academic outcomes. However, supporting student mental health is not only the responsibility of parents and mental health professionals; schools and districts also play a vital role in promoting student well-being. In this blog post, we’ll discuss best practices for promoting mental health in schools and provide a quiz to help you assess your district’s readiness to support student mental health.

1. Develop a Comprehensive Mental Health Policy

One of the best ways to support student mental health is to develop a comprehensive mental health policy that is regularly reviewed and updated. This policy should outline the district’s commitment to promoting student mental health, as well as provide guidelines for identifying and addressing mental health concerns in students. The policy should also include strategies for providing mental health training to staff and faculty and outline partnerships with community mental health organizations.

2. Provide Mental Health Training to Staff and Faculty

Providing mental health training to staff and faculty is critical to supporting student mental health. Teachers and staff should be trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health concerns and provided with strategies for responding to student mental health concerns. The training should also provide strategies for promoting positive mental health in the classroom, such as mindfulness exercises and stress management strategies.

3. Hire a Designated Mental Health Professional

Having a designated mental health professional on staff is an essential component of a comprehensive mental health program. This professional can provide direct services to students, such as counseling and therapy, and can also provide consultation to staff and faculty. This professional should be trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health concerns and should be able to provide referrals to community mental health organizations when necessary.

4. Implement a Process for Identifying and Supporting Students with Mental Health Concerns

Having a formal process for identifying and supporting students with mental health concerns is essential. This process should outline clear guidelines and procedures for identifying students with mental health concerns, as well as strategies for providing support and referrals. The process should also ensure that student privacy is protected and that students are not stigmatized or discriminated against because of their mental health concerns.

5. Develop Partnerships with Community Mental Health Organizations

Developing partnerships with community mental health organizations can provide additional support to students and families. These organizations can provide counseling, therapy, and other mental health services that may not be available within the school district. They can also provide training and consultation to staff and faculty.

6. Implement a Suicide Prevention Plan

Suicide is a leading cause of death among young people, and schools and districts have a responsibility to prevent suicide. Implementing a suicide prevention plan can help identify students who may be at risk and provide them with support and referrals. The plan should include clear protocols and procedures for responding to suicide threats or attempts, as well as strategies for promoting positive mental health in the school community.

7. Provide Mental Health Resources and Support to Families

Families play a critical role in supporting student mental health, and schools and districts can provide resources and support to families. This support can include workshops, seminars, and resources on promoting positive mental health in the home. It can also include referrals to community mental health organizations and counseling services.

8. Provide Mental Health Resources and Support Outside of School Hours

Supporting student mental health should not be limited to the school day. Schools and districts can provide resources and support outside of school hours, such as mental health hotlines and crisis support services. This support can help students and families access the services they need when they need them.

Supporting student mental health is a critical component of promoting student success.
Assess if your district is Mental Health Ready:

Quiz – Is Your District Mental Health Ready?

Scoring:

Interpreting Your Score:

12 – 16 points: Congratulations, your district is highly prepared to support mental health!

8 – 11 points: Your district is making progress, but there is still room for improvement.

0 – 8 points: Your district appears to have gaps in its mental health supports and resources. Consider immediate actions to establish mental health policies, resources, and support for students.

Elise Ozarowski

Elise is a writer and member of the award-winning content team at Frontline Education. A former member of Frontline’s events team, she is passionate about making connections, whether that be in person at events, online via social media or directly in her writing.

Talk Data to Me: Professional Development Activity Trends

By analyzing professional development program data, school districts can identify specific trends and patterns in teacher performance and growth. This enables district leaders to adapt their programs and strategies to meet emerging challenges and leverage opportunities for growth. Ultimately, continuous improvement based on data analysis ensures that your professional development program remains relevant and aligned with the evolving needs of both teachers and students.

In this installment of Talk Data to Me, we’ll be analyzing trends in professional development activities, using data from the Frontline Research and Learning Institute and Frontline’s Professional Growth solution.

Professional Development Activities Completed

Over the past few years, COVID threw a lot on teachers’ plates and necessitated rapid and substantial changes in professional development. With the closure of schools and the need for social distancing, in-person workshops and conferences were largely replaced by online platforms. Teachers had to adapt to virtual environments and software, like Google Classroom and Zoom, and completely rewrite curricula for online delivery. Essentially, they had to use different pedagogies to maximize the efficacy of online learning.

These new skill needs are reflected in national data trends. The following chart shows the number of professional development activities per instructional user being completed each month.

The key takeaways

There are spikes all throughout 2020 and the number of activities being completed per user in typical years is about two per month.
In a handful of months after COVID, the average user was completing 3 to 4 activities per month.
The trend in the number of activities being completed evened out in 2021, 2022, and so far in 2023.

Professional Development Hours Completed

While the pandemic has presented numerous challenges, it has also sparked innovation and transformation in the realm of professional development for teachers. The integration of technology, increased accessibility, and emphasis on remote teaching skills have created new opportunities for teachers to grow and adapt to the changing educational landscape.

To fully leverage these new opportunities, districts should consider shifting to an ongoing, individualized professional development program as opposed to frontloading professional development early in the year. Consistent PD tends to be timelier and more relevant to what teachers may be facing in that moment and may also make teachers feel like they are continually learning and growing. Another benefit of making the switch to ongoing PD is increased retention, maximized classroom abilities, and minimized hiring needs.

Let’s take a look at the average number of hours of activities completed per user over time.

The key takeaways

The trends in the hours of activities being completed didn’t change all that much even during COVID. However, users were opting for quicker learning opportunities. Why? Educators were probably trying to learn a little bit about a lot of different topics as quickly as possible.

Analyzing Professional Development in Your District

The data listed above is a nationally representative data set of over 800 districts. However, your district may differ and the only way to know for sure is to analyze your own professional development data. The good news? Human Capital Analytics software can help make the process a lot simpler.

