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How To: Managing Problem Behaviors with Check-In/Check-Out

Sometimes the simplest strategies work best. While every student is different and may require differing levels of intervention, if you want to motivate students to improve classroom behaviors, you need at least two things:

  1. A clear picture of expected behavior
  2. Incentives to work toward those behavioral goals

One of the most straightforward ways to put this into practice is with a modified version of Check-In/Check-Out. This behavioral intervention package is designed for use during a single 30-90 minute classroom period (Dart, Cook, Collins, Gresham & Chenier, 2012). The structure is simple: the teacher checks in with the student to set behavioral goals at the start of the period, then checks out with the student at the end of the period to rate the student’s conduct and award points or other incentives earned for achieving behavioral goals.

Here’s how it works.

Preparing to Use Check-In/Check-Out

  • Start by selecting 3-4 behaviors to be targeted during the intervention. Whenever you can, state these positively as DO behaviors rather than DON’T behaviors. “Promptly and quietly follow teacher requests,” not, “Don’t dawdle or talk back when the teacher asks you to do something.”
  • Create a Behavior Report Card (BRC) that incorporates the target behaviors. This is a rating scale you can use to rate the student’s behavior at the end of the class or other evaluation period. You can view a sample, or create customized BRCs for free. behavior report card
  • Decide on a daily reward or incentive for displaying positive behaviors. This could be anything you like — 5 minutes of free time, 3 “positive behavior points” to be redeemed for items from the prize box, or a parent phone call praising the student. Get a listing of potential reward ideas here.
  • Set a minimum rating on the BRC items that the student must achieve to earn the selected reward.
  • Explain the process to the student. Meet with the student to explain the intervention, review your expectations, go over how the Behavior Report Card will be filled out and explain how the student can earn rewards.

Using Check-In/Check-Out in the Classroom

During any class session or evaluation period when Check-In/Check-Out is in effect, it’s as simple as following these three steps.

  • Check-In. At the start of the class session, meet briefly with the student to go over the behavioral goals on the Behavior Report Card and encourage the student. Prompt the student to set a behavioral goal on at least one of the target behaviors, such as, “Today I will not leave my seat once without permission.”
  • Monitoring/Evaluation. During the class, observe the student’s behaviors. Then rate those behaviors on the Behavior Report Card at the end of the class.
  • Check-Out. At the end of the class, meet briefly with the student once more. Have the student report on whether he or she met the goals discussed at check-in. Then share the BRC ratings with the student and award any rewards the student earned. If the student didn’t meet the goals, give encouragement about success in a future session.

Share Your Stories

Have you — or has anyone at your organization — had success using Check-In/Check-Out to help students achieve behavior goals? Tell us! We’d love to hear from you through LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

References

Dart, E. H., Cook, C. R., Collins, T. A., Gresham, F. M., & Chenier, J. S. (2012). Test driving interventions to increase treatment integrity and student outcomes. School Psychology Review, 41, 467-481.

Seven Big Ideas to Guide Behavior Management

This content was originally published at InterventionCentral.org.

students collaborating

If you’re skilled in classroom management, you can respond appropriately to just about any behavior a student brings into your classroom. And while it’s important to have a toolkit of specific behavioral strategies, educators who maintain smoothly-running classrooms with minimal disruptions have a secret: they view problem student behaviors through the lens of seven “big ideas” in behavior management.

These seven steps can help you identify and respond to behavior issues in the classroom.

  1. Check for academic problems. There is a high correlation between misbehavior in the classroom and deficient academic skills (Witt, Daly, & Noell, 2000). When you see problem behavior, the first step is to routinely assess a student’s academic skills. If poor academics appear to be the cause of problem behaviors, choose an intervention that addresses the academic deficit.
  2. Identify the underlying function of the behavior. Try to understand the reasons behind problem behaviors, as these behaviors serve as a function for the student (Witt, Daly, & Noell, 2000). Most commonly, students will behave in a certain way either to avoid doing something or to get attention from peers or adults (Packenham, Shute, & Reid, 2004).By identifying what is most likely causing the student to act in a certain way, you can more confidently choose an intervention that will target the reasons behind that behavior (and therefore more likely be effective). For example, if you determine that a student’s call-outs in class are a way of seeking adult attention, you might respond by interacting minimally with the student during call-outs, but giving her more attention when she behaves appropriately.
  3. Eliminate behavioral triggers. Problem behaviors are often set off by events or conditions in the classroom (Kern, Choutka, & Sokol, 2002). What could this look like? Sitting next to a distracting classmate or being given an academic task that’s too difficult to complete are two examples. Thankfully, identifying and getting rid of such triggers tends to work quickly. By preventing such class disruptions, you’ll create more time for teaching.
  4. Redefine the behavior goal as a replacement behavior. When a student acts out in class, it can be easy to fall into the trap of simply wishing those behaviors would just go away. But the point of a behavioral intervention should be to encourage the student toward pro-social, pro-academic behaviors, not simply to eliminate bad behaviors. By providing a positive goal as an appropriate replacement for the student’s original problem behavior, you’ll reframe the student concern in a way that allows for more effective intervention planning (Batsche, Castillo, Dixon, & Forde, 2008). For example, if a student is talking with peers about topics that don’t relate to the lesson during independent seatwork, you might choose as a replacement behavior: “The student will engage in active, accurate academic responding.”
  5. Rule out the most likely causes for misbehavior first. There are plenty of places you can look when trying to identify why a student is misbehaving: student work products; direct observation; and interviews with the student, other teachers or parents, to name a few. But it’s easy to jump right to conclusions that might fit preconceptions of the student, but aren’t supported by the data. It might seem logical to describe a student who is non-compliant and fails to complete classwork as “apathetic,” “unmotivated” or “lazy.” But students are rarely so sealed off from the world that their behavioral problems are determined solely by their own attitudes or work ethic. It’s far more likely that a student displays problem behavior because of environmental factors — attempting to escape work that is too difficult, or looking for attention from peers, for example.Before drawing conclusions, look at several sources of information and rule out the most common, “low-inference” explanations for misbehavior (Christ, 2008) before considering whether the behavior primarily stems from internal motivations.
  6. Be flexible in responding to misbehavior. You’ll have more success in managing the full spectrum of student misbehaviors when you respond flexibly — evaluating each individual case and applying strategies to logically address the most likely cause(s) of a student’s problem conduct (Marzano, Marzano, & Pickering, 2003). For example, you might respond to a non-compliant student with a warning and additional disciplinary consequences if evidence suggests that the misbehavior stems from a desire for peer attention and approval. But if the misbehavior was triggered by a negative comment from a fellow student, you might respond differently — perhaps by using defusing strategies and having a behavior conference, instead.
  7. Manage behaviors through strong instruction. A powerful way to prevent misbehavior is to keep students actively engaged in academic responding (Lewis, Hudson, Richter, & Johnson, 2004). You’re most likely to “capture” a student’s behavior for academic purposes when you make sure that she has the academic skills to do the assigned classwork, provide teaching to specifically help her master difficult material and give timely feedback about her academic performance (Burns, VanDerHeyden, & Boice, 2008).

