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Advisor Spotlight: Dr. CyLynn Braswell

Of the things we’re most grateful for at Frontline, at the top of the list is the chance to come alongside school districts in their work to provide the best educational opportunities for every student.

One way we do this is with our team of Advisors. These talented folks, many of whom have years or even decades of real-world experience working in school districts, are uniquely qualified to help districts solve modern problems.

Dr. CyLynn Braswell is a student data guru with over two decades of experience in the field. In this video, she talks about her love for data and analytics, along with some of her favorite stories from Frontline clients.

Check out our spotlight with CyLynn below.


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Front & Center: Superintendent James Craig

Our formative years in school look different from person to person, but one thing is true for all of us: we owe a hard-to-quantify debt to the people who work in education. For most of us, teachers immediately spring to mind — and rightly so! Yet countless others also work to make sure schools can operate. In this series, we’re highlighting some of these everyday superheroes and asking them to share their expertise.

James Craig is in his fourth year as the superintendent at Sibley-Ocheyedan Community Schools in Sibley, Iowa. This year marks his 25th year in education. With a background in music education, he also served for four years as a principal at Southwest Valley High School in Corning, Iowa. Married with three kids, he is also a volunteer church musician, a member of the Rotary and the Sibley Chamber, and enjoys golf and community service.

What was your first job in education?

My first position was elementary and high school band at North Kossuth CSD in Swea City, Bancroft and Ledyard, IA. It was a unique situation to follow Miss Kaufman, who had had a successful program, especially in marching band. The color guard instructor, Betty Lou, trained me more than anyone else in how to relate to students, work with others on a team, and work through conflict.

I learned a great deal from each of the positions I served in, met my wife while working at Orient-Macksburg, and developed my leadership skills at Nodaway Valley. I coached play and speech, was webmaster, and served as activities director. This experience allowed me to see several different aspects of how things worked outside my classroom.

At Nodaway Valley, I was a member of the curriculum lead team and worked with teams of teachers to learn, implement, and evaluate our professional development. It was at NV that I was encouraged by a principal to go after my master’s in educational leadership. I had never thought about being an administrator up to that point, but after the first class in the cohort I was hooked.

Southwest Valley High School (Corning, IA) hired me to be their principal in 2015. I was excited to take my leadership skills out of just my classroom or just my small teacher group and work with staff and students at the building level. During this time, I did a lot of the same things that I did in the classroom more extensively. I led professional development, worked with teacher groups and a curriculum lead team, and worked to develop a building climate where staff and students felt safe and supported. This work at the building level fueled my desire to reach out to bigger and bigger groups of people. Working toward a superintendent certification seemed like a natural step in the progression and achieving this position has started to fill my bucket for professional needs. It is a thrill to come to work every day to work on building a destination district for our stakeholders and communities.

If you could give any advice to yourself at the beginning of your career, what would it be?

Build relationships first. They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. All the clichés. 😁 Seriously, making sure people know you are seeking out authentic communication and intently listening to those you meet are two of the most important things, even before content knowledge and teaching techniques in most cases.

Avoid acting like you know everything. Go back to relationships. Make connections with other employees in the building, including secretaries, custodians, and other staff. Support the other things going on in the school, not just what happens in your own classroom. Be a good team member and student advocate.

Ask questions. Any administrator I’ve ever had has wanted me to ask questions instead of messing up something important right away or just not doing it at all because I didn’t know what to do. As a music teacher, I had to know about registration dates, membership fees, purchase orders, where to look for money and who to ask for it. Ask questions, and ask again. We have great mentoring setups now with mentor/mentee programs and TLC support positions – when I started it was just the principal. It’s scary to develop a supportive relationship with the person that is evaluating you. Now you have a mentor, a buddy or instructional coach, department colleagues, veteran teachers who just know the ropes…new teachers have a team that can include the principal, which gives so many more options for collaboration and collegiality.

What is one skill every superintendent should have?

One of my favorite quotes is from President Eisenhower, who is credited with saying, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

That may seem somewhat manipulative, but I prefer to think of it as a negotiating skill. You have to be able to argue both sides of a situation, then advocate for the side you believe is the right solution for your students. I believe every superintendent should be able to have a conversation with someone that disagrees with them and come out in agreement for the best solution in the end. When you are trying to implement an initiative, you have to be able to get buy-in and see the project through.

What was your biggest “win” over the last year, and how did you achieve it?

My biggest win was getting a new pay structure approved for teachers, providing equal raises for all teachers instead of a stepladder format that rewarded new teachers and discouraged veteran teachers. There is now a negotiated amount that teachers receive, and a bonus for those teachers who have already completed their master’s. We also eliminated lanes and consolidated lane increases to reward teachers sooner for working toward their master’s degree. The plan is also forecasted to be more cost-effective for the school district than a stepladder pay scale. When it’s a win for everyone, it’s a big win.

How does using data and analytics help you plan for and address challenges in your school district?

I appreciate the ability to show my board finance team what happens to our unspent balance when we spend different funds and talk about negotiations. I can show what will happen based on our projected revenues and expenditures, and a more realistic scenario with projected unspent balance carryover. As a newer superintendent, [Frontline Analytics] has helped me learn about school finance and feel confident in our financial position. What should have been the most difficult thing about transitioning to the superintendency has been one of the most successful parts of my term!

What is the best creative idea you have had as a superintendent that has made a difference in your role?

My superintendent’s vlog gets me into classrooms and around the district more than I might be without this tool. This is the fourth season of the vlog, with over 100 episodes in publication so far on YouTube. I interview new teachers, students, and guests, as well as provide pictures and updates on what is going on in the district. I can take the pictures and videos, upload to my computer, then do the “anchoring” from the desk in my office. Not only has it been a good communication tool between the district and our stakeholders, but as I mentioned before, I get into classrooms more frequently and with deeper intent than if I just stopped in to say hello.

I also played Santa. That was pretty fun. I don’t sing like the one superintendent who has a new song for each of his weather announcements. Me before coffee isn’t very entertaining.

What will change most in education over the next 10 years?

At the state and national level, public education is going through a transformation — the most significant one I’ve seen in my 25 years in education. We have so many virtual distance education opportunities now that I think a completely online school on a local level will not be out of the question. I’m sad to see this become a reality, as there is no substitute for a quality parent-teacher-student relationship and society doesn’t know how to create that relationship on the other side of a screen.

What are you most hopeful about for the future of education?

Our students at Sibley-Ocheyedan have survived the effects of the pandemic and are on the other side with little to no loss of learning. Our teachers, support staff and administrators have worked tirelessly to get through the toughest time in education any of them have experienced to date. Now that the pandemic is behind us, I am hopeful we can get back to education, back to increasing student achievement, and back to a culture that supports and holds up our public education system.