Here’s a quick example of the personalized views you can access with this type of system:

Your district’s unique professional development data is on full display. It is interactive and filterable for a variety of data points including professional development formats programs, time of year length of activity credits awarded for activity completion, even expense information associated with individual activities and users.

Dive into data to maximize the efficacy of your district’s professional development with Human Capital Analytics

Recommended Resources

Fostering a Culture of Growth: Council Rock School District: How one school district fosters a collaborative and innovative culture of growth to boost retention rates.

5 Tips for Looking Ahead to Next Year’s PD: Summer is the perfect time to reflect on what went well (and what didn’t) with your professional development program over the last school year. Get 5 tips for evaluating your PD to empower your team’s growth.

Effective Professional Learning Strategies (That Actually Work): Professional development requires more than one-stop workshops, classroom observations, or offering feedback forms. It must be intentional. The recipe for true growth begins with an individualized learning process — one that gives educators a voice and choice, identifies strengths and areas for improvement, and promotes a collaborative learning culture.

Maximize Medicaid Revenue by Maximizing Your Summer: What K-12 Medicaid Coordinators Can Do to Optimize Services

The summer presents an excellent opportunity to streamline processes, enhance service delivery, and ensure a successful start to the upcoming school year. While the school may be less active during this period, that doesn’t mean the work slows down for anyone working on Medicaid. This blog post will guide you through several proactive steps you can take over the summer to positively impact Medicaid coordination.

1. Update and Organize Student Records

Summer break allows you the time to thoroughly review and update student records. Ensure that all necessary consent forms, eligibility documentation, and medical records are up to date and accurately filed. This preparation sets a solid foundation for Medicaid billing and claiming processes in the upcoming year.

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Navigating Parental Consent for Medicaid

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2. Collaborate with Stakeholders

Reach out to teachers, therapists, nurses, and other stakeholders involved in Medicaid services. Schedule meetings or informal discussions to evaluate the previous year’s challenges and successes. Gather feedback and insights to identify areas that require improvement and opportunities for collaboration in the future.

3. Enhance Training and Professional Development

Consider providing training sessions to staff members, focusing on areas such as proper documentation practices, billing procedures, and compliance with Medicaid guidelines.

4. Evaluate Service Providers

Review and evaluate the performance of service providers who work with your school. Assess their adherence to Medicaid billing guidelines, quality of documentation, and overall effectiveness in delivering services.

Use this evaluation to not only foster open communication and provide feedback, but also to identify areas for improvement in your processes. With an increased demand on providers, offering an easy-to-use system can make your district a more attractive place to work.

Case Study Read the full story

A Better System for Medicaid and Service Management
Hampton City Schools switched systems they use to document services and bill for Medicaid reimbursement — then switched back again.

5. Streamline Documentation Processes

Summer break is an ideal time to revamp your documentation processes. Review existing templates, progress note formats, and other documentation tools. Simplify and standardize these processes to ensure consistent and accurate recording of Medicaid billable activities. Develop clear guidelines for staff members regarding what information needs to be documented and how it should be recorded.

6. Strengthen Partnerships

Build and strengthen partnerships with external agencies, community organizations, and healthcare providers. Collaborate with them to enhance coordination of services and explore potential funding opportunities beyond Medicaid. Establishing strong relationships during the summer break can pave the way for expanded support and resources during the school year.

7. Plan for Staffing and Scheduling

Evaluate the staffing needs for the upcoming year, considering any changes in student enrollment or services. Work closely with administrators and human resources to ensure appropriate staffing levels for Medicaid services. Develop a comprehensive schedule for service providers, aligning it with student needs, and maximizing Medicaid billable hours.

Having a software system like Frontline Medicaid & Service Management can help make your planning process significantly easier, giving you a single source of truth on service and staffing needs.

8. Update Medicaid Policies and Procedures

Review your school’s Medicaid policies and procedures manual, ensuring it reflects the most recent guidelines and regulations. Update any outdated information and communicate the changes to staff members. Provide training or refresher sessions on the updated policies to ensure compliance and consistency.

9. Plan for Outreach and Enrollment

Prepare for the upcoming year’s Medicaid outreach and enrollment efforts. Develop strategies to educate parents and guardians about the importance of Medicaid services, eligibility requirements, and the enrollment process. Collaborate with school administrators, counselors, and community partners to facilitate the enrollment of eligible students.

Frontline Medicaid & Service Management was built to make Medicaid easier and more effective for districts like yours.

See it in action

Elise Ozarowski

Data & Analytics Buyer’s Guide

Data and analytics are increasingly becoming a critical component of K-12 education. School districts are leveraging data to identify opportunities to improve student outcomes, increase teacher effectiveness, and enhance operational efficiency. However, purchasing data and analytics tools can be a daunting task. With this guide, we aim to simplify the process by outlining the key considerations when evaluating data and analytics tools for your school.

1. Data Quality:

When evaluating data and analytics tools, it is essential to ensure the quality of the data they utilize. Consider whether the data is reliable, accurate, and up-to-date. Additionally, consider whether the tools can use the data housed in your existing data systems, such as your student information system (SIS), learning management system (LMS), or assessment tools.

Frontline Tip:

As George Fuechsel, the pioneering IBM computer programmer, said, “Garbage in, Garbage out.” Talk to your data and IT teams to assess what tools you currently use. How easily you can pull data from them, and how well-maintained are they? Systems that have fallen out of use or are not well maintained will likely have unreliable data to extract. It’s also good practice to audit your internal policies for managing these applications to ensure the data entered by staff is consistent with best practices.

