Key points:

• Very soon, districts must closely examine the edtech they use and compare it with budget realities
• How to ensure edtech ROI? Ask these 4 questions
• For school leaders, routine decisions aren’t so routine
• For more news on district edtech use, visit eSN’s District Management hub

For much of the past 12 years, Casey Rimmer sometimes felt like a “dream killer” when it came to the edtech tools used in her district. As the executive director of curriculum and instruction for Union County Public Schools, a district of over 41,000 students outside Charlotte, N.C., she was often tasked with letting teachers know why a potential new tool wasn’t approved for use.

Lately, though, the district has flipped the script. Now they ask teachers to check the tool’s data privacy policy and age requirements when making a request, so they have a better understanding of why a tool is—or isn’t—a good fit. When teachers feel part of the discussion, it often leads to productive conversations, she explains. 

“We’re doing a lot of work around helping teachers to understand the different processes and what they need to do if they want to bring something into their classroom. Whether it’s a free resource or an edtech product, there’s still some kind of criteria” that needs to be met.

The new policies are part of a wider effort to strengthen and streamline the district’s “edtech ecosystem,” the collection of core and supplemental tools that teachers can use. And Union County is far from alone. In the coming months, many districts will be taking a close look at the edtech they use, especially as it relates to current budget realities.

Making tough choices

Later this year, the final round of federal pandemic funding, known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER), will expire, leaving school budgets uncertain in many districts. Funds they have come to rely on for staffing and technology will end in September if not allotted. (If funds are allotted, however, districts can request an extension to use them through March of 2026 in some cases). 

For many districts, the relief funding was significant. San Antonio’s district has received $100 million over the past three years, which it used to boost staffing and help combat pandemic-related learning loss. 

Given that schools were forced into online learning, many districts used those funds to invest in edtech—in hardware like laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots but also in edtech software. The most recent Edtech Top 40 Report notes that districts access an average of nearly 2,600 edtech tools annually, a number that has swelled in the past few years as companies offered free access to their tools during the pandemic and districts spent their relief funding. 

With these funds drying up, districts may face some difficult choices. But they may also see it as an opportunity to reassess their technology use and how to maximize the resources they do have, according to education experts speaking on a recent webinar, “Take Control of EdTech: How to Manage an Effective Digital Ecosystem,” put on by Instructure, the company behind both the Canvas learning management system and the edtech evaluation and management tool LearnPlatform.

“School districts are really having to take a hard look at what the critical parts of this ecosystem are,” said Tal Havivi, the managing director of research and development at ISTE, on the webinar. One way to think of it is as a “strategic culling,” he explains, as districts square budget realities with whether tools are truly meeting their needs. 

How to assess your edtech

Assessing whether a district should continue using—and paying for—a tool is dedicated work involving backend data collection and surveying teachers and students for their thoughts. But both practices can reveal useful insights. 

Core curriculum products can be quantitatively assessed by looking at whether they are helping meet district goals around student learning. In other words, can you tie the tool’s use to improved reading or math scores?

But “there’s also a qualitative piece around each of these tools,” said Melissa Loble, Instructure’s chief academic officer, speaking on the same webinar. “Is this the right experience that represents our district and our goals? Does it help teachers create a deeper connection with their students, address areas of deficiencies, or engage students in new areas that they might be interested in?”

Crucially, collecting good data around edtech use can help districts see the overall picture, she said. And feedback from teachers and students can help contextualize these patterns even further.

That tracks with what Union County has found. Rimmer explains that the district uses LearnPlatform to keep track of its tech use and start conversations. “As a district, we can monitor what our top 10 [most used] products are,” she said. “I want our top 10 products to be those products that we invest in: We invest money, we invest time, we invest in professional learning. Sometimes, I can see maybe some free products creeping up there.”

When core tools aren’t getting used, Rimmer digs in and finds out why. Teachers might not feel comfortable using the tool with students yet, or it could be that they haven’t had enough training. That’s a simple enough fix. But other times, teacher avoidance can signal larger questions about whether the tool is a good fit overall.

“Sometimes they’re great products, and we have to say the product—even though it’s an amazing, robust tool that does amazing things for other schools and districts—maybe it’s not doing that for us,” she said.  

The good news is that teachers are more invested than ever in the edtech they’re using with students, and more willing to experiment with new tools, adds Loble. 

“I still see investment—districts wanting to build ecosystems—but they need to do it where they can have the most effective or the largest return on investment, with reduced funding coming in,” she said. “We use dollars to try everything. We’ve tried it out. Now we’re going to pick what’s going to be the most important [for us].”

Key points:

• District communications platforms can have a transformative impact on school outreach
• 6 tips for communicating with emergent bilingual families
• Your top 5 school-home communication challenges, solved
• For more news on communications, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership hub

In an increasingly interconnected world, it’s more important than ever to have effective communication within your diverse school community. Communication plays a pivotal role in fostering a collaborative environment, ensuring the well-being of students and promoting a culture of continuous improvement. Communication impacts all of your stakeholders, and when parents are involved in their children’s schooling, academic achievement, school engagement, and motivation all improve, according to the American Psychological Association.  

Breaking language barriers

One of the most significant barriers to successful integration of newcomers into communities is language. Schools have a two-fold challenge: Newcomers struggle to understand and be understood, and schools grapple with the means to effectively communicate with them. This is where a communications platform like Bloomz can make a profound impact. By offering translation services in more than 133 languages, Bloomz dismantles these barriers, ensuring that important information reaches everyone in a language they select. This feature is particularly crucial in educational settings where parents’ engagement in their children’s schooling is pivotal. With Bloomz, parents who are not proficient in the local language can receive updates, participate in discussions, and contribute meaningfully to their children’s education.

There are 97 languages spoken in Round Rock Independent School District in Texas. “Before Bloomz, we would send out posts, calendars, and alerts, and put the information on our website for parents to change into a different language, but there weren’t many available other than Spanish,” says Bertha Benedict, director of Bilingual and ESL Programs. “ESSA requires me to do parent engagement, and to go above and beyond I have to communicate with parents. Bloomz lets me do that.”

Cultivating inclusivity and empathy

Communicating in your native language is deeply empowering. It’s not just about understanding words; it’s about connecting with those words on a cultural and emotional level. Bloomz acknowledges this by providing a platform where every individual feels seen, heard, and valued. This inclusivity goes a long way in fostering a sense of belonging among newcomers, making their transition into new communities smoother and more comfortable. Furthermore, when local community members witness the effort to accommodate different languages and cultures, it cultivates an atmosphere of empathy and respect. Such an environment encourages deeper and more meaningful interactions, paving the way for a cohesive and supportive community fabric.

Facilitating better parental involvement

While newcomers strive to adapt to their new surroundings, the host community also needs to extend support and understanding. Bloomz facilitates this mutual effort by ensuring that language does not become an impediment to participation. Whether it’s parent-teacher meetings, community events, or local announcements, the availability of multiple languages ensures that everyone can be an active participant. This not only boosts the confidence of newcomers but also enriches the community’s cultural tapestry. When people from diverse backgrounds share their perspectives and experiences, it leads to a more vibrant, dynamic, and innovative community.

Joseph Mattina is principal of P.S. 023 Carter G Woodson Elementary School in Brooklyn, NY, a Title I school with every student below the poverty line. “We struggle with parent engagement and involvement,” he says. “Lots of our students are in temporary housing, parents come from different backgrounds and have different capabilities around using technology, and they don’t go through backpacks and folders. We wanted it to be easy for us and for the parents to interact. With Bloomz, we can notify parents immediately or we can schedule messages to go out a week or two in advance. Parent involvement is more favorable now than it was five years ago and a lot of that has to do with Bloomz.”

Cathy Daniels, former principal at Waters Elementary School in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, agrees that Bloomz helped her teachers connect with all families. “Teachers can send beautiful pictures and video clips to parents about what’s happening and share the ‘inside the classroom’ experience. We’ve never had the opportunity to get pictures to parents as quickly as what Bloomz does.” 

In today’s globalized world, platforms like Bloomz play a critical role in keeping school and home connected. As we move forward, the lessons districts learn from communications platforms will shape the future of community engagement and integration, making our communities more connected, empathetic, and inclusive. 

Key points:

• The right data can drive improvements in student learning
• Here’s why anecdotes are as important as data in edtech decisions
• With better data, these 12 things would improve, supes say
• For more news on district leadership, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

As data analytics comes of age for the K-12 sector, educators are increasingly turning to data insights to help identify students’ learning abilities and areas of opportunity, enhancing operational efficiencies, and helping teachers’ professional development. Naturally, administrators are often enticed to engage powerful, enterprise-grade solutions like PowerBI or Tableau. After all, if it’s good enough for a Fortune 500 company, it’s good enough for a school district, right? 

Not so fast.

While there’s no arguing that enterprise-grade data analytics solutions are powerful, administrators need to consider how the approach taken to harness their data’s potential can significantly impact outcomes in the long-term. For example, enterprise-grade solutions often come with expensive seat licenses and overbuilt software that make it costly and complex when it comes to extracting insights from data.

Instead, school district administrators should consider real-time data analytics platforms specifically designed and customized for K-12 education. These platforms are typically customized for student data and provide real-time information that can make a real difference in a student’s education. 

Here’s what school administrators need to know about making an informed decision when it comes to implementing a data solution.

Legacy enterprise platforms: A mismatch for K-12

Besides being expensive and overbuilt for education, there are a few reasons why legacy data platforms are ill-suited for K-12. Cost and scalability are two major factors. Enterprise platforms are expensive, and scaling beyond 20 users will exponentially increase costs that are not feasible for even large school districts. In effect, it would limit data access to only a few administrative employees. 

School administrators considering legacy data platforms might also be underestimating the technical expertise needed to operate these systems. Typically, legacy platforms require skilled data scientists to manage complex data warehousing, integration, and to extract actionable insights from the data. Few districts possess the in-house expertise–or have the budget to hire a team of data scientists–to make the data work. 

Finally, consider the limited focus of legacy data platforms. Data analysis delivered by legacy systems is often limited to assessment and accountability, such as grades, test scores, and attendance. They are not built for providing holistic student performance evaluation, and they certainly do not have the ability to provide “whole child” data, such as emotional health and behavior.

The power of real-time data analytics

On the other hand, real-time data analytics platforms built for K-12 school districts are everything that their legacy counterparts are not. Affordability and scalability are the biggest advantages. Instead of needing an expensive team of data scientists to customize a platform, education data as a service (DaaS) will usually outsource data management to experts who enable scalability at a reasonable cost. Built-for-education DaaS platforms can also accommodate all users in a district—administrators, teachers, counselors, students, families, and even members of the community who work with students.

DaaS systems can automate data movement and make data accessible to the people who need it without expensive licenses. This enhances education decision-making by ensuring the right people at the right time have access to the latest data.

Real-time data analytics also delivers valuable holistic insights that can help educators make the right decisions for students. By centralizing data on academics, behavior, attendance, and teachers, stakeholders gain valuable insights that promote a better understanding of the “whole child.” 

So instead of a counselor submitting an IT help ticket to download data that is already months behind, the DaaS system will provide real-time data that can enable the counselor to provide better student guidance. Or teachers can look at a student’s historical MAP score data to see which areas that student might need help with so they can provide tutoring or other support.

Successful integration strategies

A successful implementation is an ongoing process because school districts consistently gather data from multiple sources. Whether it’s at the behest of their board, teachers, educators, or families, there will inevitably be additional data needs or requests to fine-tune the district’s approach. That’s why administrators should maintain an open mindset and follow a long-term strategic approach that includes:

• Data ownership: Take ownership of the district’s data—after all, it’s the school’s data, not a vendor’s. The right vendor will collaborate with districts to centralize data for better analysis and action. 
• Gain leadership buy-in: Superintendent and board support ensures successful district-wide adoption. Engage decision-makers early-on to secure resources and begin driving cultural change. On the operational side, engage teachers to act as early-adopters and evangelists for the data solution—they are on the frontlines and know what approaches will serve students best.
• Acknowledge data challenges: Start with knowing your pain points—recognize where you currently have limitations and gaps in data utilization and work toward finding a solution that can solve those challenges. This is not the time to compromise, so keep interviewing partners until you find the one who can meet your needs.

