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Make the Most of Stimulus Funds: Budgeting Best Practices

As school districts across the country are beginning the process of developing their 2022-23 school-year budgets, the world is still reeling from the impacts of COVID-19. New revenue, lost revenue, rising costs, labor market shifts, and a changing educational landscape all together make it a challenging time to predict and plan for the future. Below are several considerations and ideas to help you navigate these uncertain times, with the goal of helping school systems make this year’s budget one that sets you up for success even in the face of rapid and largely unpredictable change.

Certainty Amidst Uncertainty

Although we are undoubtedly surrounded by unknowns, there are a few things we do know.

School District Budgets

First, we know that most states seem to be recuperating from budget shortfalls last year.1 State 2020-21 budgets ended up faring much better than initially projected, and so far there’s been no substantiated alarm to suggest that 2021-22 will be dramatically different. That being said, inflation is rising quickly, and district financial officers are having a difficult time finding firm projections for next year. In the past five months, prices have continued to rise on some goods and services, with inflation tracking above 5% in October.2 In short, we are waiting — and will likely continue to wait — to learn what next year’s local and state tax revenue will look like, even as we can predict that the costs of goods and services will rise

Economic Trends

Schools are not immune from trends we’re seeing in the labor market and economy more generally, and we should cautiously anticipate their impact while taking into consideration important differences about the public education sector. For example, teachers have not participated in the Great Resignation at the level experienced across other industries.3 But we know that teachers are utterly exhausted (even more than usual), certain subject areas have been hard-to-staff for years, and attracting great talent matters in education just like everywhere else. In the coming year or two, we can expect educator talent to grow demanding of their school district employers.

With so much uncertainty, what do you know?
  1. Most states seem to be “recuperating” from budget shortfalls last year
  2. Schools are not immune from trends we’re seeing in the labor market and economy more generally
  3. Once-in-a-generation stimulus funds are still on the table
  4. K-12 education as a whole is going through a paradigm shift

Stimulus Funds

We know there are still once-in-a-generation stimulus funds on the table. Whatever murkiness first existed around the use of stimulus dollars has now been largely settled, and districts should be equipped to make decisions about how they will put these funds to good use. Districts have one last chance to spend ESSER I dollars at the start of next school year — by September 30, 2022, with the deadlines for ESSER II dollars and ESSER III dollars coming in September 2023 and September 2024, respectively. While there are some restrictions on how the one-time emergency dollars can be spent, there is nearly unprecedented flexibility.

Paradigm Shifts in Education

Looking beyond these various economic and financial factors, districts are also creating their budgets in a time when K-12 education as a whole is going through a paradigm shift. For instance, many districts have experienced fluctuations in enrollment as families and students have sought alternatives in charter, online, and private schools, as well as nearby public school districts.4

In a piece published by ASCD, Tom Vander Ark identified five changes that have taken place as a result of the pandemic: device access, internet access, enterprise tech, hybrid and remote learning, and team teaching out of necessity; as well as five more significant shifts that are still in process: broadening conceptions of achievement, deeper learning experiences, credentialed learning, meaningful equity work, and new learning models.5 In summary, parents’ and students’ expectations for what a high-quality education looks like, and school systems’ capacity to deliver on it, are changing. This shift in demand is likely to shape the landscape of public education in new ways over the coming years.

Planning for Sustainability: Considerations and Ideas from the Field

To balance between what we do know and what we will continue to learn (and, likely, relearn), here are four ideas from district leaders across the U.S. on how to most effectively navigate this budget cycle.

1. Focus on the returns your district really needs for its investments.

District budgeting is about relative priorities, and purchasing typically balances the importance of product and service cost, convenience, and capability. Given what you know (and what you think you know) about your district’s financial health, get clear now about which of these factors matters most at the present time to your district. Not every district will be the same.

One district business manager that we spoke with emphasized cost as being a primary factor right now, given the continuously rising costs of health insurance, retirement contributions, and charter school payments, as well as the immediate impact on the budget of more expensive equipment and school meal supplies.

On the other hand, an assistant superintendent we interviewed emphasized capability, stating that their district is not immediately hurting for funds and that it’s more important now to invest in products and services that “make their lives easier” and “gets teachers what they need.”

This administrator told us, “Cost is always important when you’re trying to be good stewards of public dollars, and we of course want to stay off the ballot and minimize any asks of our community right now. However, now our focus is more on convenience and capability. Our teachers are swamped. You have to look at the cost-benefit ratio and not blindly go with the lowest offer on some things. For example, we went with a new formative assessment tool this year that is giving our teachers the immediate data that they need and it will save our district money in the long-term.”

The lesson? Be transparent with your team and with providers about your highest priority, and get crystal clear about what you really need. If you anticipate budget cuts, invite the providers around you to step up and collaborate with you to find the best fit between your needs and their capabilities. Know what is truly critical and what you’re likely to use in the long term so that you can write extremely clear RFP solicitations and pay for the features and services that you really need. Be clear about the extent to which cost, convenience, and capability are driving decisions at the moment, and be open about that to get the right return on your precious investments.

2. Stretch stimulus funds for lasting impact.

Look for creative ways of using these one-time funds for long-term impact. Whereas hiring new staff with one-time funding creates a problem to be solved later, there are other ways of using this money to invest in personnel. In an interview with education researcher and pundit Rick Hess, Marguerite Roza of the Georgetown Edunomics Lab illuminated the practices of “offering incentive packages to cover moving expenses plus retention bonuses, and paying stipends for teachers who take on extra work.”6 As noted above, it’s important to match these incentive programs to the needs and interests of your faculty and staff; some districts are discovering that mounting personal responsibilities mean that educators are not picking up extra work (such as for leading professional development or designing new content), even when those activities are well-compensated. That means your district may get better long-term benefit from investing in supporting educators’ wellness and mental health so that they’re able to navigate this moment and stay in their roles. However you approach it, spending now on capacity building and getting ahead of recruitment and retention challenges will pay off later.

Spending now on capacity building and getting ahead of recruitment and retention challenges will pay off later.

We know that many districts are using ESSER funds for technology and curriculum upgrades. If you are going to purchase these things now, make sure to also invest in the necessary professional development and skills training so that these tools can be fully leveraged to the extent of their capabilities long into the future. For example, acquiring a new inventory of student devices and a making the move to integrate technology in learning requires thoughtful learning and support for teachers. Consider ways of fully integrating these changes into current practice sooner rather than later.

Lastly, while buying “stuff” can make a big difference, the smartest long-term investment might be in relationships. Focus the “stuff” investments on tools that free up time and energy for district staff to do more meaningful work independently and together. Use ESSER funds now to invest in developing (and perhaps in some cases, repairing) meaningful relationships between staff, with students, and with the community. Intentional wellness efforts would also make sound investments.

Potential efforts might include…

  • Creating small group experiences that establish a sense of belonging and engagement
  • Implementing home visits7
  • Introducing therapeutic tools and practices for managing stress
  • Planning events that boost staff morale
  • Engaging in genuine dialogue sessions with the community

Even if your district is unable to continue these expenses into the future once the emergency aid expires, these one-time investments now are sure to affect retention and therefore have a positive impact into the future.

3. Don’t repeat investments that simply reproduce the old status quo.

Most district administrators, including those we talked with, are admittedly focused on “getting through” these uncertain times. We get it; there’s one fire after another, and we’re nearing two years of growing fatigue from 24/7 demands and constant pivoting. But this budgeting season presents an opportunity to think bigger and prepare to make some bold moves in service to students and families.

Some of the best innovations have come in times when money was tight and alternatives were slim. Use this moment and any needed cost savings to drive efforts around rethinking seat time, designing effective hybrid learning, collaborating with the community, and making the teaching role more manageable and enjoyable. For example, the Texas Learning Exchange (TxLx) brought districts together to “rethink educational delivery models and how to address the needs of students in this current environment.”8 The project curated a host of resources in the New Learning Models Library, and examples of how districts are adopting new learning models are summarized in case studies.

Ask your team: how will we use this moment of uncertainty to move our district in a positive direction for the future? Are we looking ahead and anticipating big shifts in the education sector? Are we thinking in a “this is how it’s always been done” mindset, or in a “this is what students need and how we should be doing things” mindset? Be innovative. Use this moment to reorient the system around what’s best for students. Ask the questions, “What if?” and “Why not?” again and again and again.

4. Fill gaps with new private-public partnerships and cross-sector collaboration.

School districts have long relied on regional shared-service models for talent such as substitute teachers and special education teachers. However, it’s not as common to see private-public partnerships and cross-sector collaboration. What might be possible when organizations unite around shared students and shared goals?