How have you seen these ideas work in classrooms in your district?

Do teachers in your school or district use these steps to address challenges in the classroom? Share your experiences, tips and tricks with us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

References

Batsche, G. M., Castillo, J. M., Dixon, D. N., & Forde, S. (2008). Best practices in designing, implementing, and evaluating quality interventions. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best Practices in school psychology V (pp. 177-193). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Burns, M. K., VanDerHeyden, A. M., & Boice, C. H. (2008). Best practices in intensive academic interventions. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V (pp.1151-1162). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.
Christ, T. (2008). Best practices in problem analysis. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V (pp. 159-176). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Kern, L., Choutka, C. M., & Sokol, N. G. (2002). Assessment-based antecedent interventions used in natural settings to reduce challenging behaviors: An analysis of the literature. Education & Treatment of Children, 25, 113-130.

Kern, L. & Clemens, N. H. (2007). Antecedent strategies to promote appropriate classroom behavior. Psychology in the Schools, 44, 65-75.
Lewis, T. J., Hudson, S., Richter, M., & Johnson, N. (2004). Scientifically supported practices in emotional and behavioral disorders: A proposed approach and brief review of current practices. Behavioral Disorders, 29, 247-259.

Marzano, R. J., Marzano, J. S., & Pickering, D. J. (2003). Classroom management that works: Research-based strategies for every teacher. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Packenham, M., Shute, R., & Reid, R. (2004). A truncated functional behavioral assessment procedure for children with disruptive classroom behaviors. Education and Treatment of Children, 27(1), 9-25.

Witt, J. C., Daly, E. M., & Noell, G. (2000). Functional assessments: A step-by-step guide to solving academic and behavior problems. Longmont, CO: Sopris West.

[How-To Guide] Addressing Student Conduct With Behavior Contracts

A behavior contract is a simple positive-reinforcement intervention teachers can use to address student behavior. It spells out in detail what is expected of the student and the teacher (and sometimes, the parents) in carrying out an intervention plan, making it a useful planning document.

Implementing Behavior Contracts

The key to a good behavior contract is letting the student have a say. Wondering what motivates them? Ask them! The more your students get to help design the reward system, the more motivated they’ll be to carry through on the contract.

Then, select specific behaviors that the contract should include. When possible, define behavior targets for the contract as positive, pro-academic or pro-social behaviors.

For example, you may notice that a student frequently calls out answers during lectures without raising his hand first to speak. In the contract, restate that positively as, “The student will participate in class lecture and discussion, raising his hand and being recognized by the teacher before offering an answer.”

Then, draw up the contract together with the student. In many cases, the student can take part in selecting positive goals to increase his involvement and motivation in participating. If appropriate, invite other school staff members, and possibly the student’s parent(s) to take part as well.

The contract should include:

  • A listing of student behaviors to be reduced or increased. State these in positive, goal-oriented terms. They should also contain enough detail to prevent disagreement about student compliance, and it should be easy to confirm whether the student has met the conditions. “Student will complete class assignments on time” is easy to observe and verify. But a goal that the student “will not steal pens from others” is more difficult to confirm.
  • The minimum criteria for earning points, stickers or other tokens for showing appropriate behaviors. Always make it clear to the student exactly what conditions to meet in order earn a point or step toward a reward. For example, a contract may say, “Johnny will add a point to his Good Behavior Chart each time he arrives at school on time and hands in his completed homework assignment to the teacher.”
  • The conditions for redeeming points, stickers or other tokens for specific rewards. The contract may say, for example, that, “When Johnny has earned 5 points on his Good Behavior Chart, he may choose a friend, choose a game from the play-materials shelf, and spend 10 minutes during free time at the end of the day playing the game.”
  • Bonus and penalty clauses (optional). Although not required, bonus and penalty clauses can provide extra incentives for the student to follow the contract. A bonus clause usually offers the student some type of additional ‘pay-off’ for consistently reaching behavioral targets. A penalty clause may prescribe a penalty for serious problem behaviors, such as disrupting the class or endangering the safety of a classmate.
  • Areas for signature. Include spaces on the contract for teacher and student signatures as a sign that both agree to live up to their responsibilities outlined in the contract. You may also want to include signature blocks for other staff members (e.g., a school administrator) or the student’s parent(s).