Consider the data that your community can access. State-level data will not always match what you see in your SIS and financial systems. The data reported publicly by your state’s Department of Education may influence how news outlets report on your district. Comparisons are most often made to neighboring communities or districts similar in demographics. You should be aware of the questions that stakeholders may ask and prepare to answer them using data that can be verified. Does your state report combine charter school enrollment and your district’s traditional public school enrollment? Will this impact how the public views specific metrics? When looking at the trend in your fund balance amounts, do stakeholders understand how much your district spends each year and what the percentage of fund balance means for a district of your size?

2. User-Friendliness:

The data and analytics tools you select must be easy to use and accessible to key stakeholders based on what data they need. Ensure your chosen system has an intuitive interface, easy navigation, and training and support resources to help users leverage the tools effectively.

Frontline Tip:

Identify who in your district will be using these analytics. How experienced are they with using data for decision-making? What level of training and support will your stakeholders need?
Use this information to assess the tools you are evaluating and the process to implement them for your teams. What type of support services does the company provide? Will you have access to advisors to help navigate and train user adoption? Is there a learning center, learning materials, or videos provided by the vendor?

3.Security:

Student data privacy is a significant concern in the education sector. When evaluating data and analytics tools, ensure they comply with relevant data privacy regulations, such as FERPA. Consider the security measures to protect data, including user authentication, data encryption, and audit trails.

Frontline Tip:

Identify who in your district will be using these analytics. What sort of data access should they have? How does that impact what user management requirements are needed? Does the application allow role-based access controls (managing access by roles/groups)? Can you filter student data by users so only staff that should see student records can see those records? How is data loaded into the application, and is it encrypted in transit and at rest (which is a security best practice for protecting data)? How are user accounts created and managed?

4.Scalability:

Ensure that the data and analytics tools you select can scale to meet the needs of your district. Consider the number of users, the data volume, and the data update frequency. Additionally, ensure that the tools have the flexibility to grow with your district’s changing needs and evolving technology landscape.

Frontline Tip:

Review vendors’ licensing and user policies to ensure they will meet your current and future needs. How are user accounts added and managed? Managing user accounts and access can be a full-time job, so make sure that the applications you review have a process for quickly seeing and managing those accounts.

You will also want to review the implementation process documents. Check to see how the data is loaded, if there are any file size limitations, how frequently users can refresh data, and whether automation is available for data loading. It’s also good to ask vendors how prepared they are to scale their applications and whether they can share performance benchmarks such as software uptime.

5. Data Visualization:

Data visualization tools are essential for communicating insights to stakeholders. Ensure that the data and analytics tools you select have robust visualization capabilities, including creating dashboards, reports, and charts. Consider whether the tools provide real-time data visualization and can drill down into the data for further analysis.

Frontline Tip:

Each district will have two groups of analytics users – your consumers and your builders. Any analytics tool should provide features that support both of these groups.
The consumers of analytics need practical, simple-to-understand visuals that are meaningful and descriptive. When assessing the applications for your consumer, try not to get lured by complex, technical visualizations. These often don’t communicate as effectively as straightforward charts or tables. While simple bar charts and line charts might seem boring, they are often the best option if you want to communicate information through visuals.

Your builders will need to be able to analyze the data quickly, build their own data views, and construct dashboards for the consumers. When assessing the applications for your builders, review the process, start-to-finish, for building analytics and dashboards. Is the team responsible for building analytics able to learn the application with minimal training or support quickly?

When evaluating data and analytics tools for your school, these essential factors will help ensure you select the right tool for your district’s needs. The right tools can provide insights that improve student outcomes, increase teacher effectiveness, and enhance operational efficiency. With the correct data and analytics tools, your district can gain a competitive edge and better support student success.

Download the Software Buying Guide Checklist Here

Relevant Case Studies:

How Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 Quickly and Easily Shares Financial Data with the Community Read Now

How Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 Quickly and Easily Shares Financial Data with the Community Watch Now

How San Dieguito Union High School District pulls multiple data sources together to inform programming decisions and adjust individual student support Read Now

5 Ways Districts Can Better Handle Student Health Records

In the shadowy corners of the internet, medical records are readily available for purchase. On the dark web and black market, patient records can sell for $1,000 apiece. These records are sold to buyers in many industries: data brokers like IQVIA (formerly known as IMS Health), pharmaceutical firms and even tech companies. Children’s health data is just as valuable, and no one can doubt that medical records, especially those for our children, should be rigorously protected.

And yet, relatively few school districts have a mature cybersecurity plan and the appropriate resources to keep sensitive information secure. As a result, schools may be an easy target for hackers seeking valuable data to sell on the dark web.

So how can you ensure that your district is a better steward of student health records?

1. Implement an electronic health record system.

Implementing an electronic health record (EHR) system is an essential best practice for school districts to keep student health records secure and organized. Electronic health records allow districts to maintain accurate, up-to-date student health information, while also ensuring privacy and compliance with state and federal regulations. An EHR system makes it easier for school nurses and other health professionals to access student health records from any device with internet access, so they can provide quality care and treatment to students when they need it most. In addition, an EHR system can also help to reduce errors in documentation and promote continuity of care for students. By using an EHR system, school districts can improve the quality of care provided to their students and ensure the safety and privacy of their health information.

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A Buyer’s Guide to K-12 Electronic Health Records Systems

2. Ensure that school health providers are trained on privacy regulations and how to handle student health information.

Ensuring that school health providers are trained on privacy regulations and how to handle student health information is a crucial best practice in keeping student health data safe. Health information is sensitive and private, and it is vital to ensure that school staff members understand how to collect, store, and handle this information appropriately. Providing training for school health providers on privacy regulations and best practices for handling student health data can help prevent data breaches and ensure that student health information is kept confidential. It can also help to build trust between families and school health providers, creating a positive and supportive learning environment. By prioritizing the training of school health providers on privacy regulations and best practices for handling student health data, school districts can ensure that student health data remains safe and secure while also promoting quality care and trust in their school community.