Preparing Substitutes for the Classroom

It’s a story familiar to many school leaders: teachers are absent, and there aren’t enough substitute teachers to meet the need. Classes are combined, other teachers give up their planning periods, and paraprofessionals or administrators are compelled to fill in. In any case, student learning is derailed, and other staff lose valuable time to plan and complete their own work. It’s not sustainable. Before the pandemic further exacerbated the substitute shortage, over 4 million teacher absences went unfilled nationally. That means more than one in every five teacher absences had no substitute. This translates to about 250,000,000 days of individual student learning that were disrupted — in less than a single school year.

What can state education leaders do to ease the substitute teacher shortage burden? Some states have recently addressed their substitute teacher shortage with legislative changes, a modification to substitute teacher licensing requirements, and a partnership with Frontline.

That partnership has resulted in over 4,000 new substitutes who are eligible to work in the classroom. But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. Let’s dig into how we got here.

Barriers to Entry

To exacerbate the teacher shortage, many schools face a substitute shortage, too. While it’s crucial that substitutes are qualified to be in the classroom, aspiring substitutes face extensive state requirements, creating a significant barrier to entry. To apply for a substitute teaching license, state laws require an individual to complete anywhere from 24 to 60 semester hours (or more) of college-level credit. However, these requirements don’t always specify the type of coursework needed to fulfill credit hours, meaning there’s no guarantee that the substitutes meeting those state requirements have taken relevant coursework. In Illinois, the state requirement for a short-term substitute license is 60 credit hours. This requirement may serve as a barrier to entry for many individuals because according to a recent survey conducted by the Illinois Association of Regional School Superintendents (IARSS), 96% of school districts have cited a scarcity of substitute teachers and 90% reported the substitute shortage continues to get worse.

So how can school districts overcome these barriers to entry for future substitutes to ensure student learning goes uninterrupted?

Fast Fact: According to a recent EdWeek survey, 77% of school district
leaders across the nation reported difficulties in hiring enough substitutes.

Enhancing Accessibility for Substitutes

For the states who chose to partner with Frontline to address this national problem, the first step was to make substitute certification more accessible. Some state leaders have passed an amendment and emergency rule to approve an alternative route to become a substitute teacher through completion of a training course.

To ensure the training was high-quality, these school boards developed a rubric to determine the criteria and then sought out a partner to provide the training content. Frontline Education is a partner that offers individuals the ability to obtain their certification to become a substitute teacher in select states through completing Frontline Substitute Teacher Training, as approved by the state departments.

The training consists of twelve comprehensive online courses specifically designed for substitute teachers. Each course aligns to teaching standards and covers topics such as classroom management, instructional strategies, and supporting students with special needs. Upon completion, individuals receive a Frontline Certificate of Completion demonstrating their readiness to obtain a substitute teacher license. Not only will substitutes have the confidence of knowing they’re prepared to enter the classroom, but districts will also have the assurance that the most qualified substitutes are filling teacher absences.

Frontline Substitute Teacher Training’s self-paced courses cover the following topics:
  • Leadership
  • Working with At-Risk Students
  • Professionalism & Ethics
  • Diversity Awareness
  • Legal Obligations
  • Classroom Management
  • Instructional Strategies
  • Working with Students with Special Needs
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The Results

In the first six months, over 4,000 individuals enrolled in the Frontline Substitute Teacher Training, adding 4,000 educators to the eligible substitute teacher pool. Performance scores for substitutes, determined by ratings from the classroom teacher, show no difference between the traditional and alternative certification pathways. Providing consistent training to all incoming substitute teachers ensures substitutes have the skills they need to be successful. In turn, school and district leaders have the confidence of knowing the individuals that staff their classrooms are qualified, and students have a prepared substitute teacher — so their learning continues uninterrupted even when their teacher is absent.

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A Small (Yet Powerful) Tool for Consistency of Care in Your District

When you think about templates, you might not imagine the most exciting work. Even the word “template” feels a little dry. And because templates are all about making processes universal, you might not imagine individualized care.

And yet, templates are a way to empower school health professionals to focus less on paperwork, and more on students, something that benefits both the provider and the patient. So yes, it is totally reasonable to get excited about templates.

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Districts are facing countless challenges everyday: Student mental health is in crisis, there’s an ongoing school nurse shortage, and schools are being asked to provide greater care for students. According to a survey from the National Education Association, “90% of [teachers] say feeling burned out is a serious problem.” That statistic might not feel new to you, but you might have assumptions about teachers’ ideas for addressing that burnout. Interestingly, two top ways teachers suggested to address educator burnout were providing mental health support and eliminating paperwork with 94% and 90% support respectively.

Burnout is a challenge that so many working people face, for all kinds of reasons. And that diversity of reasons makes it challenging to tackle. There’s no magic cure or easy way to make the problem disappear.

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But rather than feeling overwhelmed by the challenge ahead, let’s flip the script. Let’s make incremental positive changes that add up over time for your staff and providers.

Templates, specifically those you’ll find in an electronic health records system, offer an opportunity to cut down on unnecessary paperwork for providers while making the necessary forms (and the providers who fill them out) more effective.

Accurate documentation is foundational to a school nurse’s success, and with so much on school nurses’ plates, templates purpose-built for K-12 school nursing can go a long way in making their day-to-day work lives better.

So how do templates relate to consistency of care?

To achieve consistency of care, you’ll need effective communication, collaboration, and coordination. And, as you might have guessed, templates can help you with each of those areas.

“Templates, specifically those you’ll find in an electronic health records system, offer an opportunity to cut down on unnecessary paperwork for providers while making the necessary forms (and the providers who fill them out) more effective.”

Communication

Let’s explore the idea of communication from two different perspectives, based on the student’s needs, and how templates can impact the student’s care.

A Student Returning from a Residential Treatment Center

If a student has spent time in a residential treatment center, they’ll enter their school with a detailed plan of care. It’s entirely possible — and even likely — that a host of educators, providers, and health professionals will be responsible to carry out that plan at the school.

Of course, documenting those encounters will make supporting that student even more effective, allowing the team to communicate about the support the student is receiving.

Without operational definitions to keep everyone on the same page, students’ behaviors and conditions could be described differently based on the person they saw last.

For this student, templates can help ensure that no step in their care plan is missed. Templates also help the district with state reporting so that providers don’t have to keep a mental checklist of what to include in session notes.

A Student with Diabetes

If a student has a medical condition like diabetes, templates are helpful to their providers, too.

Whether it’s documenting a quick encounter in the nurse’s office or pulling up medication history for the student, it’s crucial to be able to locate historical data for the child quickly.

When every encounter is documented in the same way, it’s much easier — and faster — to absorb that information and be able to act accordingly.

And templates are designed to do exactly that: make it easy to document encounters in the same format every time the child is seen, so even if you have a substitute nurse for the day, they’ll be better prepared to offer quality care to the child.

