Key points:

• Now is the time to evaluate budgets and lay groundwork for the future
• How to find the right edtech tools for public schools
• Act now to avoid financial disasters after COVID relief funding ends
• For more news on district budgeting, visit eSN’s Education Leadership page

The final chapters of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding are drawing near.

The imminent end of ESSER funding has pushed school districts to a critical juncture, compelling them to confront budget deficits for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year before the “fiscal cliff” hits in 2025-2026.

For three years, school districts nationwide have relied on a temporary financial cushion to soften the blow from the pandemic. When that safety net disappears, they will be up against higher expenses and dwindling revenue.

Every day of delay means inefficiently spending or leaving money on the table altogether. As districts navigate this budget season, tough decisions loom regarding staff reductions and cuts to essential resources that have supported students’ learning and well-being.

Superintendents and school boards are at a critical moment, reassessing how to allocate remaining funds and adopt a new approach to operations.

What lies ahead of the fiscal cliff

As school districts approach the September 2024 deadline to exhaust their ESSER funds, a sobering realization is setting in. With schools having collectively used $60 billion in ESSER funds for each of the past two years, they must now prepare for future budget planning without it.

With this impending budget crunch, many districts find themselves in the uncomfortable position of needing to “right-size” their budgets.

While there were some one-time purchases, the reality now is that some dollars spent were not sustainable in the long run.

A substantial chunk of ESSER funding went towards expanding personnel, with 44 percent of districts’ spent funds going towards staffing needs, covering expenses like salaries and benefits for extra personnel. This included hiring more support and administrative staff, investing in professional development, and deliberately alleviating the post-pandemic workload by bringing in additional hands that they wouldn’t have otherwise afforded.

As districts prepare for the 2025-2026 budget, many will realize that changes are necessary to offset the increased expenses they took on.

Restructuring district operations with long-term solutions

Support staff roles at the district level, deemed as ‘nice to haves’ rather than essential, will likely be restructured as districts adjust to a leaner operational model. Due process clerk roles such as administrative assistants and paperwork facilitators are already seeing reductions.

In the coming years, the final funding decisions made by current district leaders will serve as a litmus test to determine if they have proactively addressed the internal capacity needed at the system level to support their chosen allocation of funds.

Will they prioritize short-term fixes, or will they root their decisions in sustainability? These next two years will reveal whether leaders have laid a solid foundation for success or if their choices were merely temporary patches without lasting impact.

The path for district superintendents

As districts chart their budgetary course, it’s imperative to pause and contemplate three things: Where are you now, where do you want to go, and how will you get there?

The answer to these questions lies in assessing the readiness of your teams – do you have the right people in place, equipped with the time and technology to make the investment worthwhile?

Where are you now?

Take a moment to define your current state.

From the special education department to the superintendent’s office, educators at every level feel the burden of limited resources and time constraints. While increasing either may seem unattainable, first clarify the top priorities—not just what seems ideal for the time being.

Daily workloads often hinder us from pausing to pinpoint these priorities, let alone communicate them to school communities. However, without a clear understanding of what’s working and what’s not, staff and resource cuts will be felt even more.

Where do you want to go?

Consider how to strengthen educator recruitment and combat turnover.

Educators are responsible for bringing their best to the table, but it’s up to the district to equip them with the tools they need to thrive. Without proper support, engagement, and resources, educators risk burnout, which could lead to sudden departures, impeding the district’s growth as it rushes to fill vacancies.

Recruitment and retention efforts require more than just one-time investments; they demand sustainable systems and robust processes. This includes ongoing professional development initiatives rather than fleeting, one-day training sessions.

To attract and keep highly-qualified staff, the districts can opt for quick fixes and superficial technology solutions, which often entail extensive and costly training or ‘set it and forget it’ implementation. Alternatively, they can choose to foster lasting partnerships with vendors who support their growth, celebrating successes and driving progress towards long-term goals.

How will you get there?

Lose the survival mode mentality and play the long game.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, districts understandably adopted a cautious approach to fund allocation, prioritizing proven outcomes over risky endeavors. The reactive decisions made during the crisis were necessary for maintaining educational continuity, yet the persistent workload across administrative roles and special education teams, compounded by reduced staffing and increased stress, underscores the need for a new approach.

Continuing to operate in survival mode risks overlooking opportunities to lay the groundwork for sustainable systems beyond the fiscal cliff–systems that will yield lasting benefits to staff, educators, and the students they serve.

Choosing the right educational technology to partner with may seem like a gamble, but it can also be a game-changer.

Technology solutions that streamline administrative tasks, coupled with continuous professional development programs and innovative teaching methods, can empower educators to do more with less.

Sustainability beyond the fiscal cliff

Now is the time to seize the opportunity and lay the groundwork for the future. District leaders should embrace final ESSER dollars for shedding systemic “clutter” in ways that better serve students in the long run.

The reality is that the tenure of a superintendent and the term of a school board member are finite. However, visionary leaders understand the importance of investing in system structures and support that will endure long after they’re gone. By acting now–and recognizing that effective implementation is a gradual process, not a quick fix–they leave behind a legacy of positive impact that will benefit students and educators for years to come.

Key points:

• Organizations must cultivate talent who can lead, communicate, and collaborate
• 5 top education innovation trends in 2023
• For school leaders, routine decisions aren’t so routine
• For more news on edtech leadership, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

The latest national survey conducted by the Edtech Leadership Collective has identified a stark misalignment in expectations when it comes to emerging leaders’ readiness to reach the executive suite. For a second year in a row, very few C-level executives (9 percent) expressed confidence in their ability to hire from within for executive team vacancies. In contrast, one out of two (58 percent) of Department Heads fell they are ready for the executive suite.

The gap in confidence regarding management depth comes at a time when 78 percent of C-suite leaders consider the work of their non-executive leaders to be critical to their company’s success. However, C-suite leaders also acknowledge they have fallen short on providing mentoring, constructive feedback, and clearly defined paths to advancement.

Conducted in December 2023, the survey reflects the perspectives of 157 edtech leaders regarding talent gaps, business risks and employee pain points associated with leadership development in the U.S. K-12 edtech industry. The Edtech Leadership Collective has published the survey findings in a report titled, “The State of Edtech Talent Development: Executives’ Insights Regarding the Challenges of Business Growth.” 

“We know that leadership depth continues to be a gating factor to company growth, and our survey respondents clearly indicated their concerns regarding the potential their teams’ potential struggles,” stated Collin Earnst, founder and managing partner of the Edtech Leadership Collective. “Recent economic shifts and evolving work environments have introduced new levels of complexity for K-12 edtech executives, which is why organizations must continue to cultivate talent who can lead, communicate, and collaborate.”

As edtech companies strive to maintain aggressive growth targets, more than half (54 percent) of respondents indicate that their company has conducted layoffs in the past year. Meanwhile, leaders from every level reported high levels of stress and anxiety, with nearly half (48 percent) who considered themselves to be at a high-risk of burnout.

The full report from the Edtech Leadership Collective includes additional data regarding:

• Waning executive confidence in leadership depth and succession plans
• Leadership skill gaps causing the greatest obstacles to company growth
• Strategies for accelerating leadership development and addressing vulnerabilities
• Concerning levels of burnout, stress and anxiety among ed-tech leaders
• Continued shortfall in support for members of historically marginalized populations
• Impact of remote work environments on leadership dynamics
• Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address resource gaps
• Fallout from recent layoffs and reorganizations

“Our 2024 report identified some fairly alarming statistics regarding elevated risk of company underperformance and employee burnout, however the data also clarified practical the steps that will allow companies to strengthen leadership capacity throughout their organization,” continued Earnst. “Leadership depth has become a competitive advantage and the data show that K-12 ed-tech companies are ready to invest in their emerging leaders.”

This press release originally appeared online.

Key points:

• Debates around shortened school weeks reveal pros and cons
• See article: In SEL budgets, measurement matters
• See article: Districts brace for fiscal cliff as COVID relief funding nears an end
• For more news on school policy, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

West of the Mississippi, a new approach to seat time is catching on. Roughly 1,000 different schools have transitioned to a four-day school week (researchers abbreviate this as a 4dsw), which amounts to a sixfold increase since 2000. Twenty-five percent of schools in Missouri have implemented a 4dsw in their districts.

Schools in the American West and Southwest have led the way in trying this trend. There are a handful of reasons for this, but many deal with the geography of the school district. Rural schools often see different challenges than their urban counterparts. Transportation, extracurriculars, and family obligations can keep students out of school for half a day for something as quick as an orthodontist appointment once travel time is factored in.

Consolidating required seat time into four days does lengthen the four days spent in school, but the fifth day—which often is a Friday or a Monday, resulting in a three-day weekend—is completely free of school obligations. Some schools still elect to provide a meal for multiple reasons, including funding preservation and food insecurity. Teachers who travel to the district save on commute costs and consider the fifth day a perk of employment. One district switched and saw four times² as many teacher applications.

Not every school site in a district has to adhere to the 4dsw—one prime example includes pre-kindergarten classes, which meet on different schedules than their older peers. But evidence is mounting that a 4dsw could help attract and retain teachers, manage scheduling for rural districts, and impact students’ sleep. Let’s weigh the pros and cons of a 4dsw.

The cons of 4dsw

One of the bigger drawbacks to upending any traditional school schedule is the question of where kids go. Like it or not, schools provide an invaluable service of safe childcare for working parents (remote learning debacles during the early 2020s show us exactly how valuable school spaces can be, and how detrimental it is to a community to lose them). Longer days to cover instructional time requirements may feel grueling to students.

Critics of the 4dsw point out that the hopes outweigh the outcomes when switching up the school week schedule. For example, there’s often a hope that fewer days per week will save money, improve attendance, and ensure kids get more much-needed sleep. In most cases, there was little to no improvement (aside from some specific budget savings) after all. Big kids especially do not get more sleep, and attendance rates stayed the same—plus, kids had more free time to engage in risky behaviors.

On top of all this, test scores were affected. Kids in districts who attend four days a week experienced a “statistically significant but relatively small” slide in growth compared to peers attending five days per week. The effect of this small lag in growth meant that year over year, kids were growing much slower than their peers who attended school five days a week.

 The pros of 4dsw

As mentioned, a huge pro of the 4dsw is improving the experience of teachers and staff. While it’s true the best way to retain teachers is to pay them more, many times in the rural districts that benefit from 4dsw increasing salaries is simply not possible. The 4dsw becomes a perk that draws high-quality applicants who are even willing to travel to the district.