Harnessing the power of data

DaaS platforms present a revolutionary approach to incorporating seamless collaboration and data sharing in school districts that can drive student learning like never before. By arming administrators, teachers, counselors, students, families, and even members of the community with the same data, DaaS solutions can reshape the landscape of K-12 education by providing actionable insights into the whole child. To harness this potential, administrators need to work with partners who understand K-12 education and understand the importance of purpose-built, real-time data analytics. With this approach, educators can get the most out of their data and help students get the most out of their education.

Key points:

• To lead effectively, school leaders must create safe spaces for collaboration
• 3 innovative ways to help teachers feel engaged and valued
• I’m a first-year teacher. How can I find success in the classroom?
• For more news on school success, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) calculated global economic output loss will total $28 trillion dollars between 2020 and 2025 as the result of the COVID-19 virus that impacted businesses and education. Our schools are still pivoting to serve students and families who are figuring out life in the space of no longer and not yet.

The pandemic has changed us all.

Nonetheless, success in education is about developing people—on every level.

Even though we do not know exactly what the future holds, we can recognize that leaders who make a difference see opportunity in challenges.  We can lean into applying this paradigm to our educational systems.

This begs the questions: How do educational leaders keep improving our schools to recognize unique opportunities and needs at the forefront?  What situations can bring adaptive capacity to education?

Upon reflections, with a 20-year career as an educator and scholar, I’m asserting a simple response: collaboration and mentorship.  This requires a cognizance, commitment, and humility from all of us.

Setting the stage for innovation

Schools shape everyone and the memories endure a lifetime.  

We recognize how strong school leadership means we are exploring and adapting with others for a better future—and that includes valuing the collective diversity of ideas to set the stage for innovation in educative spaces.

After all, to lead effectively, we must create and honor safe spaces for collaboration.  Because when it comes to spaces with uncertainty and high challenges, people are often reluctant to express thoughts or potential actions.  We must suspend judgments to learn more from the people around us. 

Ultimately, the more often that educational leaders anticipate and promote change and input, the more effective will become the results—which brings out the best in our teachers’ abilities and talents.   

Avoiding fool’s gold

With practices that make a difference, teachers (and students) want to “listen, learn, lead” from authentic leaders who care about lifting others up and excelling in uncertain spaces.  Although 83 percent of organizations assert that developing future leaders and mentoring are crucial aspects, research shows only 5 percent of organizations have leadership development programs at all levels (Kizer, 2023).  The work of leaders is not to keep resources or power for themselves—but to share it and give it away.

Now, more than ever, educational leaders must highlight and affirm teachers’ talents and skills to deliver more than what they thought was possible.  The classroom is a space where teachers know that “one-size-fits-none” and where they need support from leaders and community to adapt curriculum. 

A scholar from the thirteenth century, Rumi, expressed that “Fool’s gold exists because there is real gold.”  This sentiment could address leadership in education.  We must differentiate between effective leadership and ineffective leadership.  Authentic leaders demonstrate self-awareness and competence in that all members are included to act with purpose and empowerment. 

Mentoring is one important strategy to let people connect and reflect, and it works as a two-way street for colleagues to support each other.  Genuine acts of caring and collaboration, such as a handwritten note of encouragement or visiting colleagues, are other ways to uplift a person’s spirits.  In other words, leaders recognize unique opportunities to connect and draw people forward.

 And leaders know that meaningful change takes more than one person to reach the next level. 

Humility wins, paradoxically

To illuminate on collaboration a bit further, I’d like to share one more important piece of fascinating information.  

In education, as in life, we must take the time to find strengths in each person.  Why? Because there is nothing more rewarding than helping others discover their unique strengths.  CliftonStrengths Assessment is one resource to find out what you (or another person) have as greatest strengths that sets you apart from everyone else.   It is important to leverage each other’s strengths, so the sum is greater than the parts! 

In this space of no longer and not yet, honest discussions are necessary to explore the space of where others are along the journey.  Career paths differ, and there are different seasons in our careers.  Most notably, in a study where mentors underestimated their abilities, these humble mentors were given the absolute highest ratings by the mentees (Johnson, 2016, p. 68).  Lesson learned: The best leaders were the ones who had self-awareness and humility.  These guides offered the highest-quality relationships and the most effective facilitation of a person’s development.

Finding hope and purpose within ourselves

Harvard Business School states, “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” Collective vision holds the dream of flourishing individuals and communities, as we need both for society to function well.

In particular, leadership success includes mobilizing colleagues to believe in and achieve their goals. When it comes down to it, every person has a role in contributing to playing big in uncertain times.

We must start seeing our educators as our community leaders, which they already are in many ways.  Remember the words of John Maxwell (2008) that we should “Never work alone.  I know that sounds too simple, but it is truly the secret to developing others. Whenever you do anything that you want to pass along to others, take someone with you” (p.16). Agreed, engaging others is how to pass down important information and practices.  Strong relationships and common experiences create winning teams.  Moreover, committed teams go places that no one has been before. 

To conclude, educators should have more collaborative supports and leadership opportunities since they are the experts on what is working (or not) in this fast-paced world.  Success will come.  When we cross a worthy finish line, the anguish vanishes.  Deep inner satisfaction replaces the time of hardships, because we have made the world a better place.  Educators know a simple truth: When we lead others, we facilitate that others can find hope and purpose within themselves.

Because without hope, we would not find the courage that is needed when we are grappling in the space of no longer and not yet.

Key points:

• Educators need reliable, easy-to-use edtech tools for maximum impact
• Edtech tools to beat our state of emergency in reading and math achievement
• How to find the right edtech tools for public schools
• For more news on edtech ROI, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

Working with curriculum and system leaders and educators across the state of New Hampshire, I frequently hear some common refrains about education technology tools for the classroom.

I know ___ is a great resource, but I don’t think teachers are even aware of it.

Teachers aren’t able to take on “another thing” so anything we share with them has to solve problems they already have.

We want to use ___ but the tech staff have other priorities.

Somehow, after the pandemic and returning to “normal,” teachers are more reliant on worksheets or things they find online (often unvetted) and can easily duplicate. They need tools that are easy to use, support active learning, and can accommodate the needs of diverse learners. There are almost too many options! Or too many different tools for different tasks. And, unless yours is a very fortunate system, technology staff hasn’t increased at a rate commensurate with the reliance on, and the complexity of, technology that supports school operation and education of students.

Maybe some of these challenges sound familiar, whether you’re a district, a school, a curriculum leader or an instructional coach, a digital learning specialist, or a librarian. Across New Hampshire, school leaders are searching for strategies to ensure that their edtech investments are being leveraged to pay dividends on student engagement, acceleration of learning, and saving teachers’ time.

To explore how to increase the return on investment (ROI) of education technology, let’s take an inquiry approach. Consider your district, schools, departments, and educators, and ask the following four questions at a team meeting to ensure you’re all on the same page and experiencing these challenges and solutions with common understanding.

Who are your district’s building-based edtech coordinators?

Do your district’s schools have a central point person who serves, and is widely recognized, as a central point person for edtech tools? Databases, lists, websites, newsletters, and the like are all excellent ways to share information about digital tools and drive usage. Establishing and highlighting the person in this role can be a great help in getting educators to the right person for targeted support, getting the word out, coordinating training, and so much more. Library media and digital learning specialists or technology coordinators are excellent candidates for this, especially when they periodically meet with their role-alikes across the system. Edtech information is then not limited to one school but shared throughout the system. The educators in these coordinator roles will be more effective if they are members of school leadership teams and have the flexibility needed to integrate into the classroom to support educators and students while actively engaged in learning.

How might you increase usage without “adding another thing”?

This is a challenging one, because no matter what edtech you’ve acquired, there will be some necessary investment of time for that tool to go from new to indispensable. Educators frequently seek administrator guidance for what they expect to see in the classroom or in use by students. Designated edtech coordinators can take the lead, working with principals and curriculum leaders to set goals, leading professional learning, and fostering digital tool adoption. Success will come by ensuring teachers understand what different tools can do, highlighting best practices, sharing fun and relevant examples, and providing time for educators to play with and learn new tools. Coordinators can also help streamline the numbers of tools needed, such as finding tools that bring tech functionality and content together. Coordinators can make it fun by creating challenges that leverage engaging digital content and interactive learning activities that teachers can share, copy, and edit. This solves one problem teachers already have: lack of time. This is an excellent way to foster use that is rewarding and meaningful, ensuring usage is based on value rather than mandates that satisfy compliance metrics.

In New Hampshire, all preK-12 schools have access to high-quality digital content through the New Hampshire Education Department. This content includes instructional activities that educators can use as-is or edit to meet the needs of their students. These resources can be shared and tweaked to support all learners and tailored to meet specific learning goals. This type of sharing and collaboration reduces stress and saves educators’ time. Now that’s incentive! This process can also alleviate confusion about what tools educators should select.

How do you keep the instructional edtech and IT infrastructure team on the same page?

Depending on how IT infrastructure and instructional edtech support teams are structured, they may not understand each other’s work or have may have competing interests. Your district’s IT infrastructure team must know what education purchasers are acquiring (or requesting), the function and users of the tool, any specific tech requirements, and how they will integrate into your digital ecosystem.

Interoperability is increasingly important as a means of making deployments efficient, supporting ease of use, and protecting student data privacy. Partnership and collaboration between technical and education stakeholders along, with tools that support integration such as single sign on and learning management systems, can help ensure that all parties are on the same page, part of effective implementations, and educators have a single point of entry for finding the edtech their school wants them to use. This collaboration also ensures technology support teams will understand the importance of edtech tools and keeping them accessible and functioning. This cross-collaboration ensures school-based tech coordinators can help fill communication gaps, expedite support, and provide educators and students with best practices for all edtech systems.  

Is professional learning a part of your edtech implementations?

It is increasingly true that teacher professional learning time is at a premium, and there are so many initiatives beyond implementing effective edtech for which districts are responsible. However, just as in any new learning initiative, professional learning on edtech is key.

As leaders with a whole-school focus, dedicated edtech coordinators are poised to assess and address professional learning gaps and opportunities.  Library media or digital learning specialists are uniquely capable of helping build professional learning plans, plan professional learning days, and play a leading role in building internal capacity among educators to help them help their peers. Training on digital tools does not need to happen in a vacuum. New learning in literacy instruction can be delivered through learning management systems. Resources for competency learning can be built and shared with digital tools, so both the competency process and edtech training are happening at once. Create purposeful opportunities for collaborative planning, leveraging learning tools that support sharing between teachers.

By identifying your edtech coordinators as communication and professional learning leaders in their schools, district leaders can take a big step forward in the effort to wring maximum return on investment for edtech spend.

This article was originally published by the Center for American Progress.

Key points:

• States and districts should prioritize and implement high-dosage tutoring
• Transforming summer school with high-dosage tutoring
• 5 ways virtual tutoring reinforces our after-school program
• For more news on tutoring, see eSN’s Educational Leadership page

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, students have faced unprecedented levels of learning loss because of school closures and interrupted learning. In fact, recent national testing shows a decline in math scores in 43 states¹ and reading scores in 30 states,² while no states saw an improvement in scores for either subject. Nationwide, 64 percent of fourth graders are below proficient in math³ and 66 percent are below proficient in reading.⁴ The scores remain grim for older students, with 73 percent of eighth graders below proficient in math⁵ and 69 percent below proficient in reading.⁶ Public school leaders estimate that 49 percent of students began the 2022-23 school year behind grade level in at least one subject.⁷ As students across the country continue to struggle academically and as educators work to catch students up, policymakers must ensure that they are properly scaling academic recovery strategies to reach as many students as possible before it is too late.

The pandemic left students, on average, five months behind in math and four months behind in reading by the end of the 2021-22 school year, with even more significant losses for students in majority-Black or low-income schools.⁸ This gap shows an increased inequality in educational outcomes across racial and socioeconomic lines.⁹ As educators work to catch students up academically, analyses reinforce the importance of supporting this generation, predicting that students affected by the pandemic may earn up to $61,000 less over their lifetime, with a resulting impact on the U.S. economy that could amount to $188 billion every year as this cohort enters the workforce.¹⁰

Thankfully, extensive research points toward one incredibly effective option in recovering learning loss: high-dosage tutoring.¹¹ As states, districts, and even the federal government begin to implement tutoring initiatives to address learning loss, it is important that they consider the type of tutoring being offered. Not all forms of tutoring reap the same benefits, and districts may need help in determining how to select and implement the best programs.