School health providers communicate with so many stakeholders on any given day. Communicating with parents and guardians is central to that work. Utilizing templates and having an easy, secure way to share them with a child’s caretakers helps build positive relationships.

Clarity is intricately linked to communication, and if you’ve read any Brené Brown, you’ve likely heard or seen the phrase “clear is kind.” Templates, in all their simple glory, are clear. Templates, in their own special (and sometimes dry) way, are kind.

Collaboration

Although we’re moving on to collaboration, we’re not necessarily moving away from communication, because communication is so integral to effective collaboration. Take interpretation, for instance.

Interpretation is on the flip side of documentation. If a student is seeing multiple specialists in a school, each specialist might be in a situation where they are interpreting the documentation from another specialist’s encounter with that student. Or, thinking about a substitute nurse, they might be in a situation where they are scanning a student’s record before prescribing medication.

Templates can help create clarity around health protocols, vital information, and trends to ensure that no matter the number of specialists involved in a student’s care, everyone is set up for success to better support that student.

Collaboration also happens internally in the district, especially when you consider the Medicaid billing process. Your templates should provide direction around the kinds of information needed to submit claims to Medicaid. And if you’re planning to take advantage of something like school-based Medicaid expansion through Free Care, you’re going to need detailed plans of care to support claims.

For some students, the school nurse is the only health professional they will see over the course of a year. According to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, “more than one in ten (10.2%) uninsured children went without needed care due to cost in 2019 compared to less than 1% of children with private insurance. Furthermore, one in five (20.0%) uninsured children had not seen a doctor in the past year compared to 3.5% for both children with public and private coverage.” If your district has a higher population of uninsured students, your school nurses and other health professionals may experience greater pressure. Reducing paperwork is one simple way to reduce the pressure on these vital members of your school community.

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Coordination

Both of our first areas of focus — communication and collaboration — are required for excellent coordination. When you have a plan of care, something you might see with students coming from residential treatment centers, you might notice that those plans are not always supported in your SIS. Especially when you’re dealing with sensitive counseling session information, your SIS might not be equipped to handle the nuance needed for mental and behavioral health plans.

So even if your SIS does offer templates as part of a health module, they might not be sufficient depending on your district’s needs.

With the ongoing staffing shortage, your students may encounter different educators who have different specialties. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) recommends a ratio of 1 school psychologist per 500 students. In contrast, the current NASP data estimates an actual ratio of 1 per 1,211 students on average. That means that multiple people of varying experience levels will likely be supporting students, and supporting students’ health might not be their primary role in the school. That makes it all the more important that they are equipped with easy ways to document their encounters thoroughly to maintain compliance.

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Of course, your district’s experience might be entirely different. If you’re in a larger district, you might be facing the challenges associated with running your own clinics and having more people involved at different stages of each process. Data integrity and uniformity can become crucial in those instances. Conversely, in a small district, you might have one person responsible for a wide array of processes, meaning they’d benefit from shortcuts that don’t negatively impact the care they offer to students. No matter the size of your district, whether you’re an urban or rural school, or the unique challenges you face, your goal is to provide every student with consistent care. Templates can make it easier to achieve that goal.

How you can support consistency of care

As you might have guessed, we’re fans of templates as a way to support consistency of care for a few reasons:

  1. They make health providers’ jobs easier
  2. They help your district maintain compliance
  3. They save time for both providers and administrators
  4. They help providers offer excellent care to students

Those are just a few reasons to consider implementing templates if you haven’t already. And if you have already implemented templates, don’t forget to take a look at all of the ways you can use them. If you use a system like Frontline School Health Management, you’ll find so many wonderful uses.

Frontline School Health Management has so many wonderful features, and templates are just the beginning. You can learn more about Frontline School Health Management here.

3 Ways to Demystify Benefits Open Enrollment

Every year, benefits season rolls around. And every year, HR departments rev up their engines and kick into high gear to prepare their districts for open enrollment. Though the specific timeframe for enrollment may vary by state, the amount of hard work and preparation that goes into it does not.

But when it comes to navigating benefits, sometimes it feels like wandering through a thick layer of fog with no clear path to take. From insurance jargon to sorting through stacks of paperwork, benefits enrollment can leave employees feeling dazed and confused. The process is complex and complicated for all parties involved, so it’s no surprise that benefit literacy is generally low. According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP), nearly half of employees in the United States don’t understand their benefits.

A closer look into benefit literacy:

Source: Voya Financial Consumer Survey

With that statistic in mind, it’s important to ask: how can school districts relieve the confusion their employees face and the arduous tasks their HR teams tackle during benefit season?

One district, Spring Grove Area School District, automated their processes into one system to make benefits open enrollment a whole lot simpler for their employees. One teacher described the new process as “settling for my brain, my heart, and my wallet.” How can you do the same for your teachers?

Communicate Clearly, Concisely, and Creatively

Employees need a detailed understanding of what benefits they’re choosing to feel secure and calm about the process. To make selections that suit their personal and familial needs best, they’ll need information and support. Think about the “three c’s” as you prepare to communicate effectively with your staff:

  • Be clear: Insurance jargon is confusing. What’s an out-of-pocket maximum? What does HSA-eligible even mean? Remove ambiguity wherever you can. Speak and write in the simplest of terms.
  • Be concise: If your staff receives a massive benefit handbook, will they actually read it? Keep it simple, keep it short, and if you need to share a long document, find a way to review it in simple terms.
  • Be creative: Don’t be afraid to mix up your delivery methods. Every individual has a different learning style. Cover all the bases by offering multimodal and multi-channel communications — varying your methods will increase engagement.

Offer Support Beyond the Open Enrollment Period

Open enrollment may be seasonal, but benefits sure aren’t — it’s crucial to keep the conversation going all year long. In doing so, districts can help their employees stay engaged with their benefits, understand how their annual plan works, and better prepare them for the next open enrollment season.

And when it comes to qualifying life events, employees need easily-accessible support at any given time. By offering year-round support, employees will know exactly where to turn, and frustrating scenarios like this can be avoided all together. Throughout the year:

  • Create a 12-month communication calendar: This is a great opportunity to visually outline what conversation is the most valuable to your employees each month. Perhaps it’s a back-to-school annual physical reminder or a telehealth information session information session during flu season.
  • Promote a wellness campaign: Get your staff on a health kick with events like a nutritional challenge, an employee field day, or a meditation-station.
  • Get feedback: Generate a survey and ask your employees what’s working well vs. what’s not. Do they want more creative resources? Do they want monthly reminders on how their benefit plan actually works?
  • Send reminders throughout the year: If health care plans offer free preventative care such as vaccines, screenings, checkups, nurse resources, health tools, and other options even before they meet their deductible, schedule regular communications reminding employees to get the most from their benefits.