Another pro is a double-edged sword: free time for kids. Plenty of kids will use that time to work, rest, spend time with family, or learn skills like hunting or farming outside of school. While it’s true big kids did not gain any sleep, elementary students did get more sleep on a 4dsw schedule, which is great for child development.

Contrary to the expectation of families scrambling for childcare on the fifth day, families reported high satisfaction with 4dsw, or at least a similar level of stress for families with small children. Schools have even implemented child care families can pay out of pocket for if needed.

Finally, the elephant in the room and the number-one reason districts mentioned for choosing a 4dsw is the budget. Saving money depended a lot on the district, which comes as no surprise. The highest possible estimates using theory with national finance data show the potential to save a maximum of 5.4 percent in the budget. In reality, schools saved up to 3 percent of their overall budget, which could be of great significance for certain districts. Specific budget items held the potential to save more, including a per-student savings of 7 percent in operations, 11 percent in transportation, and 12 percent in food service.

The questions about 4dsw

After seeing the pros and cons of a 4dsw, district leaders are left with several questions they must explore to make a healthy decision. Are instructional minutes the measure to trust? After all, research out of Oregon showed that similar outcomes were seen for students attending four fewer hours; is it just a matter of finding the sweet spot of instructional time?

Are test scores the measure of success, or is it family satisfaction and engagement? Does it matter if the data show rural students’ test scores are not as dramatically affected as urban peers’ scores? And above all, is the perception of success worth saving cold hard cash?

Key points:

• Limited funding often complicates edtech purchases
• Save room in your budget for a reliable device manager
• See related article: Act now to avoid financial disasters after COVID relief funding ends
• For more news on edtech funding, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership page

Do public schools have the means to adopt the latest edtech for modern teaching? After all, the days of chalkboards and lightbulb-powered screen projectors are long gone. And with the popularity of smartphones and tablets, children are learning to interact with digital devices at younger ages.

Public schools must keep up with the modern times. This means investing in edtech to prepare kids for the real world.

The challenges of public school funding

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a windfall of educational relief funds to public school systems across America. With schools shut down and students shuttered in their homes, the government knew it would have to upgrade every school’s online capabilities.

This included upgrading the country’s network infrastructure to improve access to the internet in schools. It also meant releasing funds to provide schoolchildren with laptops or smartphones to use during online classes. In fact, over a three-year period, the United States government released a total of $190 billion. This money went to support virtual learning and assist in the reopening of schools and tutoring programs.

Unfortunately, the last batch of funding, worth $122 billion, will end in September 2024. Public school systems that have yet to upgrade their edtech devices will need to do so quickly. But the process of acquiring thousands of learning devices through government procurement standards can take some time.

The pandemic relief funds are a once-in-a-lifetime allocation. With limited (and maybe even shrinking) budgets, schools need to go for effective, engaging edtech tools that can last a long time. The devices should also provide a decent return on investment (ROI).

Finding cost-effective edtech tools

It’s tempting for schools to choose cutting-edge technology. But administrators should practice some restraint when looking at the latest gadgets. Instead, schools should assess their technology and determine which devices are most in need of modern upgrades.

Which benefits should you look for?

Usability is the biggest factor to consider when deciding on an edtech investment. Cost and ease of use won’t matter much if students and instructors won’t be bothered to learn how to use a device.

Reliability is another factor worth mentioning. If an edtech device can perform multiple functions satisfactorily, it’s definitely a worthy investment. With reliable equipment, you spend less time getting the devices to work and more time on learning.

Finally, manageability is a must-have feature as well. Digital devices need regular updates for the firmware, operating system, and individual apps. When investing in edtech devices, make sure they can easily connect to a device manager that manages, maintains, and secures all connected units.

The Chromebook issue

Issuing laptops, Chromebooks, or tablets to every student in the district might be an obvious option. Take Chromebooks, for example. Priced below $200, these streamlined laptops offer a low-cost way to keep students online during remote classes. But three years later, many districts are now reporting Chromebook churn.

Handheld devices are notoriously prone to damage from improper handling or transport, and Chromebooks are no exception. Unfortunately, these devices are harder to repair than regular (but more expensive) laptops. In many cases, spare parts like replacement keyboards cost nearly half the price of a brand-new Chromebook.

As a result, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund concluded that low-cost edtech tools aren’t the most practical or cost-effective option. Because of their shorter-than-expected lifespans and difficulty in repairs, Chromebooks are actually more expensive and less reliable than costlier devices.

Which edtech tools should public schools prioritize?

With a shrinking education budget looming, school administrators should upgrade the classroom before branching out to individual students. A good place to start is to retire chalkboards, dry-erase boards, projectors, and video players in favor of more modern solutions. The good news for school administrators is that replacing these three old-school devices only requires investing in a single device: an interactive whiteboard.

Modern whiteboards are powerful computers that operate via touchscreen technology. They can effectively serve three different roles: writing instrument, video output display, and multimedia player. What’s more, these tools offer the most potential as they perform well in online, in-person, or hybrid environments.

In addition, the usability and flexibility of digital whiteboards let teachers spend more time instructing and interacting with students instead of continuously shuttling between devices. With this single device, instructors can present a slideshow, hold interactive team contests, give a test, and play immersive videos.

Interactive whiteboards also encourage active learning. Students will find it more fun and engaging to participate in their lessons. For instance, using an interactive whiteboard, students can explore problems and come up with solutions individually or with a team.

Managing edtech devices

In a school system with limited funding, getting cost-effective smart devices should be the target. Acquiring reliable, utilitarian, and highly manageable edtech devices is a good way to spend limited resources intended to improve learning.

Of course, it’s just as important to invest in a reliable device management platform. With dozens of whiteboards and other edtech devices onsite, administrators need an efficient way to ensure they all work as intended. Look for a solution that enables you to install updates on a single device, a group of them, or the entire fleet remotely. The most effective management system will also let you track device locations at all times and control user access.

As long as the school’s interactive whiteboard receives the proper maintenance, updates, and management, expect this worthwhile investment to last a long time. Even better, school administrators will find these edtech devices give a healthy ROI sooner rather than later.

Limited funding doesn’t mean missing out on high-quality edtech tools

Schools running out of time to make worthy edtech investments should consider investing in interactive whiteboards for each classroom in their districts. These devices are reliable and easy to use and manage. Plus, most school kids find whiteboards more engaging than other non-digital options.

When considering edtech tools for your limited funds, be sure to save some room in your budget for a reliable device manager. This additional investment can pay off big in the long run, as your tech tools become easier to manage, maintain, and secure.

Key points:

• Data is important when evaluating edtech tools, but so are individual experiences
• Edtech companies and supes should work together to drive real change
• See related article: 15 questions to ask about communications platforms
• Get the latest news on edtech policy and funding on eSN’s Educational Leadership page

From the moment they first set up shop centuries ago, businesses have depended on word-of-mouth to build their customer base–and today, word-of-mouth marketing is still the main driver of sales.

Ninety percent of consumers are more likely to trust a brand recommended by friends and influencers, while 46 percent of small businesses make choices regarding software purchases based on the experiences of their colleagues. Yet, when it comes to edtech, the consensus industry-wide is that recommendations from your peers mean nothing when compared to data points.

Don’t get me wrong – efficacy studies are crucial when comparing edtech solutions in the procurement decision process. But when school districts rely solely on them at the expense of anecdotal evidence, the outcomes they see look nothing like the results they were promised. There are three main reasons why this occurs:

•  Data isn’t always reliable. Edtech evaluation is currently the Wild West. With little to no oversight from government or industry regulators to hold them accountable, companies can ride into town with a new product and lofty claims. As long as they have data-driven results (dressed up with great marketing) gleaned from a couple of schools or focus groups, they have an automatic head start in the decision-making process. Unfortunately, as recently noted, “most educators, meanwhile, don’t have the time to comb through research or the expertise to discern rigor from rubbish.”
  
• The data doesn’t align with a district’s reality. There are also some companies that invest heavily in third-party assessments, hoping they will be arbiters of what students know. However, third-party companies who design and facilitate the measurement tools and interpret the results may not take into account the socioeconomic and demographic differences between school districts. They don’t live and breathe the struggles educators face every day. As long as the data aligns with the edtech company’s goals, third-party evaluations can be the strongest selling point for solution providers.
  
• Data can be used as a deflection tactic. Even when superintendents and educators are ready to take on new challenges, other district leaders aren’t always on board. They’ll often find a reason to stick with the status quo and avoid the uncomfortable. Over and over, I see districts use data as a deflection. If an edtech provider doesn’t have the research results they’re looking for – no matter how advantageous the solution has been for other schools – districts will easily kill the deal. If they can show positive-growth graphs and increasing test scores, decision-makers don’t have to consider other educational drivers schools put into place to help prime students for success, such as literacy development programs, summer and after-school enrichment programs, or increased social-emotional support.

Change your mindset to better your student outcomes

After years of working directly with edtech companies and superintendents to identify new opportunities for innovation, my biggest advice for both is to work together to drive real change in education. Evidence and research remain relative terms in this business, but collaboration is what sparks great ideas and moves the needle forward.

For instance, a superintendent in St. Louis may have an interest in an edtech solution that was successful for a district in Philadelphia. For many stakeholders who think analytically, the data results are positive proof points that the technology would benefit their students. On the other hand, for those decision-makers who dig deeper and think bigger, no amount of quantitative data would assure them that the technology could be seamlessly integrated into their own district.

These are the individuals who would say – these are good data points, but what proof do we have that teachers liked it? What systems would we need to have in place to ensure we could reasonably implement it? How can it be adapted to our students’ needs? What’s the price point? A decision-maker should not hesitate to reach out to their nationwide network of peers to get honest, unfettered feedback.

In addition, for edtech providers, instead of spending your entire budget on analytical research to meet reporting guidelines, whether for customers or granters, a significant portion of your budget should be allocated to getting into a room with pioneering administrators from across the country, and developing pilot projects they can put into action to boost their students’ achievements. This unmatched feedback – the good and the bad – allows providers to build more effective, robust solutions that have superintendents’ seal of approval and are better able to meet different districts’ needs, all while growing their sales.

Just as districts invest in other initiatives using anecdotal research – from increasing safety measures to discovering new ways to engage with students – edtech purchases can’t be based on analytic data alone. Educators have to count on the experiences of their peers to determine which solution is worth giving a shot in order to improve outcomes for the students they serve.