High-dosage tutoring

High-dosage tutoring, sometimes called “high-impact” or “high-intensity” tutoring, is one of the few school-based interventions with demonstrated significant positive effects on math and reading achievement.¹² Yet high-dosage tutoring is a very specific form of tutoring that must meet specific criteria:

• One-on-one or small-group sessions with no more than four students per tutor
• Use of high-quality materials that align with classroom content
• Three tutoring sessions per week—at minimum—each lasting at least 30 minutes
• Sessions held during school hours
• Students meeting with the same tutor each session
• Professionally trained tutors who receive ongoing support and coaching

High-dosage tutoring is most effective when the program supports data use and when tutors use ongoing informal assessment to tailor individual student instruction. As a bonus, these sessions can allow educators more opportunities to measure student achievement through informal assessments, potentially providing new holistic accountability measures.

Studies continuously show the benefits of high-dosage tutoring: It increases students’ learning by an additional three to 15 months across grade levels;¹³ moves an average student from the 50th percentile to the 66th percentile;¹⁴ and is, overall, 20 times more effective than standard tutoring models for math and 15 times more effective for reading.¹⁵ These increases in achievement show great potential for using high-dosage tutoring as a school improvement strategy. As schools continue to focus on long-term improvement of their education, implementing a high-dosage tutoring program can provide them with the tools necessary to ensure students’ academic achievement by catching knowledge gaps early, meeting students where they are, and providing evidence-based intensive recovery. Indeed, implementing these programs with fidelity allows schools to recover current learning loss while also gaining the long-term knowledge and skill to scale programming as needed moving forward.

Unfortunately, there are many challenges districts and schools face in implementing high-dosage tutoring programs. Amid a teacher shortage, labor challenges persist in hiring tutors.¹⁶ Moreover, schools often face complex logistical issues when it comes to training tutors properly,¹⁷ rescheduling the school day to fit in a tutoring block, and vetting tutoring services run by outside companies.¹⁸ In addition to these challenges, funding concerns are often at the top of school leaders’ minds. While COVID-19 relief funds provided targeted funding for high-quality tutoring, those funds are set to expire at the end of 2024. And unfortunately, many schools lack long-term investments that can be directed toward effective tutoring programs.

Current implementation efforts

While more than 80 percent of schools offer at least one type of tutoring in the 2022-23 school year, the modes and student participation levels vary.¹⁹ The School Pulse Panel collected data from a representative sample of more than 1,000 public K-12 schools in December 2022, providing insight into what tutoring services they offer.²⁰ The survey estimated that only 37 percent of schools offer high-dosage tutoring and, nationwide, only 11 percent of public school students participate in high-dosage tutoring—despite recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores showing that a vast majority of students are below proficient in reading and math. Schools were found to be most likely to offer standard tutoring, a less intensive method of tutoring provided by educators, with 59 percent of schools reportedly offering this method.

Despite the evidence-based benefits of high-dosage tutoring, only a small share of students receive this service. To adequately recover learning loss and ensure a brighter future for this generation, high-dosage tutoring programs must be properly scaled to reach more students.

Policy recommendations

Despite strong evidence pointing to the effectiveness of high-dosage tutoring, logistical challenges have prevented many schools from providing this valuable service to their students. The federal government can further assist districts in the following ways as they work to support students.

Designate long-term funding for high-dosage tutoring

While COVID-19 relief funds have played a vital role in district and state efforts to recover learning loss, these funds are due to expire in September 2024. However, reports estimate that it will take three to five years to recover learning loss at the current rate of recovery—time that, unfortunately, older students may not have.²¹ Without continued funding, districts will likely face disruptions in their recent efforts, reducing the long-term benefits these evidence-based practices can provide.²²

To prevent this, Congress must consider providing additional funding to public schools to implement high-dosage tutoring on a long-term basis, with particular emphasis on schools serving low-income students. Without increased federal and state funding, districts will be much slower to recover learning loss as they face more barriers to success. Most importantly, districts must, at a minimum, maintain all funding in upcoming federal budget discussions.

While funding from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is available to districts for tutoring purposes, it is challenging and unsustainable for districts to reroute how they have historically used these funds.²³ Estimates suggest districts must spend between $1,200 and $2,500 per student each year to provide high-dosage tutoring effectively.²⁴ Without additional funding, they have few options and may need to diminish other vital programs to shift funds toward high-dosage tutoring.

To adequately invest in high-dosage tutoring, policymakers should allocate additional funding through a new grant program accessible to all populations, specifically to implement high-dosage tutoring programs. As Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds wind down, new funding avenues are vital to continue this work and successfully recover learning loss to set this generation on a better path.

Continue to grow awareness and reach of the National Partnership for Student Success

Recognizing student learning loss, the White House, in coordination with AmeriCorps and the Johns Hopkins Everyone Graduates Center, launched the National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS) in July 2022 to supply 250,000 tutors and mentors in K-12 public schools over the next three years.²⁵ NPSS estimates that in its first year, 78,000 additional adults have provided high-intensity tutoring.²⁶ The partnership has also developed the NPSS support hub, which provides technical assistance and resources at no cost,²⁷ and has formed a network of organizations doing similar work that can support one another and share information. In addition, NPSS established a higher education coalition focused on placing more college students in school support roles, such as high-dosage tutors.

The work NPSS is doing plays an essential role in the initiative to increase the number of students receiving high-dosage tutoring. The NPSS support hub is crucial in providing guidance and technical support to districts, states, and organizations. This includes one-on-one support and published resources accessible to the public. These resources include guides on creating a state partnership for student success, a district partnership toolkit, and voluntary quality standards.²⁸ As education leaders focus efforts on addressing learning loss, they must have access to NPSS as a valuable network with expertise in high-dosage tutoring and implementation.

For its efforts to be most effective, the White House must work to increase awareness of these resources by marketing the work of NPSS to states. NPSS can market its services through its hub and networks of organizations. States should, likewise, spread awareness of NPSS and the organization’s resources to local school districts.

Expand the federal work-study program

College students are one population education leaders are trying to tap to support the staffing issues schools face when implementing high-dosage tutoring programs. While high-dosage tutoring requires professionally trained tutors, many examples exist of colleges, school districts, and even third-party entities providing professional training before and during college students’ service to meet this requirement.

Recognizing this population’s value, NPSS formed a higher education coalition focused on placing college students in school support roles.²⁹ Additionally, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona issued a letter encouraging colleges, universities, and school districts to collaborate to use federal work-study (FWS) and other federal resources to increase the number of college students in these roles.³⁰ FWS, a program that provides paid part-time jobs for college students with financial need, is an existing resource colleges and universities can use to partner with their local school districts and provide additional tutors. However, limitations regarding FWS’ funding formula and regulations related to where students can work prohibit the program from more effectively benefiting communities. To provide more tutors, Congress should consider amending FWS, including by allowing college students to serve as tutors in all academic subject areas for grades pre-K-12, rather than current regulations that restrict this to reading tutors for pre-K-6.

Universities and colleges must market these school support roles as a type of FWS employment to increase the number of college students serving in these roles. Doing so will allow universities and colleges to build stronger connections with their local school districts and better serve their communities. At the same time, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of providing quality training for college students who will serve as tutors to ensure they meet the high-dosage tutoring criteria. These partnerships must ensure that the college or university, local school district, or a third-party provider offers free, high-quality training before and throughout the college student’s service for continued support. For example, in partnership with Annenberg Learner and Step Up Tutoring, Arizona State University is building a program with stackable microcredentials accessible for free to anyone interested in becoming a high-dosage tutor.³¹ This is just one resource that partnerships can utilize to ensure tutors are professionally trained and prepared to support students.

Collect more robust data on tutoring

Currently, the availability of federal data on tutoring initiatives is limited. While the School Pulse Panel provides some insight into the tutoring students receive, there are limitations. To better understand recovering learning loss efforts nationwide, the Department of Education must collect more in-depth data from districts across the country.

In developing a more robust data collection tool, the department should first consider providing precise definitions of high-dosage tutoring, standard tutoring, and self-paced tutoring. While the most recently administered survey defines high-dosage tutoring, it fails to state that this form of tutoring must occur during the school day. Additionally, despite the Education Department providing its definition, 13 percent of schools who say that they offer high-dosage tutoring also note that their students only receive it once to twice weekly.³² Given high-dosage tutoring’s requirement of at least three sessions per week, these responses are contradictory. The department should therefore consider providing a more precise definition, emphasizing that programs must meet all criteria to be regarded as high-dosage tutoring. Moreover, it must give that precise definition multiple times throughout the survey to reduce confusion.

New data collection should also include information on student progress through high-dosage tutoring programs. As previously mentioned, high-dosage tutoring is most effective when it supports ongoing data collection and when tutors use ongoing informal assessments to measure student achievement. Offering insight into students’ grade-level achievement will provide more transparency on the success of programs. In addition to this quantitative data, these efforts should include a collection of best practices and innovations that are easily shared across the country for educators to utilize in their implementation efforts.

To increase school participation, the Education Department may consider clarifying the Every Student Succeeds Act’s (ESSA) required accountability indicators to include student participation in high-dosage tutoring programs as an opportunity dashboard indicator.³³ ESSA requires state-designed accountability systems to include several indicators, including math and reading assessments, graduation rates, and English language proficiency.³⁴ The law also requires at least one indicator of school quality and student support, known as the “opportunity dashboard” indicator. This allows for greater flexibility, including the use of student engagement and any other state-chosen indicator that allows for meaningful differentiation of school performance. Issuing guidance that clarifies that this component could include reporting student engagement in high-dosage tutoring programs, as well as guidance on how to best collect this data, may lead to more states and schools using high-dosage tutoring participation as a school-based indicator in their accountability systems. With this increased transparency, more research can be conducted on the success of high-dosage tutoring by comparing student participation rates and statewide or national assessments.

It is essential that this data collection is robust, public, and easily accessible. Having access to such data would allow education leaders and policymakers at all levels to make evidence-based decisions. When robust data are not collected and made public, policymakers are more likely to draw conclusions that are not evidence-based and have the potential of further harming students. For example, some policymakers—based on low-quality data—may be led to believe that high-dosage tutoring has been properly implemented and yet has made little impact on testing results. However, with robust data, policymakers can better visualize the lack of proper implementation and the barriers to successfully scaling high-dosage tutoring programs. Developing a stronger understanding of the programming occurring in schools is necessary for policy to be effective in supporting students.

Conclusion

As students struggle to catch up, the federal government must step up to support states and districts in implementing effective high-dosage tutoring programs. With dedicated long-term funding for high-dosage tutoring, continued support through the National Partnership for Student Success, expanded federal work-study regulations, and more robust data collection, districts will be better equipped to support students in learning loss recovery. This work is vital to ensuring the success of a generation and the U.S. economy’s future.