Troubleshooting: How to Deal With Common Problems

Q: What do I do if the behavior contract doesn’t work?
A: There may be several possible reasons why a behavior contract is ineffective:

  • The student may not be invested in the contract because they didn’t have a voice in creating it. If this is the case, talk to the student and include his input in a revised contract.
  • The rewards in the contract may not be enough to motivate the student to change his behavior. Go over the list of rewards with the student and be sure to include those that the student finds most appealing in the contract.
  • Points and rewards may not be awarded often enough to motivate the student. Each person reacts differently to reward systems like this, and some respond better to more frequent rewards. Consider changing the contract to award points — or redeem points for rewards — more often, and see if it motivates the student to follow the contract. (Once the behavior contract proves effective, you can gradually cut back the rate of rewards to a level that is more easily managed.)

Q: How do I respond if the student starts to argue about the terms of the contract?
A: It’s not unusual — especially when a behavior contract is first introduced —to have honest disagreements with the student about how to interpret its terms. If this happens, having a conference with the student to clarify the contract’s language and meaning may be effective.

Occasionally, though, a student may continue to argue that you’re enforcing the contract unfairly. If the student becomes too antagonistic, you may simply decide to suspend the contract, because it’s not having the desired effect. Or you could modify the contract again, this time adding a behavioral goal or penalty clause stating that the student will not argue with you about the contract.

We Want to Hear From You

Do you use behavior contracts to address challenges in the classroom? What practices have worked best for you? Share your experiences, tips and tricks with us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Tell Your Substitute Story

How celebration and communication can help solve your substitute shortage.

 

A little marketing can go a long way toward alleviating your substitute shortage.

Marketing? Really?

Really.

Of course, there’s a little more to it. Let’s say you’ve been following our series of posts on creating a substitute program that truly makes a difference for your students, substitutes and teachers. You’ve seen how important it is to treat your substitutes like the educators they are. You’ve taken steps to communicate your goals and milestones and invited them to own your organization’s mission and vision. You’ve welcomed them into your community, created a substitute-friendly environment and put a structure in place for direction and accountability.

As a result, every day your substitutes excel at their difficult job. They step into unfamiliar settings and bring energy and passion to education. They manage classrooms of students who may not always exhibit a burning desire to learn.

Your substitutes are filling a crucial role with excellence. Now your job is to make sure people know  about it.

Celebrate and communicate

When your team wins the championship, you’re going to wear the t-shirt. When a candidate wins an election, there’s sure to be a victory party. When good things happen, you want to tell people.

And as human beings, when we’re recognized by other people, we respond. We tend to be more engaged, happier, more likely to be satisfied with our jobs and more likely to stay in them.

So when your substitutes do an amazing job, celebrate them. Encourage them — and encourage others to do the same. An effective story is one of your most powerful tools to boost recruiting and retention. Weave it throughout your organization.

How do you tell that story?

Do you have a story you want to tell? Maybe it’s getting the word out about a substitute who has had a particular impact on students. Or maybe you want to recognize substitutes for the role they’ve played in filling long-term teacher absences.

Two questions to ask as you consider how to begin:

What does this story really say? Does it portray substitutes as the educators that they are? Does it tie into my district’s mission and vision? Does it celebrate the men and women who choose to substitute each day? It may be fine to celebrate a 100% fill rate, but be sure you tell that story in a way that recognizes your substitutes for the work they’re doing that contributes to your school’s mission.

Through what medium will you tell it? If you exile this story to the substitute newsletter, will anyone other than substitutes see it? Instead, think about where you shout your banner headlines, your most important, above-the-fold school or district news. Those are great places to start.

Here are a few concrete examples for how to get started:

  • Put pictures of your substitutes on your school website, and showcase the importance of their role.
  • Instead of behind closed doors, recognize your best substitutes at board meetings where there is a more public presence.
  • Pay for a substitute to spend a half day talking about substitute teaching at a job fair. Find other ways to involve substitutes in recruiting.
  • Publish stories of successful substitutes online and in your district newsletter.

As you continue to recruit substitute teachers, look beyond your district for places to tell your substitute stories. Is there a university in your town, or an industry drawing a large number of job candidates? Those are prime places to use the power of story to market substitute teaching positions.

Stories inspire. They draw people in. They make us want to be a part of something. And they can be found anywhere — now you just have to tell them.

What are your ideas for telling your substitute stories? Share them with us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

How School-Home Notes Help Your Interventions

Managing a classroom full of 2nd graders is challenging enough. Finding effective, practical intervention strategies that successfully address problem behaviors of younger students? That can prove especially difficult. With a team approach, though, teachers and families can work together to help every student improve behavior, stay focused in the classroom and succeed academically.

School-home notes, whereby a teacher sends home a daily note rating a student’s school behaviors, engage families as partners in addressing behavior at school (Jurbergs, Palcic, & Kelley, 2007). Based on each report, a family provides or withholds home rewards to encourage positive student behavior. As a secondary benefit, school-home notes strengthen communication between teachers and families in general.

How can schools and families adopt this effective strategy? By following the guidelines below, implementing a school-home note program is easy and cost-effective.

  Preparation.

  1. Select target behaviors. The teacher and family decide on 2-4 behaviors to track through the school-home note, identifying positive behaviors they want to foster that ‘replace’ existing, problematic ones. One target behavior for a child, for example, might be “The student followed teacher requests.”
  2. Design a school-home note. The teacher and parent design a note identifying target behaviors. While any rating format may be used, a simple version may be best–e.g., Yes (2 pts)…So-So (1 pt)…No (0 pts).
  3. Decide on the cut-point for an acceptable daily school-home note rating. The family and teacher decide on the minimum daily points that the child must earn on the school-home note to be eligible to earn a reward.
  4. Develop a reinforcer menu. Based on a knowledge of the child, the family develops a reinforcer (‘reward’) menu containing 4-8 reward choices. Whenever the student attains a positive rating on the school-home note, he or she can select a reward from this menu.