Key points:

• Careful budget diagnosis and prioritization is essential as districts near the ESSER expiration in 2024
• So many schools have unmet needs, and financial disasters would negatively impact those already-serious funding situations
• See related article: As COVID relief spending deadlines loom, one district moves ahead with an uncommon tech plan

Among all institutions impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, few faced challenges as profound and fast-moving as America’s public schools. But as many large organizations return to normal, school districts face a daunting challenge: key federal relief funds are set to expire next September. 

In 2020 and 2021, Congress passed the CARES and ARP Acts, which created and added to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Program (ESSER). In total, ESSER funding has provided $190 billion for K-12 school districts across the country–an amount that has surpassed the annual budget of the U.S. Department of Education in recent years. For many districts, ESSER funding has been instrumental in helping serve students’ heightened needs during the COVID-19 pandemic and allowed schools to avoid financial catastrophe. 

In contrast to most federal education spending—such as Title I funds, which provide additional resources to districts that serve large numbers of students from low-income backgrounds—there were few restrictions on how school districts could implement ESSER funds. This allowed for increased flexibility so school districts could meet their unique needs, but also created challenges for districts as they sought to maximize the impact of these funds. Despite this flexibility, districts must spend their ESSER dollars by September 2024, before this infusion of federal funds winds down. 

Nationwide, school districts face heightened financial needs as their emergency funding is set to expire, while students have unprecedented unmet academic and socio-emotional needs. Many districts face declining enrollments, which threaten to lower their funding levels, as well as financial constraints stemming from economic uncertainty, continued high inflation, and challenges finding and retaining employees. School districts that used ESSER to address recurring expenses—things that districts will need to afford after ESSER goes away—are particularly vulnerable to financial dismay after ESSER expires.  

To avoid financial catastrophes, districts must plan to identify and mitigate impending budget gaps and build strategies for long-term financial health. Here are key steps districts need to enact to build healthy financial plans:

Step 1: Diagnose your district’s needs and financial realities 

To address the post-ESSER financial cliff, districts should reevaluate their definitions of student success in light of devastating learning loss experienced during the pandemic. Concrete, community-supported goals for student outcomes should serve as the north star for district operational planning. From there, districts should assess their current budgets and future projections, including their reliance on ESSER dollars to sustain staffing and operations, and assess if budget gaps exist, particularly if they anticipate continued enrollment decline cost increases, and staffing issues. To get started, if you don’t know the exact date your district will run out of fund balance, start your diagnosis by having your finance team run an analysis pinpointing exactly how much runway you have until you reach a deficit.

Step 2: Mitigate near-term crisis

Districts should then create a detailed close out plan for ESSER funding, including transition plans for ESSER-funded positions, programs, and interventions ahead of time, so they will not face lag costs when ESSER expires.

Identifying current operational inefficiencies can help mitigate near-term budget gaps. For example, districts should assess whether hiring and procurement processes are cost effective, whether they could solicit new bids on existing contracts like benefits programs, or if they can reimagine transportation and custodial operations systems. As a first step, assess your top 10 most expensive ESSER programs and answer these questions:

1. What is our plan to close out or continue to fund this particular expenditure?
2. What metrics should I be using to determine if this program/ expenditure is worth continuing?
3. If close out is the answer, what is the change management plan?

Step 3: Reimagine what’s possible & re-prioritize your budget to meet student needs

Ultimately, meeting the needs of students, including addressing pandemic learning loss and exacerbated inequities in our educational system, may require districts to make more significant, transformational changes. Given the looming ESSER fiscal cliff, this means districts may have to make difficult decisions regarding what they can afford. Districts should start with evidence-based assessment on their most effective systems and programs. They should use data to identify programs that are the least effective to assess if they can streamline efficiencies. For example, districts should evaluate the structure of their central office, as well as their holistic district staffing model. 

District leaders should also consider key lessons from ESSER funding to identify best practices in how they prioritize resources. Districts should assess where ESSER funds allowed them to fill longstanding gaps, advance experimentation and innovation, and ultimately what emergency spending had the greatest impact on student outcomes. Returning to pre-ESSER budgets does not necessitate that districts return to the same structures they had before the pandemic, but instead allows districts the opportunity to evaluate how to prioritize spending that can most positively impact student academic and socio-emotional outcomes. Districts should start by doing an envisioning exercise to define clear, thoughtful district priorities and proceed to develop a plan for scaling the impact of those priorities. For example, if increasing the number of students who read on grade level post-pandemic is deemed a strategic priority, then focus your spending on how to scale high impact tutoring across the district. Clearly-defined district priorities will enable strategic spending on interventions that have proven effective in your district. 

With an impending fiscal cliff coming to school districts across the country, district leaders must prepare before it’s too late. By diagnosing their student and budgetary needs, mitigating immediate crises, and prioritizing budgets to drive student success, district leaders can navigate economic pressures without sacrificing student wellbeing. Given the unmet needs of our country’s students, this work has never been more important. 

Related: Districts brace for fiscal cliff as COVID relief funding nears an end

At a Dolton-Riverdale school board meeting in the spring, district leaders and two technology vendors pitched a $3.3 million tech overhaul. 

They told the board in the high-poverty district in Chicago’s south suburbs that the project would “future-proof the classroom” and “catapult Dolton into the next generation of learning technology.”

A couple of members balked. They said they felt rushed to approve the deal and questioned why it had not been put out for a bid. But deputy superintendent Sonya Whitaker urged them to back the project that March evening, insisting that the district was staring down a deadline to spend a portion of its federal COVID relief money.

Out on Capitol Hill, she warned, the feds are “itching to take this money away from us.” 

The board approved the deal 4-2. As a result, the district’s 1,900 elementary students will return later this summer to classrooms outfitted with multiple touch screens, motion-tracking cameras, and microphones — part of an uncommon plan to embrace hybrid learning.

Officials say the technology will boost attendance by allowing students who are sick or traveling to virtually join classmates, and will help with teacher shortages by letting an educator or a substitute teach two or more classrooms at a time. 

The pressure felt by the Dolton board is hitting districts across the state as they face a Sept. 30 deadline to commit dollars from the second of three stimulus packages — and a year later, another deadline to spend the third, largest, and final installment of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, the unprecedented federal infusion of money to help schools recover from COVID. 

In Illinois, districts have spent about 82 percent of the second relief package and almost 40 percent of the third one, said the Illinois State Board of Education.

With the clock ticking here and across the country, technology companies and other vendors are pushing products and services they claim can help speed up student recovery — and urging districts to invest in them now.

Data the state maintains on recovery spending does not explicitly break out technology, with more than half of expenditures so far categorized under the broad umbrella of “instruction.” But other districts have also spent heavily on devices, tech education products and more, including Chicago, where tech companies have loomed large in its outside vendor spending.

At least for now, Dolton-Riverdale Superintendent Kevin Nohelty said, the district will not move forward with a vision he had shared with Chalkbeat last year in which all students would learn remotely for a part of each week — one that some parents and experts have said they find concerning. Instead, the district will “start small,” allowing teachers to get the hang of the technology and letting students log in virtually only as needed. 

In a district that, like many others, has struggled with absenteeism post-pandemic, the possibility of harnessing technology to address the issue sounds enticing. But simultaneously teaching students who are in the classroom and virtually is challenging, especially in the elementary grades Dolton serves.    

Dolton officials wanted to prepare for another upheaval

Denise Sanders stopped by Riverdale’s Washington Elementary this week — and was surprised to see large interactive boards getting set up in all classrooms. Sanders’ younger granddaughter attends the school, where Sanders also helps out classroom teachers as part of a statewide parent mentor program.

“What’s this all about?” she asked a staffer in a hallway. 

“We’re doing hybrid learning,” the staffer responded.

Dolton-Riverdale, whose student population is overwhelmingly Black and low-income, had been hit hard by the pandemic, with a steep jump in absenteeism and dip in state test results. Citing COVID fears and an online program officials felt worked well, the district had made the decision to remain fully virtual during the entire 2020-21 year, putting it in the minority of districts nationally. 

Sanders says like other children, her granddaughters struggled to stay engaged during that virtual stretch. She recalls spending a good part of that 2020-21 year by her middle schooler’s side, making sure she remained focused on lessons and schoolwork on her laptop. She taught her younger granddaughter her ABCs and numbers, skeptical that the girl would get much out of virtual pre-kindergarten.

“It was really hard,” Sanders said. “A lot of kids are still behind.”

Nohelty, the superintendent, argues the pandemic was so disruptive because districts were unprepared for the abrupt shift to remote learning. And he believes the technology used for virtual instruction holds possibilities post-COVID. 

So during the 2021-22 school year, as the district was returning to normalcy, Nohelty started eyeing a plan to embrace hybrid learning in the long run. 

At one point, Nohelty envisioned dedicating the bulk of the district’s roughly $21 million in federal COVID relief to a hybrid technology plan, though he said more recently that he is earmarking about $5 million for it in the short term.

He said he wanted to ensure the district was ready for the next major upheaval. He also wanted to reimagine learning, with students perhaps attending in person three days and virtually two days each week. 

That’s where Velocita Technology and ViewSonic came in.

Last year, the district hosted focus groups with representatives of Velocita, Dolton’s Joliet-based technology consultant, and ViewSonic, the prominent maker of touchscreens and other technology. They set out to show how ViewSonic’s interactive screens and its “COVID child” — a software platform that allows virtual students to interact with educators in the classroom, collaborate on assignments with in-person peers, and more — could help teachers deliver a new and improved version of hybrid learning.

District emails show Velocita reps nudging Dolton officials to move ahead briskly with the plan as leaders pushed back their presentation to the school board several times.

At the board meeting in March, Velocita and ViewSonic reps unveiled the “Flexible Classroom Learning & Alerting Solution,” which they said they had developed with district officials. The $3.3 million would cover touchscreens, cameras, microphones and speakers, as well as laptops and training for teachers. But the district would only get that price if it made the purchase by the end of the year’s first quarter.

Amid heightened concerns about school shootings, the reps also noted the technology would give administrators the ability to communicate with classrooms in a non-disruptive way. They could send all teachers a silent message about a lockdown or other campus emergency. 

Member Shalonda Randle said that between the technology project and another $2.4 million proposal for COVID relief funded security upgrades, the district was throwing a lot of information and big price tags at the board — and asking for approval on the spot. 