3. Adopt consistent policies regarding the privacy of student data.

The first step is to work closely with your legal counsel to clarify your district’s responsibilities when it comes to student data and privacy. It’s important to know exactly what is required of your organization under laws such as FERPA. Your state may have its own student records laws and regulations, so be sure that you fully understand those as well.
Then, adopt consistent policies regarding the privacy of student data. Again, this is something you should work on with your legal counsel’s assistance and review. Once this is done, don’t forget to review your district’s relationships with all vendors in light of conformity with these policies.

This brings us to our next step, partnering with vendors who are committed to protecting student data.

4. Ensure that vendors are equally committed to protecting student data.

You could have the most rock-solid cybersecurity policies and practices within your district, but what about the vendors managing your data? It’s crucial to that you only work with vendors who can demonstrate practices and policies to protect student data and reduce the risk of compromise. Selecting a school health records vendor is more than simply choosing good software; you are selecting a long-term relationship with a partner and its tools to efficiently deliver and enhance the critical healthcare services your students need. Your vendor needs to be transparent and trustworthy, understand your workflow, provide the level of service you’ll need throughout the relationship and, just as importantly, be around for a long time.

You may enjoy this hand-picked content:

Top 5 FERPA & HIPAA Misconceptions for Schools

There are two things to consider when working with vendors. The first is making sure that vendor contracts and agreements do not allow the harvesting and sale of student medical records, even in a de-identified or aggregate form. Some electronic health records management system vendors sell patient data to third parties, so make sure your vendor is not one of them!

This is most prevalent with free software. With budgets shrinking, school districts are understandably looking for ways to comply with the vast array of state health data reporting requirements and obtain the efficiencies of electronic health records (EHR) without adding significant costs. However, the ethics, legal liability and privacy implications of free software must be approached as an extremely serious responsibility of school health care providers as well as the school district’s administrative and legal personnel.

Remember, if you are not paying for the product, you (or your students) could BE the product. Private vendors should not make money by selling student health data obtained from school health records. Make sure that any contracts your organization enters into specifically forbid the vendor from selling student data. If your district is still contemplating “free” EHR software, then at the very minimum make sure to require the vendor to provide a comprehensive list of all companies to whom the vendor has sold or is marketing the aggregated and de-identified data.

Second, make sure your vendor has taken steps to ensure the security of their software. Look for a system that is FERPA compliant. Even if your district is not a covered entity, greater attention to compliance and security is never a bad thing, especially when it comes to protecting student privacy. In addition, you want a vendor who has taken steps to protect its systems from cyber attacks. Ask your vendor if their product is SOC 2-compliant, and how they ensure their data centers are secure

5. Work with parents and educators to promote informed consent about how student data is managed.

Regardless of how your district chooses to manage student health records, full transparency is a must. If using EHR software, your district has an ethical obligation to make sure that the parents of its students fully understand the privacy implications if the vendor sells their records to third parties. You need to be able to explain to parents in ordinary language the privacy implications of what data is collected and how it may be used.

As the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology remarked, “Notice and consent is the practice of requiring individuals to give positive consent to the personal data collection practices of each individual app, program, or web service. Only in some fantasy world do users actually read these notices and understand their implications before clicking to indicate their consent.” A long, drawn-out “Terms of Service” agreement with a checkbox isn’t enough to ensure that parents actually are informed about how their children’s data will be managed, and to truly understand the effects that the sale of student data might have on their children in the future.

So, have a strategy for supporting parent education and involvement in the EHR process. For example, you may wish to hold a limited number of town hall meetings or create other educational tools to reach parents who would otherwise not read the Terms of Use or the Privacy Policy.

With student information at risk, it’s more important than ever that parents, educators, school districts and national organizations work together to protect student privacy and ensure students’ futures are not impacted by data breaches or the sale of sensitive records.

[1] Yannis Bakos, et al., Does Anyone Read the Fine Print? Consumer Attention to Standard Form Contracts, Law & Economics Research Paper Series Working Paper No. 09-40, NYU Center for Law, Economics and Organization (March 2013).

Your Analytics Questions, Answered

Questions about data and analytics in schools? You’ve come to the right place.

Successful analytics isn’t about collecting the data, running a few equations, and discovering instant insight. It’s about asking the right questions and using the right tools to find valuable answers. By employing data-driven strategies, districts can engage in more effective financial planning, make informed program decisions, and better understand student performance.

It may seem daunting, but we’re here to help. Below are specific questions about using analytics in your schools and districts to drive critical conversations.

Question #1:
How can you evaluate district programs using comparative analytics?

Program evaluation can be a wide and varied topic. Analytics is one tool you can use to evaluate programs that are important to you and your district.  

We will focus on comparative analytics using a three-part process to evaluate your programs.

Step 1: Identify – Identify the programs you want to compare to your peers.

The first step in this process is to identify which programs you want to compare and make an internal comparison to see which programs are leading to strong outcomes and which ones might not be. You might want to identify the programs that align with your district’s strategic plan or that your community regularly asks you questions about. Are there different groups of students that can be identified as underperforming compared to other programs or as your baseline of student performance in the district?

Step 2: Peer Groups – Think about what peer groups you want to consider.

The next step is identifying your peer groups and thinking about who you want to be in your peer groups. Do you want to use a local peer group for comparison or a statewide peer group? A best practice is to set both up as they may have different applications for different comparisons.

It is best practice to have both a local peer group and a state peer group. You also want to set up a statewide peer group. An advantage of a peer group within your entire state is that you can compare to districts that are similar in size and student makeup. As you identify districts that are performing well with students, that may identify an area of possible improvement within your district, which you can look to action by phoning a friend and finding out what programs are working well in their district.

Step 3: Measure & Report – How do you use your results to strengthen your programs?