Endnotes

1. The Nation’s Report Card, “NAEP Report Card: 2022 NAEP Mathematics Assessment,” available at https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/mathematics/2022/ (last accessed January 2024).
2. The Nation’s Report Card, “NAEP Report Card: 2022 NAEP Reading Assessment,” available at https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2022/ (last accessed January 2024).
3. The Nation’s Report Card, “NAEP Report Card: 2022 NAEP Mathematics Assessment.”
4. The Nation’s Report Card, “NAEP Report Card: 2022 NAEP Reading Assessment.”
5. The Nation’s Report Card, “NAEP Report Card: 2022 NAEP Mathematics Assessment.”
6. The Nation’s Report Card, “NAEP Report Card: 2022 NAEP Reading Assessment.”
7. National Center for Education Statistics, “Administrators Report Roughly Half of Public School Students Began 2022-23 School Year Behind Grade Level in At Least One Academic Subject,” Press release, February 9, 2022, available at https://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/press_releases/2_09_2023.asp.
8. Emma Dorn and others, “COVID-19 and education: The lingering effects of unfinished learning,” McKinsey & Company, July 27, 2021, available at https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/covid-19-and-education-the-lingering-effects-of-unfinished-learning.
9. Carly Robinson and others, “Design Principles for Accelerating Student Learning With High-Impact Tutoring” (Providence, RI: EdResearch for Action, 2021), available at https://annenberg.brown.edu/sites/default/files/EdResearch_for_Recovery_Design_Principles_1.pdf.
10. Dorn and others, “COVID-19 and education: The lingering effects of unfinished learning.”
11. Carly D. Robinson and others, “Accelerating Student Learning with High-Dosage Tutoring” (Providence, RI: EdResearch For Recovery, 2021), available at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED613847.pdf.
12. Robinson and others, “Design Principles for Accelerating Student Learning With High-Impact Tutoring.”
13. Ibid.
14. Jill Barshay, “PROOF POINTS: Taking stock of tutoring,” The Hechinger Report, February 27, 2023, available at https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-taking-stock-of-tutoring/.
15. Roland G. Fryer Jr., “The Production of Human Capital in Developed Countries: Evidence from 196 Randomized Field Experiments” (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2016), available at https://www.nber.org/papers/w22130.
16. Barshay, “PROOF POINTS: Taking stock of tutoring.”
17. Ibid.
18. Kalyn Belsha, “Sweeping research effort tackles big question: How to get tutoring that works to more kids,” Chalkbeat, October 27, 2022, available at https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/10/27/23426952/tutoring-research-pandemic-accelerate/.
19. Jill Barshay, “PROOF POINTS: New federal survey estimates one out of 10 public school students gets high-dosage tutoring,” The Hechinger Report, February 13, 2023, available at https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-new-federal-survey-estimates-one-out-of-10-public-school-students-get-high-dosage-tutoring/.
20. Institute of Education Sciences, “School Pulse Panel,” available at https://ies.ed.gov/schoolsurvey/spp/ (last accessed January 2024).
21. Megan Kuhfeld and Karyn Lewis, “Student achievement in 2021-2022: Cause for hope and continued urgency”(Portland, OR: NWEA, 2022), available at https://www.nwea.org/uploads/2022/07/Student-Achievement-in-2021-22-Cause-for-hope-and-concern.researchbrief-1.pdf.
22. Marguerite Roza and Katherine Silberstein, “The ESSER fiscal cliff will have serious implications for student equity,” Brookings Institution, September 12, 2023, available at https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-esser-fiscal-cliff-will-have-serious-implications-for-student-equity/.
23. National Student Support Accelerator, “Funding for High-Impact Tutoring” (Stanford, CA: 2023), available at https://studentsupportaccelerator.org/sites/default/files/Funding%20for%20High-Impact%20Tutoring.pdf.
24. National Student Support Accelerator, “Developing a Budget,” available at https://studentsupportaccelerator.org/district-playbook/section-2/developing-budget#_ftn1 (last accessed January 2024).
25. The White House, “Fact Sheet: Biden-Harris Administration Launches National Effort to Support Student Success,” Press release, July 5, 2022, available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/05/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-launches-national-effort-to-support-student-success/.
26. Robert Balfanz and Vaughan Byrnes, “Increasing School Capacity to Meet Students’ Post-Pandemic Needs: Findings from the 2022-23 National Partnership for Student Success Principal Survey” (Baltimore, MD: Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, 2023), available at https://www.partnershipstudentsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Increasing-School-Capacity-to-Meet-Students-Post-Pandemic-Needs_ECG_Balfanz-Byrnes-FINAL.pdf.
27. National Partnership for Student Success, “About Us,” available at https://www.partnershipstudentsuccess.org/about/ (last accessed January 2024).
28. National Partnership for Student Success, “NPSS Support Hub Resources,” available at https://www.partnershipstudentsuccess.org/resources/ (last accessed January 2024).
29. National Partnership for Student Success, “Colleges & Universities,” available at https://www.partnershipstudentsuccess.org/colleges/ (last accessed January 2024).
30. Secretary of Education Miguel A. Cardona, “Key Policy Letters Signed by the Education Secretary or Deputy Secretary,” U.S. Department of Education, May 10, 2023, available at https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/secletter/230510.html.
31. Annenberg Learner, “Current Partnerships & Programs,” available at https://www.learner.org/programs/ (last accessed January 2024).
32. Barshay, “PROOF POINTS: New federal survey estimates one out of 10 public school students gets high-dosage tutoring.”
33. Every Student Succeeds Act, Public Law 95, 114th Cong., 1st sess. (December 10, 2015), available at https://www.congress.gov/114/plaws/publ95/PLAW-114publ95.pdf.
34. National Education Association, “Opportunity Dashboard Indicators in ESSA” (Washington: 2020), available at https://www.nea.org/resource-library/opportunity-dashboard-indicators-essa.

Unprecedented funding has flowed into districts over the last several years as part of pandemic support and recovery efforts. As a result of this increased investment in technology, schools are generating more valuable data than ever—but much of that data isn’t readily available and actionable because it’s siloed in systems that aren’t connected to each other.

Simultaneously, with NAEP scores showing declining progress across the United States, school districts are trying to understand the scope of educational inequities and narrow equity gaps. However, it’s challenging to understand the root cause of these issues and to determine how best to address them without whole child insights made possible through interoperability—the seamless, secure, and controlled exchange of data between applications.

4 Key Considerations Around Data Interoperability for 2024

As school districts navigate a new year, building a foundational understanding of data equity and data interoperability is critical to establish holistic policies, practices, and systems that support learner variability and address the needs of historically and systematically excluded learners. By sharpening their lens on holistic data, districts can ensure that data becomes an authentic and integrated part of district culture and decision making all year long. Below are some key considerations to keep in mind:

1. Good data governance—which the U.S. Department of Education defines as “clearly outlining policies, standard procedures, responsibilities, and controls surrounding data activities…to ensure that information is collected, maintained, used, and disseminated in a way that protects the individuals’ rights to privacy, confidentiality, and security, while producing timely and accurate statistical data”—is critical to maintaining a secure, accessible, and reliable data infrastructure and is foundational to designing and implementing data interoperability projects. However, Project Unicorn’s 2023 State of the Sector Report indicates that this remains a significant challenge for school districts. Most (65.38%) respondents still need to define data governance goals and objectives at the organizational level.
   
   
2. Many educators are excited about the potential for AI to finally help us realize our goals of creating personalized learning journeys for students. But to fully personalize learning, we need to establish seamless, secure data flow between platforms so that educators can get a holistic view of students and effectively support students where they are.
   
   
3. Interoperability is also critical to enable us to transform assessment. It enables educators to see learning patterns across platforms, revealing strengths, potential challenges, and engagement. According to Erin Mote, executive director and co-founder of InnovateEDU, “Data interoperability can give educators a superpower to unlock the full potential of every learner.”
   
   
4. Interoperability and adherence to data standards can and should be a key consideration for procurement decisions. Many district leaders are unaware of the real long-term costs associated with a lack of interoperability. Project Unicorn has created an Interoperability Certification to help district leaders identify products that prioritize interoperability. CoSN’s case study–The Michigan Data Hub: A Strategic Alignment and ROI Study–offers insight into these hidden costs. The study’s authors found that “data management by [Michigan] districts requires both personnel effort and technology costs totaling over $160 million per year statewide. More than $61 million per year is spent on data quality, data completeness, and other general data management tasks, while $64 million per year is spent enabling key internal systems within districts to talk to each other.”

An Actionable Resource for Districts

Digital Promise’s newly revised Data Ready Playbook is designed to support districts with creating an effective interoperable data solution that allows them to identify and address opportunity gaps and outcomes while simultaneously earning micro-credentials through a series of free, self-paced learning modules.

As district teams advance through the Playbook, they will evaluate their current data culture, build their knowledge and understanding of data equity and interoperability, and take steps to apply an equity lens to data policies and procedures—ultimately establishing a practice of using data analysis and interpretation to  gauge data access, equity, and inclusion and identify disproportionality within their district.

The Readiness Framework

The Data Ready Playbook is anchored in a Readiness Framework consisting of three readiness domains: Project Governance, Needs Assessment, and Implementation Plan—all of which are critical to successfully implementing data interoperability projects.

Data Governance

Data Governance is the first of three domains addressed in the Playbook. By completing activities in the modules focused on data governance, district teams can:

• Identify and onboard district team members (including data stewards who are responsible for a given area of data, from collection through use)
• Initiate cross-departmental discussions on data priorities, processes, and workflows
• Document the district’s data landscape and workflows
• Identify key data elements and expectations around their usage (e.g. data catalog)
• Assign data stewards to draft and manage data processes and workflows
• Define a governing strategy or protocol to support decision making around emerging case data needs, including security and access
• Adopt data processes and workflows that support the implementation of data interoperability projects.

Needs Assessment

Needs Assessment, the second domain, focuses on helping district staff identify key challenges related to data use, including siloed data. Activities in this domain guide district teams through the following:

• Conduct focus groups with diverse community members to explore classroom-, school building-, and district-level activities that rely on or refer to data
• Develop cross-departmental opportunities for input and feedback related to data interoperability needs
• Identify and analyze specific growth points related to the use of data in classroom, school, and district activities by multiple departments and stakeholder groups
• Evaluate growth points based on need, solubility, and overall impact and identify clear requirements and specifications for the development of an solution
• Design a solution concept that defines specifications and requirements to achieve interoperability success
• Validate the challenge and solution concept with academic and technology stakeholders

Project Planning

The third and final domain of the Data Ready Playbook is Project Planning, which includes analysis of the costs of interoperability. By completing modules in this domain, teams achieve the following:

• Identify various interoperability solutions and their purposes
• Define an implementation team based on various interoperable solutions
• Articulate project parameters (e.g., ideal timeline, budget, etc.) for a potential district implementation
• Validate the feasibility and viability of possible solutions.
• Narrow from a range of solutions to one to two options (if necessary) based on feedback and project perimeters
• Select a team to implement the identified solution
• Create a general project plan for implementation, including appropriate detail on project milestones, financial and personnel requirements, and expected benefits, to present to leadership for approvals

How Data Ready is Your District?

The best way to understand your district’s readiness for data interoperability is by completing the Readiness Diagnostic. This diagnostic will assess your district’s progress to date using the Readiness Framework and provide a customized learning plan to follow in the Data Ready Playbook. Are you ready to get started?

Visit Digital Promise’s new Data Ready Playbook to learn more about data interoperability, build your team’s skills, and modernize your technology infrastructure in service of your students, staff, and community.

Key points:

• Microschools may disrupt conventional schooling if they evolve correctly
• See article: For school leaders, routine decisions aren’t so routine
• See article: 4 areas to embrace innovation and avoid school system failure
• For more news on district and school management, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

This article originally appeared on the Christensen Institute’s blog and is reposted here with permission.

Microschools have become a hot topic over the last few years. Their big appeal is that they promise to do a better job catering to students’ and families’ individual needs and interests. But right now, they only serve about 2 percent to 4 percent of U.S. students. So, could microschools eventually become the new normal in schooling?

Well, let’s see what innovation theory has to say about this question. To start, we first need to take a quick dive into the history of the steel industry (and yes, and I promise it relates).

From the mid 1800s until the 1960s, steel came from massive integrated mills. These large mills did everything from reacting iron ore, coke, and limestone in blast furnaces to rolling finished products at the other end. It would cost over $12 billion to build a huge, new integrated mill today.

Then in the 1960s, a new type of steel mill called the minimill entered the scene. Unlike their giant predecessors that needed large blast furnaces to process raw ore, minimills made new steel products by melting scrap steel using a new technology called the electric arc furnace.

These minimills transformed the economics of steel production. Whereas an integrated mill today might cover two to four square miles and would cost around $12 billion to build, minimills are less than a tenth the size of an integrated mill and only cost around $800 million.

But early minimills had a problem. Because the scrap steel they recycled varied in its chemical makeup, they could only make certain steel products like rebar. 

But from the 1960s to the 1990s, as the technology improved, minimills were gradually able to produce more and more of the products made in larger and more expensive integrated mills. First angle iron, then structural steel for buildings, then finally sheet steel for things like soup cans and cars

What does this have to do with microschools?

Microschools are small, independent schooling programs. They often have students of mixed age groups and one or two educators who facilitate the learning experiences.

Just as minimills operate at a smaller scale compared to integrated mills, microschools are much smaller than conventional schools. They typically only serve around 15 to 40 students—much smaller than the typical school with hundreds to thousands of students.