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Ditch Paper — Go Digital

If your open enrollment season is still a series of manual processes, your HR team might:

  • Find it hard to locate records
  • Struggle to read illegible handwriting on forms
  • Waste time updating inaccurate employee information,
  • Face redundant data entry

Not only that, but stacks of paperwork can often feel daunting and even tamper the enrollment experience for new hires. So it’s time to reflect on a few questions:

  1. How much time does your team spend transcribing written data?
  2. How many pages is your employee benefits packet?
  3. How long do you spend tracking down or updating employee information?

Are your answers a little (or a lot) higher than you would like them to be? If so, it’s probably time to ditch the paper. When you make the switch to a digital benefits process, your district will cut costs and save time, and employees will have a fuller understanding of benefits enrollment.

Benefits of Going Digital:

  • With self-enrollment, employees can make their own benefits decisions
  • The employee experience is improved through increased flexibility
  • HR teams can provide a greater level of support to their employees
  • Countless trees are saved through more sustainable processes

Do More With Frontline HRMS

Are you ready to start your journey toward demystifying benefits enrollment in your district? Frontline HRMS can help.

With Frontline, staff will be able to digitally…

  • Select and enroll in benefits packages
  • Adjust life/qualifying events as situations change
  • Change contact information with the click of a button
  • Access pertinent information pertaining to individual plans

Learn more about benefits management with Frontline HRMS.

“Trying to manage benefits without a system is, very honestly, impossible. [With a system] you can keep track of information, put the decision-making in the hands of the employees, allow them to make their own selections, and produce the information about those selections to various vendors to update the plan selection.”

Angie Doll
Director of Human Resources

Erin Shelton

Erin is a writer and member of the award-winning content team at Frontline Education. With experience in education, she is passionate about creating content that helps to support and impact the growth of both students and teachers.

How District Leaders Can Address Challenges with the Power of Analytics

In today’s K-12 landscape, school leaders face a host of challenges that seem to have only been exacerbated since the pandemic. Ongoing barriers to a quality education workforce, interrupted learning and widening academic gaps, increased social emotional need, inequitable access to opportunity, uncertain stimulus-boosted budgets and heightened pressure to demonstrate meaningful growth and change are just a handful of important strategies that remain top of mind for school leaders as they work to establish, measure, and refine plans that will positively impact student outcomes.

As a way to combat these challenges, many school leaders rely on data to guide the planning process. Data usage within K-12 really runs the gamut, from districts reviewing stock reports at the highest level all the way to Chief Financial Officers drilling down into financial granularity on a daily basis. And while many school districts may be rich with data, they oftentimes find themselves wading through piles of information, lacking strategic insights that could help to establish benchmarks, accelerate planning, and guide decision-making.

The Role of Analytics

Analytics can change all that and have the potential to significantly impact how we manage and deliver education by identifying efficiencies, targeting financial and student-focused opportunities, and ensuring teacher quality, among other things. Specifically for financial leaders, leveraging easy-to-use yet sophisticated analytics tools can easily examine and analyze data to determine how things are trending, and where they are going, while also having the ability to provide evidence-based, digestible reporting to stakeholders within a district.


Stock accounting system reports are often too difficult for stakeholders to understand. Having data analytics systems in place enable the CFO to quickly provide easy-to-read and understand reports with the click of a button.

Providing a multi-year forecast is imperative to determining the path to maintaining a district’s fiscal stability. Financial Analytics solutions help districts efficiently build annual budgets and multi-year projections and model scenarios and future impacts to increase transparency and ensure their budget stays on track despite the impact of COVID-19. As important, a forecast rooted in data and analytics can help protect a district from the impact of unstable or unsustainable revenue sources, such as ESSER funding. While a district may have the cash to afford something in the near term, how will it impact the long-term budget of the district? What revenue streams will the district need to support the operations of the district? How can a district easily model different scenarios and illustrate the financial impact?


The visual above illustrates how school districts can use data analytic systems to quickly analyze the impact specific financial decisions will have on the fiscal stability of a school district. In this case, the visual is showing the property millage needed to overcome the projected budget shortfall.

Budget and financial analytics will certainly help to contribute to a well-thought-out, comprehensive plan. As financial leaders conduct the financial planning and monitoring process, whether it be monthly, quarterly, or annually, it may also be helpful to assess how one school district stands in comparison to another based on common districts characteristics such as size, location, or demographics. By studying comparisons and identifying contrasts, school leaders can develop a deep understanding of contrasting performance and variations at the district and school level, which may reveal new insights that drive new decisions.


Having the ability to quickly select, filter and visualize data enables school districts to gain valuable insight. The graphic above shows how a school district can quickly inquire about the compensation levels of their staff in relation to other school districts in their area.

Analytics in Action

Analytics tools provide school leaders with the ability to see and understand macro and micro indicators, and also provide access to historical content as a way of evaluating past, current, and future trends.

Bill Wade, Chief Financial Officer at Mentor Schools in Ohio, recently adopted analytics in his organization to help set and drive strategy. Using financial, budget, and comparative analytics, the newly appointed CFO was able to establish a formal budgeting system that would address the organization’s short-term needs, but also help to maintain long-term fiscal stability. Wade has become an avid user of the analytics platforms, relying on some of the tools, such as forecasting and scenario reporting, on a weekly-to-monthly basis to support budgetary decision-making and to increase communications transparency with the Board and community.

Wade commented, “Working with Frontline Analytics has empowered me to understand our budget and spending behaviors so we can make informed decisions for the betterment of our schools. The data allows us to see what is on track, what we can and cannot control, and most importantly, how to be more efficient so our operations are sound and have the ability to thrive. Frontline’s Analytics platforms are easy to use, help school leaders evaluate data in an efficient matter, and the reporting is digestible and compelling for all audiences. There’s also a tremendous amount of advisory and professional development that comes along with the tools. I can’t imagine being able to do my job successfully without the support of data and analytics.”

Why School Leaders Should Embrace Analytics

Nuances in K-12 education make it hard for districts to adopt the larger or more generic analytics tools. This can be a barrier to entry for many districts that don’t have the resources or know-how to manage complex data systems. It’s important to use tools designed specifically to manage K-12 data. Having the ability to use data in the manner in which a school needs, with the click of one or two buttons to preview trend data, make projections, and produce professional, visually compelling reports, is invaluable. Analytics tools help to automate processes around the financial activity of a district, which should ultimately help to increase efficiencies so leaders can continue to focus on strategic initiatives that benefit students.


Automated visuals, like the one above, easily allow the CFO to determine how their current projected cash flow is trending in relation to the forecast last approved by the BOE. It also allows the CFO to determine what further revenue and expense areas they may need to research.

Reprinted with permission from the Ohio School Boards Association.

Getting School District Employees Buy-in for A New Time Tracking System

Sometimes, change is hard — even when it’s for the better. It’s relatively easy to get staff buy-in for things like dress-down days, unlimited printing or discount programs. But other changes can be a little harder to rally your employees around, even when the switch is integral to the school district’s operations.