The last step is to take action on what you find from your analysis. What does this look like in practice? This comparative visual is a student spending compared with state student performance results.

You have the operating expense per pupil on the Y-axis. On the X axis, you have the student’s performance on a state standardized test. Each dot represents a district and its performance on the same state assessment.

The top left will show that districts are spending more with lower student performance. On the bottom left, we’ll show districts spending less with lower student performance. On the top right, you have higher spending and higher student performance; on the bottom right, you have lower expenditure and higher student performance.

You can begin to take action on these findings by asking questions such as, are they spending less than you yet getting higher performance? Where do you want your district to be in this chart? If you set a good peer group, the makeup of students should be similar to yours. You can use this as an opportunity to contact your peers, see what you can learn from them and how they are running programs, and see if it’s something you can replicate or adopt in your district.  

Reflection:

You can use comparative analytics in any number of ways.
You can use internal analytics to compare the effectiveness of different program areas against base student groups.
You can use peer group comparisons to find the best practices of your local and statewide peers, and you can use different peer groups to drive decisions in your district.

Question #2:
How Do We Track Program Spending Throughout the Year and Compare It to Our Budget?

When utilizing budget analytics, we recommend the same three-part process to evaluate your budget:

Step 1: Identify – Identify the programs you want to track spending on and identify those with elements of your account code string:

When you consider identifying those programs you may want to track, think about the programs you are often asked about. This is an example of some of the most popular programs you may be asked to track within your district.

You can report budget variances for programs such as special education, compensatory education, Bilingual education, and Career and Technical Education. This report highlights those programs with the largest spending levels. You can also see how you’re spending in the current year versus the prior year using simple charts and graphs.

Step 2: Examine – Track those programs with identified budget codes.

Next, you’ll want to track those programs monthly to avoid surprises at the year’s end. You want to go through and see what you expect to be spending, and then you can compare those against your actual expenditures. Those variances you identify throughout the year can be reported to your board. Additionally, if you expect to overspend a program, you’ll want to specify that. Likewise, if you’re coming underneath or favorable with a program budget, you can also identify that with your board and community.

Step 3 – Measure & Report: Measure and report on those programs’ spending.

The final step is meeting compliance requirements and reporting those results to key stakeholders. In this analysis, we identified some programs that are required by the state to be spent at a certain level. Here we’re using a simple red-green stoplight analysis to see if you meet those spending requirements.

Questions to consider:

Do you have enough budgeted for those programs?
Have we already spent sufficient year-to-date to meet that spending requirement?
If yes, do you know you’ve completed your spending compliance requirement?
If not, ensure you will spend that by the end of your school year.
This report also looks at a projection. Are you projected to spin that?
Do you have the spending plans in place to be successful and meet that spending requirement or to meet that board goal that they’ve set for spending on a particular program?

Reflection Questions:

Do you have programs that your community asked about and that you can report on?
Are you regularly communicating with your community about essential or strategic programs?

Question #3:
Where to Start with Student Performance and Program Evaluation?

Combining budget planning and comparisons is tricky during a program evaluation. How does the program impact students? How does it inform the strategic plan? Today, we want to help you get a little further along in how a program impacts students and, specifically, to look at key performance indicators that we might use to measure and evaluate student performance.

Step 1: Identify – Measure student enrollment in a specific program and assess student performance in and out of the program.

First, let’s identify student enrollment in a specific program and determine how those students perform in the program and their other academic areas.

When we look at this first visual, it’s our overall district enrollment. From early elementary through 12th grade, we can see how many students are served by grade level. Based on this visual, you’ll see that our largest enrollment is in the ninth grade.  

If we were to take this same visual and create additional filters to see how many students receive career and technical education services, we would be able to see the same visual but filtered down for CTE.

Now, we can see seventh through 12th grade. You’ll notice here that our ninth-grade enrollment is the largest. Therefore, career and technical education enrollment is tracking with the district. This is an excellent visual to see how your percentages are measuring up and how well your program is tracking. This shows equitable access for all students to this program.

Step 2: Examine – Take a critical look at students receiving additional services within a program and determine gaps and gains.

If we wanted to evaluate how those students are also performing, we could segregate students currently in career and technical education and assess their performance across all their courses. For instance, the visual below shows all students in career and technical education and their grades earned in each course they are currently enrolled in. We can see advanced placement, dual credit, and honors courses and the breakdown of Fs, Cs, Bs, and As rates for these students within those particular courses.
  

For instance, over 50% of students who are in CTE are earning As in their AP courses. This is a great visual to be able to monitor how well students who are in these programs are performing as compared to students outside of the program.

Step 3: Measure & Report – Based on the findings, what are possible next steps for investing in students within this program?

Next, we’ll take a moment to critically examine the students who receive additional services within the program and where gaps and gains might occur. Based on the findings you’re seeing within your program evaluations, what might be the next step for investing in the students within these programs to see more success?

If you want to look specifically at the program, we’ll need a metric matching the program. For instance, for career and technical education, frequently career readiness is measured through industry certifications. Here we can see ninth through 12th-grade students who have earned industry certifications.

 

This means that the student has completed coursework and earned the opportunity to take a certification exam and earned that credential. Here we see that the 12th-grade certification earning is at the highest level as the students go through the program. This indicates that students progress through a program and stay within the selected through their 12th-grade year.

When students earn their industry credentials, it’s valuable to evaluate who those students are. Students in Career and Technical Education programs may receive additional services.

This visual measures the same set of students shown on the previous chart. It provides additional visibility into students who receive language services, students who experience poverty, and students who receive special education services. You can also look at male and female performance in industry certification exams. Whatever you choose to measure as a community can be tracked and measured using the data in student analytics. You can answer those strategic questions your district cares about most.

Then we can ask the bigger question. Based on that, what are our possible next steps in investing in students within this program? What collective strategic plans must be in place for continuous improvement as a community?

