Frontline Blog

What happens when you have a vision that doesn’t mesh with “the way we’ve always done things”? That was the question Heather Stocking found herself asking when she began working at Bettendorf Community School District. As the new Director of Human Resources, she was amazed at the amount of paperwork passing through the office every day. The sheer volume of documentation that needed to be signed, filed and passed on to others was incredible, and like many other school districts, the HR team was being asked to do more with less.

Remember that cursive writing paper you used to use in elementary school? Slightly gray or yellowed paper, with red and blue lines on it — each row solid at the top and bottom, dashed in the middle?

Whenever I can, I like to visit the American southwest and hike in rocky desert terrain. I often find small piles of stones (cairns) placed at intervals as trail markers. Hikers are always on the lookout to spot the next cairn, moving from signpost to signpost to successfully navigate the trail. Trekkers who ignore the progress-monitoring information of these trail markers can quickly wander off the track and become lost.

With the start of a new school year almost upon us (or already here, depending on where you are), educators everywhere are gearing up — making preparations for students, polishing up lesson plans, training new hires and laying plans for the year.

An Individualized Education Program has the potential to “tell the right story” for each student with a disability — to describe the student’s strengths and assets, identify areas of need and chart a pathway for a successful school year.  But to be relevant and meaningful, the IEP must be based on current, reliable and valid information.  

It’s that time of year again — back-to-school season. Your mailbox is full of advertisements for school supplies (even if you don’t have school-aged children), and you’re busy, busy, busy. It’s a hectic few weeks in the Human Resources department, and you’re working overtime to get through everything on time.

From the classroom to the business office, schools generate loads of data year-round. Adding technology to automate tedious tasks and improve processes has been on the top of many administrators’ “to-do” lists in recent years. However, it’s due to the sheer volume of these critical data points, and how rapidly they change in school districts, that makes changing software providers feel like an impossible undertaking.

It is my pleasure to announce the publication of Issue 5 of The Line, in which we consider a key question: Are we delivering on the promise of education? To answer that question, we must each delve to the root of what exactly we believe the promise of education is, who it is for, and how it ought to be turned from dream to reality. And, of course, the nuanced answers to those questions are as diverse as the educators answering them. But that’s exactly why The Line exists.

Where can you hear real-life strategies from other districts, learn about new Frontline product features that could save you hours, network with hundreds of peers, get 1-on-1 help, AND come away inspired?