  Implementation.

  1. Rate the student’s school behavior. At the conclusion of the school day, the teacher rates the student’s behavior on the school-home note. The teacher meets briefly with the student to share feedback about the ratings and offers praise (if the ratings are positive) or encouragement (if the ratings are below expectations).
  2. Send the completed school-home note to the family. The teacher communicates the school-home note results in a manner agreed upon in advance, e.g., in the student’s backpack, via email or a voicemail report.
  3. Provide the home reward. The family reviews the most recent school-home note with the child. If the child attained the minimum rating, the family provides praise and allows the student to select a reward from the reinforcer menu. If the student failed to reach the rating goal, the family withholds the reward but offers encouragement.

  Maintenance.

  1. Refresh the reinforcer menu. Every 2 to 3 weeks, the family should update the reinforcer menu with the child to ensure that the reward choices continue to motivate.
  2. Raise the school-home note goal. Whenever the student has attained success on the school-home note on most or all days for a full 2 weeks, the teacher and family should consider raising the student point goal incrementally.

 

References
Jurbergs, N., Palcic, J., & Kelley, M. L. (2007). School-home notes with and without response cost: Increasing attention and academic performance in low-income children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. School Psychology Quarterly, 22, 358-379.

Frontline Special Education Management & (Formerly) Excent Enrich

Questions about Excent becoming a part of Frontline Education? You’ve come to the right place!

Here are a few of the most frequent questions we hear from school districts who are wondering what the move means for them. Don’t see your question here? Don’t hesitate to contact us!

Why have the product names changed?

Since becoming a part of Frontline Education, Excent Enrich has been rebranded as Frontline Special Education Management. The name change helps align Excent’s products with the rest of the K-12 software solutions Frontline Education offers.

How is Frontline Special Education Management different from Enrich?

Despite the name change, the software hasn’t changed in terms of functionality. However, our team is working constantly to improve Frontline Special Education Managements’ integration with the rest of Frontline’s solutions to provide your district with even better tools.

How does Frontline Special Education Management help to streamline special education management?

Frontline Special Education Management will help your school district contribute toward improved outcomes for children with special needs by:

  • Reducing paperwork and eliminating redundant data entry, including data from your SIS
  • Saving time in drafting IEPs, scheduling meetings, producing reports and overall administration
  • Guiding users through the special education process and other processes such as RTI/MTSS
  • Providing Admin and Teacher dashboards with efficient links to job-specific product areas and student records for progress monitoring
  • Ensuring all IDEA requirements are met
  • Creating different IEP types for different ages (i.e. Early Childhood, School Age, and Transition)
  • Enhancing tracking of timelines and tasks, such as three-year reevaluations
  • Increasing data-driven decision-making based on current reports
  • Boosting staff morale by reducing the time spent on paperwork and meetings
  • Ensuring accountability through built-in compliance checks and reviews
  • Connecting program history to students no matter what campus they move to, and even to other districts if both use Frontline Special Education Management

Does it integrate with my other software systems?

You can integrate data from the district’s student information system including demographics, enrollment details, course involvement, transcripts, attendance and discipline records. Although the SIS is the authoritative source of the information, by integrating this information nightly, users can get a comprehensive view of a student without the added effort of logging into other district systems.

Functionality that allows districts to batch upload state-level testing results directly into Frontline Special Education Management allows users to easily consider these results when determining best programming and services for each student. Creating and running reports based upon assessment data allows for the grouping of students with similar limitations, and a batch intervention process makes it efficient to develop appropriate plans for multiple students at one time.

How does the system help to manage programs for other special student populations (RTI, ELL, Gifted programs, 504)?

The full Frontline Special Education Management solution allows staff to manage all special programs under one umbrella. Customers routinely manage special education, RTI & MTSS, English Learner Programs, Section 504 and Gifted programs within the solution, and some districts even manage student records related to custom programs such as general education behavior. A standard navigation model used throughout the solution minimizes the learning curve when adding new modules. In other words, once you know how to work in one module, the knowledge is transferrable to all.

How does using an integrated IEP / Medicaid reimbursement tool save my district time and money?

By managing all your special education and interventions processes in our full solution, you will:

  • Eliminate duplicate entry or a copy/paste process
  • Avoid paying for licensing and training on more than one solution
  • Validate state-specific requirements within the program, ensuring encounters will not be extracted and submitted until they are compliant
  • Automatically populate the Service Delivery Log with IEP goals
  • Consult and report all necessary special education data from one software program

What hardware or software do I need to install?

Frontline Special Education Management is a fully web-based solution, which does not require any additional hardware or software. Also, districts can provide secure access to the database outside of the district network, allowing users to work during off-hours if needed.

How much does Frontline Special Education Management cost?

The cost of Frontline Special Education Management is an annually renewing maintenance and license fee based upon the number of students a district manages within the special program purchased (i.e. special education, RTI/MTSS, ELL/ESOL, Gifted). The first year of a new contract includes additional implementation fees including project management, configuration and training that only occur once.

If you’re interested in implementing Frontline Special Education Management, a Frontline representative can consult with your district to understand your needs, align them with our solutions and provide a proposal customized for your district.

What kind of support do you offer?

Our world-class Client Success teams are accessible by phone or email. Our teams are trained to work in specific geographic areas to ensure a deep knowledge of requirements and configurations unique to specific states, and they are experienced in IDEA requirements and other educational initiatives such as RTI/MTSS, Section 504 and ELL/ESOL.

What happens when my state makes changes to forms and program requirements?