So many agencies stepped up and took on new responsibilities during the crisis. For example, in southwestern Pennsylvania, the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS), Trying Together, and the United Way proposed a solution when the local school district remained closed to in-person learning for a full calendar year. In partnership with more than 40 community organizations and after-school providers, the county used their own funding and later private donations to stand up 75 Community Learning Hubs — safe spaces where children could engage in virtual learning — across the city.9 The county also has data-sharing agreements in place with local school districts, which help everyone better address issues such as mental health, food insecurity, and truancy. This is just one example of cross-sector partnerships that benefit children.10

Rather than retreat back to the ways things were pre-pandemic, use this opportunity to lean into private-public partnerships and cross-sector partnerships. Over the last 18 months, numerous corporate philanthropies have established commitments to investing in equity, and school districts are an excellent place to begin. Explore relationships with companies and organizations in your region that may be willing to form lasting, authentic partnerships to bridge the gap between what schools can do and what businesses need. Reach out to willing partners, especially those who are already working with the same children served by your school district, and look for opportunities to coordinate more effectively. Look for any potential areas of overlap or unnecessary silos and begin to build coalitions. One administrator told us, “Start small. Look for focused projects and potential quick wins that invite partners to the table, and then grow from there.”

In a time of budget uncertainty and continuous change, opportunities abound to work with, share services with, and find efficiencies with other organizations, whether than be other nearby school districts, other public agencies, or local nonprofit organizations.

Look for cost-saving opportunities, as well as opportunities to leverage assets more effectively. Consider the current models of shared substitute services and shared special education services as just the tip of the iceberg. What else might be possible through collaboration?

Conclusion

One district administrator told us, “I know it’s stressful, but it’s also an exciting time for school leaders to reflect on how we do things, and to reimagine the student experience. Some of our students loved remote learning; some loved the new levels of choice that became available. How can we use that to move forward?”

In this uncertain time, be creative. Be transparent with stakeholders. Be bold, and use the uncertainty as an opportunity.

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In this uncertain time, be creative. Be transparent with stakeholders. Be bold, and use the uncertainty as an opportunity. Don’t discount the power of grounding yourself and your team in what you do know, and work outward from there. Stay focused on what kids need, and what your best available information says will serve them in the long run.

1 U.S. Census Bureau. (September 23, 2021). Quarterly Summary of State and Local Government Tax Revenue: 2021 Q2.

2 The Wall Street Journal. (November 10, 2021). U.S. Inflation Hit 31-Year High in October as Consumer Prices Jump 6.2%.

3 Klein, R. (November 17, 2021). Why There Hasn’t Been a Mass Exodus of Teachers. FiveThirtyEight.

4 A recent analysis by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (September 22, 2021) found that charter school enrollment increased by 7% across the nation in 2020-21. Additionally, Chalkbeat and the Associated Press (December 22, 2020) reported survey data suggesting that public school enrollment in 2020-21 decreased by 2%.

5 Vander Ark, T. (September 1, 2021). 5 Changes, 5 Shifts, and 5 Implications for What’s Next in Education. ASCD.

6 Hess, Frederick. (November 10, 2021) Ed Finance Guru Marguerite Roza on How Schools Can Best Spend Covid Aid. Education Next.

7 FutureEd. (n.d.) Home Visits. COVID Relief Playbook.

8 See Texas Learning Exchange.

9 Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Trying Together, United Way. (n.d.) Learning Hubs Data Report: 2020-2021 School Year.

10 StriveTogether serves as a network for dozens of collective impact partnerships across the country, and would be a great resource for additional ideas and technical assistance.

The Past, Present, and Future of Data Analytics in Schools

The use of data analytics is increasingly part of modern life, whether you’re talking about headlines like vaccination roll-out efforts, practical matters like tracking hours at your job, or daily routines like the average height and weight chart at a pediatrician’s office. K-12 education is no different, a topic Dr. Adam Cibulka is deeply familiar with.

As a senior manager at Forecast5 Analytics, now part of Frontline Education, Dr. Adam Cibulka thinks about data in education every day. But it was during his nearly two decades in public education in the Chicago area that he recognized a need for innovation: when it came to monitoring student achievement per state requirements, spreadsheets just weren’t cutting it anymore. That’s when he partnered with Forecast5 to develop a better way to track student metrics, from attendance, to SAT scores, to AP achievements, and more.

Of course, those state requirements are themselves part of an overall shift in education toward greater accountability and public reporting on both student achievement and school and district achievement. In the years since No Child Left Behind, student data has moved from being siloed at the local level to being a matter of state and national interest — and that’s a lot of data to gather, track, and make sense of.

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Where are we now?

We have entered the era of big data in education. #k12data”

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Ironically, the very volume of data can make it difficult to tell the story of student progress. In order to achieve a “speed to insight,” Dr. Cibulka suggests schools think through the what, why, and how of data analytics:

What are the two or three key questions you’re trying to answer for your district?

  • Let the goal of communicating that information guide what data you collect and who you make it available to.

Why are you gathering information?

  • Data should tell the story of student progress in order to support better decision making. Consider what information will help you know how to move forward.

How are you collecting and interpreting data?

  • The right tools can make all the difference. Whether you will use spreadsheets or the sort of automated system Dr. Cibulka developed with Forecast5, be sure you have a plan that will enable you to collect, organize, analyze, and inter pret data.
  • Of course, how you collect data has security implications for your district, too. Even before the pandemic, EdWeek reported that the number of K-12 cyber attacks more than doubled from 2018 to 2019. And when schools closed across the country in 2020, upended processes could have interrupted routine cybersecurity policies. If you’re working with a software vendor, make sure they’re committed to compliance and keeping your data safe.
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Where are we going?

Dr. Cibulka looks forward to a future where schools spend 10% of their time gathering information and 90% acting on it — rather than the reverse, which is commonly the case at present. Working with a specialized analytics partner can go a long way in helping your district spend less time on gathering data and more time strategizing and acting on it.

3 Practical Areas for Growth

Dr. Cibulka identified three practical areas for growth for schools as they support student success with data analytics.

1. Ensure Clean Data:

Establish consistent protocols and processes for data collection, so you can be sure you’re not comparing apples to oranges when it’s time to make decisions.

2. Visualize the Reality That Data Represents:

Find a way to ensure you’re still seeing students, and not just numbers, and grasping the ramifications on education they represent.

3. Access to Data:

Make sure that information is made available at the district and building-leader level. To successfully employ data, safe and secure access, along with efficient access, is essential.

The one thing that hasn’t changed? The desire to see students succeed. And data analytics opens another door to following that goal.

Want to learn more about this topic? Listen to the full interview with Dr. Adam Cibulka here.

Tips from New Teachers for an Improved Teacher Hiring Process

There is no denying that a school’s greatest resource is its teachers. Good teachers who deliver quality instruction help produce greater educational outcomes for their students.1 A school or district that can recruit many of these highly effective teachers can create a climate of success, providing students with lasting learning.2 That’s why it’s so important to optimize your hiring and onboarding processes to be able to recruit the best talent and welcome educators into your district in a way they feel great about. 

What makes for a great hiring and teacher onboarding experience?

Although researchers have spent more than a century trying to answer this question3, there is still no universal consensus on how to define or measure effective teaching. In the world of teacher recruitment, the focus most often centers on applicant vetting or identifying qualities that effective teachers often possess, like organization, prerequisite skills and qualifications, multi-tasking, and reflective thinking.4 While hiring committees should know what traits to look for during recruitment, it’s just as important to know how to attract the candidates who possess those traits to sign on the dotted line and start a career at your school district.

Here are two questions to get started:

  • What makes the hiring process a positive experience for teachers?
  • How can hiring committees create positive experiences to hire the best teacher candidates?

To answer these questions, we interviewed ten brand new teachers about their hiring experiences. All went through the application process and were hired during the COVID-19 pandemic, after just completing their teacher preparation programs. In their experiences, the most desirable schools and districts were those that used hiring practices to project a positive image and showcase the kind of environment in which candidates would want to work.

Here’s what we learned.

 

How to update your HR processes to attract and hire the best candidates

Tip #1: Show candidates that teachers’ voices are valued at your school district 

• • • During interviews, DO invite them to make real decisions • • •

Haley, a recently hired art teacher beamed while sharing her hiring experience. The principal invited her into the art room to show her the program’s new pottery wheels, which had garnered so much interest that the school couldn’t accommodate all students who wanted to elect ceramics. She presented the problem to Haley and asked, “How do you feel about increasing the number of students in pottery?” Haley offered a quick scheduling solution, which excited the principal and made Haley feel like her insights would matter at the school.

Colleen, a new English language arts teacher, had a similar experience. She shared that her most memorable interview question involved a data chart that displayed a student’s grades and some notes from the school psychologist about the student’s behavioral progress. The committee asked her to examine all the data and then explain how she would grade him at the end of the year. Colleen recalled, “That was kind of cool, to be able to interpret real data and talk about social-emotional learning and how it all comes into play.”

• • • DO give newly hired teachers a platform to share their ideas • • •

Sasha, a first-year elementary teacher, raved about a new teacher orientation that her district held. She said, “At orientation, [the school] asked, ‘What are some resources that people have?’ And I was able to speak about the different technologies I knew and had used in the past. They actually gave me a platform to speak, which was kind of weird because I was new – but they seemed to be saying, ‘Hey, we already value you here and we want to hear what you have to say.’”