Nohelty countered that the district had vetted the project and invited board members to do some research to learn how “cutting edge” it was. Whitaker implored the board to trust district leaders, saying she didn’t want to be forced to give back the federal money.

Following the board’s approval, Larry Lawrence, its president, did not respond to requests for comment. Randle said it is board policy to refer all media inquiries to Nohelty.

Frank Brandolino, the president of Velocita, did not respond to a request for comment. 

In a statement, ViewSonic said the company had engaged teachers and administrators, provided them with clear information through the focus groups, incorporating their feedback into the plan. The project is in the final phase of installation this summer, and staff training, which started in the spring, will continue this fall. 

Superintendent says students will use new technology daily

Sanders, the Washington grandmother, says the school’s educators have worked hard to help students bounce back from COVID’s academic and mental health fallout. They’ve tried to build more one-on-one and small group help for struggling students into classes, she said.

She hopes the new technology will allow students who cannot attend for any reason to keep up with schoolwork. Giving students who, say, get diagnosed with COVID a chance to join classmates virtually until they are cleared to return to school sounds like a good thing. 

But she wonders how many families will take advantage: Shouldn’t sick kids just stay in bed and rest until they feel better? And she believes the district should be focused on ensuring as many students as possible are in the classroom. 

“I think in-person beats virtual any day,” she said.

Gerald Ardito, an education technology expert at Manhattanville College in New York and a former middle school teacher, said the district could be on to an out-of-the-box solution to the student attendance challenges that are still plaguing many districts. 

But because this is a novel approach, it’s hard to say whether students who are missing school would actually log on remotely using the new technology.

The district needs to do much more beyond providing that technology, Ardito said. It needs a clear protocol for how and when students join their classrooms virtually and a plan to help them if they run into issues logging in — a significant undertaking to avoid a “chaotic” rollout.

And it needs to provide extensive professional development on effective hybrid and remote teaching beyond merely showing teachers how to use the new screens and software. Teaching online or in a hybrid format is “a profoundly different experience” from teaching in person, he noted.

That’s a heavy lift — and Ardito questions whether having a smaller group of hybrid teachers on each campus would have been more practical than outfitting each classroom and training each teacher.

“We’ve all seen ed tech providers with all the buzzwords about ‘21st century learning’ and ‘global learning communities’,” he said. But, he added, “Technology is just a tool. It doesn’t do anything in and of itself. It’s about how it’s used by teachers, students and parents.” 

Darlene McMillian, the teachers union president in Dolton, declined an interview but said in a statement that teachers are excited to learn more about the district’s technology plan.

“While we were provided quite a bit of information during our professional development training in the spring,” she said, “we are looking forward to additional guidance this fall when we actually put the new equipment into practice with our students.”

Based on data reported to the state, Dolton has committed all of its second COVID relief allocation and spent almost a fifth of it as of July, the Illinois State Board of Education said. Though the district has until Sept. 30 to obligate the funding, it has until the end of January to actually spend the money.

In its most recent COVID relief spending plan to the state, Dolton said it would also use the money for expanded after-school programs, some professional development and personal protective equipment, and new Chromebooks for students. 

The state board said that while its officials have reached out to some districts about the slow pace of spending, state officials are confident that all districts are on track to make use of their dollars by the upcoming deadlines. The state credits the federal money with graduation rate improvement, some headway in addressing teacher shortages, and growth on state tests, though proficiency levels remained well below pre-pandemic results last year.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Nohelty said training for staff started this past spring and will continue for years.

He said the shift to permanent hybrid learning he envisioned earlier would be “a little premature” this coming school year; the district would have to secure permission from the state.

But he expects students across the district will be using the new technology daily, logging on from home when they can’t make it to school or from their classrooms when their teacher is absent and a colleague takes on their class from a nearby room. 

Nohelty also said he has been hearing from other Illinois superintendents who are potentially interested in replicating what Dolton is doing. 

“This technology further enhances and supports the way we deliver our curriculum now,” he said. “We’re unstoppable.”

At Washington Elementary, Sanders says she is eager to find out more about the plan from her school’s principal and teachers. She is giving it the benefit of the doubt — though she feels strongly that parents across the district would oppose any move to require some virtual or hybrid learning.

“It’s bad enough that we put kids through that and messed them up,” she said, adding, “I want to see how this is going to play out.” 

Related:
What’s keeping districts from spending COVID relief funding?
Federal COVID relief funding will dry up soon. Are districts ready?

Key points:

• COVID relief funding must be spent in the next year, but administrators are grappling with inflation and high costs that have shifted priorities
• One-third of superintendents believe all students will be impacted equally by the discontinuation of ARP-funded instructional programs
• See related article: Federal COVID relief funding will dry up soon. Are districts ready?

With one year remaining to spend close to $200 billion in federal COVID relief funds, more than half of school district leaders are shifting their American Rescue Plan (ARP) spending decisions due to higher-than-expected costs and inflation, according to a survey administered by AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

Educator feedback and the need to further direct resources toward the social and emotional needs of students were cited by nearly half of district leaders as the source for realigning spending priorities and decisions.

The School District Spending of American Rescue Plan report is the fourth installment of a multi-year survey focused on how school systems across the country are utilizing ARP funds in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report also sought information about what districts are prioritizing in spending ARP funding and how they are considering the sustainability of the funding in their decision-making. Eighty-six percent of district leaders said sustainability was a top priority or they strongly considered sustainability when determining ARP expenditures.

A third of superintendents responding believe that all students will be impacted equally in their communities by the discontinuation of ARP-funded instructional programs and supports in the 2024-2025 school year, while a little more than a quarter said that students who are struggling academically will be impacted the most. A fifth of respondents highlighted how economically disadvantaged students will be the most impacted by the cuts in programming and staffing, while 14 percent said students with mental health needs will experience these funding cuts more acutely.

“We hope this report demonstrates how critical American Rescue Plan funds are and that district leaders are laser-focused in adding instructional time,” said David R. Schuler, executive director, AASA. “Superintendents know best how to maximize the academic impact of the funding and are spending these resources wisely. However, there will be serious repercussions for students when these funds run out, which is why proposals to slash funding for the 2024-25 school year are simply unacceptable and risk deeply undermining the progress students are making academically.”

Key Findings:

• More than half (59 percent) of the district leaders surveyed selected increasing instructional time and opportunities, and investing in high-quality curriculum materials as a top spending priority. More than half (58 percent) selected adding specialist staff as a priority, while 55 percent selected investing in teacher planning and professional development.

• Since 2021, the long-term priority list for district leaders has included expanding whole child supports, services, and programs. Other long-term priority investments included renovating and rebuilding school facilities and engaging high school students.

• Half of rural districts and almost 60 percent of urban districts indicated they would be using ARP funds to renovate and improve buildings and facilities, compared to a little over a third of suburban districts.

• Nearly 40 percent of district leaders said feedback from parents led them to make changes to their ARP spending plans, while 29 percent said assessments of student performance, including test scores as well as delays in procuring materials and supplies, led to shifts in district ARP spending.

• Fifty-three percent of district leaders indicated they would be forced to decrease staffing for specialist staff, such as behavioral health personnel, tutors and reading specialists, before the 2024-25 school year. Fifty-one percent indicated they would cut summer-learning programming.

Click here to read part four of the AASA ARP funding survey. Hundreds of superintendents responded to the survey, which was issued in June.

This press release originally appeared online.

Related: As ESSER spending increases, digital learning is a priority

Key points:

• A data-driven approach enables school districts to truly assess whether their SEL investments are working
• There are many options for measuring SEL–a behavior rating scale is one popular approach
• See related article: 5 essential SEL reads

Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs in schools have skyrocketed in the past few years, with spending exceeding $1.7 billion in the 2021-2022 school year alone. Experts anticipate this to grow by another 23 percent this coming school year, but are these investments making an impact? 

Studies show that SEL benefits students in the classroom and long after graduation. But proving that a school’s particular program is impactful is another story. Why are so many schools content to determine SEL effectiveness without hard facts?

Schools assess the effectiveness of their reading and math curricula based on assessment data, and in doing so, better understand each child’s progress and challenges so that teaching can fit the student. It’s time to apply the same logic when it comes to assessing a child’s social-emotional learning. 

ROI of SEL

There is no shortage of studies showing the value of SEL. One Columbia University analysis revealed positive SEL impacts extending even beyond the classroom, attributing improved mental and physical health, reduced juvenile crime and higher lifetime earnings. The report noted that SEL benefits outweighed the costs by a ratio of 11:1. In real world terms, that means that for every $1 spent on effective programming, the return on investment is $11 in long-term benefits to students, schools and communities. 

Each school needs a clear understanding of how its SEL programs are performing in order to fine-tune the curriculum while also  justifying continued spending. This is especially true given the frequency with which school districts modify evidence-based programs or even build their own curriculum. Moreover, as school districts evaluate their budgets without Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund and Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding, they need hard data to back up which programs work, and which do not.  

Measuring what matters

There are many ways to implement SEL, but the most impactful ones go beyond curriculum to provide valuable data about students and the programs themselves. Efficacy data plays a critical role across the board – from selecting the right SEL program from the start to justifying program continuation and, most importantly, ensuring that all students benefit from improved social-emotional skills. 

Measurement can:

• Ensure schools are using high-quality SEL tools: Within any given district, schools use a variety of programs, including a comprehensive SEL curriculum that includes professional development, lesson plans, and integration into the academic day; supplemental content libraries; and tools to support teaching practices and organizational systems. About one in five school district officials said they develop their own SEL materials, while nearly two-thirds use a mix of materials they create in-house and purchase from external vendors. Without a universal measure of SEL that can be used across the district, it is impossible to determine definitively if implementations across the varied tools result in high-quality learning that delivers true ROI.
  
• Clearly identify student progress and need for additional support: Traditional methods for identifying students in need of additional SEL support can be wrought with bias or miss students who are struggling in less obvious ways. Being able to regularly measure students’ social-emotional skills using reliable, validated measurement tools enables schools to minimize bias, help those who need additional support to succeed in the classroom, or identify where there may be gaps to support early intervention and prevent the need for more costly services later in life.
  
• Demonstrate the true impact of SEL investments to key stakeholders: By including high-quality measurement as part of a comprehensive approach to SEL programming, school systems can show the direct connection between their efforts and student success. This data offers evidence to stakeholders, such as the policy makers, parents, taxpayers, and critics, that the investments in SEL are worthwhile and should continue, instead of being arbitrarily defunded.