Take time tracking, for example. Having an accurate picture of employee time is a key part of staying compliant with labor laws and managing the district’s expenses, but moving to a new time tracking system is rarely on any employee’s wish list. Even so, you want to make sure that your people are on board as much as possible when you make a change that affects their work day.

So, how can you make a new time tracking system a win-win for you and your employees?

1. Be open about why you’re moving to the new time tracking system

People always appreciate honesty, so be upfront about the reasons why the district is making the change. If it’s to keep costs under control, it’s okay to say so — everyone knows that school district budgets are tight, but it’s not as well-known that organizations overpay by an average 1.2% due to payroll errors. And according to research by the American Payroll Association, payroll errors could cost anywhere from 1% to 8% of your annual gross payroll if your organization uses paper-based time cards. So, explain that moving to an electronic time tracking system will save the district money, without needing to make cuts.

Or, you may be moving to a new system to improve accountability. Maybe you’ve found that employees work additional hours off the clock in order to get their work done, and need to make sure that all of your employees are compensated fairly for their time. Or perhaps you’ve had issues with “buddy-punching”, where one employee clocks in on another’s behalf. Consider being transparent about the effect this behavior has had on the school district’s finances.

2. Make sure you pick a time tracking system that works for employees and the school district

First and foremost: when you move to a new time tracking system, make sure that it’s the best one for the district. It can be demoralizing for employees (and your payroll office) to jump from one system to another, to another, and yet another ad infinitum in search of the right one. So, when you choose the new system, make sure it’ll meet everyone’s needs.

It should be flexible enough to work with K-12’s unique needs, like different employee groups, or staff who hold multiple positions or work in multiple locations. At the same time, it needs to put you in control of who can clock in where, or how.

For employees in particular, one of the most visible parts of time tracking is actually clocking in and out. The most effective clock-in/clock-out device for one group may not be best for another, so choose a system that can work with a variety of time capture methods.

Obligatory vendor note:

Time & Attendance from Frontline lets you use any compatible time-tracking device or method that works for your district: electronic timesheets, proximity scanners, biometrics, a mobile app and more. Bonus: you can use different methods for different employee groups — whatever works best for your district’s needs.

3. Communicate!

Throughout the process, communicate with your employees. In addition to being open about why the district is moving to the new system, share the reasons why you chose the new system, and address their concerns. Maybe you heard from bus drivers that the clock-in method used for other employees wasn’t working as well for them, and the new system makes sure that everyone’s needs are met.

Remember that communication goes both ways. In addition to sharing the reasons behind the change, make sure that employees feel heard. You may find they have valuable feedback that improves the overall process, and staff will feel included and respected.

Thinking of moving to a better system for tracking and managing employee time? Check out Time & Attendance. As part of Frontline Absence & Time, it works with Absence Management (formerly Aesop) to give you the full picture of employee attendance.

Learn More

A School Bus Trip to New School Year Success: School Health Edition

Growing up in Massachusetts, the school year kicked off around Labor Day in early September. I’d go to bed with my first day of school outfit picked out. And since I walked to school each day in elementary school, living just a quarter mile away, by the time I entered sixth grade I couldn’t wait to ride the bus: what would it be like?

In the new-to-me middle school building, I underwent new classes along with a host of standard health screenings. I never thought about the notes associated with my vision or hearing screenings, or asked my mom about my vaccination records. I never questioned why I was handed a stack of paper at the beginning of each school year that I was supposed to give to my parents.

You understand the importance of those notes, records, and paper stacks. You know that each new school year doesn’t happen thanks to magic, unless you consider hard work magical.

In your journey toward a successful new school year, let’s take a virtual school bus trip for a few minutes. Along the way, we’ll look at a few factors that can contribute to that success.

A School Bus Trip to New School Year Success

Each stop along the way represents something you can do to make this school year a great one for everyone at your district.





Stop One: Student Enrollment

Anyone involved in student health will require visibility into the students they’re supporting.

Of course, student enrollment is tracked in your student information system, so if you have an EHR that integrates with your SIS, you can avoid some redundant work. It’s important that providers have access to student demographics, too, so that they can better prepare for their caseloads. Student information can also help ensure that providers have enough of the prescriptions they need, too.

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When you have a good view of your student enrollment, it’s easier to be aware of any students transitioning between buildings, ensure that health providers are assigned to the correct campus, and inform providers of their assigned campus. And of course, student immunizations are another critical piece, especially for school nurses.

If you have a system like Frontline School Health Management, all of this information is easily accessible to any users whose roles require it. And important details like students’ immunization records are easily imported to the system at the time of enrollment, too. Students are the foundation of every school, so getting student enrollment right is the first stop on our way to a successful year — it’s almost like a GPS for our bus.

That GPS is taking us to scheduling next.

Stop Two: Scheduling

When you’re starting your day, you probably begin by looking at your schedule to make sure you’re prepared for any meetings. The new school year is similar, just on a larger scale. It’s ideal if you can add any non-attending days for students and/or faculty ahead of time.

Then there’s the scheduling for group events like vision and lice screenings. If your school engages parent or guardian volunteers for such events, you’ll need to communicate with them.

Depending on how many nurses, counselors, and other providers you have in your district, you may also need to think about travel time for these professionals. And if you have students who require services outside of the classroom based on their IEPs, you’ll need to coordinate with Student Services.

Stop Three: Security

Student data is more vulnerable than adult data, and it’s the district’s responsibility to keep that information safe. K12 Information Exchange releases annual reports on cybersecurity, and their reports have shown that since 2016, 1,331 incidents have been reported, with 2020 being a record-high year for security incidents.

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3 Ways Districts Can Better Handle Student Health Records
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If your system has security roles, you’ll likely need to update them to reflect any staff changes. Even if you haven’t experienced any turnover, you might have staff who didn’t require system access over the summer. Those individuals might need their access reinstated with any required edits.

Remember those stacks of papers I went home with on my first day of school? That probably wasn’t the most secure method of communicating with parents, but fortunately, there are much better ways today. Frontline’s EHR gives you and students’ guardians a user-friendly way to communicate in a secure portal.

Of course, security is relevant year-round, so part of your back-to-school prep might include reviewing and informing all staff of your district’s security procedures and information privacy policies.

We’ve got one more stop on our journey. Let’s go!

Stop Four: Tracking Services

Anyone working in Student Services might be keenly aware of the need to track services even on the first day of school, especially if you’re trying to maximize your Medicaid reimbursements. If you choose a single vendor for both your school nursing program and service tracking program, you’ll have one point of entry for submitting claims, giving you a fuller picture of how health services impact your Medicaid reimbursements, and ensuring that no eligible claims are missed.

A tip: if your state has embraced Free Care, this could be especially helpful in tracking mental health services.