As with minimills, the physical facilities of most microschools are also small and lean. Whereas most conventional schools have large, expensive campuses with multiple buildings, playgrounds, and athletic fields, microschools often operate out of homes, churches, retail space, or office buildings, and use nearby public parks for their outdoor facilities.

Also, just as minimills keep their costs down by recycling scrap steel, microschools take advantage of community and online resources to keep their costs lean.

Whether microschools become mainstream alternatives to conventional schooling remains to be seen. 

Just like minimills had to improve their technology over time to offer a wider array of steel products, microschools will have to evolve if they hope to serve a wider array of students and families. 

Today’s microschools aren’t for everyone. They’re limited in their ability to provide diverse social interactions, extracurricular activities, and specialized support for unique educational needs, making them an unproven and un-enticing option for many families.

So what’s the takeaway? Microschools may someday disrupt conventional schooling just like minimills disrupted integrated mills. They definitely have some of the key ingredients. But we’ll have to wait and see whether they can evolve to become compelling alternatives to conventional schooling.

Each year, we share our 10 most-read stories. Not surprisingly, many of this year’s Top 10 focused on equity, edtech innovation, immersive learning, and the science of reading. This year’s 7th most-read story focuses on the possibility of four-day school weeks.

Four-day weeks are becoming more common in school districts, particularly in rural areas of the U.S. Many districts are finding students and families like the shorter school weeks. In fact, in a survey of schools with four-day week policies, 85 percent of parents and 95 percent of students said they would choose to remain on the schedule rather than switch back to a five-day week. While these shorter weeks are popular with stakeholders, might there be unintended consequences of four-day school weeks? Are there certain ways to implement the schedule that lead to better outcomes for students?

Most of what is known about these questions has come from research conducted in the last five years. My colleagues and I have studied the four-day week using quantitative and qualitative data from state departments of education, school districts, and the NWEA MAP Growth research database. These projects and other recent research on four-day weeks have shed some light on questions about the implementation and outcomes of four-day school weeks. The research analyzes qualitative and quantitative data to compare students’ experiences and outcomes on four-day and five-day school weeks. We find that there are both benefits and drawbacks to the shorter school week, and these tradeoffs can vary based on the characteristics of the school district and how they implement the four-day week in practice.

Benefits: What Supporters of the Four-Day School Week Are Saying

Supporters of four-day school weeks argue that the schedule change can result in district cost savings, better student attendance, and improved teacher recruitment and retention. However, the research to date doesn’t offer strong support for these arguments. Districts with four-day school weeks experience only a modest, ~2% reduction in spending and are not seeing changes in their attendance rates on average. Superintendents and principals report that they think the four-day week is helping them to recruit and retain teachers, but the current research does not provide evidence to support this claim.

Another benefit of the four-day school week is that parents, students, and educators like the schedule. Students reported enjoying having more free time, time to work, and time with family. Most teachers viewed the four-day school week as a positive change, saying it reduced the stress of their job or critically enabled them to supplement their income. A common claim across four-day school week district members is that the schedule boosted morale. In support of that claim, a study of Oklahoma high school disciplinary incident rates shows that the four-day school week significantly reduced rates of bullying and fighting. However, survey data find no differences in students’ or families’ perceptions of school climate across similar four-day and five-day week districts.

Impacts on Student Achievement: Drawbacks and Factors to Consider

Despite district stakeholders’ claims that students were learning just as much, or even slightly more, on the four-day week schedule, the research generally suggests otherwise. Although student test scores may be holding steady or increasing in a four-day week district, we need to consider how students’ scores are improving relative to similar students on a five-day week schedule. If the four-day week students would have improved more if they had stayed on a five-day week, the four-day week would be negatively impacting their test scores. Indeed, studies consistently estimate small to medium negative effects of four-day school weeks on student achievement over time relative to five-day weeks. However, these negative effects are not the same for all districts. The research indicates that there are at least two factors that can make a difference when it comes to the schedule’s impact on student achievement: (1) instructional time and (2) whether the district is located in a rural area.

Four-day week districts with higher amounts of instructional time are more likely to have smaller negative effects or no effects of the schedule on achievement. When switching from a five-day week to a four-day week, districts typically opt to have Monday or Friday “off” and extend the length of the other four school days each week. According to a study of four-day weeks in Oregon, having at least eight hours of school per day on a four-day week, relative to the average seven-hour day in five-day week districts, prevented the negative impacts of the schedule.

Rural districts, relative to districts located in towns or suburbs, also experience smaller negative effects or no effects of the four-day week on student achievement. The research cannot yet speak to why the schedule has less negative impacts in rural areas, but possible reasons include: more instructional time, outsized positive effects on teacher recruitment and retention, and students missing less class time for traveling to athletics and other interscholastic competitions.

Key Takeaways: Recommendations for Educators and Districts Based on the Research

Given these mixed findings, communities are likely to make different choices about the four-day school week depending on their goals and the local context. Below are three key takeaways from the research to keep in mind.

• In conversations about adopting four-day school weeks, we need to consider that the research offers only weak support for some of the current arguments for adopting four-day school weeks (saving money, reducing student absences, and attracting and retaining teachers).
• The overwhelming popularity of the four-day school week with stakeholders and the benefits they perceive from the schedule need to be considered in policy discussions.
• District leaders must consider the possible negative consequences of four-day weeks on student achievement, particularly if the change will substantially reduce instructional time. Data show that while student achievement in four-day school week districts has generally been trending upward over time, the gains were less than those of similar districts with five-day weeks.

When determining if a four-day school week is right for your district, consider the local context, stakeholders’ goals and priorities for the district, and how your implementation will bolster positive effects of the schedule and minimize or prevent negative effects. The calculus involved in weighing the tradeoffs of the schedule will depend on the anticipated size of each tradeoff and the priorities in each district. For academic recovery efforts, it is essential that districts committed to or planning to adopt four-day weeks monitor their students’ academic progress and seek ways to increase instructional time on the schedule. While there are both benefits and drawbacks to four-day weeks, considering each district’s context and priorities is critical for guiding conversations about adopting four-day school weeks. 

Additional Resources for Educators:

4-day school weeks: Educational innovation or detriment?
Does four equal five? Implementation and outcomes of the four-day school week

Related:
What if every teacher had a work-from-home day?
For school leaders, routine decisions aren’t so routine
For more news on district management, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

Key points:

• Seemingly minor leadership decisions can profoundly impact people
• Leaders must pause to reflect, gather input, and consider various viewpoints
• See related article: With better data, these 12 things would improve, supes say
• For more news on leadership, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

In the tapestry of leadership, decisions are often viewed through a lens of routine or regularity. It’s easy to fall into the belief that some choices are mundane, merely navigating the day-to-day operations of an organization. However, beneath this seemingly commonplace surface lies a profound truth: no leadership decision is truly routine. Each choice, whether seemingly minor or monumental, has the potential to send ripples through the fabric of an organization or impact an individual in ways that may extend beyond the leaders’ view.

Understanding the potential consequences of seemingly routine decisions is not just an important leadership skill; it’s a necessity. Every leadership decision, regardless of its apparent simplicity, possesses the potential to have a far greater impact than it appears viewed on the surface. A few examples illustrate this premise:  

As a high school principal, a science teacher gave a student a final grade of F. The student had earned 69.7 percent in the course. When asked about the grade, the teacher identified that her grading scale for a D started at 70 percent and she didn’t round up for her grades. She felt it was important to hold her students to a high standard. The student would need to retake the course over the summer to graduate high school. The student did not reach out to me, however, her parents did. As did her Navy recruiter. The young lady was scheduled to enlist in the Navy. If she couldn’t leave for basic training the week after graduation, she would lose her promised training option and may not be able to get the job she desired. The teacher was unwilling to change the grade, but the law allowed the department chair to change the grade if he wished. The decision might seem routine, but the potential to impact the young woman’s post-high school career was significant.

A second situation is the high school principal who learns that the starting varsity football quarterback violated the athletic code of conduct and was photographed with a beer in his hand at a party a week before school started. The student athlete comes from a family that has a lot of struggles and the potential for their oldest son to get a football scholarship has given the family a new positive view. If the quarterback is suspended, both the parents and the athletic director feel it will have a negative impact on his ability to obtain a college athletic scholarship. Additionally, the football team has a legitimate chance to win its conference and make it to the state playoffs for the first time in a decade. There is a lot of community enthusiasm for the team. At this point, the image has not surfaced in the community and the AD thinks that the issue will not become common knowledge.

In a third example, as the district is trying to reduce expenses before potential budget cuts, the human resources director sends out an early retirement buyout offer. However, she did not do a thorough review of the list of those eligible. Several faculty members who are not technically eligible receive the offer. It might seem like a minor error to the high school staff, but one of the faculty members has already told his wife about the offer and she is excited as they are eager to move closer to their children. Now, he will have to explain to his wife that the offer was withdrawn. It was the first time in several years that they were excited about the future. He is extremely stressed out about having to explain the HR department made an error.

A final example, which is a bit old these days, is the concept of IT change control. It was common for IT help desk folks to be frustrated when end users called in flummoxed about a minor software upgrade. Historically, it was common before the widespread adoption of cloud-based tools, where there is no local control over when tools will be updated, to only update software during academic breaks, particularly in the summer. This allowed ample time for staff to be trained in using the updates and learn how the tools had changed. Often, IT folks would be frustrated with the end users who “couldn’t figure out minor changes.” However, from the end-user perspective, the changes were not routine, and they had to learn new ways to complete their tasks. IT leaders should still be careful about making software changes except during breaks and with adequate warning.

These examples underscore how seemingly insignificant leadership decisions can profoundly impact people. While leaders may view some choices as routine, each harbors the potential for unintended consequences extending far beyond expectations. We must broaden our perspective to see how alleged minor calls can affect lives and communities in ways not readily apparent.

Leaders need to adopt a mindset recognizing the potential gravity inherent in all decisions, even small ones. Rather than making snap decisions, leaders must pause to reflect, gather input, and consider various viewpoints. However, that does not give leaders the excuse to delay decisions. That is one of the balances required by leaders. They need to be both thoughtful and decisive. While efficient operations matter, leaders must consider the impact of decisions on individuals.

As initially asserted, the tapestry of leadership harbors a profound yet often overlooked truth–no decision can be classified as merely routine. While leaders may be tempted to view choices as insignificant or mundane, each threads the fabric of an organization and individuals’ lives in complex ways.

Key points:

• Parent communication plays a critical role in student success
• Overcoming barriers for emergent bilingual families aids in communication
• See related article: Your top 5 school-home communication challenges, solved
• For more news on school-home communication, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

Experienced educators understand that students thrive when their families are actively engaged in their education.

This is particularly crucial as we navigate the challenges of helping students recover from the disruptions caused by the pandemic. One demographic that warrants special attention in terms of family communication is emerging bilingual (EB) families. Federal data reveals a significant shift in K-12 enrollment, with EB learners comprising 10 percent of K-12 students in 2020 (and closer to 20 percent in California and Texas), a number projected to keep rising. In terms of impact on teachers, 64 percent have at least one EB student in their classroom.

The challenge of chronic absenteeism

A notable challenge we face is the elevated risk of chronic absenteeism among students who are EB. While pre-pandemic EB students had some of the highest attendance rates, during and since the pandemic those numbers have plummeted, profoundly impacting their academic journey. It’s especially stark in high schools, where studies indicate that EB high school students have a chronic absenteeism rate of 25 percent, compared to 18 percent for their non-EB peers in the same grade.

The vital role of parent communication in student success

Understanding the vital role of effective parent communication in promoting student success is paramount. When home adults actively engage in their student’s education, it goes beyond positive impact; it substantially enhances attendance and academic outcomes. This partnership between educators and parents in the learning journey is the cornerstone of a child’s success, fostering an environment where students can not only excel academically but also receive the support and resources necessary for their overall growth and development.

For this reason, it’s crucial to acknowledge and overcome the barriers that impede communication with emergent bilingual families:

• Language barriers: Language differences can hinder meaningful communication between educators and emergent bilingual families, making it challenging for families to stay informed about their child’s school experiences.
  
  
• Cultural adjustment: Many emergent bilingual families are navigating a new cultural and educational landscape. Adapting to a new system can be overwhelming and affect their involvement in their child’s education.
  