We hope the responses to these three questions underscore the paramount role of analytics in enhancing the functioning of school districts. Using a strategic, three-step process that leverages analytics for program evaluation, budget tracking, and student performance assessment can help districts answer critical questions for their community. Analytics can be a powerful educational tool, supporting continuous improvement and providing valuable insights to address the most crucial strategic questions.

5 Best Practices for Managing the Entire Employee Experience

Education professionals come to work to make a difference – technology should support them in that mission, not get in the way.

Mitchell Welch, Principal Solutions Consultant at Frontline Education, and Sundie Dahlkamp, Executive Director of Human Resources at Pearland ISD, recently sat down to discuss how school districts can leverage technology to create an outstanding employee experience for their staff.

From proactively engaging with job seekers to managing employee-related forms across your district, these two K-12 experts took a deep dive on how technology can help to optimize school district’s branding, recruitment, position management, and more.

Here’s a breakdown of their conversation, and a couple of resources to help you get started.

The most common challenges in K-12 Human Resources:

When you work in Human Resources, it’s up to you to recruit, retain, and grow talented staff to create an outstanding educational experience for students. But it’s challenging to focus on your people when you’re shuffling paperwork or sending out thick onboarding packets and waiting for signatures. It tends to feel like there just isn’t enough time in the day.

Transactional HR and inefficient processes can make it tough to maintain compliance, get insight into up-to-date data, or even focus on standing out to potential candidates. If your district is still relying on manual systems to get work done, the challenges Mitchell addressed likely feel familiar:

The need to minimize paper to reduce siloed experiences.
Inconsistent employee experience impacts work culture.
Inconsistent processes to capture employee information and store it in one location.
Lack of reporting on trends and issues impairs the ability to understand and take action at the district leadership level.

“This is my 16th year in HR. When I got to my district, we were big fans of paper. We had an electronic application, but it was static. You would apply and what would we do? Print it out.”

Sundie

Fortunately, there’s a way to overcome these challenges. Automating your manual processes with a human capital management system can empower your team to move past transactional HR and take on a more proactive role to building a stronger school system.

Best practices for managing the employee experience:

1. Have a strong foundation

Before diving into best practices, it’s important to lay the foundation. Despite what systems or tools you put in place, keep these three facets in mind. According to Mitchell and Sundie, these are the three critical components of a sustainable process for managing the employee experience:

Oversight: Maintaining accountability for programs and resources
Insight: Providing efficient processes on a day-to-day basis to helping good people do things better every day
Foresight: Looking ahead with data to predict trends in order to increase efficiency, productivity, and performance

“If you have data and aren’t sharing it, you don’t have foresight. Your data is only as good as the recipient. If we aren’t giving it to the people who need it, there’s no way to have foresight into what you should be doing next. It’s just a static roster otherwise.”

Sundie

“Can we give data and have data reports running before a problem occurs? Or are we running these reports to find out why a problem occurred? If you’re running a report after the fact, when you look at your data it’s no longer valid because it’s outdated.”

Mitchell

2. Implement a position management plan

Position management is a district-wide process where positions are categorized into departments with an organizational structure that maps out everything from buildings to leadership and the relative staff needed to be successful across the district. It’s the ongoing management and optimization of positions. Implementing this plan can not only help you move beyond an organization chart and into more comprehensive mapping, but it can also help identify critical information designated at the position level.

“If I’m managing the position, I’m keeping up with the movement inside my organization. The true day to day. Is it a basketball coach? Is it a first-grade teacher? Do they work four hours a day or six?”

Sundie

“Do you have visibility into how many vacancies do you have? Do you have visibility of the date of that vacancy? With one-click¬ can you see pending approval vacancies, certain location, partially filled? Position management is the movement of the position.”

Mitchell

Q: What did it look like in your district before you implemented a position management plan?

“To move an employee, to resign an employee, we literally had a piece of paper that would come to our office to get all of the signatures needed. 10 days was the average time for this process. If a bus driver went from part time to full time, our transportation secretary would type up an email and send it to a billion people. And that’s how we would find out.” – Sundie

Q: What did it look like in your district after?

“Now, I can transfer someone, reassign them, or change their hours all in a system. Is my bus driver now a master bus driver? Is my basketball coach now a head coach? These are things I can do behind the scenes when managing a position. This way we can notify anyone in the district of this change (who needs to know) instantly.” – Sundie

Handpicked content:

[eBook] Position Management Playbook for School Districts
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3. Make the most of your job descriptions

Do your current job descriptions help you stand out amidst stiff competition? Enhancing your job postings will send you on your way to attracting even more qualified candidates and ultimately hire talent that aligns with your district’s mission, vision, and values.
Make sure your job postings are:

Clear and engaging
User-friendly
Emphasize professional development opportunities
Showcase your culture and community
Incorporate multimedia
List key requirements and preferred qualifications

“Are you using job descriptions to their fullest capability? Are you promoting your brand anywhere you can in your system? You should include a logo, diversity statement, mission statement, and a video talking about the job as a part of the job descriptions. Put a talking face that tells you who are so you can change how applicants think about you. Promote your culture where you can!”

Mitch

Handpicked content:

3 Characteristics (and Examples) of Great Teacher Job Descriptions
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4. Streamline your job requisitions

Job requisitions are an important element of recruiting as they ensure the process is structured, consistent, and aligned with the district’s needs and requirements. Because job requisitions can require the review and authorization of multiple stakeholders, not to mention the level of detail needed, a streamlined, simple process is of the upmost importance. Sticking to manual processes and paper spreadsheets can create too many unnecessary hurdles.