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The Destination: A Fabulous New School Year!

You made it! Your providers will be ready to support students, and will feel supported themselves, making everyone’s first day of school smoother. If you have an EHR, don’t forget to check in with your vendor and review any release notes from product updates completed over the summer.

As a kid who wasn’t used to taking the bus to school, I remember the nurse’s office fondly. Our nurse helped alleviate my headaches and nausea thanks to the motion sickness brought on by the bus. Without their care, I wouldn’t have had the chance to be as focused in the classroom. Even simple student encounters can make a big difference in a student’s life and academic trajectory.

This trip flew by, much like this school year likely will, too. You’re ready!

 

Why School Referenda Fail: Research and Best Practices for Success

Results of tax referenda over time vary significantly from state to state for a variety of reasons. In any given year, however, upwards of 50% of all school referenda seeking operating money or bonding are unsuccessful.

Some factors such as demographics, the economy, anti-tax politics, and the presence of organized opposition are contributing factors and out of a district’s control. Other factors, including harnessing research-based best practices and understanding how to capture and effectively use available data sets are mostly or fully within control of leadership and the school board. Below are 10 key research-based factors associated with unsuccessful referenda. And if you are wondering why not the “Top 10 Tips for Winning,” read on after going through the list below!

1. Lack of unanimity and support from school board

Split school boards, factions of the school board working against the referendum, or perceptions that the school board is not united and supportive negatively impact referenda. Split school boards give the uninformed within the community a reason to oppose.

2. Lack of alignment in ballot proposal

Alignment in a school district’s ballot proposal has two dimensions: (1) how the new money is going to be used; and (2) the tax impact associated with the requested investment in the public schools. It is critically important that the school board and administration get both components of alignment right. One way to inform the decision about the ballot proposal is to use a well-designed scientific, random-sample survey.

3. Failure to demonstrate a compelling need and consequences (positive and negative) of the referendum

Unlike political campaigns, in which voters can identify with party affiliation and perceptions about the past record and qualifications of the candidate, school referenda are reliant on information alone:

    1. What is being proposed?
    2. How will the money be used?
    3. Why is it necessary?
    4. How much will it cost me?

To convince voters to voluntarily raise their taxes to invest in public schools requires clear and compelling information. No voter should go to the polls uninformed.

4. Controversy, lack of trust, or “climate” issues within the school district and between the school district and the community

Contentious issues are part and parcel to the business of running a school district and can be more problematic in times of financial stress. It is incumbent on the school board, administration, and staff to be mutually supportive, proactively anticipate and solve problems before they become unmanageable, initiate quality control systems, and work to strengthen relationships internally and within the community to offset the negative impact of inevitable distractions.

5. Poor public relations, communications, or hostile local media

Research clearly demonstrates the importance of effective and ongoing communications and public engagement as a foundation from which to launch a successful referendum. Maintaining a respectful and positive relationship with local media is also linked to success over time.

6. Referendum conducted prematurely

It takes the time it takes to get it right. Waiting until the school district is ready, with the prerequisite foundation in place, is best practice if the school board has the luxury of having a legitimate choice about moving forward now or waiting until the school district is better prepared and positioned for success.

7. Inadequate planning, execution, and commitment of resources (time, talent, and treasure) by school district

Executing successful referenda is complex, challenging, and dependent on good planning and the commitment of human and financial resources. Coordination between the school district’s administration of the referendum and the advocacy work of the campaign committee is paramount.

8. Inadequate planning, execution, and commitment resources (time, talent, and treasure) by campaign committee

Most successful school referenda are dependent upon a grassroots advocacy group organized to support the referendum proposal in coordination with the school district. Planning and executing a winning campaign requires commitment, expertise, and sufficient resources, particularly in the “Big Three”: communications, canvassing, and GOTV (Get Out the Vote). Poor execution of GOTV, resulting in lower than optimal turnout of key voter targets, is often a contributing factor to defeat.

9. Demographics and socioeconomic factors

There are many demographic and socioeconomic factors that affect the outcome of referenda. In terms of demographics, parents of school-age children typically make up only 15-25% of registered voters in the average school district. Aging of the baby boomers is also impactful with the count of folks over 65 years-old now greater than the total number of all K-12 students. Economic conditions and consumer confidence are also important drivers in referendum success rates. Conditions of high inflation and low consumer confidence steepen the challenge leading up to Election Day.

10. Critical or unexpected events

Factors totally outside the control of the school district can occur and adversely affect the outcome of a referendum. These critical or unexpected events could range from a stock market crash to the invasion of Ukraine to global pandemics to political polarization around such controversies as critical race theory. The timing and severity of such events have the potential to encourage organized opposition and torpedo even a well-planned referendum campaign.

So inquiring minds want to know…
Why emphasize these ten research-based factors associated with unsuccessful school referenda rather than focusing on the positive in terms of the “Top 10 Tips for Winning” as referenced in the opening paragraph?

Two reasons:

First, while the professional literature is replete with such “how to” lists (including some I have authored!), the tips are often anecdotal rather than research-based, and they tend to be tactical (e.g., our teachers took out an advertisement in the local paper) rather than “big picture” strategic.

Second, experience over time has taught me that starting with broad factors associated with unsuccessful referenda motivates school leaders to process how each factor will or could influence a future referendum in their unique environment, and then to strategically plan to eliminate or minimize the potential negative impact of a given factor. The challenge and opportunity for school leaders is to understand and analyze contextual factors (e.g., wealth, age, education level) not within the district’s control and then to act strategically on the mirror images of the factors listed above, developing a comprehensive referendum plan on a foundation of research and best practice.

Developing a winning strategy for your referendum is greatly enhanced when school leaders understand how to access and use voter data obtained from public and commercial sources in order to identify a campaign target structure that extends beyond just parents. Your voter target structure can then be harnessed by powerful geovisual software tools to support execution of canvassing, communications, and GOTV.

 

4 Myths About Asset Management

We’re that family.

The school year ended several weeks ago, but there it is, in a basket in the living room, under a pile of papers and our family’s stack of laptops (don’t judge): a school computer, issued to a child in my household, unreturned, and unaccounted for.*

It will be returned and accounted for, of course. One young member of our family, sheepish smile on her face, will carry it back into the school building as soon as we find time. Accounts will be settled, all will be right with the world technology department.

But Overlooked-Laptopgate (as I affectionately refer to this chapter in our life as members of this school community) did get me thinking:

    What if we’d never found that laptop? What if it remained unseen in the basket, languishing under old field trip forms, orphaned charging cables, and a battered Steve Jobs-era MacBook Air?

    Has the school even noticed the laptop is missing?

    Would we receive a sternly worded email, an invoice for the missing equipment, maybe a midnight knock at the door from school tech department repo-men intent on reclaiming school property?