There are many options for measuring SEL. A behavior rating scale is one of the more popular approaches. These quick assessments allow educators or parents to consider students’ actions by assessing observable behaviors. Ratings take a couple of minutes to complete, allowing for regular progress monitoring to see how students’ skills change over time.

A few forward-thinking states and districts are taking the lead. Connecticut is the first in the nation to offer a statewide, data-driven program to identify students who may need intervention. New York City Schools – the largest school district in the U.S. – has invested in SEL assessments administered citywide to identify students needing support in building critical life skills. These programs impact student learning: In Texas, Boerne ISD was able to change IEPs and behavior plans, achieve an 80 percent reduction in out-of-school suspensions and an almost 50 percent reduction in referrals – all by using data to strategically build strength-based SEL skills. 

As school systems enter the budget process and consider the future of their SEL programs, consider these questions: 

• Can you quantify how much your district has invested in treasury and time on SEL?
• Are these investments improving students’ social and emotional skills?
• Can you identify which schools are succeeding in improving SEL, and which may need more support?
• Have you invested more in student support staff? And do they have access to universal screening data so that their work with students can be productive from day 1, as well as progress monitoring tools to evaluate the effectiveness of their interventions?

As school systems hammer out their budgets and consider the future of SEL, it’s important to remember that measurement is a critically important part of SEL programming that many districts are missing. Given the amount of money and educators’ time being allocated to SEL programs, a data-driven approach enables school districts to truly assess whether their investments are working and justify why these programs must remain to benefit the students, schools, and community at a time when budgets are being tightened around the country.

Related:
5 to thrive: SEL resources to help students grow
Advocating for student mental health starts here

Key points:

• School grants can help educators make ends meet and connect students with valuable opportunities
• Digital learning is often a funding priority for states and districts

Each day, teachers are tasked with doing more and more with increasingly fewer resources. And despite federal emergency funding to help schools provide staff and resources as the pandemic abates, school leaders still grapple with funding challenges.

School grants are often one-time funding opportunities, and while they are not permanent policy changes, grants often help students earn much-needed scholarship money, gain valuable experiences, and they also connect teachers with classroom resources or professional development.

Here are three school grants that may help your school or district. Make sure to check deadlines and requirements!

Renaissance has launched the second annual “Shine a Light on Bilingualism” art contest to celebrate Hispanic culture and bilingualism. All students in grades K–12 are invited to create and submit a painting, drawing, or mixed media piece on the theme of “celebrating Hispanic heritage and bilingualism.” In July, a winner will be selected for each grade band of K–3, 4–8, and 9–12. Each winner will receive a $500 Visa gift card and have their art featured during Renaissance’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, which takes place between September 15 and October 15. Although the art will be created by students, the work must be submitted by an adult, such as a teacher, parent, guardian, or other family member. To enter a K–12 student in the contest, an adult must upload a photo of the art or mail the original to Renaissance.
Deadline: June 30, 2023

The NSF’s Racial Equity in STEM Education explores how racial inequities often create barriers to STEM knowledge generation, as well as access to and participation in all aspects of STEM education, research, and the workforce. In ongoing efforts to address these disparities, NSF EDU seeks to support bold, groundbreaking, and potentially transformative projects that contribute to advancing racial equity in STEM education and workforce development through practice and/or fundamental or applied research. EDU’s mission builds from the NSF Strategic Plan, seeking “to achieve excellence in U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels and in all settings (both formal and informal) in order to support the development of a diverse and well-prepared workforce of scientists, technicians, engineers, mathematicians and educators and a well-informed citizenry that have access to the ideas and tools of science and engineering. The purpose of these activities is to enhance the quality of life of all citizens and the health, prosperity, welfare and security of the nation.
Deadline: October 10, 2023

Mobile Beacon wants to provide a path for educators to expand access to technology for students, so every student has equal access to educational resources and learning opportunities. Educators play an essential role in making schools and learning institutions more digitally-inclusive, and Mobile Beacon wants to empower educators with the resources they need to make that happen. Connect for Success will give educators the tools they need to harness the power of the internet and get it into the hands of those students who need it the most. Schools can use the Connect for Success grant to start a mobile learning lab, a program to help close the homework gap, to aid in professional development for teachers, help students connect for success, and more. Grant applicants must be a school, college, or university in an eligible city and fall within Sprint’s 4G LTE service area. Because there are a limited number of grants available, Mobile Beacon wants to ensure the broadband service and associated equipment will be used by schools to fulfill an immediate need. Therefore, your school must use this service for 20 or more hours per week while school is in session.
Deadline: Rolling

Read more:
Investing in classroom collaboration tools? 3 things to know
As ESSER spending increases, digital learning is a priority

Key points:

• Stay up to date on the latest trends about learning in the digital age

After a slow start in allocating federal ESSER funds, most states have found ways to spend their COVID relief dollars. In Montana, the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) is directing its ESSER money to digital learning resources.

OPI Superintendent Elsie Arntzen announced a new partnership with Discovery Education, a provider of state-of-the-art digital resources that support instruction wherever it takes place. Through this multi-year partnership, OPI is providing all 496 public school districts statewide access to a curated collection of high-quality, grade level appropriate, digital content aligned to Montana’s rigorous K-12 Content Standards.

The partnership–which is funded through ESSER–supports core instruction across Montana. In addition, the collaboration supports the state’s workforce readiness, rural education, Native American tribal history and culture, and parent and family engagement initiatives. Montana School Superintendents can activate their school district’s Discovery Education account by visiting this website.

“This partnership grows student learning both in and out of the classroom,” said Superintendent Elsie Arntzen. “The parental and family engagement aspect of Discovery Education will strengthen our Montana students’ success. I encourage all of our schools to take advantage of this great teaching and learning opportunity.”

The partnership is also ensuring that students in rural areas, which often lack high-speed internet connections and the resources that come with those connections, will have access to digital learning resources. “Many of Montana’s rural are part of a rural cooperative. Discovery Education will allow all our students the ability to access the content provided. Learning together has always promoted education in our frontier state, this is just another tool for lead teachers,” Arntzen said.

Arntzen expanded on how the partnership will impact the state’s learning goals for students: “This partnership will grow student learning through parental and family engagement. Discovery Education provides teachers with professional development so that they are more comfortable teaching. Students succeed when their teachers receive better training and when their parents are actively engaged in learning.”

The digital learning content now available to Montana’s teachers, students, and families is delivered through Discovery Education’s K-12 learning platform. Connecting educators to a vast collection of high-quality, standards-aligned content and professional learning resources, Discovery Education facilitates engaging, daily instruction in any environment. These resources, sourced from trusted partners, are aligned to state and national standards, and help educators bring the outside world into teaching and learning every day. Through expanded, lasting partnerships with Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Schoology, Canvas, Brightspace, and Clever, integrating Discovery Education’s K-12 learning platform into existing IT architecture is easier than ever.

As part of this new partnership, Montana’s educators will also receive ongoing professional learning designed to help them realize the return on the state’s edtech investment. In addition, the state’s educators will also receive the support of the Discovery Education Community. This global community of education professionals connects members in school systems and around the world through social media, virtual conferences, and in-person events, fostering valuable networking, idea sharing, and inspiration.

“Discovery Education is excited to support the state of Montana’s efforts to provide all teachers and parents the tools and resources needed to put students first,” said Coni Rechner, Discovery Education’s Senior Vice President of State & Strategic Partnership. “Superintendent Arntzen and her talented team have created an innovative vision for education in the Big Sky state, and Discovery Education is proud to support their efforts.

Montana school leaders interested in learning more about the resources available through this partnership can visit Discovery Education’s Montana state partnership website for more details.

Related:
Harnessing edtech for deeper science engagement
Take a peek inside this teacher’s Escape Room learning challenges

Key points:

• Flexibility and ease of use should be important parts of decision making
• Meet today’s needs, but keep tomorrow’s needs in mind

Modern technological advancements affect virtually every area of daily life, and today’s educational institutions are looking to new digital tools to help improve student achievement and engagement while fostering collaborative learning environments for both in-person and remote learners.

To maximize a system’s effectiveness and ensure investments pay dividends for students and instructors, decision makers and school technology managers must maintain a strong understanding of all the available solutions, devices, and platforms that can meet their needs. While differences in location, age range, and budget naturally affect technology decisions and opportunities, there are several key factors central to any successful implementation.

Keep It Simple, Schools

This old adage may be a cliche, but it’s as true as ever. Ease of use is the most direct predictor of how often a classroom technology will be used, and how effective it will be. Given the strict class schedules followed by most institutions, educators may hesitate to plan lessons using a digital display or software solution if it proves to be unreliable or introduces disruptions to the classroom. It needs to work during every class, every day, without requiring special procedures or assistance that eats up class time.

Simplicity can come in many forms, including secure connections that eliminate the need to log in and out, broad support for various online communication platforms, wireless connections that reduce installation complexity, and device-agnostic compatibility that natively accommodates all users.

Solutions that offer all these attributes can help ensure consistently positive experiences for educators and students, thus promoting use of the technology and enhancing the educational return on investment.

Flexibility Matters

The wide variety of designs for educational spaces has historically led to different technologies being deployed depending on the size and even the subject matter of each room. From standard classrooms and science labs to auditoriums and cafeterias, the flexibility offered by the latest education technologies is now making it possible for each room to feature the same solution and make operations more consistent and manageable for instructors and staff. This can be particularly impactful for classes that meet in different rooms or educators who move throughout the day, guaranteeing consistency for all students.

Plus, post-pandemic hybrid learning environments are still an essential component of the higher-ed education curriculum specifically. Flexibility is key to ensuring that, should students need to dial-in remotely, it’s possible to do so with the solutions already employed throughout the school. Colleges and universities especially should be considering solutions that can tie hybrid conferencing into the same system as signage and screen sharing in-person to make hybrid learning more simple.

Depending on the specific solution deployed, collaboration technologies may provide virtual meetings, screen sharing, live annotation, recordings, voice assistants and more. While different instructors and topics may leverage each function to different degrees, having a stable set of capabilities in every space offers them the freedom to develop enhanced lessons as they see fit.

Plan for the Future

The technology trends in classrooms are constantly shifting, and staying up-to-date is essential to prepare students for technologies they will likely use in future careers. Subsequently, schools that invest in technologies such as wireless screen sharing and device agnostic capabilities are setting themselves up for long-term success. Recently, the rise of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions that are designed to be regularly updated and upgraded have begun delivering long-term confidence and making it easier to ensure ongoing compatibility with future protocols or platforms.