  
• Socioeconomic factors: Economic pressures, often experienced by emergent bilingual families, may require older students to work part-time to support their families. This can lead to missed school days. It can also mean that EB parents have more difficulty attending in-school events, whether due to childcare difficulties, lack of transportation, or inflexible work schedules.
  
  

If we want to improve attendance, well-being, and academic achievement for EB students, we have to start by building a sturdy bridge between home and school.

Six strategies for effective communication and engagement

To address these challenges and foster better school attendance and engagement among EB students and their families, schools can implement the following strategies:

1. Involve families in the learning process: Teachers can involve families by providing regular updates on their child’s progress and performance, inviting them to school events, and soliciting input on their child’s education. This two-way communication can build trust and support student success.
   
   
2. Use a communications platform with automatic translation: Employ a platform that automatically translates texts and emails into the family’s home language, ensuring effective one-on-one communication between parents and educators.
   
   
3. Use direct and clear language: When communicating with EB families, use clear and straightforward language, avoiding slang or highly technical words that may not translate accurately.
   
   
4. Use multiple types of communication: Recognize that different families have various communication preferences. Use multiple methods to reach out, considering each family’s preferred mode for convenient participation.
   
   
5. Encourage open and frequent communication: Encourage parents to reach out with questions or concerns to foster a trusting relationship.
   
   
6. Share specific examples of student progress or challenges: Utilize a communication program that displays student data to provide concrete examples of a student’s performance or areas for growth.

To truly support our more vulnerable students, it’s essential to revamp our approach to communication. This shift begins with recognizing the critical role that parent communication plays in student success. Instead of perceiving school-home communication merely as an information conduit, we need to approach it as an integral component of teaching and learning.

Embracing these strategies enables schools to bridge gaps, foster stronger relationships, and enhance attendance and academic outcomes for some of the most vulnerable students entering the U.S. K-12 education system.

Key points:

• School boards field long-term priorities like strategic planning and budgets
• School board directors must never forget that they are responsible for the overall strategic direction of a district
• See related article: 4 focus areas to embrace innovation and avoid school system failure
• For more news on district leadership, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

In the often stormy waters of public education, there’s an analogy I like to use to describe what school boards do: I think of each school district as being a ship–not a smaller size boat, but more like an ocean liner. In a time when there is confusion around what school board directors do and don’t do, this analogy can help clarify the role of the school board.

Think of the superintendent as the captain, the one who’s responsible for steering the ship and making sure everyone is doing their job to ensure it’s heading in the right direction. School board directors are akin to the navigators. They’re looking out across the horizon and pointing toward where the ship should be heading. That direction should align with the community’s desires as well as the needs of the students. School boards lay out big, long-term priorities such as strategic planning, budgetary goals, and financial stability. They also support and evaluate the superintendent, who is their only employee.

However, ships can get knocked off course by tempests like a pandemic or even less cataclysmic factors, such as public opinion, changing demographics in the district, financial challenges, collective bargaining agreements, new board members, or a new superintendent. When that happens, the board’s role is to continue to look toward the destination and give the captain and staff the ability to right the ship and continue onward.

Roles and responsibilities

School board directors are elected to represent their constituents, but individuals may take different approaches to this role. Some believe they were elected to advance a specific platform or position. This is often called the delegate model of representation, in which they feel obliged to make decisions that closely align with their constituents without exercising their own judgment. Another approach is referred to as the trustee model, where the board member believes that voters elected them to use their best judgment in ways that are in line with the overall needs of the whole community and student body.

The trustee approach has the advantage of allowing school directors to consider all available information, some of which might not be widely known by the general public because, for example, they aren’t participating in board work sessions that allow school directors to dive deeply into all aspects of an issue. Also, following the trustee model enables the board member to gather additional input from students, families, and the community as needed to make the most informed decisions. 

Regardless of their approach, school board directors need to act in the best interest of students. Here in Washington state, one of our school board standards states that the job of school board members is to create conditions for students and staff success.

Because the nature of their elected office is collaborative, school board directors are in constant communication with various audiences: families, taxpayers, district voters, students, legislators, local government leaders, and their peers in other districts or associations. The form this communication takes may vary by district. For example, many boards have student representatives who can speak directly to their fellow members and have the ability to contribute input on policies.

This extensive communication gives school board directors the opportunity to explain the nuances of their job, which are often misunderstood by the general public. A school board director’s role is governance rather than management. I often share the example that if you’re a family member who’s frustrated by something going on in your student’s classroom, you might call a school board director who lives in your neighborhood to lodge a complaint against a teacher. However, that is not in any way the role of the school board.

School board directors must never forget that they are responsible for the overall strategic direction of a district. This ensures they don’t become fixated on one specific interest or devote too much energy to something that amounts to a tiny fraction of the district’s work. A best practice is to explicitly delegate authority to superintendents–and to provide sufficient resources and autonomy for them to do their jobs. This helps boards avoid diverting their attention from strategic matters.

Creating chaos vs. being a force for good

People often wonder how much power school boards wield. The truth is one individual school board director has no power—they only have the power to take any official action if they are part of a quorum.

Where it gets more complicated is the question of indirect power. Board members can have a lot of influence on their communities and on each other, and a responsible board member must be very thoughtful about their role. Board members can be a force for good by correcting misinformation, being supportive of the district, and sharing how the community can engage in collaborative conversations with the district. 

The biggest qualification

I have 18 years of school board experience, and when I joined my local school board, I thought I knew a lot about my school district. I did not. I was a parent, but I didn’t understand how the district worked and what the different factors were that went into educating students–and I’m not alone in this assessment among fellow board directors. 

One of the most important qualifications to be a successful school board member is having an open mind. You need the ability to listen, to learn, and to admit when you are mistaken. This is how I’ve witnessed several of my colleagues grow into successful board directors. Too often, I’ve seen board members come into the role laser-focused on a particular issue–like building infrastructure–only to quickly realize there are hundreds of issues affecting the district.

Another important qualification is being focused on what’s best for students–not just their academic success, but are the students seen and heard? Do they feel like they belong and can grow into who they were meant to be during their years of education? Ultimately, creating an environment where students can succeed is a board member’s top priority.

Focus on strategic vision

At a time when even education is more politicized than ever before, knowing what school board members can and cannot do is critical for an effective school system that serves student needs, while respecting the values of the communities they serve. For optimal impact, the school board’s focus should be on the overall strategic vision for the district, and ensuring students and staff have what they need to succeed.

Understanding that only responsible and informed school board directors can meaningfully contribute to the long-term success of a school district is the first step in fostering an environment where students can thrive. 

Key points:

• There’s no such thing as too much data, as long as it is accessible and actionable
• Superintendents need data to gain insights into student performance and make decisions
• See related article: Use these 5 learner-centered models to inspire educators
• For more news on school data use, see eSN’s Educational Leadership page

Data access is critical when educators need to make informed decisions about curriculum, assessments, academic and social-emotional interventions, and more. So how are superintendents using data–and can they access it quickly and effectively in order to use it?

A national poll from the Data Quality Campaign and AASA, The School Superintendents Association surveyed district superintendents to find out they use data to support their students and schools.

Data is an important part of superintendents’ decision-making and it provides insights about student and school performance. Data gives school and district leaders confidence that students are on track for success.

Still, despite their current data-informed insights, superintendents say they want access to more data.

Here are some top lessons from that poll:

1. Ninety-eight percent of superintendents say they would be more confident in their abilities to make decisions for their district if they had better access to information.

2. Ninety-nine percent of superintendents feel that state data could be more useful. This type of state data could be made more useful with tools to help superintendents
act on the information and more training and ongoing support for analyzing, reporting, and communicating the data.

3. Ninety-three percent of superintendents say they have started collecting new data during the pandemic, and nearly all (94 percent) who have initiated new data collection agree: the new data is giving them useful information and insights.

4. Ninety-two percent of superintendents agree that data about students’ learning and academic progress is an important part of getting kids back on track after the pandemic.

5. Eighty-seven percent say they can find all of the data that they need to understand whether or not their school is effectively preparing students for next steps. Twelve percent have only an anecdotal understanding of what happened to some students after they left.

6. Superintendents are using data to make changes and share information with communities. Nearly all report using disaggregated data in some way–95 percent use disaggregated data at least once during the year, and 25 percent use disaggregated data once a week or more.

7. Superintendents are using disaggregated data to identify systemwide gaps in student performance (53 percent), to identify schools and school leaders in need of support (52 percent), to evaluate teaching and inform professional development, to monitor progress toward state and federal requirements (49 percent), and to share information with families and the community (43 percent).

8. Ninety-four percent trust that the data their state provides accurately reflects their school’s performance. They use data from their state’s summative assessments in the following ways: to determine with the leadership team what needs to change or improve in their district (66 percent), to inform conversations with their school board (60 percent), to share information with parents and the community (56 percent), and to talk to their principals about their schools (53 percent).

9. Superintendents say they do believe state data could be more useful–99 percent feel this way. In particular, changes that would make data more useful include more useful tools or technology that let them see patterns and changes in their data, data linked across agencies, and more training and ongoing support about how to interpret and use data well.

10. One in four superintendents are still looking for greater access to data. More than half of this group want data from their state on the outcomes of their district’s students after they leave high school.

11. Ninety-one percent of superintendents believe different public agencies should securely share information with each other about students and their families to coordinate services and resources and help support families.

12. Eighty-five percent of superintendents believe schools should securely share information about a student’s academic needs with trusted organizations outside of school.

Key points:

• Challenges from decades of educational inequity are now the impetus for school system transformation
• Researchers have identified four key areas to help schools innovate and avoid stagnation
• See related article: 5 education innovation trends worth watching in 2023
• For more news on school system innovation, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

Following years of challenges brought on by COVID-19 and the inequities in education highlighted by the pandemic, decades- and centuries-old educational systems are finally being challenged as the way for school innovation is paved. The school systems and dynamic leaders that embrace change will succeed and create an educational environment that is more equitable and prepares students for their futures.

A report from The Partnership for Leaders in Education at the University of Virginia (UVA-PLE), “Exploring New Frontiers for K-12 Systems Transformation,” determined that these challenges have sparked a transformation of education systems in the United States.

“Our New Frontiers report spotlights the most successful education leaders who are courageously rising to the moment and making once-in-a-generation investments and changes to their educational systems for the benefit of their students, their staff and their communities,” said William Robinson, executive director of UVA-PLE and co-author of the New Frontiers report. “Districts that innovate and embrace change will thrive, and the districts that choose to ignore or, worse, resist transformation put themselves and their students at risk.”

In New Frontiers, UVA-PLE identifies four key areas of focus needed for change and innovation in K-12 educational systems:

• Innovative Secondary Models – a commitment to changing the secondary model to enhance student pathways and ensure access to opportunities for every student, along with a district and system recognition that investments in education are investments in the future economy;
• Far-Reaching Academic Acceleration – a focus on accelerating student learning post-pandemic instead of on learning recovery;
• Creative Staffing – new and innovative pathways to recruit, train and invest in teachers and matching education talent pipelines with student needs;
• Equitable Resource Reallocation – rethinking organizational design and resource allocated to align with priority breakthroughs, student needs, and a deep commitment to eradicating gaps and inequality.

UVA-PLE, a leading organization focused on advancing leadership capacity and insights to create transformational school systems, developed the report with research and feedback from nearly 50 education leaders and superintendents across the nation. Those districts and systems have successfully implemented changes and innovations since the pandemic started. The report also includes vignettes, case examples, and recommendations for transforming our systems to better serve students and families.

A sampling of the replicable school innovation practices highlighted in the report include,

• Baltimore Public Schools: Under Superintendent Dr. Sonja Santelises’s leadership, her team in Baltimore made investments in high dosage tutoring and expanded internal summer learning which helped more than 400 additional students graduate during 2022;
• Ector County (Texas): Superintendent Dr. Scott Muri and his district team championed innovative efforts to confront a near 20 percent teacher vacancy rate which raised teacher pay by more than $13,000 and raised the bar on qualifications for principal and teacher leader roles;
• Dallas Independent School District: Former Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa’s team’s focus on establishing career pathways, an effort which resulted in 1,100 students – nearly 12 percent of the graduating senior class – graduating in 2021-2022 from high school having already earned an associate degree; and
• Laramie County School District One (Wyoming): Superintendent Margaret Crespo and her team’s efforts to make post-secondary readiness programs more flexible and more accessible to the district’s high schoolers which resulted in a 300% enrollment increase in college level and dual enrollment courses.