Changes to program input screens and output documents that result from changing state requirements are of highest priority and are covered under the annual maintenance and support contract. There is no additional cost for program changes required by state Departments of Education.

Does Frontline Special Education Management allow for Progress Monitoring?

Frequent and regular progress monitoring toward goals is a hallmark of the RTI/MTSS initiative and was incorporated into the goals section of Frontline Special Education Management from its initial development. Progress Monitoring is available for any module that includes the Goals section within the configured plan. For most customers, that means IEPs in Special Education and Interventions in RTI/MTSS.

When plans are developed, users indicate frequency of progress monitoring and how progress will be measured. Once a student’s baseline and target are established, dashboard prompts alert users when it is time to document progress, using the schedule defined when the plan was written. The software graphs each data point, providing a view of progress and trends. The resulting graph can be published to a student’s Progress Report and shared with parents.

What are the benefits to using Frontline’s solutions vs. other companies’?

At Frontline, we are actively pursuing a vision to bring the K-12 education community a comprehensive, integrated portfolio of solutions. Special education management is a key component of this portfolio, and Excent was a clear leader in this area with a strong set of solutions and industry expertise. Bringing these solutions together will open up even more opportunities for K-12 organizations to make connections and gain insights across various operations in the district.

Why Is Effective Professional Learning so Elusive?

It happens to all of us, every day. Even though we know the “correct” course of action, we take the path of least resistance. We may even have a reasonable excuse. You know the drill: I know I should get up early to go to the gym. But it’s been a tough week at work — I deserve the extra rest. Then we’re surprised when we don’t get the desired results, because while the excuse may be valid, it doesn’t help us stay in shape.

The occasional excuse may be harmless, but avoiding challenging tasks keeps us from our goals. It results in frustration. It might even make us completely abandon our original goal. Yet all too often we repeat the same patterns again and again, wondering why we haven’t arrived at our goals.

If envisioning our goals brings such a sense of fulfillment, gratification and success, why don’t we ever seem to get there?

Renewed conversation around professional learning

You may have read “The Mirage” — TNTP’s much-publicized report about the state of professional learning today. The recent Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) includes a “new” definition of professional development. Education is experiencing a new “era of accountability.” And we’ve seen a flood of articles and blogs with a focus on professional learning effectiveness. It’s clear that we understand the elements of effective professional learning, and we have for many years.  So while I applaud the dialog, I can’t help but wonder why we’re no closer to implementing those strategies.

By 1995 there was significant research on effective professional learning structures.  Thomas R. Guskey1 and M.G. Fullan2 both published research concluding that professional development should connect to teachers’ needs and concerns and seamlessly integrate into the school day (job-embedded).  That same year, Guskey noted that effective professional development is a recursive and continual process that takes place over time (sustained & intensive). Going back to 1983, Malcolm Knowles wrote about the benefits of collaborative professional development that is active and promotes sharing and discussion.3 The 2001 Learning Forward Standards (formerly NSDC Standards) included Collaboration, Design & Data-Driven among them (the current version of the standards may be found here).

All this sounds a lot like the “new” 2015 ESSA definition that calls for professional development to be:

  • Sustained
  • Intensive
  • Collaborative
  • Job-embedded
  • Data-driven
  • Classroom-focused

There’s no doubt that the goal is well-established. The problem is that after all this time, we’re no closer to meeting that goal than we were back in the 1980’s.  Most professional learning opportunities our teachers participate in are short-term workshops with few of the learning designs we know are effective.

Why isn’t professional development where it needs to be?

What are the excuses that are keeping us from reaching the goal?

Not enough funding?  For many districts, this probably isn’t the case. Consider:

  • Title II funding has been available for many years.
  • “The Mirage” report concluded schools are spending an average of $18,000 on PD annually — per teacher.
  • Our own Frontline Research & Learning Institute report on professionally related absences found that 10% of all employee absences each year are for professional development. That’s a lot of money and lost instructional time devoted to professional development that is, in most cases, ineffective.

Too busy?  Maybe.  But there is a direct connection between setting priorities and finding time.  Is implementing sustainable job-embedded professional learning a priority in your organization?

Lack of collaboration?  Very possibly.  That same Professionally-Related Absences report found that 43% of school administrators say that interdepartmental collaboration is rare — or nonexistent — in developing more effective means for facilitating professional development. 38% indicated some collaboration. Only 19% of school administrators indicated that there was heavy interdepartmental collaboration towards effective professional learning.  It takes a village.

Interdepartmental Collaboration in Developing More Effective PDprofessional learning pie chart

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Not sure how to take that first step, and overwhelmed by the enormity of redesigning an entire professional learning program?  Probably.  Everything we know about reaching difficult goals begins with first taking small, successful steps.  Success breeds more success. Small, measurable accomplishments can help garner support from others, free up resources and even rearrange priorities.

These excuses — and probably many more — prevent us from implementing proven effective professional learning designs. They keep us from truly engaging teachers, supporting their ongoing growth and impacting student outcomes. Even worse, they may lead to frustration, ineffectiveness, teacher retention problems and even a culture of apathy.

Professional learning resources

The good news is that, along with the many articles and blogs on effective professional learning, there is an unprecedented number of vetted resources available through organizations like Learning Forward, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wallace Foundation.  These can help identify strategies that are working (either in-house or elsewhere), build implementation plans and measure progress.  We can start small, take one step at a time and build on small achievements. That will give us the opportunity to meet our goals and experience the sense of fulfillment, gratification, and success that we, our teachers and — more importantly — our students deserve.

What about you?

What does professional learning look like in your school or district? Does it live up to ESSA’s definition of being sustained, intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, data-driven and classroom-focused? If not, why not? What is preventing you from implementing PD that meets these criteria?

We want to hear about it. Join the conversation on LinkedIn , Twitter or Facebook.