For the near future, it’s vital to meet students and educators where they are, which currently involves mobile internet devices, instant sharing, and simple virtual collaboration. Solutions that enable students to screen share their projects to a room’s TV and make live annotations can raise engagement and excitement, while the same functionality empowers teachers to leave the front of the room without interrupting a lesson’s flow. Some systems offer additional functions such as centralized access to an entire display network for power control, campus or district-wide messaging and digital signage, and even software updates or maintenance.

Maximizing the effectiveness of any classroom investment requires careful consideration of all the available options and benefits. Through education magazines, online publications, trade shows and the help of local custom integration experts, decision makers and buyers can often gain first-hand experience to evaluate which classroom technology best fits their needs. As educational institutions and leaders continue to explore new possibilities and opportunities, technology will evolve to support their efforts and improve educational outcomes.

Related:
4 ways we designed collaborative learning spaces
Federal COVID relief funding will dry up soon. Are districts ready?

In a recent report by Populace (2022), 55 percent of American parents expressed their desire for educators to rethink how today’s K-12 schools are educating our children. The study found that, despite the widespread perception that American society wants K-12 schools to prepare students for college, college is not as important to parents as it used to be. Instead, the study reported, today’s parents would like to see their children develop practical skills “for both life and career” (p. 10), critical thinking skills that allow them “to problem solve and make decisions” (p. 8), and moral character traits such as “honesty, kindness, integrity, [and] ethics” (p. 20).

The Populace study reported that today’s parents want more individualized educational experiences for their children, with greater emphasis on students’ interests and personal/career goals than on a one-size-fits-all curriculum. Parents want their children to have learning opportunities across a variety of modalities, and they want learning to be assessed through demonstration of mastery as opposed to traditional assessments like standardized tests.

According to the Populace study, today’s parents believe that “better” (as in straight As and college bound) should not be the purpose of a K-12 education, but “different” (as in a customized educational experience for every student) should be. It seems that–at least for parents–the purpose of an American K-12 education is changing.

A Brief History

Educating our youth has been an American priority since our country’s beginnings. Focused on the basic skills of “the three Rs” (reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic), American education in the 1700s and 1800s generally concluded by age 12 or 13 and often excluded girls, minorities, and lower socioeconomic classes altogether. Over time, American K-12 education evolved from home schooling to one-room school houses to organized school systems, including high schools (Kober & Renter Stark, 2020). Throughout the decades, one by one, every state in the nation adopted a compulsory attendance law, meaning that all students must enroll in school from roughly age 6 to 16 (Education Commission of the States, 2023).

As organized school systems across the United States grew more sophisticated, Americans fought for every child to receive a quality K-12 education. In 1954, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case Brown versus Board of Education ruled that it was unconstitutional to segregate schools by race, and in 1975 Public Law 94-142 federally mandated that all children in the United States had a right to a free, appropriate public education, even if they had learning or physical disabilities (Dalien, 2022). Throughout history, Americans have always been willing to pay (through taxation) to educate our country’s youth. During the 2017-2018 academic year, for example, the average per pupil expenditure in the United States was $15,946 (Bouchrika, 2022). 

The Purpose of an American K-12 Education

Providing an accessible, high-quality K-12 education for every student is nothing new for Americans, but our world is changing, and the Populace study indicates that the purpose of an American K-12 education is changing too. When thinking about the purpose of education, it is important to consider both individuals and society as a whole. From an individual perspective, Meredith (2014) identified seven goals of education: 1) to have basic skills, 2) to be a critical thinker, 3) to be able to troubleshoot or strategize, 4) to be a moral person, 5) to be a good citizen, 6) to have a wide range of interests, and 7) to be happy.

From a societal perspective, Kasi(2018) identified eight functions of education: 1) transmission of culture, 2) social integration, 3) career selection, 4) techniques of learning skills, 5) socialization, 6) rational thinking, 7) adjustment in society, and 8) patriotism. All of these are important; the question is one of priorities.

Who Decides?

While parents generally consider the purpose of education in terms of their own children, schools and governments consider the purpose of education in terms of society. So, who decides? The Populace study aptly states: “An effective K-12 education system is one that delivers on what the American public wants it to do” (p. 24). And who is the American public? All of us: parents, educators, family, friends, neighbors, business owners, members of the community, and government officials…but parents are the ones who care the most.

With that said, the most surprising finding of the Populace study relates to what the authors called collective illusions, where parents perceived that they were alone in their desire for a K-12 education that emphasized practical skills, critical thinking, and moral character. The study’s authors explain: “Even though Americans privately want an education system that prepares children to do work that is personally meaningful and fulfilling…they believe the rest of society does not share their priority” (p. 16). So how do we encourage parents to share their visions for a new and improved American K-12 education? We ask them to get involved.

How Do We Get There?

Local control is a hallmark of American K-12 public schools. Every school district in the United States is governed by a school board made up of community members who care deeply about American K-12 education and have been elected by fellow community members to serve. Our federal and state governments act in supervisory capacities, but local school boards assume primary responsibility for the day-to-day oversight of schools. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute (2016) explains: “Most decisions are made locally; state governments set the direction and create conditions for success; and the federal government gets involved when something’s become unjust” (para. 12).

Local control of American K-12 education gives parents the leverage they need to positively influence their children’s education. Through their local school board, parents who want a customized educational experience for every student can advocate for it. Parents who believe in a K-12 education that emphasizes practical skills, critical thinking, and moral character can work with school board members, educators, parents, and others to promote it.  Attending and speaking up at local school board meetings is one way parents can influence positive change in American K-12 education, but running for a seat on the local school board is even better. It boils down to this: Parents will always know their children better, love their children more, and sense their children’s needs more clearly than anyone else. If the purpose of an American K-12 education is changing, parents are the ones who can make it happen, one school district at a time!

Related:
Defining digital curriculum in a new era of learning

As dust from the pandemic settles, students across America are facing another disruption to quality education. This crisis, however, shouldn’t be a surprise. It is two centuries in the making.

The most recent legislation introduced in Congress, which would see a minimum salary base of $60,000 for public school teachers, is certainly a welcome step in the right direction. However, it still misdiagnoses the problem; burnout will still occur, regardless of the paycheck. That’s why we need to fundamentally reimagine the role of a teacher in the modern classroom.

The teacher job description crafted in the 1800s by the Common School Movement led by Horace Mann served a one-adult-room-full-of-kids model with the goal of civilizing American children. Hopefully, in the year 2023, we can aspire beyond assimilation as the goal of education and aim for creating learning spaces that value diversity and support every student in reaching their full, authentic potential.

That higher goal requires recognizing that, today, we are asking one teacher to perform too many functions, in not enough time, and for too little compensation. As an educator, I know that we are asking individual teachers to be a content area expert, instructional designer, academic coach, family communicator, interior designer, and social-emotional monitor with limited support.

We rely on the teacher’s desire to make a difference to keep them in the profession, but we’ve maintained a system that makes it increasingly elusive to make that difference. Systemic burnout forces teachers to leave the profession, while stagnant pay and the plummeting reputation of the profession prevents promising educators from joining in the first place.

To address the shortage, I suggest we knock down the walls erected by the one room schoolhouse. My proposition, the “Teaching Without Walls model,” recognizes that teaching the whole child includes multiple roles: instructional designer, academic coach, and social-emotional monitor. Let’s not limit our classrooms by looking for one person who can fulfill all of those roles independently. Let’s build on the technology applications learned during pandemic remote instruction. In the same way that businesses have lowered geographic barriers to expand hiring opportunities, school districts can seek beyond local candidates to connect certified teachers with underserved classrooms.

Envision a classroom of students engaging with a dynamic teacher visible through movie-sized monitors. This certified teacher, with subject matter and research-backed instructional design expertise, can be across the district, country, or world. A qualified math teacher from North Carolina could describe algebra to students in Nebraska, while a physics teacher in Maryland could describe an exothermic reaction to students in Milwaukee. Technology can remove barriers to hiring teachers with expertise. When mathematics and sciences face the largest exodus, the importance of freeing this knowledge from the confines of geography shouldn’t be underestimated.

Students still need in-person relationships. The local classroom includes academic coaches giving feedback and making sure students make progress, along with social-emotional monitors fostering community and supporting wellness. These roles also communicate with families and ensure that the classroom is a welcoming space.

There is, of course, an obvious objection: “You can’t solve a teacher shortage by hiring more teachers.” Spreading the reach of the teacher expertise across many classrooms while including in-person coaches does not necessarily increase overall headcount any more than the current fill-the-gaps measures would.

If you want a glimpse of the teacher shortage crisis, just look at the data. According to the National Survey released this week by the National Education Association, 53 percent of public schools report being understaffed at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year, with a further 60 percent reporting severe shortages since the start of the pandemic.

These shortages are, unsurprisingly, exacerbated across racial and income lines. According to analyses of several decades, it is non-White children living in the most neglected neighborhoods, who are most likely to suffer at the sharp end of the teacher shortage crisis.

In many cases, the government’s response only makes this crisis worse. State policymakers have expedited teacher certification and lowered the requirements for obtaining emergency substitute teaching licenses. Some states have even permitted the emergency hiring of untrained teachers.

Hiring more underprepared teachers and then expecting them to perform the role of three people will exacerbate the crisis. If we are hiring yet-to-be certified professionals, they can first be trained in the roles of academic coach and social-emotional monitor while an expert instructional designer (unbound by geography) can ensure that students have access to quality lessons.

A rethinking of distance limitations provides an opportunity to increase teacher compensation to be commensurate with other professionals that require the same level of expertise. Indeed, research from the Economic Policy Institute suggests that teachers earn approximately 20 percent less than those with similar, nonteacher degrees. Research shows that each new hire in a school can cost more than $20,000, and this investment doesn’t pay its dividend if that teacher leaves within 2 years.  By implementing policies that boost retention, we can afford to pay teachers what they deserve and retain their expertise.

“Teaching Without Walls” is not an easy, silver-bullet solution, and will certainly be state- and school-specific. I’m not suggesting that we triple the number of teachers in every classroom. Instead, we should focus our attention on broader solutions in the areas where students are already lacking a qualified teacher. This approach will require transforming teacher professional learning and collaboration, but there are research-based approaches that make this doable.

Reactionary proposals, however, offered by people who have never taught a class of young people with hopes and fears, traumas and dreams, will deepen the hole dug by our current system.