Upon further reflection, it’s clear that I had some misconceptions about how technology is managed at my child’s school. Some colleagues who work to help districts manage assets like this told me that this experience is common — and that there are several myths about asset management that tend to come up each year.

Here are their top 4, and how you can tackle them.

Myth #1: School asset management is only for tracking devices.

Of course laptops, tablets, Chromebooks, and other 1:1 devices spring to mind when thinking about technology assets. Then add in all the other devices: printers, projectors, smartboards, TVs… the list goes on.

But those are just the tip of the iceberg. Anything on which your district spends funds should be tracked for its entire life. As audits happen, these items are often looked at first. Full information on each asset should be easy to find and report on.

What about furniture, like bookshelves, tables, and all those desk/chair combos?

How about kitchen items like refrigerators, mixers, and walk-in coolers? Or maintenance and custodial equipment? It makes sense to track the lifecycle of mowers, vehicles, and floor polishers, for example, so you’re not caught off-guard when something needs to be replaced.

And, of course, special education assistive equipment is also worth tracking: wheelchairs, hearing aids, touchscreens, text-to-speech synthesizers, sip-and-puff systems. All of these are assets for which your district not only needs to track location, but also funding sources and estimated lifespan to inform the budget and ensure you can confidently respond to audits.

Myth #2: Inventory data needs to be perfect before implementing an asset management system.

You might think that until your inventory tracking data is lined up neatly like so many ducks in a row, you can’t start the process of implementing a new system. If you wait until you’ve been able to go through every spreadsheet, every file, until each one is 100% neat and tidy, you may never cross the starting line. (Plus, that sounds like quite a hassle!)

Thankfully, imperfect data doesn’t have to be a roadblock to moving forward. For school districts looking to implement Frontline’s Asset Management, for example, there are three options to help you get moving quickly:

    Data Conversion

    Imagine: a team of specialists who work with you to clean your data. They’ll run it through a validation process, identify errors, and guide you to inventory best practices.

    Physical Inventory

    If you’d rather start from scratch, there’s a team that can come on-site to your district to complete a physical inventory. This gives you a good baseline and starts you out with best practices to get started.

    Import & Audit

    Lastly, you can take your existing data and import it into the system as-is. Then, running an audit on that data will highlight any areas for cleanup and help you identify any gaps in your information that need to be filled.

So if you’re feeling paralyzed by your data, wondering how or if you’ll ever be able to clean it up and dreading the time you may need to spend, don’t let that stand in your way.

Myth #3: An asset management system will take forever to implement.

Not true!

Thankfully, an asset management system like Frontline’s Asset Management shouldn’t take more than a few weeks to get up and running.

Setting an achievable goal is the first step toward a complete rollout of a new system. Not all implementations will look the same. As mentioned in Myth 2, there are multiple ways to get your data ready for implementation. For some schools, the method is to begin with great data, while others start with newly purchased items and take it in stages.

The technology department at Rock Hill Schools in South Carolina (student enrollment: 16,700) consists of about 37 people. They decided that the first step in launching their new asset management system was to simply get student laptops into the system. Once those devices were tagged and tracked, the technology team could then expand to other kinds of technology.

Now, the team at Rock Hill Schools is managing assets consistently and can make data-driven decisions about whether to purchase new devices or move equipment around. Read the case study

Myth #4: Audits have to be stressful and time consuming.

Let’s be honest: no one likes an audit. Opening up your files to show compliance (or lack thereof) with Title I, the E-rate program, or ESSER funds criteria has historically cost time and in many cases, money. They can require significant staff to perform inventories and compile records often kept by multiple departments. When this is done manually, with legions of staff checking off items with pen and paper, human error rears its ugly head.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

An asset management system can make the entire system so much easier and remove the fear from audits.

    Categorize devices and assets.

    A good asset management system can help ensure that devices are accounted for, categorized correctly, and classified to the correct funding source. (Be sure to ask about this — not all systems check this box.)

    Know where every asset is at all times.

    Systems like this also make it simple to track each asset — regardless of value or cost — through its entire lifecycle. Did your district have to suddenly distribute laptops or mobile hotspots at the beginning of the pandemic? An asset management system makes it easy to keep track of each asset from the moment it’s issued to the time it’s collected, when it is sent out for repair, and when it’s powered down for the last time.

    Make compliance easy.

    Different funding sources often have their own sets of rules attached to them. Is an asset only allowed to be used at a certain site? You will need to be able to govern its movement and use according to the funding source it came from, and a system like Frontline’s Asset Management can help you do that — but be aware that not all systems can.

    Need to keep records for 7-10 years? You can archive your assets and keep track of that inventory, even if it’s not in active use. Plus, it’ll be far easier to generate the reports you need to satisfy audit requirements.

    An asset management system can also help you lower the risk of fines or lost funding by helping you identify and address problems before an auditor does.

There you have it. Asset management systems can be used to track far more than laptops and other devices. Implementation doesn’t have to be a 6 month long process — and doesn’t require perfect data! And if you’re using one that can help you classify assets according to the correct funding source and can govern their use accordingly, it can help make audits much less painful.

*Correction: We’ve since learned that computers stay with students so long as they remain in the district, so we’re okay. But still.

On-demand webinar: Using Asset Management to Ensure Your District is Prepared for an Audit
Join us for a conversation about how to ensure compliance with federal and state restrictions for special funding sources with Lance McConkey, Comptroller for Dekalb County Schools, and Uwe Lord, Inventory Specialist at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

 

Talk Data to Me: Hire Rates

According to a 2021 Frontline survey, about two-thirds of over 1,200 school and district administrators reported having a teacher shortage. Some districts experienced the teacher shortage worse than others. About half of the respondents reported difficulty filling jobs across all grade levels and subjects while the other half felt the effects of the shortage in specific subject areas only.

Are vacancies for some teacher subject areas easier to fill than others?

We decided to find out!

Using data from the Frontline Research and Learning Institute, we examined teacher job postings from the 21-22 school year to see if jobs for certain subject areas tend to be filled faster than others.

For this blog post, we defined Hire Rate as the proportion of job postings that were filled within 30 days of the posting date. Chart 1, below, shows the Hire Rate by subject area relative to the average.

Chart 1

Vacancies for Business teachers had the lowest Hire Rate. Compared to the average teacher job posting, the Hire Rate for Business teacher jobs was 5 percentage points less. Vacancies for Technology teachers had the highest Hire Rate, 7 percentage higher than the average.

Want to dig into the data around one type of teacher shortage?

Let’s explore the Special Education Teacher Shortage

Most job postings eventually get filled with the ideal candidate, but the time it takes to fill certain jobs certainly varies. Chart 2, below, shows the number of days it takes, on average, to fill a job posting for each subject area relative to the overall average.