Manual job requisitions process:

Time-consuming
Error-prone
Lack of standardization
Limited visibility and tracking
Communication challenges
Difficulty in data analysis
Limited collaboration
Lack of scalability

Streamlined job requistions:

“We wanted to know the reason for the vacancy. With our system, I can go into my reports and give it a date segment and run nothing but vacancy reasons and tell my superintendent exactly why people are leaving. Building these out are so helpful because it allows principal to say exactly what they want in a requisition. We can then go in and customize the report to sort exactly what they need.”

Sundie

“Let’s bring it back to our foundation with job requisitions. Think about how this process relates to oversight, insight, and foresight. With oversight, you’re maintaining policies and collecting data in order to see if you’re compliant. You’ve got insight because you’re giving hiring people the data they need to post the right job and the right description with no mistakes. And with foresight, you can run vacancy reasons to proactively see trends of why people are leaving. Creating job requisitions should help you make better decisions based on data and help you hire that much better.”

Mitch

“We actually have 2 pipelines in regard to job requisitions. Hired or volunteer. When it goes out to our postings, we don’t want it to be confusing for a parent who wants to go on a field trip. There’s such a need for a simplistic process. Parents don’t want to go to the employment page, so we created a pipeline just for them.’

Sundie

Handpicked content:

How to Handle Position Management and Control in Your District
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5. Enhance your recommendation to hire process

Focusing in on and optimizing your rec-to-hire process will contribute to more effective hiring decisions and successful candidate selections.

“This is the big show for us. This process is one of the only processes you do that will impact every stakeholder. HR, applicants, everyone. Ours starts with a supervisor and they tell me a little bit about the person and any other details on a digital form (it’s also important to make sure they have buy-in on the form). Then it immediately comes into the HR department. My rec to hire process responds to the applicant that did get the job and the applicants that didn’t get the job.”

Sundie

6 key takeaways for improving the employee experience

Hear it from the experts themselves:

1. You need a “forever process.”

“Are the processes that are in place in your district reliable on a person? If so, they aren’t sustainable. To maximize efficiency and guarantee that efficiency is ongoing…it can’t be reliant on the skillset of one individual on your team. You have to push the envelope. You want it to be a forever process. Not something that just works for today.”

Sundie

2. Managing the employee experience is also about your culture.

“It’s critical to make sure the employee experience is well done, and manual processes can make that difficult. Employee experience relates to how them come to us, how they exist with us, and how they leave us. All three have to be aligned because this is your brand.”

Mitchell

3. Speed is the name of the game.

“If you’re not offering a job within 1-2 days of the interview, that applicant is gone. That’s the nature of the beast. Speed is of the essence. You need a process that is fast, accurate, and able to reach a lot of people at one time.”

Sundie

4. It’s all about oversight, insight, and foresight.

“In HR and human capital management, having oversight means you have position and vacancy visibility. Having insight means you have proactive recruitment, centralized onboarding, and a professional growth journey. Having foresight means you’re managing your people through predictive data and analytics.”

Mitch

5. Consider your stakeholders.

“In every process, are you touching every stakeholder? Whether it’s a superintendent, custodial supervisor, principal, a bus driver applicant, a parent…it has to be easy. You have to consider how every process is going to impact that stakeholder.”

Sundie

6. Technology and human capital management software is the answer.

“Technology gives you proactive visibility, from resignation to budget changes, all the way to a new neighborhood being built.”

Mitch

3 must haves when looking for a sustainable system

Now that you have a list of best practices for managing the employee experience, you might be ready to look into automating and streamlining the process.

When looking for a high-quality system to bring into your district, it’s important to ensure that it streamlines recruiting and hiring, onboarding, and training of new employees while also meeting the professional growth needs of a diverse workforce at the same time.

These are the three must haves for your new HR System as defined by Mitchell in the discussion:

Data entry and reporting has to be easy, accurate, and available on-demand.
The system has to manage the employee lifecycle from interview to hiring and onboarding, all the way through retention.
The system has to be intuitive and easy to navigate for all stakeholders.

Ready to improve the employee experience in your district?
You can learn more here

How to Do More with Less in Human Resources

In today’s digital age, a world of information is available at our fingertips. Groceries can be delivered with a click of a button and video reels are bite-sized and easily digestible. It’s all about instant access and connectivity!

But take a moment to reflect on the systems you have in place in your district. Do candidates fill out a paper application, or wait to receive a thick onboarding packet through (what feels like) snail mail? If this sounds familiar, you’re likely already aware of the obstacles that come hand in hand with manual and paper processes like these. They’re inefficient, time-consuming, and expensive.

So how can districts bring that instant access and connectivity into their schools to really “do more with less” in the digital age? With the right tools and technology in place, district leaders can optimize their operations, reduce manual workloads, and improve efficiency all while working toward creating an outstanding educational experience for students.

Doing more with recruiting and hiring.

By automating the most time-consuming aspects of HR processes, Human Resource teams can free up hours in their day and finally focus on their people instead of paperwork.

Here are a few areas in which going digital can help districts do more with less in recruiting and hiring:

Job postings and applications: If you’re still recruiting with paper-based applications and job postings, chances are you’re missing out on qualified educators. In today’s world, job-seekers are turning to online job boards and first! Automating your recruiting strategies will allow you to proactively advertise your postings and help you deepen your applicant pools by reaching thousands of educators across the country.
Applicant tracking: With an applicant tracking system, you can keep track of vacancies, communicate effectively with applicants, and filter through applications to weed out unqualified candidates.
Video interviews: It can be hard to find time during the week to schedule an interview, especially if the applicant is looking to move from another district. On-demand interviews are an easy way to improve the candidate experience and help you maximize your schedule.
Onboarding: What if you didn’t have to start the onboarding process by sending out a packet of paper? From sending new hire welcome emails to customizing documents, going digital with your onboarding processes will allow your new hires to fill out everything electronically, so they’ll be ready to go even before their first day.