Our youth deserve a reimagining, and not a regurgitation, of failed proposals. World-class learning is possible, but only if we free ourselves from the “way we’ve always done things” and apply the technology-enabled solutions made commonplace from the pandemic.

By recognizing and valuing the different forms of teaching expertise, we can build a profession that is attractive, rewarding, and most importantly, sustainable. That is a viable way to attract new talent into the profession, and ultimately, keep it there.

Related:
Teacher shortages remain a top problem–here’s how to fix them
Is there a national teacher shortage? Here’s what we know and don’t know

Education institutions are forced to do more with less, putting extra stress on employees. Without realizing it, schools often have processes that create even more work, particularly in the business office. Fortunately, accounts payable (AP) automation can cure fatigue from overwhelming manual workloads and give AP staff more time to focus on something much more important: the students.

Challenges in the business office:

Without the help of automation, AP specialists spend several hours each day on tedious, repetitive tasks such as keying invoice data, pushing paper, fixing typos, chasing down information, and responding to calls and emails from suppliers and stakeholders about the status of invoices and payments. All the while, school business officers also juggle additional responsibilities impacting their institution and student outcomes.

Many AP departments still use manual, paper-based AP processes, resulting in massive amounts of time allocations during a typical work week. You might be surprised to learn that as much as 17 hours per week – which is equal to 42 percent of a full-time employee’s workload – is spent on non-payroll spending.

Unfortunately, antiquated processes like those above lead to extreme fatigue in education AP staff. As a result, back-office departments can’t progress and suffer from high turnover rates, inefficiency, late payments, increased risk of fraud, and strained relationships with vendors.

In a July 2022 survey of 226 Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) conducted by Gartner, Inc., digital acceleration was the top spending priority for CFOs over the next 12 months and that most all of them planned to protect their digital investments as they cut costs elsewhere in the business. In fact, 98 percent of respondents said they will protect digital investments and of those, 66 percent stating they plan to increase their investments in the category. Among technology priorities, CFOs have particularly prioritized back-office automation as a key to driving down costs in the face of ongoing inflation.

Here are 7 factors causing burnout in education finance departments–and 7 reasons AP automation is the antidote:

1. Antiquated processes and manual workarounds:

Outdated processes are making finance teams less efficient and secure. According to the BakerHostetler 2021 Data Security Incident Response Report, the education sector is the highest-targeted industry for payment fraud. Additionally, the FBI predicts ransomware attacks will become an even bigger threat to the industry, according to a news article published last September.

Streamlined invoice and payment automation saves finance departments thousands of hours annually by eliminating tedious manual tasks and increasing efficiency. Simultaneously, users benefit from enhanced security as best-in-class providers have internal security teams that help them mitigate the risk of fraud. This means that users save 80 percent of their time on invoice and payment processing while benefitting from more protection against fraudulent attempts.

2. Wasted staff time on manually sorting and handling paper invoices:

The average education AP department processes between 6,000 to 20,000 invoices a year, which can be exhausting for finance teams with only 1-2 employees.  

Invoice automation eliminates manual data entry and creates faster invoice approvals, allowing you to take advantage of early pay discounts. Also, with invoice automation implemented, users can process invoices 5 times faster than manual processing.

3. Lack of modern software:

If you’re suffering from heavy turnover, staffing shortages, or staff burnout, a lack of automation software may be why.

Automation eliminates the manual, repetitive tasks like cutting checks and stuffing envelopes that overwhelm AP staff. With these eliminated, staff can focus on more student-facing activities and projects while exploring new ways to run their schools more strategically and profitably. Automation also enables AP departments to efficiently scale their operations without the need to hire and train additional staff. Employees also benefit from career advancement.

4. Minimal attention workflow management:  

Process management is critical to an organization’s success, especially regarding accounts payable. Take the invoice-to-pay cycle, for example. Many moving parts with lots of involvement make it challenging to track who has an invoice or where it is in the approval process.

Tiered approval is one of the many great features of invoice automation. Invoices are electronically routed through all required approvers, eliminating invoices getting lost in the shuffle and removing any guess work on who an invoice is sitting with.

5. Lack of data insights:

Without access to real-time reporting and on-demand data, businesses lack valuable insights into finance operations. That’s risky because organizations could quickly go under if finances are mishandled.

AP automation solutions provide enhanced reporting capabilities that are easy to use and navigate, meaning you can instantly tell how your organization is performing. Additionally, users can better monitor cash flow, which is critical for success.

6. Lack of effective exception reporting:

There are several scenarios where mismatches occur in accounts payable, called ‘exceptions.’ These exceptions range from errors in coding, duplicate payments, vendor error, and more. Humans aren’t perfect, and there’s always a chance of mistakes or discrepancies when one or more people are involved.

Leading invoice and payment automation platforms help with exceptions since they speed up processing time, reduce errors by 80 percent, and create a virtual filing cabinet. With paperless document management, users can access invoices, payment history reports, archived documents, and payment status reports.

7. Poorly defined workflows

Manual processes make it challenging to divide tasks in the invoice-to-pay cycle. This can be even more of a challenge for departments suffering from severe staffing shortages and heavy turnover.

Workflow automation is one of the ways your finance department can streamline its accounting office. Implementing a best-in-class AP automation solution simplifies workflows because the software creates digital layers of approval, paperless document management, and role-based controls.  

In conclusion, business offices play a critical role in education and enhance student experiences. However, manual processing makes it challenging for them to effectively manage time and resources. With automation in place, schools benefit from increased efficiency, security, reduced costs, and, most importantly, more fulfilled employees. With more time and resources, your employees can better focus on serving your faculty, your vendors, and your students.

Related:
How administrators can keep funding in their district

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

For the past couple of years, the Detroit Public Schools Community District has been able to tap its share of federal COVID relief aid to fund after-school enrichment programs that help students recover from learning lost during the pandemic.

But those funds will soon run out, and Detroit and other districts face some tough decisions about which programs and employees they can afford to keep once federal support is gone. 

Detroit parent Aliya Moore said she is concerned that her daughter’s newly funded after-school debate team will be “snatched,” along with funding for new positions such as parent outreach coordinators.

“That’s my biggest fear,” said Moore, who is a frequent critic of the district. “Just going into (next) school year, and a lot of these people are not there.”

For districts, there’s an added challenge: Looming deadlines attached to the federal aid put them under time pressure to map out their spending and use up the remaining funds quickly and effectively, while also figuring out how they’ll manage without it. 

What they’re eager to prevent is a so-called fiscal cliff, where a steep drop in funding forces sudden and severe budget cuts that could ripple throughout the school system.

Superintendents in Michigan are generally optimistic that their districts can avoid that scenario, especially given the prospect of increased state funding. But experts say it will take work.

“Districts need to plan now, so students don’t face chaos at the start of the 2024 school year with classrooms and teachers shuffled, programs abruptly dropped, demoralized staff, and leaders focusing on nothing but budget woes,” wrote Marguerite Roza, a professor at Georgetown University who studies school finance, in a recent article.

What is federal COVID aid?

Michigan hasn’t seen anything like this: more than $6 billion in federal funds aimed at helping students recover from the pandemic, by far the largest one-time federal investment in schools in state history. Most of it was distributed based on poverty levels in each district’s community. The Detroit district alone received $1.27 billion.

Congress gave districts plenty of leeway on how they could spend the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief money, or ESSER funds. So far, they have used it for a wide array of projects, including summer school expansions, staff bonuses, air filtration improvements, building renovations, tutoring, and mental health programs.

But they’re on a tight schedule to spend it. The federal government wants the funds deployed quickly to accelerate the recovery from the pandemic.  So districts have only until 2024 to get state approval for all their spending plans. Much of the spending itself must be complete by 2025, though districts may apply for extensions through 2026.

Districts aim to reduce spending without affecting the classroom

Having such a massive spending initiative roll out — and wrap up — so quickly was never going to be easy for Michigan districts. The state’s highest-poverty districts, which received by far the most funding per student, are taking the longest to spend the funds amid supply chain disruptions and a tight labor market.

Even districts that budgeted carefully and avoided long-term spending commitments that couldn’t be sustained without federal support will see disruptions from the loss of short-term programming that has been critical to the COVID recovery effort.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District, for instance, has notified as many as 100 staff members, including central office staff, master teachers, deans of culture, and attendance agents, that their positions paid for in part using federal COVID aid may be cut or consolidated by the end of the school year. 

Neighboring Ecorse Public Schools will end a tutoring program designed to help students manage the effects of the pandemic.

DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the district isn’t planning to make budget recommendations that would hurt student achievement. “However, at a high level, if hard decisions are not made, then we will not be able to fund some of the COVID initiatives that we believe are most important to students,” he said.

Detroit has moved relatively quickly to plan out and spend its COVID aid. Of the $1.27 billion DPSCD received, $700 million is already earmarked for an infrastructure program that will renovate and rebuild schools across the city. The rest has gone toward expanding programming and providing additional staff at individual schools, among other things. 

Vitti said that although no decision has been made yet, “it will be difficult to fund nurses and expand after-school programming and summer school next year.”

The DPSCD school board will convene on Saturday for a retreat and its first in-depth conversation about the expiring funds. Board members have insisted that district leaders find a way to maintain expanded mental health programming, even if it was funded by COVID aid.

Moore, whose daughter is a seventh-grader at Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy, plans to attend Saturday’s meeting to hear what COVID-funded initiatives board members intend to keep or cut. With pandemic recovery far from complete, she’s hoping the board will prioritize after-school programming and academic recovery programs moving into the 2023-24 school year. 

“I don’t feel like at this time any school should be denied after-school opportunities,” she said.

Some districts have huge sums left to spend

For other districts, it’s the federal deadlines that are proving to be the bigger challenge. 

The issue came into sharp relief last year when hundreds of superintendents nationwide asked the U.S. Department of Education to extend the deadlines, saying that supply chain and staffing problems were slowing spending. The department said no, barring a change to federal law. (In Virginia,  lawmakers are seeking to ratchet up the pressure with a bill that would require districts to return unspent funding to the state this summer.)

In Michigan, some observers have argued that state lawmakers should withhold new investments from districts that still have enormous amounts of federal funding to spend.

As of January, Michigan districts had spent 30% of the third and largest round of federal funding. They still have $2.1 billion to spend — which is equivalent to 10% of all state education spending this year.

Detroit has spent 38% of its federal funds, but other districts that received very high levels of federal aid — roughly defined as more than $10,000 per pupil — have much more ground to make up. 

