What are some of the key benefits of hyperconvergence for K12? Hyperconvergence is going to save schools money. The deployment is very easy, and the biggest driver of all is ease of use. School districts often have limited resources and IT specialists, so hyperconvergence is really about being able to take an infrastructure and allow […]
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 […]
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 […]
Linda Cliatt-Wayman is the turnaround queen. As the principal who changed two low-performing and violent Philadelphia high schools into safe spaces focused on learning, Wayman developed a program of high expectations for students and staff, and intense professional development. In 2013, after serving as an assistant superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia, she took […]
With U.S. businesses of all sizes competing on the global stage, foreign language classes—and the teachers who teach them—are vanishing from K12 schools. Only about 10 percent of the U.S. population speaks a language other than English proficiently, and just 15 percent of public elementary schools offer language instruction, according to The American Academy of […]
Rockford Public Schools is the third-largest school district in Illinois, educating more than 28,500 students. Last year, Cory Nilsen and David Allen, the respective deans of social studies and science curricula for Rockford PS, learned that a local organization that had provided dictionaries to every third-grade student was disbanding, and it wanted to give Rockford […]
Not long ago, I was visiting with a highly capable, senior-level district administrator when he said to me, "There are so many STEM initiatives, resources and vendors out there. I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but I am not even sure of the right questions to ask." As I considered this administrator's confusion—and […]
One month before the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, Turlock USD was still short five speech-language pathologists. The salary offered by the Central California district was high by area standards, but even so, the positions remained unfilled. In fact, no one had even applied. Alice Solis, Turlock's director of special education, struggled to hire […]
The PTA at an elementary school on New York's Upper East Side raised nearly $1 million in one school year—about $1,260 per student. In a wealthy suburb of Boston, an elementary school PTA brought in $1,680 per student that same year, while a Washington, D.C., school's PTA intake totaled $2,220 per student. These extreme cases […]
Districts devote nearly 80 percent of their budgets to personnel costs—leaving little wiggle room for administrators tasked with maintaining fiscal responsibility and boosting the quality of education in a time of nearly stagnant funding. John Hutchison, chief financial and operations officer at Olathe Public Schools in Kansas, began budgetary planning for the 2017-18 school year […]