“There are no easy answers to complex challenges, but we can shift the paradigm and move beyond the status quo. Our areas of focus provide district leaders, policymakers, school boards and anyone else interested in education innovation with a model of promising and replicable practices,” said Leighann Lenti, Chief of Partnerships for UVA-PLE.

“Innovation should spark success. The courageous superintendents and education leaders who are driving change are providing a pathway for better student outcomes and a foundation for more equitable opportunity,” said Amy Dujon, M.Ed., Director, DA Leadership Institute. “The UVA-PLE report offers an array of replicable practices from systems and districts of all sizes. While the systems that are spotlighted vary greatly, each leader is united in their laser-like focus on student achievement.”

UVA-PLE has partnered with more than 400 schools across 100 districts in 25 states since 2003. Fifty percent of UVA-PLE’s recent partners have reported double-digit gains in math or language arts in only two years.

This press release originally appeared online.

Key points:

• Home-school communications systems help to build trust and establish consistency in a school community
• Districts must be clear in their communications, and to do so, they must select the right platform
• See related article: Your top 5 school-home communication challenges, solved

The importance of effective home-school communications has never been higher. Families expect to be kept informed of their child’s activities, academic progress, and expectations. However, confusion and frustration often ensue when messaging is not centralized or when individual messages contradict each other.

In today’s educational environment, it is vital the school or district have a clear message with leaders understanding exactly what is to be communicated. It is equally important that families trust the authenticity of the communications.

When considering a new home-school communications system, use the following checklist to ensure that your new system provides these features and functionalities.

For everyone:

1. Does the tool offer one unified platform for all school-home messaging?
2. Does it involve all users from district administrators and teachers to families?
3. Does it offer voice, text, email, website, mobile app, and social media?
4. Does it provide two-way communication?
5. Does it support communications equity by providing two-way instant translation and language preferences?

For parents and guardians:

• Will families be notified of updates only relevant to their child?
• Are the platform functions easy to navigate?
• Does it allow parents and guardians to select their preferred mode and frequency of communication?
• Are real-time translations available for families who don’t speak English?
• Does it allow parents and guardians to securely verify their preferred contact details and easily update their school information if needed?

For teachers:

1. Does the solution provide classroom communication for teachers?
2. Will it free up teachers’ time in their day-to-day schedule?
3. Will it make communications-based tasks, such as asking for classroom supplies and organizing parent-teacher conferences, easier?
4. Will teachers be able to communicate with families about classroom needs, particularly with parents and guardians who do not understand English?
5. Does it provide teachers with accurate contact information by class, student and grade that is automatically maintained?

Getting everyone on the same page

The challenge is that many school districts added school-home communication technology platforms in much the same way they have acquired all technology—one program at a time. As is often the case with legacy systems, each group has its own preferred method of communicating with families. Teachers, principals, and districts often use multiple systems. The results are often a mishmash, with no coherent approach as to how messages are sent or who sends them, leaving families with questions about who is sending messages and the information being delivered.

Using multiple systems also means staff and teachers may find it difficult to learn how to effectively use all available communication tools. District IT departments may have higher maintenance and support costs, or they may decide not to support such tools at all. Selecting a K-12 school communications platform like ParentSquare, which supports multiple needs simultaneously and is designed to engage parents can save time, increase technology adoption by staff and families, reduce mailings costs and reduce or eliminate message confusion.

Building trust between home and school is a critical component of a healthy school culture and engaged family community. Switching to a new communications platform must meet a variety of needs across the entire district and community. Look over the 15 questions outlined in this article to see how you can get your team and your families on the same page to benefit from a new school-home platform.

Related: Learn to align your communication strategies with school safety

Key points:

• Every level of education has specific goals–and faces challenges
• Solving immediate challenges frees school leaders up to focus on long-term goals
• See related article: Fostering connections and edtech strategies between education leaders
• Stay up to date on the latest trends about learning in the digital age

As the new school year kicks off, superintendents across the nation are evaluating resources needed for the year ahead to ensure that everyone–school leaders, teachers, students, and parents–has what they need to be successful.

During a time when many kindergarten through 12th grade education leaders are facing many challenges, including teacher shortages, declining math and reading scores, funding issues, student mental health, and more, it’s critical that superintendents maximize their resources. By doing so, they’ll be able to solve immediate challenges that may arise, giving them more time to focus on the long-term goals of their school or district.

Throughout my 30-year career, I’ve been a high school teacher, a dean of students, an assistant principal, a principal, and now a superintendent. These roles have given me an understanding of the goals and challenges faced at every level of education. They have also given me insights on how schools and districts can re-evaluate and optimize resources to generate results.

As fellow superintendents kick off the year, I offer three proven strategies to maximize resources.

1. Provide professional development opportunities to invest in your staff

While the school district I lead in Florida has less than a 7 percent turnover year over year, a recent report by the RAND Corporation showed that teacher turnover rates across the nation grew to 10 percent in the 2021-22 school year. One factor that can lead to teachers not feeling supported is not having the time or resources to invest in their professional learning and development.

As educators, it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day work, but the only way to grow is by strategically dedicating learning time for your teams. Ensure they have the time to discuss their goals and key performance indicators, present projects, or hear from third-party speakers to learn about the latest trends in kindergarten through 12th grade education. Teachers make the magic, which is why it’s important to ensure they have the tools and training needed to feel confident, prepared, and supported.

2. Leverage online resources to individualize student learning and mitigate learning loss

Over the past two years, the Nation’s Report Card has shown widespread declines in student achievement, with average scores declining 7 points in reading and 14 points in mathematics compared to a decade ago.

To address and mitigate these concerning scores, educators should consider personalizing learning for every student. The best way to do that is by offering an online or blended learning environment because it empowers parents and students to take control of their education journey and learn in the way that works best for them.

Rather than all students in one classroom going at the same pace and covering the same subjects, online, blended, and hybrid learning provide students with flexibility, accessibility, self-pacing, and more support. For example, if a student masters a concept and is ready to move to the next lesson, they can do so, or if a student needs more time to understand a lesson, they can take that time.

Although there are synchronous live lessons with online learning, there is more time for students to learn asynchronously, giving teachers the flexibility to provide individualized support during the day. These personalized sessions not only foster connections between teachers and students, but also offer insights into their challenges, strengths, and personal interests.

Additionally, establishing one-on-one connections with students and their families enables teachers to discern the root cause of a student’s academic setbacks.

3. Explore short-term interim support when facing teacher shortages

While it’s imperative that superintendents adjust district-wide HR practices on how to attract, recruit, and retain teacher talent to help with teacher shortages, that is a long-term solution that will take time. Therefore, it’s crucial that superintendents leverage short-term solutions in the interim.

My recommendation is to partner with an experienced virtual school to help fill vacancies that can help with hiring teachers on-demand for specific needs. Virtual teachers can be quickly onboarded to cover and support your students, covering gaps in instances such as when a teacher leaves unexpectedly or when there are recruitment challenges for specific subject areas like World Languages or Electives.

No matter where help is needed, a strong virtual partner should feel like an extension of your culture and a continuation of the incredible work that your teachers already do. You’ll set yourself up for success if you find a virtual partner that truly listens to your district’s needs and cares about individualizing learning for your students.

I hope these three strategies give some piece of mind to my fellow superintendents this school year. My priority has and always will be to do what’s best for our students, and I believe these three strategies will do just that. Wishing you a wonderful school year ahead!

Related: 7 compliance areas for district leaders’ back-to-school checklists

Key points:

• Patience will go a long way in ensuring all members of your school system are comfortable with change
• Keeping wellness in mind goes a long way in ensuring effective change management
• See related article: These 2 things can guide your change management

As a former turnaround principal, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to manage change within a school system. That’s why, when I retired from the school system to pursue my PhD, Industrial Organizational (I/O) Psychology seemed like such a perfect fit. I/O Psychologists concentrate on systems improvement, focusing on how individuals and organizations work together. I loved helping school systems that needed improvements turn around and become environments where students grow and thrive, and here was a whole field full of insights and strategies to help people adopt a growth mindset and learn to embrace change.

Education, like the world we prepare students for, is constantly changing, yet it sometimes seems to have one foot in the past. Teachers are always striving to understand how they can work through change to best help their students. Administrators are managing and supporting not just their students, but their faculty as well, even as they are dealing with new initiatives, new federal laws, new local regulations, new testing mandates, and more.

All the disruption caused by COVID in recent years is a good example of how I/O Psychology can help schools. A lot of people focus on the trauma students experienced during the pandemic—and that’s important—but there were also students and teachers who thrived through virtual schooling. Sometimes change is inevitable, but what can we do to ensure that fewer students experience trauma as a result and more find success?

Whether you’re overhauling a process that you’ve wanted to redesign for years, introducing new technology to improve student outcomes, or holding on as external circumstances force your school to adapt, here are eight lessons from Industrial Organizational Psychology that will help you make the best of that change.

1. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to change.

There are many theories of change, and none of them are going to work for everyone. A rural district with 20 teachers may not deal with change the same way as an urban district, considering that the larger number of people might lead to less interaction. Look to successful changemakers in other schools and districts for inspiration, but be ready to forge your own path in ways that make sense for your organization and the people in it.

2. Don’t expect people to change at the same pace

When you’re initiating a big change, one of the first things to do is to dig into the change process itself. Every organization has early adopters who are eager to jump out front and try something new, as well as people who need to contemplate big changes before they can embrace them. It’s okay to let those who are chomping at the bit get started while those who need time to adjust hang back a bit. The change-averse may even help you avoid some rough patches by giving the early adopters a chance to highlight unintended consequences so you can address them before they become a challenge across your entire district. Allow people to share out during the process. This will often ease others who might be nervous about changes.

3. Understand that change can feel personal.

Education is work of the heart. Teachers don’t just teach, it’s who we are as people. That means that for some, when you ask them to change what they’re doing, they will hear you asking them to change who they are. Their first thought might be, “What am I doing wrong? Are they asking me to change because I’m a bad teacher?”

Often people who are dragging their feet when asked to change aren’t actually opposed to change. Some of them are simply comfortable with what they’re doing already. Others may feel a bit of fear or worry that they don’t know how to do what’s being asked of them.

4. Break change into smaller pieces.

For those who are worried, it’s helpful to break any change down into simple, manageable steps and help them adapt one step at a time. Your early adopters can be a resource here, helping their colleagues understand not just what’s being asked of them, but providing an example of the benefits your change brings with it.

It can also be helpful to offer slow changers material that helps them understand the “why” behind the change while they adjust to the idea. When they do take a step, be sure to point out how it’s helping or ask them what positive benefits they’ve seen since dipping their toe into the change pool. Focusing on the positives of each step they take will help them build the confidence they need to move forward. Don’t forget to congratulate them on each step they take and celebrate wins!

Regardless of the size of your school or district, make sure the steps you’ve broken your change down into are small enough that everyone can feel comfortable with them, even if they won’t take them at the same pace. Make sure everyone knows what the short- and long-term goals are and make sure you’re supporting your teachers along the way. Then, check in frequently to find out where everyone is. They won’t be on the same page, but gathering input frequently can help you better understand where more or different supports are needed, identify unintended consequences, or simply allow your faculty to feel heard as they wrestle with the discomfort of doing things differently.

I generally tell administrators to stick to five items—a literal handful—at a time. Let your people know, “We’re going to practice these five things. We’re going to have partners and coaches checking in with us about it. We’re going to work on it together and then we’re going to move on to the next five things.” Differentiating the professional development and coaching support for educators is just as important as differentiating instruction for students.

5. Help contextualize change and connect it to continuing practices.

Help your teachers put change into context by connecting it to practices they’re already comfortable and familiar with.

For example, I am working with a district right now that is redesigning every one of their classrooms. They’re starting with their middle schools, and it’s a big change for everyone there. Instead of just throwing the furniture into the classrooms, I went in and helped their teachers learn how to use it for small-group work and individual work. We then connected these to strategies already in use in the district. These are strategies every teacher knows, and now the teachers in that district see their new furniture as a tool that helps them implement those strategies more effectively, rather than something entirely new.