“They seemed to be saying, ‘We already value you here and we want to hear what you have to say.’”

Trish, a first-year English language arts teacher, had a similar experience. She felt as though her hiring committee was looking to hire an early career teacher, like her. She explained, “After they hired me, they told me, ‘We really liked your energy and we wanted someone excited to come into the profession.’ They knew that I was experienced with a lot of different online programs, too, and I think they sought that out. They wanted to hire someone younger, someone who could teach them a lot. And while they’ve taught me a lot about the curriculum, I’ve already made a big impact in changing how that curriculum is delivered and made more accessible to students through technology.”

• • • DON’T play games with candidates • • •

Kristy, a newly hired social studies teacher, explained that even though summer was almost over, and she was beginning to get desperate to land a job, she went on one interview that was conducted so poorly she would have declined an offer. She explained, “The committee asked me a lot of questions that didn’t seem to connect to my instruction at all, like how I rest and relax. There were too many odd jokes between members of the hiring committee that created tension in the room. I almost didn’t feel like they were taking it seriously. At first, I was told that the principal wasn’t at the school that day. But after my interview, they brought me into his office and said, ‘You can talk to him now.’ I was so confused. The principal told me that he had his faculty vet candidates and if they liked them enough, they were to bring them to him. But it almost felt like a trick. I didn’t like it. It made me very uncomfortable.”

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Tip #2: Show candidates that your school district views teachers as experts of their crafts

• • • DO ask candidates about their disciplinary knowledge, skills, and pedagogy • • •

Rose knew that she was interviewing with a special school when they asked about her craft. She explained, “The principal and vice principal looked at my artwork and told me that I was extremely talented. No other school had asked to see examples of my artwork. Others asked what kind of art I did, personally, but no other schools asked to see it – so I knew that this was my school. I would be seen as an artist and a teacher and that’s important to me.” When asked if that was that moment that made her certain that she wanted to work at that school, Haley said, “I guess it was just their excitement of, ‘We finally found someone we’re comfortable with throwing in classrooms with cameras and pottery wheels. Someone who knows how to use all of it and use it well.’”

Newly hired math teacher, Sarah, said that she brought a binder filled with samples of her work, including detailed outlines of lesson and unit plans, to all of her interviews. In her experience, most committees never asked to see it, and those that did flipped through quickly before returning to their planned questioning. She explained that the hiring committee at her current school examined it carefully. Three members of the committee were also math teachers. They asked Sarah questions about her lesson design before commenting, “Whoa, this is awesome!”

“The most desirable districts were those that used hiring practices to project a positive image.”

Colleen wrote a thesis as the culminating project of her Master’s program. The hiring committee at her current school asked her to tell them about it. She remembered them asking, “What is some actual research that you’ve done that you can bring into the school and into the classroom?” This question was so different from those she had been asked during her other interviews. She explained, “I always feel like they’re so focused on your relationship with students, and that’s great, but for them to ask about what I was knowledgeable about and what research I did in my Master’s year made me feel very heard and seen.”

• • • DON’T assume that candidates and new teachers know it all, including the inner workings of your school district • • •

Though not all of the teacher candidates were required to perform demonstration lessons during the interview process, the ones who did wanted more information ahead of time. Kristy explained, “I had to teach a demo lesson, but I didn’t know what protocols the school followed for COVID-19. Could I even pass out papers? Books? I also didn’t know what the students had already learned or what they were expected to know. I was expected to teach a hybrid class. Some students were at home and others were physically in the classroom, but I didn’t know what tech platform the school used. I found out about five minutes before starting my lesson and had to get familiar with it on the fly. Knowing all of that would have definitely helped.”

Tip #3: Show teacher candidates that your district acknowledges and accommodates students’ and candidates’ learning differences

• • • DO provide interview questions in different modalities • • •

Mike, a new science teacher, said that only one of the districts that interviewed him shared their interview questions visually, on slides. Although he would have really liked to see them before the interview to prepare more thoughtful answers, he said that it was still helpful to see them on a screen. He explained, “Instead of saying, ‘Can you ask this again?’ or ‘Can I write this down really quickly?’ I could just look at the keywords on each slide which helped me focus my answers and make sure I was actually addressing what they wanted me to instead of just talking in circles.”

• • • DO provide candidates with the option to interview in person or online • • •

Trish admitted, “I’m a terrible online learner and, because of COVID-19, my orientation was completely online. I was trying to pay attention but there was just so much information, and because I wasn’t familiar with the physical layout of the school and I didn’t know any members of the staff, a lot of it just didn’t make sense. I needed to see the space and these people in person. I just couldn’t visualize it.”

Kristy felt similarly about online interviews. Although a necessity during the COVID-19 shutdown, she said, “Sometimes when committees tried to squeeze all of the interviewers onto one screen, all I would see was an arm and half of a face. It was hard. I didn’t know who I was talking to. I couldn’t think because I was so confused by that, and I just couldn’t feel that personal spark. There’s such a difference in going into the building for interviews. Especially at the end of the year when students are still in school, and you can feel that energy.”

Tip #4: Ensure that teachers are given access to critical systems

Rachel, a newly hired sixth-grade teacher shared her biggest anxiety as her new school’s start date rapidly approached. Her district waited until the first day of school to activate new teachers’ email accounts. She explained, “That felt too late. [I wondered] how am I supposed to plan or access any of my plans if I don’t have an email?”

Trish echoed Rachel’s sentiment. She said, “There’s a lot to figure out and I don’t want to wait until the last minute. Like, supplies, who do I talk to about that? If I have tech issues, who do I talk to about that? Orientation was more about selecting health insurance and less about navigating this new workplace. I think a balance would have been better for me.”

In summary

Teacher candidates want to work in schools that recognize and value their knowledge, skills, and experiences. At the same time, they seek workplaces that acknowledge their inexperience related to school culture, norms, and the day-to-day logistics that will help them navigate their new work environments. Apply these tips to your hiring practices to show teacher candidates that your district is that workplace.

1 Stronge, J. H., & Tucker, P. D. (2000). Teacher evaluation and student achievement. Washington, DC: National Education Association.

2 Stronge, J. H., & Hindman, J. L. (2003). Hiring the best teachers. Educational Leadership, 60(8), 48-52.

3 Kratz, H. E. (1896). Characteristics of the best teachers as identified by children. Pedagogical Seminary, 3, 318-418.

4 Stronge, J. H. (2002). Qualities of effective teachers. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Talk Data To Me: The Impact of Substitute Pay on Fill Rate

Substitute teacher shortages have been widely reported in national and local media outlets across the country. The shortages are so severe in some areas that they have forced school closures.  Data from the Frontline Research & Learning Institute has consistently shown pandemic-induced drops in absence fill rates (the percent of teacher absences being filled by substitute teachers) and smaller than usual substitute teacher pools.

School districts have turned to creative methods to remedy the issue, like recruiting non-instructional school staff and recent high school graduates to substitute teach. Others have turned to more traditional methods to recruit more workers, such as increasing perks and pay. Unfortunately, not all school districts are financially capable of increasing substitute teacher pay. In that case, what can they do?

What impacts absence fill rates?

Frontline Education consistently produces data-driven insights regarding teacher absences, highlighted in national reports and previous Talk Data to Me blogs. We typically cite three absence-related key performance indicators (KPI’s) associated with increasing Absence Fill Rates.

Key Definitions

Lead Time – The amount of time between when a teacher absence is entered into the Absence Management system and when the absence is scheduled to occur.

Employee to Substitute Ratio – The ratio of employees in a district that would require a substitute teacher to the amount of available substitute teachers in the district.

Working Substitute Percentage – The percentage of the available substitute teacher pool that has filled at least one absence in a set amount of time.

So, what does the data tell us? What effect do these KPIs have on absence fill rate? How do differences in substitute teacher pay impact those effects? The answers may surprise you.

State-level analysis

We combined state level substitute teacher average pay data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics with teacher absence data from the Frontline Research & Learning Institute. Since the pandemic greatly impacted absence trends, we chose pre-pandemic absence data (9/1/2019 – 3/1/2020) for this analysis.  The results for the three absence KPIs are unsurprising, as they are intuitive and echo previous Frontline findings:

  • Lead Time – A 24-hour increase in average lead time is associated with a 0.7%-point increase in fill rate. That means the more time that substitutes have to view and accept an absence, the more likely that absence is to be accepted and filled.
  • Employee-to-Sub Ratio – A 1-point decrease in employee-to-sub ratio is associated with a 6.6%-point increase in fill rate. That means the larger the available substitute pool is relative to the number of employees, the more likely it is that a substitute will fill an absence.
  • Working Sub % – A 1% change in working sub percentage is associated with a 38.5%-point increase in fill rate. So, if a larger proportion of available substitutes regularly accepted job openings, fill rates would rise.