District Spotlight: Doing more with less

“It has streamlined our process and minimizes the risk of losing documents. You can allow different administrators, principals, and employees to see different parts of each program and what is specific to their role in the district.”

Suzie Gerhardt, Human Resources Director, Circleville City Schools

Getting the full picture of employee attendance.

Managing employee attendance doesn’t have to be stressful. But spending your day calling substitutes on the phone, chasing down paper timesheets, or manually calculating payroll can certainly leave everyone feeling like they’re scrambling.

With tools that help you manage your employee absences in one place and make it seamless to find qualified substitutes, you can rest easy knowing the right educators are in place at the right time (and that you’re in compliance).

Securing substitutes: Remember Apple’s old commercial that featured the phrase “There’s an app for that”? Well, when it comes to quickly finding substitutes, there really is an app! Make it easier for your substitutes to accept jobs around the clock (even outside school hours).
Absence trends: If you can stay on top of absence trends in your district, you can proactivity address opportunities to improve employee experience. For example, if you see Thursday is your “high-absence” day, you can avoid scheduling professional development on a Thursday.
Compliance and labor laws: Paper timesheets can lead to errors. Automating all aspects of your time and attendance processes from the collection of time through the application of pay rules, can help you ensure you’re compliant with state and federal labor laws like ACA, FSLA, and FMLA.

District Spotlight: Doing more with less

“Automating systems has really improved our culture in the HR office. From being able to process things quicker and cleaner to eliminating some of the time we were using on the old system, it’s been a win-win all the way around.”

Rusty Stecker, Executive Director of Human Resources, Broken Arrow Public Schools

Supporting professional learning and collaboration.

Professional development isn’t one-size-fits-all. In order to address every educator’s unique professional growth needs, it’s critical to be able to create individual PD plans and provide an online space for your staff to build a culture of learning.

Take back your time while giving your teachers the personalized learning experiences they need and deserve.

Goal-aligned learning opportunities: What if your teachers could access a digital catalog of goal-aligned learning opportunities that are online, out-of-district, or even conferences? This can ultimately enable your staff to take an active role in their own professional growth.
The evaluation process: With a digital employee evaluation system, you can focus on actual feedback instead of forms. You’ll be able to manage every component of the teacher evaluation process, from goal-setting to in-class observations! Simplifying evaluations opens up more room for your educators to engage in discussions about teacher practice.
Individualized professional learning: If teachers can get a view of the professional development they’ve completed, they can understand what’s still in progress and what potential courses align to their personal goals.

Are you ready to do more with less in your district? Learn More

Explore by ROLE

frontline resources

MEET FRONTLINE

Related Resource:

What are Data-Based Decision Support Systems?

Leveraging DDS for Enhanced Communication

How Three Districts Have Utilized DDS

What Are “Use It or Lose It” Funds?

Investing in Recruitment and Retention Efforts

Handpicked Content:

Strengthening Employee Wellness and Work-Life Balance

Handpicked Content:

Enhancing Professional Development Programs

Handpicked Content:

Monitoring and Evaluating the Impact

The Takeaway

Related Resource: Field Trip: Analytics in Collective Bargaining

The Importance of Community Involvement

Answering Questions Around Absences

1. Are you able to fill absences with substitute teachers?

2. How does our substitute usage compare year over year?

3. What are the reasons for staff absences?

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Understanding Your Recruiting Efforts

4. What positions are still available and for how long?

5. Do we have a diverse candidate pool?

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Assessing Professional Growth Progression

6. What learning opportunities are we offering to our staff?

7. Who has completed training sessions?

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1. Develop a Comprehensive Mental Health Policy

2. Provide Mental Health Training to Staff and Faculty

3. Hire a Designated Mental Health Professional

4. Implement a Process for Identifying and Supporting Students with Mental Health Concerns

5. Develop Partnerships with Community Mental Health Organizations

6. Implement a Suicide Prevention Plan

7. Provide Mental Health Resources and Support to Families

8. Provide Mental Health Resources and Support Outside of School Hours

Supporting student mental health is a critical component of promoting student success.Assess if your district is Mental Health Ready:

Quiz – Is Your District Mental Health Ready?

Professional Development Activities Completed

The key takeaways

Professional Development Hours Completed

The key takeaways

Analyzing Professional Development in Your District

1. Update and Organize Student Records

2. Collaborate with Stakeholders

3. Enhance Training and Professional Development

4. Evaluate Service Providers

5. Streamline Documentation Processes

6. Strengthen Partnerships

7. Plan for Staffing and Scheduling

8. Update Medicaid Policies and Procedures

9. Plan for Outreach and Enrollment

1. Data Quality:

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2. User-Friendliness:

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3.Security:

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4.Scalability:

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5. Data Visualization:

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Relevant Case Studies:

1. Implement an electronic health record system.

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2. Ensure that school health providers are trained on privacy regulations and how to handle student health information.

3. Adopt consistent policies regarding the privacy of student data.

4. Ensure that vendors are equally committed to protecting student data.

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5. Work with parents and educators to promote informed consent about how student data is managed.

Question #1: How can you evaluate district programs using comparative analytics?

Step 1: Identify – Identify the programs you want to compare to your peers.

Step 2: Peer Groups – Think about what peer groups you want to consider.

Step 3: Measure & Report – How do you use your results to strengthen your programs?

Question #2: How Do We Track Program Spending Throughout the Year and Compare It to Our Budget?

Step 1: Identify – Identify the programs you want to track spending on and identify those with elements of your account code string:

Step 2: Examine – Track those programs with identified budget codes.

Supporting student mental health is a critical component of promoting student success.
Assess if your district is Mental Health Ready:

Question #1:
How can you evaluate district programs using comparative analytics?

Question #2:
How Do We Track Program Spending Throughout the Year and Compare It to Our Budget?

Question #3:
Where to Start with Student Performance and Program Evaluation?

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