6. Keep everyone’s wellness in mind.

Don’t forget to take the health and wellness of everyone in your buildings into account. That’s students and teachers, but it’s also custodial staff and office staff. That includes you and your own well-being, because I know administrators can become so focused on taking care of everyone else that they forget to care for themselves.

When you put something on someone’s plate, make sure you take something off it, too. When teachers are off the clock, let them be off the clock. Don’t give them extra things to do after school or on the weekends. It’s easy to just keep piling stuff on, but that’s a route to burnout.

7. Get involved yourself.

If possible, get in there and get your hands dirty with your teachers. Learn alongside them and practice the change you’re asking them to make. Jump in and try a lesson of the new reading or math series you’ve adopted. Reconnecting yourself back to that teaching will not just be a morale boost for your faculty, it’ll help you understand the discomfort or confusion they might encounter along the way.

8. Encourage your changemakers.

Encourage your people along the way. You don’t have to go buy elaborate gifts, but putting a nice note on their desk or stopping in to say thank you will let them know that you see and appreciate their hard work. You could even jump in their classroom and give them 10 minutes to go take a break or observe another classroom.

Give your teachers high-fives in the hallways. This is just one way to show them you are present and appreciate them. This means you’ll also have to put yourself in the hallway to do it, and the more your teachers and students see you out in the school excited about change, the more likely that they’ll get excited about that change themselves. You’re in it together, and public encouragement is a great way to demonstrate that while acknowledging teachers who are working to make your initiative a success.

No two schools or districts will manage change exactly the same way, but by breaking change into smaller pieces, letting people go at their own pace, and keeping everyone’s wellness in mind, administrators can find a way forward no matter the circumstances.

Related: Four strategies for helping educators embrace change

Key points:

• School communications platforms shouldn’t make communicating more complicated–they should ease a burden
• The right platform can result in cost savings and can increase flexibility and consistency across a school district
• See related article: Your top 5 school-home communication challenges, solved

When our School Administrative Unit (SAU) set out to find a communications platform that all six of its schools could use across all grades, we had good reason for doing so. For starters, our administrators were using one communication system and teachers were using a completely different system.

Teachers had to create their own distribution lists, which weren’t always current. For example, one might develop a distribution list at the start of the new school year but would get a new student in January and forget to add the new parents to the distribution list.

Our middle school integrated arts instructors faced a different set of challenges, namely due to the rotation of their classes throughout the school year. Those teachers see half the school over the course of a year, or a different group every half-quarter. That meant teachers were creating new distribution lists with every new class rotation. And while those teachers were sending similar information to each new group, they’d still have to start from scratch for every new class. 

To get everyone on the same page, we decided to implement the ParentSquare school-home communications platform. It started at the SAU principal level and then quickly moved to initiating teachers, athletic coaches, and school clubs on the program.

Here are five benefits we’ve seen since implementing our communications platform:

1. Flexibility across buildings. The platform is adaptable for different schools and grade levels. High school teachers may use it differently than middle school instructors do, for example, and that’s perfectly okay. Teachers can turn on messaging at the high school level, but middle school teachers can use the platform in their own way. That’s because the platform is customizable for the intended audience.

2. Streamlined parent conferences. The platform has also helped our district streamline parent conferences. Before, every school used a different program. Now, all teachers are using the platform’s conferencing tool. Being able to create templates for those parent conferences has been a huge time saver for teachers, who can adjust the templates while also maintaining a consistent look and feel across all communications. 

3. Consistency across the district. Using a single, unified communications platform also supports good consistency across all of our schools—texting is no longer part of our protocol. You’re always going to have people who want to “go rogue,” but we now have a policy in place that says this is the tool you need to be using to communicate with people. If you need to tell people that practice is canceled at three o’clock today, for example, this is the tool that you use to get the word out. 

4. No more manual distribution lists. Teachers who once had to add new students to their distribution lists, or build completely new lists every quarter, no longer have to do this heavy lifting. With our communications platform synced with our SIS, PowerSchool, all information added to the latter is automatically transferred into the school-to-home communications platform. It’s all taken care of for the teachers.

5. Creates an accountability record. We’ve encountered some situations where parents have told us that they didn’t receive the message, but we can see right in the platform’s record that the message was sent, received, and read. We have that validation, and we can easily see when someone has opened all of the messages that we sent them.

By moving away from texts and disparate messaging solutions, we’ve also been able to introduce some convenient features that parents really like. For example, they can change their notification settings in a very individual, customized manner. The same goes for teachers, not all of whom want to receive text messages—but we want to make sure that they know when school is canceled. Because different levels of messages and alerts are sent out, the recipients don’t ever get inundated with alerts from multiple different sources.

Related:
How we ensure flexibility in our school district communications
How school-home communication combats chronic absenteeism

Key points:

• Education leaders face uncharted challenges ensuring that teachers who stay feel supported and connected
• Leaders are consistently ensuring that policies, technology, and teaching practices prioritize equity and cultural responsiveness
• See related article: 4 best practices to support and retain school leaders

If there is one thing I have seen consistently over many years of working with education leaders around the world, it is that they don’t often get enough opportunities to connect and learn from one another. The heart of education is community, and peer-to-peer learning and conversation are foundational to that. 

This year, as part of ISTE in Philadelphia, a roundtable event hosted by Visual Sound brought together representatives from three districts: the School District of Philadelphia, Prince George’s County Public Schools, and the District of Columbia Public Schools for conversations among education leaders about shared challenges and ideas for solutions. Together, these districts represent more than 300,000 students. They are dedicated to leveraging technology as a key part of teaching and learning, and this roundtable provided the opportunity to share approaches and learn from each other about what works with edtech and what doesn’t.

During the roundtable, hosted at the School District of Philadelphia’s Education Center, district representatives were split into three groups based on their role and main area of focus: coaches, technicians, and administrators. Across all the conversations, common themes arose that will be relatable for districts across the country–and beyond. 

Supporting teachers: PD and beyond 

With teachers leaving the profession at an extraordinary rate, education leaders face uncharted challenges ensuring that those who stay feel supported, connected, and that they have the tools to feel and be successful. 

Each of the three districts participating in the conversation have put together outstanding training and professional development programs–some of the very best I’ve seen globally. Plus, they’re all continuing to look for ways to improve the experience and provide integrated PD. Administrators noted the important role of coaches with a dedicated focus on technology and classroom instruction.

Of huge importance is ensuring that teachers know what they have available to them, how to use it, and perhaps most critically, WHY–helping them connect their tech to their pedagogy and classroom goals. The coaches themselves discussed the importance of building relationships with teachers along with offering incentives (and food!) for people’s time. 

Technology access and equity 

Another topic that came up throughout conversations was access and equity. With a high percentage of student populations being economically disadvantaged across the three districts present, leaders are consistently ensuring that policies, technology, and teaching practices all put equity and cultural responsiveness at the forefront. 

Ensuring equity and access to technology in education is paramount to fostering a level playing field where every student can thrive. Some subtle but key ways districts are making sure they can serve all students is by focusing on students individually to provide personalized tools and learning pathways. Planning for 110 percent of enrollment for the inventory of devices helps ensure that no one is left without. And, orchestrating tech that is more specialized–such as Chromebooks with touchscreens for younger students and those with special needs–is also an important part of the equation. 

One of my favorite ‘full circle’ examples of providing opportunities for students is the School District of Philadephia’s Urban Technology Project. This project provides opportunities for high school graduates who want to go into tech to get hands-on experience. The programs ‘involve a continuum of service-learning and school-to-work experiences that provide long-term, holistic support for urban youth.’ 

While these ideas and programs only scratch the surface of the critical conversations education leaders and stakeholders are having around equity, they are good examples of looking at the issue from a variety of perspectives and angles to develop solutions that truly serve the community. 

The importance of connection

This type of live, in-person, idea-sharing is valuable for so many reasons. From discussing the above topics to relating with one another about how many district-issued Chromebooks get left on public transit every year, this roundtable event served as a microcosm of the broader challenges and innovative solutions within education today. The significance of cohesive communities and collaborative learning was unmistakably underscored.

As a technology professional who has the privilege of working with schools around the world, I know well that technology is only meaningful when it serves a need and contributes to a teacher’s goals in the classroom. Conversations like this can help education leaders ensure that the technology they’re investing in for their schools will get utilized. With ideas and tips for training and PD, as well as insights and information for managing the technology itself, there was something for everyone to take away from the conversation. With education budget dollars at a premium, technology investments must amplify learning outcomes, enhance administrative efficiency, and ultimately provide students with a well-rounded, future-ready education. With connection and shared learning with peers, this becomes more possible. 

Real-time, face-to-face discussions allow for nuanced exchanges of insights, enabling educators to tap into diverse perspectives and experiences that digital platforms may not fully capture. Establishing a sense of community sparks meaningful connections that lead to innovative solutions, enhanced teaching and coaching methodologies, and a deeper understanding of the evolving educational landscape.

Related:
10 powerful practices for new principals
12 things superintendents say they could do with better data access

Key points:

• Schools often overlook funding sources that can help with bus challenges
• Solving school transportation issues is another way to ensure all students have equitable access to educational opportunities
• See related article: 4 best practices to support and retain school leaders

More than half of students in the U.S. attend high-poverty public schools–and in some states, that percentage is much higher. In Mississippi, for example, approximately 92 percent of students attend high-poverty schools.

These students are often subjected to daunting challenges, but getting a ride to school shouldn’t be one of them. Federally funded resources are available that can be used to help schools and districts address student transportation needs. But here’s the thing: too few districts are taking advantage of those resources. And as a result, too many students are struggling to get to their classrooms safely, consistently, and on time.

Districts are overlooking funds that could help students

The damaging impact of this struggle is something I’ve seen up close because I was both behind the wheel and behind the operations of school transportation for nearly 20 years. I started off driving a yellow school bus for the Naperville Community Unit School District in Illinois. After seven years as a driver, I became the assistant transportation director for Naperville’s school district.

I then moved to Des Moines Public Schools, where I served as the director of transportation for Iowa’s largest school district. While there, I dealt with the full range of transportation challenges schools can encounter, and had to get creative to find solutions that ensured every student had a ride to school. That experience brought me to my current role helping districts find solutions to some of the most challenging, hard-to-serve trips. For many of the districts I work with, supporting those students wouldn’t be possible without funding from Title I.

From this experience, I know that there is money available to fund student transportation. The federal Title I program allocates funds to support economically disadvantaged children living in districts with high poverty rates and help address their school transportation challenges. Many districts, however, don’t fully understand that Title I can be used for school transportation or know how to allocate the proper funds to do so. And as a result, they are overlooking or underusing money that could be helping their students.

4 facts about Title I funds school leaders need to know

If your school or district qualifies for Title I, you may have funds that are intended to provide school transportation for students. To see where your school stands, here are four crucial facts you need to understand about Title I.

1. Congress allocated $18.4 billion for Title I programs in 2023 – $850 million more than in 2022. Title I is the largest federal program supporting both elementary and secondary education. An additional $26.6 billion is intended for special education programs and community schools.

2. About 47 percent of public schools currently qualify for Title I funding. However, school systems throughout the country reported using less than 15 percent of the latest round of federal education funding allotted to them during the last school year.

3. Any school with at least 40 percent of its students in poverty can opt to use a “schoolwide” program. If a school receives funding through Title I’s targeted assistance program, those funds can only be used for low-income students. But if a school receives funds through Title I’s schoolwide program, it can use the funds to address educational needs for the entire school. In fact, more than nine out of 10 students who receive Title I services do so through the schoolwide program.

4. Title I funds can be used to transport non-low-income students to school. For districts in Title I’s schoolwide funding program, these funds can be used to address the transportation needs of all students. In other words, leaders can offer school transportation to all who need it, whether or not those students individually qualify as low-income.

Title I is intended to give all children the chance to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, with funding for school transportation that enables them to get to their classrooms. This is clearly a major benefit for districts, students, and families–and one that should be accessed whenever possible. Understanding the Title I program will empower school and district leaders to access these vital funds and will ensure they aren’t leaving money on the table that can help their students learn and thrive.

Related:
3 reasons to spend ESSER funds on school-home communications
4 tips for addressing absenteeism in K-12 schools