Taking state-level differences in lead time, working substitute percentage, and employee-to-substitute ratio into account, an increase in substitute teacher pay equivalent to $1 per hour is associated with a decrease in fill rate of 0.76%. Yes, you read that correctly. States with higher substitute teacher pay tend to have lower absence fill rates. The chart below plots state average hourly substitute teacher wages against fill rate and the negative relationship is clear.

Understanding why this is the case is beyond the scope of this article. Perhaps there are reasons related to regional economic health, labor markets, and competing employment opportunities. But what does seem clear is that state-level data (as opposed to data for individual districts) does not show that higher substitute pay correlates to higher fill rates.

We certainly are not advocating for decreasing substitute teacher pay in hopes of increasing fill rate, nor are we advocating against raising pay for substitutes. We acknowledge that not every district has the flexibility to increase pay and must seek alternative plans for increasing absence fill rates. This analysis suggests there may be more effective ways to get subs to work in your district, which is positive news for districts who don’t have the flexibility in their budget to increase pay.

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So, what can you do?

This analysis is clear: the metric with the greatest impact on fill rate is the working substitute percentage metric. In practical terms, increasing your working substitute percentage requires increasing the engagement of your substitute teacher pool and encouraging a larger number of substitutes to actively work to fill absences.

How can you help substitutes stay engaged?

We surveyed 2,400 active substitutes to find out what outcomes are most important to them when searching for and managing substitute jobs. Of the outcomes we asked them about, here are the most important:

  1. View instructions for a scheduled job. Substitutes are more likely to accept a job if they have access to written instructions from the teacher available to them.
  2. Cancel a job they have accepted. The ability to cancel a job they have already accepted is important to substitutes.
  3. Stay informed with messages and alerts from districts. Substitutes report wanting to be kept in the loop about what’s going on in your district.

To help substitutes stay engaged with your district, support them in achieving all of the outcomes listed below in your absence management product. For example, remember to attach instructions to every substitute job, update your settings to allow substitutes to cancel a job they’ve accepted, and keep substitutes in the loop by posting messages about happenings in your district that could impact them. For more information on how to help substitutes achieve outcomes that are important to them, please check out https://absence-help.frontlineeducation.com/ or contact our Absence Management support team.

For more concrete steps to increase substitute engagement, check out this previous Talk Data to Me blog.

Why Use Baseline Data to Drive Decisions in K-12 Education?

Table of Contents

What you need to know about baseline data
How baseline data drives instruction in the classroom
Baseline data in Special Education
Should baseline data be used for mental and behavioral health support?
Data is the evidence we depend on
Learn more about using baseline data

Believe it or not, data wasn’t always a factor in decision making in schools. A lot of decisions were made subjectively. Lacking efficient digital records, educators didn’t have the data needed to make objective decisions. Fortunately, teaching has evolved into a science based on facts. As more and more data has become available with the increased use of digital tools, research highlights the benefits of making objective decisions based on numbers.

Baseline data serves as the foundation or starting place. Educators need to understand how to collect and use that baseline data to monitor progress and measure increases in student achievement or changes in behavior.

What you need to know about baseline data

What is baseline data? It’s all about the evidence. Baseline data provides teachers with evidence of what students know or can do and still need to learn. It must be something that can be quantified or counted in some way. The most common ways to collect data include:

  • Percent accuracy: percentage of correct responses on an assessment
  • Frequency: number of times a behavior occurs
  • Duration: how long an event continues
  • Rate: number of behaviors during a set amount of time
  • Interval data: samples counted during specified time intervals

Baseline data can be collected on any student. Typically, it is used to measure progress of students who are experiencing learning or behavioral difficulties, are English learners, have missed instruction over a period of time, or may simply need additional support.

How baseline data drives instruction in the classroom

Because students have diverse needs, schools use a tiered pyramid system to provide additional instruction to those who need more support. The first tier, the base, is core instruction for the entire class. Tier 2 includes students who may need targeted instruction in specific skills, and Tier 3 is reserved for small groups of students requiring intensive instruction.

Two models serve as the basic framework for intervention. Response to Intervention (RTI) is focused primarily on academic progress. A more comprehensive design, Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS), expands to social-emotional areas of concern.

In most schools, it’s common practice to hire an interventionist or train teachers in best practices for intervention during the school day. Within tiers 1, 2, and 3, teachers and specialists rely on diagnostic screeners to group students with similar skill levels into small groups.

Teachers are well aware of how important it is to monitor student progress and determine which interventions to implement. But sometimes it’s challenging to sift through all the information available and know what data to use. Jim Wright, RTI/MTSS expert, created a guide to help teachers ask the right questions, collect useful data, and decide how to use it to monitor student progress.

The guide breaks down the decision-making process into clarifying steps.

  1. What specific skills or behaviors does the student find challenging?
  2. What is the student’s baseline or starting point?
  3. What outcome goal would define success for this student?
  4. Has the student reached the goal?

As soon as the teacher identifies the baseline data to use as the starting place and determines the end goal, it’s time to decide how to get to the finish line. To make sure students stay on the right track, teachers will place them in flexible small groups and monitor progress along the way.

How students are grouped and which tools are used to monitor progress will significantly affect the outcome. Since we’re talking about data, understanding the science of teaching makes a difference. It matters. Jim Wright has developed an 8-step process an interventionist can use to implement intervention plans confidently and effectively.

Baseline data in Special Education

The first step in writing an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for a student is to start with baseline data. In an IEP, that’s called a statement of Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP for short). With a clear starting place, teachers can set measurable goals using specific examples of student behaviors. They must be observable and demonstrate progress.

Collecting data about students in a Special Education program can be a little more complicated because it comes from multiple sources beyond the classroom teacher or teachers. Students may receive instruction from the regular education teacher or a trained special education teacher and multiple related service providers. Depending on the IEP, the list could include speech-language pathologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, or various other specialists.

Progress must be monitored in every area a student receives services for, so the data will look different from each provider. At its core, the data is used to

  • Guide instruction
  • Make decisions about student growth
  • Communicate progress on IEP goals
  • Determine effectiveness of providers and programs

It’s helpful to have standardized procedures and tools for collecting, reporting, and analyzing all the data available to monitor student progress. Most school districts use software programs to track, report, and manage compliance requirements.

Should baseline data be used for mental and behavioral health support?

Schools can’t afford to overlook the importance of mental and behavioral health as a factor of student success. The experience of educating children during the pandemic may have been the catalyst that launched mental health into the spotlight.  In a way, that’s a positive situation. Parents, teachers, counselors, nurses, and administrators — among others — recognize the urgent need to take action.

Fortunately, there are tools available to schools that will help expand their support of student health beyond what a school nurse can provide. Mental health interventions do not need to be limited to students with IEPs, but should be available to any student.

It starts with collecting baseline data on all students. When an MTSS model (Multi-tiered System of Support) is implemented with fidelity, students are screened for academic and behavioral barriers to learning. That data forms the baseline for interventions and progress monitoring to address academic or behavioral areas of concern and improve student achievement.

As teachers develop interventions for academic problems, the wellness team made up of school nurses, counselors, social workers, and psychologists steps in to support students’ health needs — physical, mental, and behavioral. While a student struggling with reading or math would be given interventions specific to their learning difficulties, a behavior plan with achievable targets would be implemented for a student with behavioral challenges.

Quality health management software connects traditional school health data like vision and hearing screenings and visits to the school nurse to mental and behavioral health data. Access to that data allows the school nurse and the mental health providers to track student health history and address concerns proactively before they escalate into a crisis.

While academic needs can usually be met within the school or district, often with the help of specialists, mental and behavioral health is different. Collaboration between school mental health providers and community-based professionals can make a difference in helping students reach their goals. With parent participation and permission, data is shared between the school and community mental health treatment providers.

If an intervention plan doesn’t produce positive results even after adjustments, it may indicate that a student needs professional treatment beyond what the school can provide. In those situations, schools must continue to maintain communication and share data with the outside providers. A collaborative effort will enable a positive transition when the student returns to school.

Data is the evidence we depend on

It’s impossible to show evidence of student progress or guide instruction without baseline data. What teachers should do with the data can be a challenge, but there are plenty of resources to help make those decisions. By monitoring progress, decisions are made for students based on facts instead of subjective choices. Everyone benefits when students succeed in school.

Learn more about using baseline data

Go deeper: The Student Learning Objectives Toolkit is a resource developed by the National Center for Improvement of Educational Assessment to help educators map out the process for developing quality SLOs. https://www.nciea.org/library/recent-publications/slo-toolkit

Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/dddm_pg_092909.pdf

For educators looking for evidence of effective instructional strategies to use as interventions, the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, has answers. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/

National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/

Why should schools provide comprehensive school-based mental and behavioral health services? https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/mental-health/school-psychology-and-mental-health/comprehensive-school-based-mental-and-behavioral-health-services-and-school-psychologists

 

3 Things for Schools to Remember About Long COVID Diagnoses

 

 

Some people who previously tested positive for COVID-19 are now showing symptoms like tiredness, fatigue, difficulty thinking, concentrating, headache, changes in smell, taste, dizziness, or fast beating or pounding heart, usually appearing about a month after that initial positive test. This condition is being referred to as “Long COVID.”

