Describe preparation versus prevention when it comes to a school district’s safety plan. You can only prepare for general incidents; you can’t prepare for the specific. Preparing a safety plan gets everybody on the same page. Whether it’s a bus accident, bomb threat or intruder alert, prevention comes through debriefing after an emergency occurs. You […]

The damage to teaching and learning caused by over-reliance on standardized tests is widely acknowledged. It includes narrowed curricula, teaching to the test, and one-size-fits-all instruction. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers a significant opportunity for states and districts to revamp their assessment systems. Unfortunately, few states plan to replace standardized tests with educationally […]

Districts are increasingly tasked with providing options for at-risk and underserved student populations to address persistent achievement gaps. While nationwide gains in closing achievement gaps have been made, research shows that underserved student populations still achieve at lower rates than their peers in many areas. In this web seminar, the executive director of the Office […]

E ducators in Bradley County Schools in Cleveland, Tennessee, were faced with some staggering numbers: 48 percent of third-grade students were reading on grade level. That meant five out of every 10 were not. “We were above the state average of 43 percent” says Terri Murray, supervisor of Federal Programs/Media Services for the district where […]

Leaders know the necessity of upgrading digital devices. The longer we put it off, the more likely a system will fail. The upgrade is part of the modern digital world. The digital age brings a comparable call to action for administrators, who must upgrade their leadership brand. Maintaining trust is a key reason for a […]

The best administrators I’ve seen in my career all have a burning desire to succeed, and they relish a new challenge. The need for a strong and motivated leader is nowhere more evident than in a Title 1 school. Often, district administrators do a disservice by placing the newest teachers and leaders in a Title […]

Everything might work smoothly now, but Los Angeles USD’s first try at automated payroll in 2007 failed, with some employees getting overpaid while others didn’t get a check or were underpaid. “We tried to do this too early, before the software was fully developed,” says Shahryar Khazei, the district’s CIO. Aimed at automating its payroll, […]

Just about every major company uses sophisticated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to streamline procedures, automate purchasing and monitor finances. Now, some early adopters in K12 education have deployed ERP to manage a range of operations more efficiently. The technology has the power to automate many routine events—from payroll to procurement to recruitment—that keep school […]