1 Guskey, T.R. (1995). Professional development in education: In search of the optimal mix. In T. Guskey and M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional Development in Education: New Paradigms and Practices (pp. 114-131) New York: Teachers College Press.
2 Fullan, M.G. (1995). The limits and the potential of professional development. In T. Guskey and M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional Development in Education: New Paradigms and Practices (pp. 253-267). New York: Teachers College Press.
3 Knowles, M. (1983). Adults are not grown up children as learners. Community Services Catalyst, 13(4), 4-8.

Make Time for That Last-Minute Hire

Early in both the back-to-school rush and the hiring season, you have options. You can choose between the Lisa Frank notebook with a tiger on it, or one with a unicorn. You can hire candidate A, or candidate B, or candidate C.

You take the time to make the right decisions and get ready for the first day of school. But then, it’s three days before school starts… and disaster strikes. Your daughter needs a blue binder for math class. A new hire suddenly backs out. You face unexpectedly high student enrollment. Panic sets in: you need to find a new teacher or a new binder now — but the shelves are empty, and the most qualified candidates have already been hired elsewhere.

It’s easy enough to find school supplies, but quickly finding a new teacher at the start of the school year is incredibly stressful. And even after you find the right person, you need them to dive right into the job without any preparation.

So what can you do to set your new hires up for success?

Cover everything.

Last-minute hires might not fit neatly into your onboarding process, and missing orientation makes it hard to get the details they need to get started as soon as possible. But last-minute hires are embarking on a rollercoaster ride where there’s no time to hunt down answers to questions about policy or processes.

So make sure they have access to the resources they need to get fully settled in: a copy of the standards and curriculum that apply to their assigned position, a handbook to school policies and rules, directions to getting their email and technology set up, and anything else that might be useful for them to have as a reference. And many of the required safety and compliance trainings that take place before school starts can be provided to new hires online, eliminating the need to host additional in-person training sessions.

Provide extra support.

If teachers aren’t hired until September, they miss out on summer opportunities to learn and collaborate in professional development activities. Couple that with the stress and pressure of leaping into teaching with very little preparation, and you have a recipe for trouble. So go the extra mile to provide last-minute hires with the support and accommodations they need to be successful.

Part of this is ensuring that they have easy access to information about finding and enrolling in relevant, useful professional development that they may have missed over the summer. It’s also a good idea to set them up with an experienced mentor, even if they have been teaching for years. This gives them someone to rely on for questions about school culture and policy, and sets the stage for collaborative, job-embedded professional learning for both mentor and mentee.

Finally, be sure to check in with your last-minute hires regularly, and ask specific questions about how they are doing. Telling them, “Let me know if you need anything, or have any questions” is not likely to elicit a deep discussion about challenges they face. Instead, make it clear that you’re available to answer their questions and care about their success by asking targeted questions. You might ask, for example, if they have any questions about the computer system or classroom technology, or how their students behaved on their first day.

Help them plan.

Last-minute hires are at a considerable disadvantage when it comes to planning. Whereas other teachers spent the summer months getting ready, new hires simply don’t have enough time to get their classroom ready, set up procedures or plan great lessons. As a result, they tend to spend a lot of late nights trying to play catch-up.

So what can you do? You can’t create more hours in the day (wouldn’t that be wonderful?) but you may be able to shift some resources to free up extra planning time in the beginning, leading to more effective teaching and better lesson plans for the rest of the year.  For example, one last-minute teacher explains that her district provided a substitute for a couple of classes, allowing her to work on unit planning in the library or in the curriculum coach’s room.

If your substitutes are prepared for the classroom, this can be a great compromise: without the new hire, you may have had to pay a long-term substitute to fill in.  This strategy also sets your new teachers up for success, rather than letting them stumble through their first weeks and spend the rest of the year struggling to keep up.

Flip Your Professional Development

Making the most of time and resources

In a time when all can agree that quality professional development (PD) experiences are invaluable, it is harder to get stakeholders to agree on what constitutes quality and what type of PD experiences are likely to be effective. One emerging trend is a “flipped PD” model that is a perfect fit for busy schedules and differentiated learning needs, while making the most of collaboration. Let’s examine existing models and compare them with “flipped PD.”

Collaborative Model: In-Service Based Professional Development

Though school districts in our country spend approximately $18 billion dollars on professional development each year, the vast majority of it ($15 billion) is delivered using traditional “in-service” experiences, which studies have shown yield little results for the participating teachers. There can be many reasons for this lack of impact, but one of the most obvious is the lack of personalization or targeting of in-service experiences. When large groups of faculty are brought together to participate in a single event, many in attendance will find that the event is not a “good use of their time.”

Let’s examine an example to highlight why this is an issue.

If you get the faculty together to discuss classroom management techniques, your experienced teachers will likely “check out” as they couldn’t have handled classrooms for a decade if they hadn’t already developed effective classroom management techniques. For those faculty, a focus on educational technology, student diversity (English Language Learners and students with special needs) or changing standards would likely be a better use of their time.

But your inexperienced teachers do need the classroom management development. They might not be ready to focus on educational technology (or may already have proficiency in that area), or student diversity, or standards which haven’t “changed” for them because they are new anyway.

So why do we persist in using in-service workshops as a major form of professional development delivery for our educators?

One word: collaboration.

Most education experts who’ve focused on teacher effectiveness agree that teacher collaboration has a significant impact on teacher improvement. The benefit of putting your more and less experienced faculty together has been demonstrated through research, and most teachers will cite the influence of mentors as a major factor in the formation of the skills and techniques that have helped them to achieve success.

Targeted Model: Online Professional Development

You could see why the addition of online professional development opportunities, whether asynchronous (self-paced) modules or synchronous webinars, could be seen as a solution to the question of how to provide personalized professional development opportunities for your faculty.