Long COVID diagnoses among students and staff are sadly becoming more and more common. In fact, recently, questions have arisen for schools about what a diagnosis of Long COVID means for IEP eligibility, Section 504 Plan eligibility, and the rights of school personnel under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The United States Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) released guidance that a student experiencing Long COVID may be eligible for special education under IDEA and/or may be entitled to services and protections under Section 504.

In addition to the complexities the OCR guidance brings to schools in serving at-risk students, there are important things to consider regarding school personnel who receive a diagnosis of Long COVID. So, lots of new questions about the rights of students and staff – and how best to support those who’ve received a diagnosis of Long COVID.

Many schools are fielding new questions like:

  • Is Long COVID a “disability?”
  • Should a student with a Long COVID diagnosis receive an IEP or a Section 504 plan?
  • Is a school employee with a Long COVID diagnosis entitled to protection under the ADA, and what does that mean from a legal perspective?

Here are three key legal points to keep in mind when making decisions related to Long COVID diagnoses.

1. A Long COVID diagnosis alone does not trigger eligibility for disability

Let’s remember that the OCR guidance uses the word “may” for an important reason – eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) and Section 504 is never automatic.

OCR is not saying, “If a student receives a Long COVID diagnosis, she’s automatically entitled to an IEP.” Because she’s not.

Similarly, students are not “automatically” entitled to a Section 504 plan. And school employees with Long COVID diagnoses are not automatically entitled to protection under ADA and don’t automatically receive certain accommodations in the workplace.

Schools need more than a diagnosis to determine a student’s or an employee’s individual need and how to best support that person. Let’s remember our usual intervention and Child Find processes. A diagnosis of Long COVID, despite being new, and brought to our attention now from OCR, should not be treated any differently than other medical or mental health diagnosis.

Always be asking what is the student need? How can that need be most efficiently, and quickly, accommodated? May the classroom teacher accommodate and provide supports to address the need?

Or importantly, does the need require special education? How is the student engaging with peers and authority figures? Does academic performance look different? Remember, schools are required to accommodate in the general education first, before making “changes” to support need through special education.

You do a great job of exhausting the resource “continuum” before evaluating for special education or restricting the student’s experience through IEPs. The accommodation of Long COVID symptoms should not be treated any differently.

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2. Continue using ordinary IDEIA & 504 eligibility processes

The eligibility criteria for students under IDEIA and Section 504, and the interactive process under ADA for employees, did not change as a result of COVID-19 or Long COVID.

As it relates to students, be sure to follow ordinary processes to determine eligibility for Section 504 plans or IEPs. Look at the impact of that Long COVID diagnosis – objectively identify the need.

For example, as it relates to Section 504 – is there an issue with physical plant access? Are there issues with testing? Are there issues with interaction? In terms of special education eligibility, how is special education going to address the symptoms of Long COVID? If there’s no special education needed, an IEP is not needed. Same with Section 504.

Let’s remember the interactive process with employees. You can’t simply say, “No, you get no accommodations.” But you should always say, “Yes, let’s engage in the process.” Ask for medical information, follow your typical process. Consider whether or not certain essential job duties are being impacted by the diagnosis. Simply having a diagnosis of Long COVID, just like having a diagnosis of COVID-19, doesn’t automatically entitle one to accommodation.

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3. Always focus on individual need

Remember, you don’t have to know everything – though it may often feel that way for many district and school leaders. In many ways, we’re figuring this out as we continue to educate during this public health crisis. We’re building the plane as we fly it. Lean on best practices. Remember to focus on individual need. Focus on the person. Don’t get distracted by Long COVID being a new or novel diagnosis, and don’t get stuck in the process. Continue to follow the process rules and best practices that you know.

And always, always, guide your teams towards helping students achieve real learning.

Student (and employee) progress has been, and always will be, the polestar.

Ask yourselves now, as you always do, with regard to Long COVID or anything else, is that student experiencing real, meaningful progress? If the answer is yes, good on you. Keep at it. If the answer is no, you need to ask why and then engage in the right process.

And of course, with your employees, continue to offer support. We can’t treat one differently who might have been COVID-19 positive. We can’t treat one differently with a Long COVID diagnosis. For school personnel, engage in the interactive process if one asks for accommodation and presents a diagnosis of Long COVID.

Talk Data to Me: Hiring Trends for Mental Health Providers in Schools

There has been a lot of recent discussion in K-12 spheres, including in past Frontline blogs, about the ongoing teacher shortage. Not only does the problem of large numbers of job openings with limited numbers of applicants available to fill them apply to teaching positions, but it also persists for mental-health-related positions. This is concerning given the increase in student and staff mental health needs. As school districts often find themselves with budgetary restrictions that may hamper their ability to seek such professionals, the hope is that federal stimulus bills, like the American Rescue Plan, can help provide some relief and flexibility.

So, to what extent are school districts trying to address the additional mental health needs of their students and staff? Are mental health professionals being sought after, and did COVID relief funds actually make an impact in meeting this need?

Data from Frontline Education’s Recruiting & Hiring solution — which is representative of national district norms — provides a glimpse into which roles that help support student mental health are being prioritized by district hiring managers.

Are school districts posting more jobs for mental health providers in 2021?

Many district personnel can influence student mental health, including social workers, school counselors, school psychologists, school nurses, and other designated mental health professionals. Below is an interactive chart showing the number of districts with a job posting for the aforementioned job titles over time. The chart is sliceable by locale (rural, suburban, urban) and district size.

Note related to graph: This controls for changes in the total number of districts that use Frontline Recruiting & Hiring.

 

Which school districts are posting jobs related to mental health?

Above the normal ebbs and flows of hiring seasons throughout each year, there are clear jumps in the numbers of districts seeking professionals to address mental health this year, particularly between weeks 15 and 22 (mid-April through early June). This bump transcends locale but is particularly prominent in rural and suburban districts. Interestingly, the increase in mental health hiring is clear in large and medium districts – but no obvious changes in hiring are apparent in extra large or small districts.

This spike may have been a result of the fact that schools are placing a greater emphasis on student mental and emotional health in the wake of the pandemic. The spike in open positions coincided with the availability of federal stimulus funds through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) and other legislation to increase district budgets to help mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on schools.

In fact, some of the ESSER and ARP state plans specifically call out that states hope to spend ARP funds on social workers and counselors in schools to help address student well-being. Since funds through these federal legislations are available through 2023, if current data is any indication, we can expect more jobs for mental health professionals to be posted in the months to come.

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What about other roles that support student mental health?

It is heartening to see data that shows districts are actively hiring more school counselors and social workers. However, while school counselors and social workers are critically important when it comes to supporting student and overall community health, there are others in districts who heavily contribute to the well-being of students and families – notable examples being school psychologists and school nurses. And while our data doesn’t show an uptick in the demand for school psychologists or school nurses specifically, hiring trends for those positions remain in step with the trends of recent years. It is definitely a possibility that we will see increasing demand for school psychologists and nurses as well as the pandemic continues and its effects on student health become more evident.

Using Analytics to Support Students in the Midst of a Pandemic

As schools re-open for the 2021-2022 school year, educators find themselves facing a myriad of challenges. From establishing health and safety guidelines for a safe reopening, to managing the ever-increasing concerns around the mental health of staff and students, to benchmarking student performance, schools are once again facing a school year unlike any other.

Like last school year, districts are reinventing themselves to meet the challenges ahead with creativity and care to ensure all students meet their goals in the classroom. Whether they’re establishing modified distance learning plans, developing intervention strategies, or finding new ways to re-engage learners, district leaders are focused on a speed to insight around four key questions:

  1. What are the current performance levels of each student?
  2. Based on the current performance level, what are our goals for student performance for the upcoming school year?
  3. How will we measure our performance during the year?
  4. What will we do to support students who struggle?

More and more, educators are using analytics to answer these questions and identify moments of success from last school year.

Here’s how:

1.  What are the current performance levels of each student?

Districts are analyzing last year’s attendance rates, course grades and even engagement in eLearning platforms like Google Classroom, Canvas or Schoology data to identify a critical list of students who may need additional resources to launch a successful start of the school year.

Along with previously mentioned classroom-level datasets, districts are reviewing benchmark assessment data like iReady, NWEA MAP, Star 360, PSAT/SAT and even state assessments.

This provides insight into key performance standards in math and reading, showing not only how students did at the end of 2021, but also informing where to go in 2022. In each instance, educators are looking to analytics that swiftly disaggregate the results so they can ensure equity and access for all students. Districts know that a bridge will need to be built from last year to this year, so reviewing the most recent benchmark assessments to understand what students know and can do can help to create a game plan for the upcoming school year — which is paramount to a successful 2022.

Figure 1 provides a sample quadrant analysis of NWEA MAP performance from fall to spring 2020-2021 in Reading/Language Arts, as shown in a dashboard created using Forecast5 Analytics’ 5Labs tool, powered by Frontline Education.