Flint Community Schools has spent 12% of the third wave of COVID funds. Hamtramck Public Schools spent 14%, Eastpointe Community Schools spent 5%, and Pontiac City School District spent 7%.

Benton Harbor Area Schools hasn’t spent any of its funds.

A recent report from the Citizens Research Council, a Michigan think tank, linked the vast majority of the unspent funds to a handful of high-poverty communities.

The report warns that rapid spending won’t be easy given the staff shortages and supply chain problems that have plagued the pandemic-era economy.

It notes, too, that spending the money effectively will be even tougher on a tight timeline. 

Flint Superintendent Kevelin Jones said his district will be able to spend the money on time, and that it has emphasized one-time investments to make it easier to manage the end of COVID funding. In 2021, the district used federal funds to pay teachers one-time bonuses of $22,500.

“From the beginning, the district understood that ESSER funds served as a one-time” funding source, he said in a statement, noting that the goal of its spending was still to create a lasting impact.

Strong state budget provides a backstop

The closest parallel to the challenges facing Michigan schools may be the 2011 expiration of federal funds linked to the Great Recession.

Many districts used those dollars to build new programs, hoping that the state would step in to continue them when federal dollars dried up. Instead, amid a disastrous economy, state leaders opted for a steep cut to school funding, leading to a brutal round of cutbacks in school programming.

Things look different this time around. The state budget is far stronger, bolstered by historically high sales tax revenues. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recent budget proposal taps an estimated $4 billion school aid surplus to call for a second straight major increase in school funding. Democrats, fully empowered in Lansing for the first time in decades, say they are eager to support increased school spending.

While the federal COVID aid program is much larger than the Great Recession package was, experts say the boost in state funding this time will do much to smooth the transition away from pandemic-related funding and ease the risk of a fiscal cliff.

Westwood Community School District, set in a high-poverty suburb west of Detroit, avoided using COVID aid to pay salaries or hire staff. Superintendent Stiles Simmons said the district used the money instead to pay $1,000 bonuses to classroom aides and improve facilities. When it needed new staff to help students cope with the pandemic, it relied on new state funding to cover salaries.

When the funds expire, aides might miss their bonuses, Simmons said, and the district won’t be able to continue paying educators $60 an hour to teach summer school. But he said he’s more worried about the possibility of a recession or a change in political support for schools than the expiration of COVID funds.

“If things continue as they are at this point, it’s difficult to see the cliff, but just knowing how things ebb and flow … especially with the economy, we have to always be on the lookout,” he said.

Even with rising state funding, DPSCD school board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo said the coming budget adjustments for school districts warrant a reconsideration of the way Michigan funds schools, calling the current formula inequitable. Since the passage of Proposal A in 1994, Michigan school funding has been based on the number of students attending the district. In Detroit, a series of economic downturns and a decline in the city’s population eroded student enrollment.

“Now’s the time, because we have a Democratic majority, to revisit Proposal A,” Gay-Dagnogo said. “We’re not talking about taking away funds from other districts. We’re talking about equalizing the dollars.”

She added: “You can’t plug in short term money for long term positions in perpetuity, but we have to have a solution for how to make sure that we are not displacing (staff) that really care and want to serve our children properly.”

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education.

Related:
What’s keeping districts from spending COVID relief funding?

One challenge school administrators face is how to keep funding in their districts, especially as enrollment in public schools continues to decline. As public school funding is often directly tied to student enrollment, administrators around the country are having to make difficult decisions to ensure there is no delay in student learning like combining classrooms, laying off staff, and in some instances, closing schools entirely.

As someone who has worked in a variety of administrator roles from a principal in Miami-Dade County Public Schools to the President and Chief Executive Officer of Florida Virtual School (FLVS), I know what that pressure feels like, especially when our ultimate goal is to do what is best for our students and staff.

While there were certainly enrollment declines pre-pandemic, COVID-19 has continued to exacerbate the issue, as more than half of all parents considered or are considering choosing a new school for their children, with 17 percent of parents indicating they chose a new school for their children within the past year, 11 percent considered new schools, and 26 percent are currently considering new schools. Additionally, 48 percent of parents said their community does not offer enough education options for them.

My recommendation for school leaders is to develop online or blended learning programs. By doing so, they can keep students enrolled in their school or district by providing them with alternative forms of education that best fit their needs. And, right now, school administrators have access to a time-sensitive resource to help create these programs – Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds.

ESSER Funds to Support Digital Programs

ESSER funds were established as part of the Education Stabilization Fund in the CARES Act to address the impact that COVID-19 had on elementary and secondary schools across the nation. And while some of these funds have helped with initial impacts brought on by the pandemic – like sanitization efforts, the purchase of PPE, like masks, hand sanitizer, and more, there are even more ways schools and districts can use the funds to innovative, invest, and improve their technological infrastructure and digital tools.

In November 2022, McKinsey & Company conducted a survey that revealed more than 90 percent of district administrators have faced challenges deploying stimulus funds effectively and by the end of the 2021-22 school year, districts spent an estimated $45 billion of the total $175 billion of available funds, leaving approximately $130 billion dollars to allocate. As the deadline to spend the remaining ESSER II funds quickly approaches on September 30, 2023 and ARP ESSER funds on September 30, 2024, now is the time educators must decide what to use their remaining funds on to help their students, families, and staff.

Right now, school and district leaders can use their remaining ESSER funds to create innovative alternative education options like online, blended, or hybrid learning programs. And I don’t mean programs like emergency remote learning that the majority of students experienced during COVID, I mean true online learning, which supports students and empowers educators with evidence-based approaches, offers professional development for instructors, develops courses specifically designed for the online environment, and provides flexibility for students to communicate one-on-one with teachers.

True online, blended, and hybrid learning programs have evolved over the years due to new technology advancements. For example, at Florida Virtual School, engaging digital curriculum and tools allow teachers to have more one-on-one interaction with students. Plus, learning management systems provide teachers with real-time student performance data to understand who needs additional assistance. Digital courses also offer interactive modules that feature activities, games, videos, and more to enhance student comprehension and give them the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned.

With these new advancements, our education system is on the brink of a revolution that will empower parents and students to take control of their educational journey and allow teachers to work with each student in a more individualized way.

Let’s create innovative programs directly through the schools to give families the flexibility they need while keeping funding within the district. That way, they can stay with the best educational option for them to meet all their educational goals.

Related:
How edtech insights impact all parts of school operations
Learn how to modernize your K-12 financial operations

Each year, we share our 10 most-read stories. Not surprisingly, many of this year’s Top 10 focused on innovative ways to engage students, digital resources, and online and hybrid learning strategies related to post-pandemic teaching. This year’s 3rd most-read story focuses on edtech insights from every part of a school and district.

In this episode of Innovations in Education, hosted by Kevin Hogan:

• Why back-office systems are an essential element to successful learning
• 9 priorities for a future-focused education system
• Some good news (sort of) on post-pandemic learning gains

Over the past several years, K-12 school districts experienced the limitations of legacy systems. With the recent government funding available for pandemic recovery, a window of opportunity opens for K-12 schools to modernize and bring resilience to their spend management systems.

Automating your school district’s spend management solution should be a top priority. Market uncertainty has shown that faculty and staff spending data is often dispersed and hard to track, meaning you are missing complete spend visibility. This lack of reliable, consistent data is leaving school districts vulnerable to risks.

Join an eSchool News panel of experts as they discuss understanding and managing your school expenditures with a single platform that captures employee spend, when and how it happens, and how investing in a digital spend management solution can help enable school districts to increase efficiency, transparency, compliance, and control.

Key Topics:

• Streamline processes and eliminate manual tasks and piles of paper
• How automation helps reduce risk associated with managing and tracking employee expenditures
• Improve compliance utilizing proactive strategies and policies
• Establish trust though transparency and fiscal accountability
• Manage your cash flow and all parts of your accounts payable process in one system

School districts continue to prioritize expanding summer learning and enrichment offerings, adding specialist staff such as mental health personnel and reading specialists, and investing in high-quality instructional materials and curriculum, according to a survey administered by AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

The School District Spending of American Rescue Plan report is part of a multi-series survey focused on how district leaders across the country are utilizing American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, address student learning recovery.

This survey also sought information about what issues districts are experiencing in spending ARP funding and how they would change their spending decisions if they had more time to drawdown federal COVID-relief funds.

“Superintendents know best how to maximize the academic impact of the funding. It costs nothing for Congress to give districts additional time to extend the additional resources they have in place—reading specialists, tutoring programs, enrichment offerings and social-emotional supports—for students for an additional two years,” said Daniel A. Domenech, AASA executive director. “We call on Congress to extend this arbitrary deadline and enable students to get the additional time with these professionals and programs they need to recover from the pandemic.”

Districts’ ARP spending priorities have remained consistent from the 2021-2022 school year to the 2022-2023 school year. Improving instructional practices, expanding learning opportunities and learning time, hiring staff and addressing the social-emotional needs of students remain top priorities of public school system leaders, regardless of state, district size or locale.

Three top priorities:

• District leaders continue to report they are using ARP funding for long-term system changes that will prioritize a shift in expanding whole child supports, including social, emotional, mental, and physical health and development of their students.

• Their second long-term priority in 2022 is also the same as 2021: engaging high school students who have fallen off the track to graduate and who need additional supports to navigate the transition to college and career.

• The report also details how spending on districts’ third long-term priority –renovating school facilities and improving ventilation—continues to be hampered by the lack of federal guidance on whether districts will be able to extend the timeline for these projects, which have been stymied by supply-chain issues, worker shortages and inflation. Forty-eight percent indicate the 2024 deadline presents an obstacle to completing these critical projects.

Superintendents also predicted what areas they would be forced to cut in September 2024 when the deadline for spending ARP funding occurs. Fifty-seven percent reported they will decrease, or end, summer learning and enrichment offerings currently being provided to students. Fifty-three percent reported they will have to end contracts with specialist staff, such as counselors, social workers and reading specialists, to support student needs. Forty-four percent reported they will have to stop compensating staff for working additional hours for the extended school year/day programming they offer.

Approximately half (49%) of respondents reported that a later deadline to spend ARP funding would allow them to retain recently hired staff and extend recently added programs and supports for students that are making a big difference, both in learning recovery efforts and in addressing the social-emotional needs of students.

Click here to read part three of the AASA ARP Funding survey. Hundreds of superintendents responded to the survey, which was issued in July.