If participants do not have to attend at the same time and place, they can seek out the opportunities they believe are the most important to their own improvement and success. They can even be provided with opportunities based upon their own personal observation results. Just as we are working to better differentiate learning experiences for our students, we can do the same for our educators who are also life-long learners.

However, you can see why such targeted professional development resources, despite the fact that they allow for the personalization and targeting, could be seen as less collaborative.

Targeted AND Collaborative Model: Flipped Professional Development

One emerging solution to help provide professional development that is both targeted and collaborative is to leverage online professional development using a “flipped” model, just like we’re doing with students in the classroom. How would this work?

Part One of the Flip: Online and Asynchronous Content

Teachers can engage in professional development online and at their own pace. They select the topics of interest to them, those identified by observation as being useful, and/or topics that are selected by a specific but relevant group like their department or cohort (for example, math department, new teachers).

Part Two of the Flip: Engaging Professional Learning Communities in Discussion

After engaging with the content, educators will meet in professional learning communities. PLCs can be online or in person, but when they are structured so that they are within the same school or district they will be most useful because the local details will be consistent: the student body, the environment, the grade level or department. The more natural connection there is between the teachers, the more discussions will lead to the application of skills.

4 Mistakes That Could Be Costing You Great Candidates

Everyone has a story about the one that got away. And when you have hundreds of applications to pore over, there’s bound to be an all-star applicant you accidentally overlook. It happens to all of us at least once. But missing out on amazing candidates can mean that students lose out on the teacher of a lifetime.

Don’t let your district’s next success story slip through the cracks. Let’s take a look at four common reasons why districts lose out on great candidates. 

#1: Hiring late in the year

Remember being in gym class when it was time to pick players for each team? The most skilled athletes were always snapped up right away — everyone wanted the star players on their team. The hiring process is no different. By the time June rolls around, the best candidates have already received (and possibly accepted) job offers from districts with aggressive hiring timelines.

A smaller applicant pool isn’t the only problem with late hiring, though. Data from our recruiting and hiring solution shows that spring applicants score much higher on prescreening assessments. Applicant scores peak in April, and begin a startling decline in June. So as the year goes on, average candidate quality goes down — meaning that districts hiring during the summer have a smaller pool of less-qualified applicants to choose from.

So how do you solve this? It’s not enough to just start recruiting in spring; you need to hire in the spring, too. A significant number of applicants withdraw in May, and 40% leave by the end of June. You will want to move your entire hiring timeline up, and make sure that you can quickly move great candidates through the process.

To make this happen, you will need to identify upcoming retirements and resignations between January and March. Explain to your teachers that early notice is crucial to hiring a qualified replacement, and ask them to fill out a Declaration of Intent form to indicate their plans for the coming year. You’ll also need to identify and remove any roadblocks that may hold up the hiring process. The Department of Education recommends setting a goal of making a hiring decision within ten days of posting the vacancy. Sound like a stretch? Even if ten days aren’t realistic for your district, it’s good to have a goal that can drive your hiring process forward quickly.

#2: Can’t find the proverbial needle in the haystack

For some positions, you might receive two hundred applications or more. Having an extensive applicant pool is a good thing, but it can be really difficult to pinpoint the best candidate in a flood of resumes. After all, it’s just not possible to equally consider all of them, especially if you’re still using a paper-based process. And there’s only so much time in the day to conduct interviews.

Don’t risk overlooking the perfect candidate because their resume only skims the surface of their characteristics. A prescreening tool or structured selection protocol can highlight top candidates so you know who to focus on. And at the end of the day, you can be confident that the best candidate didn’t slip through the cracks. 

#3: Potential opportunities in your recruiting strategy

You don’t know what you don’t know. It’s possible that you’re missing out on an untapped applicant source, or not reaching a particular demographic of job-seekers. But if you don’t have data about your recruiting strategies, it’s hard to know what opportunities you could be overlooking. Are you spending too much time putting advertisements in local newspapers, when your best candidates come from online job boards?

Fix this mistake by getting in touch with your district’s data. Chances are, you’re already collecting information on your candidates through their resumes and applications. So why not turn it into something usable by putting it front and center when planning your recruiting strategy for the upcoming year?

Once you have a reliable way of reporting on applicant data, you’ll know which job fairs, colleges or other recruiting channels are attracting the best applicants. Then, you can take that information and use it to guide your strategy so you can spend your time and energy on the most effective recruiting methods.

#4: Difficult applications and slow hiring processes

The early bird gets the worm, and the quickest district gets the candidate. If your application or hiring process is too complex or onerous, applicants might give up before they even get started — or they’ll just be grabbed by a district with a more streamlined process. And if a candidate waits months without hearing from you, they’re bound to look elsewhere for a job, or accept another offer.

Take yourself through your district’s application process and think about it like this: if you were looking for a new job, would you find this application worth your valuable time? Or would you take your amazing skills elsewhere?

“There were pains on the applicants’ standpoint, where by the time they made it through filling out our paper application, our essay questions, gathering all their materials for a completed application, they were already snatched up by another district who had a quicker process.”
– Becky Dorman, Sioux Falls School District 49-5

Obviously, you don’t want to sacrifice your selection process or cut corners to save time. The good news is; you don’t need to. Much of the hiring process is taken up by tedious work that can be done by technology instead, saving you valuable hours or even days. The right online system will speed up the entire process from the moment you start recruiting applicants. Look for technology that can weed out unqualified applicants, automate your workflows, handle interview scheduling and streamline the onboarding process.

And for job-seekers, an applicant tracking system removes barriers to working in your district. They’ll appreciate being able to easily apply for positions online.