2. Based on the current performance level, what are your goals for student performance for the upcoming school year?

At the secondary level, preparing students for college and career remains as important as ever. Districts are looking at disaggregated analytics that can quickly show if high school students are on track to graduate. They are also creating Early Warning Indicators to combine a variety of data points (like attendance and grades) to see which students may be falling off track so principals and building leaders can proactively support each student and track performance during the school year. Districts are, once again, closely monitoring student enrollments in rigorous coursework like AP and Dual Credit to make sure that each and every student has access to content and instruction that prepares them for life after graduation.

Figure 2 displays a district Early Warning Indicator (EWI) as shown in a dashboard created using Forecast5 Analytics’ 5Labs tool, powered by Frontline Education. The graphs are based on the combination of the student’s attendance and number of D’s and F’s, a risk category.

3. How will you measure your performance during the year?

As assessment information on students may be limited from last year, it is important to establish reasonable targets for students to meet for the current school year. The first step to measuring student performance is identifying where the student is at, now. This can be done through the use of classroom assessments, standardized assessment or a combination of both.  Then, once the benchmark performance is in place, continue to monitor student progress throughout the year, to ensure that students are not only successful in the classroom through traditional or standards-based grades, but also meeting grade level expectations on standardized measures in reading and math.

4. What will you do to support students who struggle?

Supporting struggling students begins with a collaborative team, either across a grade level, content area or subject, identifying students needing support. Knowing, quickly, which students are not meeting the established performance expectations is critical. So often the RTI, MTSS or student support team spends a significant amount of time ‘crunching’ the numbers and very little time planning the action steps. Consider flipping that conversation and providing tools to your leadership teams that allows them to spend less time creating the data tables and more time acting upon them.

Real-world example

In one Illinois district, traditionally, the leadership team spent a significant amount of time combing through and trying to make sense of various departmental and course grade data to determine how many students were failing more than one class each grading period. Then, the students were to be connected to a targeted intervention. This data was not easy to pull into a report and share, so it took much longer to establish action steps that would help the staff support the students in a timely fashion. The team then developed automated custom dashboards that were disaggregated by counselor, dean, grade level, course and department, to quickly identify students that may need an intervention.

Concluding thoughts

While the challenges that exist are many, we have seen a remarkable sharing of best practices and ideas among clients and colleagues from around the country. Through virtual webinars, conferences, and the return of in-person professional development, it is truly inspirational to see the collaboration around key analytics that quickly support a child and the focus on equity to make sure all students receive an education that prepares them for their next step in life. From this experience, schools and educators will once again adapt, modify, and succeed in ensuring students meet with success, paving the way for the next generation of educators, leaders, and community members.

To make data-informed decisions about student outcomes, you need easy-to-use data analytics tools designed specifically for schools. Forecast5’s 5Lab consolidates disparate data sources into a single analytics environment, giving you in-depth, actionable insights to navigate our evolving education landscape and improve student achievement. Explore more here

Top Tips for Success with Online Professional Development for Teachers

While many of us can’t wait to get back to in-person professional development and think online PD is less than ideal, I’m here to tell you that virtual professional learning can be highly successful. When online professional learning is well planned and well executed, teachers describe their experiences as “fantastic,” “effective,” “perfect,” and “wonderful.”

My team studied over 130 online professional learning courses offered to educators in hundreds of school districts over the course of two school years — including courses available during the pandemic. These courses were offered as part of a grant from the NY State Department of Education to the NY State Teacher Centers — 126 professional development centers run by teachers, with the goal of providing high-quality professional learning opportunities for educators to enrich teaching practice and improve student learning and achievement. We know from this program evaluation that teachers have high expectations for professional development, and we learned from over 1000 feedback survey responses what makes virtual professional learning work.

The courses we studied encompassed a variety of topics including the arts, culturally responsive education, educational technology, mathematics, and social emotional learning, just to name a few. Many courses featured multiple sessions and included reading and writing assignments participants were expected to complete.

Feedback fell rather neatly into 6 essential categories. Format, time management, communication, interaction, content, and materials all need to be part and parcel of the design of virtual professional learning. A deeper dive into these responses from teachers revealed the following lessons:

Teacher survey results: what makes virtual professional development work?

Course format

  • Keep it real. Teachers asked specifically for instructors to build in at least one synchronous session in an otherwise asynchronous course that would allow participants to interact with one another in real time.
  • Fair is fair. Teachers complained when the workload didn’t match the course credit or compensation. In many districts, they receive professional development credits toward requirements to maintain their professional certification, while others receive additional compensation for completing PD courses outside of the school day. Instructors should ensure that any work they expect teachers to complete outside of course sessions, combined with the hours spent in session, is commensurate with awarded points, credits, or compensation.
  • Variety is the spice of… learning. Teachers appreciated courses that included a variety of activities: lecture, small group discussion, videos, writing prompts, and other interactive activities. As with much professional development, most courses took place after their workdays, and transitions from one activity to the next helped keep them engaged.
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Time management

  • Enough is enough (but more might be better). Many teachers commented that they wished there were more course sessions, or in some cases, that sessions were longer to accommodate the volume of content and activities the instructor planned. It’s imperative that instructors take into account the amount of content they intend to cover and propose an adequate number of sessions or hours so as to not overwhelm participants with too much new information at one time.
  • Everything has its time and pace. Pacing is very important to teachers, and many commented on the pacing of their sessions. They expressed appreciation for good pacing and complained when it felt too fast or slow. Specifically, instructors should allow time for participants to grapple with and process new content, take notes, and reflect on their learning. They should also build in opportunities for discussion and make time for questions and answers after new content is presented.
  • Gimme a break. Simply put: People need at least one brief break when sessions go two hours or more.
  • Passing the baton. Teachers did not appreciate losing valuable course time when instructors needed to hand off the controls to co-presenters. If there are multiple presenters, transitions need to be well practiced and managed so no instructional time is lost.

Communication

  • The cardinal rule is clarity. Teachers didn’t appreciate confusion around course expectations. Instructors should ensure that participants have a clear understanding of what is expected in addition to attending course sessions (e.g., reading relevant articles or a book, viewing videos, completing a project, posting on a discussion board). They need to know if assignments are required or simply recommended.
  • Facts first. Teachers are natural planners and indicated that they want all course information up front, prior to the first session. They need to plan for their participation and additional work expectations, especially if there are multiple course sessions and reading or writing assignments with specific due dates.
  • Keep in touch. Participants appreciated regular communication from instructors during the course (such as weekly emails), and some wanted to maintain contact with the instructor and even other participants after the course ended. Instructors might want to create optional, ongoing learning communities where participants can continue to ask questions and exchange ideas and resources.
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Interaction

  • Share and share alike. Teachers indicated they want more opportunities for participation and interaction with each other and the instructor. They wanted opportunities to share what they’re doing in the classroom relative to the course topic, and to hear what others are doing. Instructors should provide opportunities for participants to connect, network, and establish collegial relationships they can potentially continue beyond the course.
  • “Breakout” of the mold. We received a lot of feedback about breakout rooms in virtual communication platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Inside the course itself, instructors need to build in time for participants to interact with each other and process the content. Breakout rooms can be used for this purpose, but instructors need to devote enough time for each participant to contribute to the conversation, react to others, and complete whatever tasks the instructor assigns.

Participants need explicit directions for how to use the time in breakouts, and they must be able to access and review the directions once they’re in the breakout rooms. Some instructors in our study put breakout room prompts on slides in the main room, and by the time people got into their breakouts, they found they didn’t remember the question prompts.

Breakout room activities must be meaningful and relevant. Discussion for discussion’s sake when participants aren’t clear on the purpose doesn’t work.

  • Mix it up. Teachers wanted a variety of opportunities to interact with each other and the instructor. They appreciated the ability to talk in real time (e.g., via breakout rooms) and interact in ways that went beyond the chat box or simply posting written reflections and responses to each other asynchronously. Instructors should consider taking them to other platforms (Google Slides, Jamboard, Padlet, etc.) to keep participants engaged.
  • They fancy feedback. Teachers wanted to hear from instructors, especially when they submitted written assignments or other projects. Instructors should give adequate, meaningful feedback to participants on their responses or other coursework.

Content

  • Teachers are looking for action. Teachers appreciated the content they learned, but they really wanted to walk away knowing how to apply their new learning in the classroom. Instructors should provide concrete action steps for participants, including strategies they can use in classrooms. Teachers asked for specific examples of how to implement what they are learning in their classrooms. In fact, this was the most common request we read in feedback comments. At the very least, instructors should present realistic (if fictional) scenarios so that participants can envision how they might act, react, or implement strategies in the classroom.
  • Deeper dives win the gold. Teachers often want more. Many asked for a “level two course,” or deeper dives into the course topics. Instructors should offer more advanced courses if they are able, or at the very least, point participants to readings or other materials or additional courses for those wishing to learn more about the topic.
  • One size does NOT fit all. Teachers expressed frustration when course content or resources didn’t match their grade or school level. They wanted courses geared specifically to their grade levels or at least differentiated for elementary and secondary. Instructors should offer courses tailored to specific grade level bands or differentiate their courses to address different needs and levels. For some courses, teachers wanted content to be differentiated based on participant levels of knowledge or experience with the topic.