Chart 2

Job postings for Physical Education/Health teacher positions filled the fastest compared to other teacher positions and 12 days faster than the average. Postings for Lead Teachers/Department Heads took the longest and were filled 29 days later than the average teacher job posting. Subject areas that are typically the hardest hit by teacher shortages like Mathematics, Science, and Special Education, took longer to fill than the average teacher job posting.

In the face of the teacher shortage, what can you do?

If only there were one simple answer! Of course, complex challenges like the teacher shortage require nuanced solutions. This video discusses seven ways you can tackle the teacher shortage with a holistic strategy.





If your district has Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, you have access to the Institute Dashboard in your system. You can dig into data just like we’ve done here today, but with your district’s data, so you can gather insights that will make a difference in your community. Check it out today!

Want Tips to Find Your Ideal Candidate? Check out these other Frontline resources!


Generation Z: The New Wave of Teachers

Let’s talk Generation Z.

Born roughly between 1997 and 2012, Generation Z (also referred to as “iGeneration” or “The Global Generation”) is the largest and most ethnically diverse generation to date. The youngest of Generation Z are still in the K-12 classroom while the oldest have already begun to enter the workforce.

What does this mean for the future of the education sector? It’s no secret that teaching as a career choice has declined in popularity among the younger generations. Pair that with the teacher shortage and decreasing enrollment in teacher prep programs, and your district’s future applicant pool could be at risk.

To effectively attract and keep those in this generation who are seeking teach, your district needs to truly understand what sets Generation Z apart.

They’re here and more connected than ever. Is your district ready?

Gen Z Fast Facts according to the Pew Research Center:

  1. Projected to make up 27% of the global workforce
  2. By 2025, Gen Z will make up 32% of the global population
  3. 52% of Gen Z are non-Hispanic white
  4. 22% of Gen Z have at least one immigrant parent

 

Curious to see where your state stands with teachers prep programs? Check out the interactive map.

Who is Gen Z?

Before we dig into the nitty gritty, it’s important to note that not all of Generation Z is confined to the characteristics outlined here. However, these are traits and tendencies that have been widely identified and must be acknowledged as districts continue to face a tightening teacher pipeline.

Generation Z are not Millennials. Despite sharing some similarities, Gen Z is strikingly distinct, and understanding the differences between the two is your first step toward effectively attracting them to your district:

Millennials Gen Z
  • Optimistic
  • Prefer collaborative work environments
  • Tech-savvy
  • Risk-aware
  • Desire career growth
  • Prioritize work-life balance
  • Pragmatic
  • Prefer their own workspace
  • Digital natives
  • Risk-averse
  • Desire job security
  • Prioritize diversity in the workplace

Sources: McKinsey & Company, Academy to Innovate HR

Technology is their past, present, and future

If you ask someone in Generation Z if they remember the sound of dial-up internet or how to use a floppy disk, you may get a quizzical look. Generation Z is the first generation to be born into technology, the first true digital natives. There’s no denying that Millennials are tech-savvy and considered digital pioneers themselves, but Gen Z has had immediate, unfiltered access to the digital world since birth. Most are “plugged in” in every facet of life, from communication to entertainment to eCommerce.

Gen Z Fast Fact: In general, Gen Z favors technology and applications that have non-permanent storage and prioritize privacy.

 

District Support Tips

  • Support a digitized classroom by encouraging the use of educational software. From review games to interactive lessons, there are countless applications available for free!
  • Improve your hiring and onboarding strategy by offering digital onboarding. With “technology-first” employees, digital onboarding can help improve engagement, productivity, and even retention.
  • Embrace new technology. Future classrooms will be shaped by new technology. Whether it’s 3D printing, augmented/virtual reality, or biometrics, fully digitized classrooms will undoubtedly become the norm. Get ahead of the curve and investigate ways your district can implement new technology.

 

Instant feedback is highly valued

Considering we can now binge-watch an entire series on Netflix or find virtually any “how-to” video on YouTube, it’s easy to see why Generation Z expects to have access to information within seconds (eight, to be exact). They are professional multitaskers, communicating on multiple screens at once while simultaneously leaning into the “TL; DR” (too long; didn’t read) era.

“Because of the way [newer teachers] get their news and information, they’re used to immediate feedback”
– from “Five Generations at Work” on the Field Trip Podcast.
Listen Now

 

District Support Tips

  • Provide shorter, frequent feedback. Members of Generation Z value instant and ongoing feedback, but also consider offering varied forms of feedback, be it via Zoom, email, or in-person.
  • Consider implementing a peer-to-peer mentor program (if your district isn’t already doing so). Pairing a younger teacher with a veteran teacher will promote an ongoing dialogue and it will also allow for more instant feedback.

 

Diversity and social activism are top-of-mind

Generation Z has brought the age of activism to the center stage. As global citizens, they are more radically inclusive and culturally aware than previous generations. They also have a strong preference for sustainable and eco-friendly products.

Within the workplace, Gen Z highly values diversity, equity, and inclusion. Pew Research notes that more than any other generation, Gen Z sees increased racial and ethnic diversity as a positive thing for society as a whole. Is your district prioritizing DE&I strategies to promote a culturally responsive school?

District Support Tips

  • Offer ongoing, robust professional development that focuses on DE&I.
  • Consider implementing an Equity Leadership Team to promote diversity-related events.
  • Don’t be afraid to continually evaluate your DE&I strategies. Invite feedback, evaluate, and iterate.
  • Ensure diverse literature is easily accessible. Check out The University of Maryland’s International Children’s Digital Library.

 

“We’re going to have to look at some more strategies, and to really find the time, the budget, the opportunities to tap into communities of color, where you have a lot of gifted, talented people who don’t have opportunities to engage in professional learning, so, you’re really looking at ways that you could entice people to become a member of your district that would meet their need as well as yours.”
– from “School Workforce Diversity” on the Field Trip Podcast
Listen Now

 

Mental health matters

There has been an undeniable rise of anxiety and depression over the past few years, especially with the added stresses of the pandemic. Yet Generation Z is much more open to discussing mental health than some earlier generations. They go to therapy more often and are working toward destigmatizing mental health issues.

Gen Z Fast Fact: The American Psychological Association found that 91% of Gen Zers between ages 18 and 21 have experienced one physical or emotional symptom due to stress in the past year.

 

District Support Tips

  • Offer mental health days. The shortage of teachers and substitutes is serious, but that doesn’t diminish the importance of taking care of your teacher’s mental health. Consider separating vacation and sick days from mental health days.
  • Evaluate your onboarding processes to ensure new educators feel welcomed and valued.
  • Create a healthy work environment by individually supporting each employee and making sure their voices are heard.

Generation Z has already started to fill your classrooms, not just as students, but as teachers. To help fully support this new generation as they continue to enter the workplace, it is essential to understand and acknowledge their key traits and characteristics. It doesn’t just stop once they’re hired — your district should continually find new ways to support this new generation to promote a healthy, safe, and interactive environment.

Are you ready?