 

 

A Roadmap to Substitute Engagement

A substitute doesn’t become first-rate on accident. It takes work, planning and administrators who step into the shoes of the substitute.  To get there, tackle some of the nuts and bolts of structure: put processes and procedures in place to create direction and accountability to for substitute teachers. Do so by writing job descriptions with clear responsibilities and processes that must be followed. Create rewards for a job well-done and accountability measures if guidelines aren’t followed.

  Accountability is a good thing.

Administrators worry that requiring substitutes to follow procedures and policies may discourage them from seeking work in a districts. But the opposite is really true — people leave jobs when there aren’t any expectations.

Just as they benefit from clear directions when they show up at a school for the first time (“Where do I park? Where do I report to when I arrive?”), knowing what the district requires of them is as important to substitutes as it is to your other employees. Unknowns can feel even more acute for substitutes, who already face uncomfortable and unfamiliar situations every day. Alleviate much of this by clearly spelling out what’s expected of your substitutes.

 Structure helps your district solve issues and achieve goals.

If your district has a shortage of qualified substitutes, for example, think through what processes you can put into place to address it — such as requiring your substitutes to work a minimum number of days. At Clarksville-Montgomery School System, we required our substitutes to work 10 days out of their first 30. Doing so showed belief that substitute teaching was important, and increased our fill rates.

 Structure helps your substitutes achieve their goals.

Clear expectations — and the benefits of meeting those expectations — will mean higher motivation and engagement among your substitutes.

In one school system, substitutes started off with a probationary status and were issued a laminated ID badge. By working for 10 out of their first 30 days, they advanced to full substitute status, received higher placement (and a better chance of getting jobs) in the absence management system — and received an official plastic ID badge with a photo. That seems like a small thing, but you’d be surprised how many substitutes wanted that badge, and worked to get it.

 Take it seriously.

what you do mattersBeyond communicating the rewards of meeting expectations, school districts also need to be clear about what happens when they’re not met. This practice:

  • Builds credibility and viability in the process,
  • Encourages your employees to take the expectations seriously,
  • Shows them that substitute teaching is important to the educational mission of your district.

Take, for example, a district that requires substitutes to work one day a month, or one day a semester. Is that really showing pride in the process? Does that really communicate that you value your substitutes and believe what they do is important? Requiring substitutes to work 10 out of their first 30 days, it said, “We believe what you do matters.”

 Communicate clearly.

Use tools that help you communicate with your substitute pool, like Frontline’s Absence & Time, to ensure your substitutes understand the structures you’ve put in place. Share orientation information and sessions, onboarding packets, and link to resources on the district’s website for them. Just as importantly, communicate with your schools about this. Without them, these structures you’ve worked so carefully to create are just theoretical. They need to be talked about and lived out at the school level to be effective.

Enacting these policies, procedures and processes may seem like small steps to take. But don’t view them simply as bureaucratic items to check off your list. They’re important parts of a roadmap to help your district achieve its educational goals, and to enable your substitutes to move toward higher engagement and a better career.

Applicant Tracking: Frequently Asked Questions

If you have questions about our applicant tracking tool (formerly known as AppliTrack Recruiting), you’re in the right place! We’ve put together the questions we most frequently hear from school districts who are researching Frontline Recruiting & Hiring.

What is Applicant Tracking?

Applicant Tracking forms the core of Frontline Recruiting & Hiring and empowers school and district administrators to recruit, hire and onboard the best new employees quickly and easily.

How does Applicant Tracking work?

Frontline’s applicant tracking tool manages the entire hiring process online — no more hiring paperwork or long hours spent sifting through a stack of resumes. Job seekers can easily find and apply to positions through your district’s website, and submit any supplemental materials required by your district. You can request or create job postings, track applicant interest at job fairs, advertise openings on social media and popular job boards, review applications, move candidates through the selection process and easily bring new hires on board.

That’s just a taste of what our solution offers — to request a demo and explore the system more thoroughly, just contact us.

Why isn’t it called AppliTrack anymore?

After acquiring Aspex Solutions, we kept the name “AppliTrack.” But as we began to move toward a more holistic set of solutions instead of individual products to support improved collaboration in our customers’ organizations, we found that our old product names no longer supported our goal of offering a single integrated platform. So, we retired the AppliTrack name and replaced it with a more functional descriptor — now, AppliTrack Recruiting is simply Applicant Tracking – an application within Frontline Recruiting & Hiring.

What are some of the benefits of using Frontline Recruiting & Hiring?

With Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, you can reclaim your time every step of the way. Our solution helps you reach more candidates and easily discover those most likely to succeed in your district.

  • Expand your recruiting reach to find more applicants
  • Sort and filter to find the most qualified applicants
  • Manage interview scheduling, build custom questionnaires and access a library of K12-specific interview questions
  • Customize and automate workflows to speed up the entire process
  • Easily transfer new hire data to your other systems

What about integrations?

One of the benefits of managing the hiring process online with Frontline Recruiting & Hiring is that you no longer need to worry about typing applicant information into all your systems. You can find out if your preferred vendor already integrates with our solution on our partners page. If you don’t see one of your vendors on the list, just send us a message and we’d love to discuss your needs.

See if your vendor is already an integration partner  

What makes Frontline’s solution different?

Our tool was designed with K-12 school districts in mind, offering a simple-to-use product that’s just what you need, without being bogged down with unnecessary features you can’t use. Our applicant tracking tool was made specifically to help you identify the best employees for your schools. It’s customizable to your district’s unique selection and hiring processes, and gives you access to unlimited job postings on K12JobSpot.com.

Plus, as part of the Frontline Insights Platform, you gain unprecedented insights that can inform your strategies and support your employees from their very first day.

Learn more about Applicant Tracking