Materials

  • Before is better. Teachers wanted materials up front before the course began. They wanted to see what was coming and get familiar with it, and they wanted to feel prepared and ready for the course. Instructors should distribute materials (slides, handouts, etc.) to participants prior to the first session.
  • Materials matter. Course participants need more than just slides. Teachers in our study wanted to see agendas, outlines, or handouts that help them stay organized and keep track of the concepts presented, the course activities, and all assignments. They also wanted the right number of resources. If there were too many, participants needed them to be organized and curated. If there were too few, they asked for more. Materials and course resources should ideally be organized and available in one location. Participants do not want to have to go to multiple systems or storage places to collect all the materials they need for the course.

High quality professional learning should be created based on results of program evaluation, needs assessments and other assessments of teachers’ learning needs. It should be well organized, managed, and include relevant activities and materials, along with a clear communication plan between instructors and participants.

Teachers know good teaching and are more than willing to share how they experience the professional learning we provide for them. As it turns out, many of the same principles and practices we apply in the classroom are what make virtual professional development successful as well.

Resources

Talk Data to Me: Hiring Trends in the Wake of a Teacher Shortage

The teacher shortage has gained a lot of attention over the past few weeks. National news, local news, and even President Biden have all addressed the topic in recent weeks. According to a survey conducted by Frontline Education, two-thirds of nearly 1,200 school and district leaders across the country reported having a teacher shortage.

A teacher shortage would cause enough problems for districts trying to fill vacancies in a normal year, but the pandemic appears to have exacerbated this struggle. Some reports indicate that as many as 1 in 4 current teachers plan on leaving the profession in a wave of retirements or quitting the profession for other endeavors.

What can we learn about these troubling trends from hiring data? The Frontline Research & Learning Institute and data from Frontline Education’s Recruiting & Hiring solution — which is representative of national district norms — provide an in-depth look at hiring trends over time.

Are school districts posting more jobs in 2021?

Chart 1 shows the number of Teacher Job Postings per District over the past three years. A trove of teachers leaving the profession should translate into districts having to post more jobs than usual, but as Chart 1 shows, that is not the case thus far. The number of job postings per district this year tracks steadily alongside previous years.

Are schools struggling to find applicants for open positions?

The teacher shortage would most clearly manifest itself in the data in low numbers of applicants per job posting — and indeed, you can see fewer applicants per posting in 2021 than in previous years in Chart 2 below.

In prior years, each job posting received an average of 7.8 applicants. However, job postings in 2021 are receiving fewer than 6 applicants on average thus far.

Collectively, this translates to a 12.5% decrease in applicants per district in January-July 2021 compared to January-July 2020 and a 31.6% decrease in January-July 2021 compared to January-July 2019.

Chart 2:


 

 

What does it all mean?

If teachers are choosing to leave the profession at higher rates than years past as has been predicted throughout the pandemic, we should expect to see an increase in teacher job postings aimed at filling those vacancies. However, this isn’t reflected in the trends in Chart 1.

Does this mean that teachers are not retiring (or otherwise exiting the profession) at the rates that have been commonly feared? Maybe, maybe not. The consistency of the trends in Chart 1 suggests it would be reasonable to expect the number of job postings to fall for the remainder of the year, but it’s also possible that districts are awaiting approval for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund and ARP funding proposals that include new positions. If that’s the case, job postings could track higher than in years past, and in a year where already fewer applicants are vying for jobs as Chart 2 shows, the teacher shortage may intensify.

Additional Resources

    1. The Teacher Shortage, 2021 Edition: See results from Frontline’s survey of nearly 1,200 district administrators on the impact of the teacher shortage.
    2. Retention-First Recruitment: With fewer teachers entering the profession, retention is more important than ever. Here’s how Curriculum & Instruction and HR can work together to attract — and keep — great teachers.
    3. Talk Data to Me: For earlier data on recruiting and hiring trends during COVID-19, see here and here.
    4. Pro Tips: Finance and Funding for K-12 Public Schools: A review of federal, state, and local education funding categories.
    5. Supporting the Health Needs of Students and Staff: Resources on supporting the mental and physical health needs of students and staff for a safe reopening of schools.

Special Education and the Teacher Shortage

An online search for “teacher shortage” will quickly return nearly 2 million new results. Each day yields more headlines about school districts who struggle to hire enough teachers — and in a recent survey, 77% of respondents indicated that they have a special education teacher shortage.

Among those districts reporting shortages, special education was the most challenging areas to fill:

Special education and the teacher shortage.

Source: National Coalition on Personnel Shortages in Special Education and Related Services

A growing special education student-teacher ratio.

Since 2005, the ratio of special education students to teachers has risen. There is some good news: in more recent years, the number of special education teachers has rebounded to over 388,000 after a dip from 2014 to 2016.

And while 2018 reported almost 20,000 fewer special education teachers than there had been 10 years earlier, these numbers seem to be increasing – for now. Only time will tell what the data looks like post-pandemic, which was an incredibly difficult time for all educators, but especially those in special education.

In the 2024 K-12 Lens Report, nearly 80% of survey respondents reported a special education teacher shortage. That’s higher than any other reported shortage (even against substitutes).

 Hand-picked Content for You

K-12 Lens: A Survey Report from Frontline Education

In this inaugural K-12 Lens, you’ll gain key insights derived from the responses of nearly 700 K-12 administrators. This survey included questions that explore challenges related to past, current, and prospective district operations.

Read The Report –>

Here’s a look at the data at the state level, showing the ratio of special education students to teachers.

 —
Teachers: Total # of full-time special education teachers as reported by each state.
Students: Total # of students ages 6 through 21 served under IDEA, Part B (all disabilities), as reported by each state.
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Wyoming Department of Education. Accessed July 2021.
Missing Data:
Special Education student population in Vermont for years 2007 & 2008.
Number of Special Education teachers in the District of Columbia for 2006 and in Wisconsin for 2014 and 2015.
Although the data used in this report has been produced and processed from sources believed to be reliable, we cannot ensure the accuracy, adequacy, completeness, legality, reliability or usefulness of any information. It is possible that reporting errors or inconsistencies between states and years may be present in this dataset.

—

All of this asks the question: how does this impact your special education teachers and staff on a practical, day-to-day level? Are they equipped to efficiently tackle the administrative work that comes with special education? What about complying with state regulations? Do they have enough time to do all this and provide the instruction that students with special needs deserve?

Do you have a special education teacher shortage in your district? If so, what strategies are you employing to combat it? With what tools do you equip your team?

Here are some additional resources:

Why Do Special Education Teachers Quit?
Special educators & administrators share their biggest challenges.
Read the Post –> 

Retention-First Recruitment
Four traits of an effective Retention First Recruitment model for educators.
Watch the Video –> 

Recommitting to RTI/MTSS After COVID-19 School Closures

Guest post by Jim Wright, national presenter, trainer, and author on topics that cover the essentials and beyond of Response to Intervention and Multi-Tiered System of Supports.

Lately, in my conversations with schools, I have noted that educators in my own state of New York and other parts of the country are breathing a deep sigh of relief. The COVID-19 interruption to public education, which began over a year ago, appears finally to be ending. There is every likelihood that schools will return to full-time, in-person learning in the fall of 2021.

But clouds lie on the horizon. Because of the challenges of the past year and a half, many schools anticipate in the coming year a substantial uptick in the number of students identified as in danger of academic failure. While there are several reasons for this expected jump, primary explanations are that, during the pandemic, vulnerable learners became discouraged and disengaged from remote instruction or encountered other roadblocks to learning such as a lack of reliable internet service.

It is too early to fully gauge the severity of the learning loss that has accrued over the past 16 months. The reality is that the impact of the COVID interruption on academic performance has varied widely across districts.

However, one recent study estimates that the initial COVID interruption from March to September 2020 alone may have erased as much as one-third of typical yearly reading growth and nearly two-thirds of typical math growth from the skill set of the average learner.1  

And we can presume that, for many at-risk students, learning losses have only continued to compound across the current school year, as the majority of districts conducted some version of remote or hybrid (mix of remote and in-person) instruction.

Using RTI/MTSS to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 interruption on student learning

An obvious concern is that a sudden large post-COVID influx of students qualifying for remedial educational supports might overwhelm schools’ capacity to provide high-quality academic intervention. A logical solution is for schools to invest renewed energy in a strong RTI/MTSS academic model.

RTI/MTSS is a systemic approach that uses data to identify and monitor students at risk for academic failure, matches those students to appropriate tiered academic interventions, and collects and archives the resulting academic intervention plans to be easily accessed for future retrieval and review. RTI/MTSS applies a rational structure and clear decision rules to flag students in need of intervention support. This fair, transparent process ensures that learners with significant academic risk will receive timely, appropriate services.2

An unfortunate consequence of the COVID interruption is that districts were often forced to scale back or even temporarily suspend their RTI/MTSS supports.

This year, for example, numerous districts reassigned Tier 2 academic intervention personnel to serve as classroom teachers to permit a reduction in the size of in-person classes. Similarly, schools adopting a hybrid instructional model sometimes cut the contact frequency of their intervention groups to only one or two sessions per week — below the recommended three-session/week minimum. While such cutbacks may well have been unavoidable during the COVID emergency, a necessary next step for these districts will be to reinstate the full RTI/MTSS academic model as soon as possible.

Below are four recommendations for schools seeking to bring their RTI/MTSS model back to full strength. These suggestions come from my recent observations from my work with schools on what RTI/MTSS elements were most likely to have been deemphasized, suspended, or even eliminated during the pandemic. Use them as a launching point to evaluate your system’s readiness to respond quickly and appropriately to the needs of all at-risk learners.

4 steps to bring your RTI/MTSS program back up to full strength

1. Recommit Staff to the Mission of RTI/MTSS

In any school, RTI/MTSS is powered by the energy and commitment of faculty and staff who implement it. As schools move to fully restore RTI/MTSS to pre-COVID levels, they should provide “refresher” professional development to staff to renew their understanding of the fundamentals of RTI/MTSS.

A key point to emphasize is that RTI/MTSS is not a roadblock to special education. Rather, the model is preventative: it seeks to provide timely, targeted support to at-risk students to catch and fix academic problems before they cascade into unbridgeable deficits.3 Staff should also be reminded that formative data on academic performance is used to move students up and down the three Tiers of academic intervention.

2. Retrain Teachers in Tier 1/Classroom Interventions

As schools return to in-person learning, they may see a potential increase in students at risk for academic regression. In response, these schools are likely to first assign learners with mild academic delays to classroom instructional review and intervention before considering more intensive Tier 2/3 services. It is therefore crucial that teachers have the appropriate tools and support to carry out high-quality Tier 1/classroom plans and outcomes so the school can discern as quickly as possible which students need additional (i.e., Tier 2/3) services.

Yet in the time of the recent COVID interruption, many schools scaled back or suspended Tier 1 (classroom) interventions. To reinstate high-quality first-tier interventions after a year-long hiatus will not be as easy as flicking a switch. Rather, you will want to refresh the training of teachers in how to carry out these interventions, including specifics about:

  • Whom teachers consult when developing classroom intervention plans.
  • What form(s) to use to put the plan in writing.
  • How many instructional weeks the intervention plan is expected to last (e.g., 6 weeks) before evaluating the effectiveness of that plan.
  • What school-based and/or online resources are available that teachers can browse for intervention and data-collection ideas.
  • How teachers refer students for higher levels of RTI/MTSS support when classroom interventions alone are not successful.

3. Restore the Full Tier 2/3 Intervention Continuum

Schools that temporarily reduced or dismantled their Tier 2 (supplemental) and Tier 3 (intensive) intervention levels in response to COVID should prioritize reinstating them according to RTI/MTSS quality guidelines.4 For example:

  • Group sizes are to be capped at 7 students for Tier 2 and 3 students for Tier 3.
  • Tier 2 groups are expected to meet 3 times weekly for at least 30 minutes, while Tier 3 groups meet 4-5 times per week for 30 minutes.

However, we need to acknowledge that, faced with a possible spike in the number of students with academic delays due to the COVID interruption, schools may be tempted to cut corners in delivering Tier 2/3 services. For instance, Tier 2/3 providers may be urged by teachers to devote intervention sessions to help students to ‘catch up’ in classwork. Despite such pressure, they should remain true to their Tier 2/3 purpose: to find and fix identified students’ off-grade-level skill gaps.5

Also, Tier 2/3 staff should be allocated across grade levels and schools within a district to promote equity in services6: Higher-performing schools with fewer students qualifying for Tier 2/3 services may be assigned fewer interventionist positions, for example, while their fellow schools with larger at-risk populations might receive proportionally greater intervention support.

4. Rethink Data Sources to Determine RTI/MTSS Eligibility

A pervasive negative impact of the COVID interruption has been a reduced availability of quality data sources to determine eligibility for Tier 2/3 intervention services.

During a typical school year, schools employ a battery of academic assessments in fall, winter, and spring to assess risk for academic failure. In determining Tier 2/3 eligibility, RTI/MTSS decision-makers ideally place the greatest weight on a reliable school-wide screener (e.g., NWEA MAP; STAR Reading/Math; FastBridge; AIMSweb). This screening data might then be supplemented with additional academic data sources such as state tests and classroom instructional assessments.

In many locales, however, the pandemic has forced the cancellation of key assessments (e.g., state tests) commonly used for RTI/MTSS placement.

In addition, remote instruction has forced schools to convert traditional in-person assessments (e.g., running records; CBM Oral Reading Fluency) to online administration. Yet if these assessments were never normed for remote use, informally modifying them for ‘distance assessment’ potentially violates administration guidelines and reduces schools’ confidence in using published benchmark norms to interpret student results.

To compensate for missing or compromised data sources, schools should:

  • Complete a building-wide ‘assessment audit’ that lists all assessments currently used for RTI/MTSS eligibility at each grade level.7

For each assessment entry, the audit records the decision(s) for which this data tool is appropriate (e.g., determining eligibility for Tier 2 services for math-fact fluency), as well as a general rating of the technical adequacy (reliability and validity) of the tool. Once completed, the assessment audit will allow the school to rank its academic data sources from most to least objective to weed out redundant tools and to flag assessment gaps requiring additional data sources.

  • Consider adding non-standard data sources to help determine Tier 2/3 eligibility.8

Schools blinkered because of COVID-related loss of academic data might consider temporarily substituting less-direct measures of academic performance, particularly when evaluating the academic risk of remote learners. Examples include attendance, indicators of work engagement (e.g., percentage of student responses to online teacher queries; percentage of time the student turns the camera on during remote lessons, etc.), and teacher nominations of at-risk learners.

  • Review and — if necessary — firm up decision rules for triangulating data from the school’s current screening battery.

Ensure that data-driven guidelines for student eligibility are fair, transparent, and applied with consistency.9

As districts gear up to restore to students their full array of RTI/MTSS supports, we might easily regard the past 16 months of the COVID interruption as an unmitigated disaster. Without question, the pandemic has wrought negative, potentially long-lasting effects on education, including social separation, stress, and — for our most vulnerable learners — the erosion of academic skills.

Upon reflection, however, we might also identify potentially positive outcomes, such as the many examples within schools of staff, students, and parents coming together in the face of a deadly global health threat to model resilience and creative problem solving.

And, in the aftermath of COVID school closures, RTI/MTSS stakeholders in some districts have discovered an additional silver lining: they recognize that the obligation to restore their full RTI/MTSS model is also an opportunity to recommit to it, to build it back better. The recommendations presented in this article can provide the first steps in that rebuilding project.

Collect and analyze the data you need to help struggling learners.

Learn how Frontline can help  

1 Kuhfeld, M., Soland, J., Tarasawa, B., Johnson, A., Ruzek, E., & Liu, J. (2020). Projecting the potential impacts of COVID-19 school closures on academic achievement. Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai20-226

2 McDougal, J. L., Graney, S. B., Wright, J. A., & Ardoin, S. P. (2009). RTI in practice: A practical guide to implementing effective evidence-based interventions in your school. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

3 Wright, J. (2007). The RTI toolkit: A practical guide for schools. Port Chester, NY: National Professional Resources, Inc.

4 McDougal, J. L., Graney, S. B., Wright, J. A., & Ardoin, S. P. (2009). RTI in practice: A practical guide to implementing effective evidence-based interventions in your school. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

5 Miller, F.G., Sullivan, A.L., McKevett, N.M., Muldrew, A., & Hansen-Burke, A. (2021).  Leveraging MTSS to advance, not suppress, COVID-related equity issues: Tier 2 and 3 considerations. Communiqué, 49(3), 1, 30-32.

6 Miller, F.G., Sullivan, A.L., McKevett, N.M., Muldrew, A., & Hansen-Burke, A. (2021).  Leveraging MTSS to advance, not suppress, COVID-related equity issues: Tier 2 and 3 considerations. Communiqué, 49(3), 1, 30-32.

7 Ball, C.R., & Christ, T.J. (2012). Supporting valid decision making: Uses and misuses of assessment data within the context of RTI. Psychology in the Schools, 49(3), 231-244.

8 Miller, F.G., Sullivan, A.L., McKevett, N.M., Muldrew, A., & Hansen-Burke, A. (2021).  Leveraging MTSS to advance, not suppress, COVID-related equity issues: Tier 2 and 3 considerations. Communiqué, 49(3), 1, 30-32.

9 Miller, F.G., Sullivan, A.L., McKevett, N.M., Muldrew, A., & Hansen-Burke, A. (2021).  Leveraging MTSS to advance, not suppress, COVID-related equity issues: Tier 2 and 3 considerations. Communiqué, 49(3), 1, 30-32.