Back-To-School Survival Guide

Education leaders share bold strategies for turning their toughest challenges into golden opportunities

• PRINT
• EMAIL

This year finds school administrators like you dealing with an overflow of major priorities—from the pressure to raise student test scores and hire "highly qualified" teachers to providing top-notch resources in the midst of deep budget cutbacks. During times like these, your peers are often the best people to lead you to solutions that can actually work for your district. So, on your behalf, Scholastic Administr@tor went out and collected 20 strategies from superintendents, technology directors, and others who are tackling some of the same tough issues.

TECHNOLOGY
Challenge: Keeping your tech investment and data safe.
Solution: Take the time and money to protect your student and administrative systems.
With all the confidential data sitting on school net-works, districts' systems are highly vulnerable. Follow these preventive steps to save your systems and equipment from viruses and unauthorized access:
1. Implement standard network security technologies and procedures (antivirus software, firewalls, etc).
2. Have users change their passwords on a regular basis, and ensure that only authorized users are able to access confidential data.
3. Perform a thorough security audit each semester, ideally with an outside company.
–Julie Evans, Executive Director, NetDay

Challenge: Sparing technology from budget cuts.
Solution: Show how it saves money and improves productivity throughout your district.
Tech directors need to help key staff understand how technology can be used as a cost-effective tool to promote learning. Administrators should also look out for ways technology can save districts money by increasing employee productivity.
–Sara Fitzgerald, Vice President, Funds For Learning

Challenge: Increasing buy-in of technology among staff.
Solution: Recruit staff to help create a plan.
Involving curriculum developers and lead teachers in creating your technology plan will increase buy-in and give everyone a greater sense of ownership. They'll also appreciate that using computers and software is as much about the subject matter as the technology itself. Limit the scope of your plan to three years (because of constant changes in tech) and focus only on three areas in which technology will be seamlessly integrated (e.g., professional development, high school curriculum). Involve all teachers through focus groups and feedback sessions to get further input.
–Gerald Cricsi, Tech Coordinator, Scarsdale (NY) School District

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND STAFFING
Challenge: Recruiting quality teachers.
Solution #1: Partner with universities.
Superintendents need to develop collaborative programs with universities and teachers colleges to recruit students and trainees. Various universities around the country are creating training programs for teachers and principals due to the high turnover rate for both.
–Tom Sobol, professor, Teachers College, Columbia University

Solution #2: Look beyond your region or state.
Some school districts are recruiting teachers from as far away as Europe and Canada, and also from the military through the Troops to Teachers program (www.pro udtoserveagain.com). To increase the pool of potential teachers, administrators should also consider conducting virtual interviews with candidates rather than requiring in-person appearances.
–Gerald Tirozzi, Executive Director and Dick Flannary, Director of the Principal Development Center, National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)

Challenge: Providing professional development (PD) opportunities despite budget cuts.
Solution #1: Share ownership with your staff.
This school year is going to be one of the most important times to establish and maintain solid, nurturing practices for staff. Sharing ownership with staff will make them feel in charge of their areas. Try to balance autonomy and accountability with staff. This sense of ownership and responsibility for teachers and other staff fosters a great sense of teamwork.
–Terry Stewart, Superintendent, Jennings (MO) School District

Solution #2: Train central-office administrators and master teachers to become PD trainers.
Develop a road map and a school culture that invests and reinvests in a system in which everyone is responsible for the growth of the entire system.
–John Deasy, Superintendent, Santa Monica-Malibu (CA) Unified School District

TESTING & ASSESSMENT
Challenge: Preparing kids for standardized tests without teaching to test.
Solution #1: Let your standards-based curriculum prepare students.
School districts need three key components to prepare students for state-mandated tests: a rich, solid, standards-based curriculum; skilled teachers; and clear direction from administrators on expectations. The key is to first understand your state's standards and then to align your curriculum to those standards. As you know, while the tests are high stakes for administrators, they can be a narrow measure of student achievement.
–Sherry King, Superintendent, Mamaroneck (NY) School District

Solution #2: Look at the performance of various groups from last year to be ready for this year's results.
Test results for the 2002-03 school year probably won't be drastically different than the previous year. If you reexamine standardized test results from the 2001-02 school year, you can gain a better sense of the improvements, declines, and trends in students' work. This background information will be very helpful when explaining any changes to parents and the community.
–Daniel Domenich, Superintendent, Fairfax (VA) School District

Challenge: Helping teachers and staff analyze the data.
Solution #1: Create leadership teams to work with staff.
Your leadership team should include curriculum developers, lead teachers, and the principal. The team can hold review sessions to help teachers interpret and analyze the test results. Then, together with all of the teachers, the group can develop a strategy to help students improve their test scores and overall learning.
–Gerald Tirozzi and Dick Flannary, NASSP

Solution #2: Format data so it works best for teachers.
To make the best use of all of this data, experiment with different formats that teachers can easily read and decipher. These varying formats will allow you and your teachers to have meaningful conversations about how to use the data to expand the teachers' instructional practices and, ultimately, to help students improve in their work and testing.
–Sherry King, Superintendent, Mamaroneck (NY) School District

Challenge: Bringing the community in the loop.
Solution: Create a communications plan and be proactive about explaining test results to everyone.
Explain test results to parents, business leaders, and the general community before the media puts a different spin on it. Write letters to the editor that explain the impact of budget cuts on your district and that also highlight the great work you are doing in the schools. Also, hold informational meetings for parents and the community to explain test score results early in the process. Principals should have meetings with parents. Superintendents should have meetings with the larger community, including business leaders. This outreach and communication could also be a tremendous help during school budget votes.
–Herman Gaither, Superintendent, Beaufort County (SC) School District

FUNDING & BUDGETING
Challenge: Finding funding beyond the popular grants.
Solution: Develop stronger partnerships with the business community for funding alternatives. Pump up your entrepreneurial muscle when it comes to finding additional funds and resources. One great place to start is in your own backyard. Seek out partnerships with your community—local businesses, parents, volunteer groups. Parents can be helpful resources as volunteers for a variety of things. And businesses or business leaders may offer donations or provide advice on various fundraising options.
–Daniel Domenich, Superintendent, Fairfax (VA) School District

Challenge: Navigating the maze of requirements and deadlines for funds available through NCLB.
Solution: Create a special team to investigate and apply for various funding opportunities.
Pull together various leaders in your school or district to be part of a special "funding team." As a team, you can brainstorm and identify grants, alternative funding resources, and to which federal monies under NCLB you may apply. Once you know what you will apply for, team members can divvy up responsibilities to gather information and applications.
–Sara Fitzgerald, Vice President, Funds For Learning

Challenge: Finding creative ways of doing more with less.
Solution: Prioritize the programs critical to the children.
Hold firm to the core mission of your district (teaching and learning) and use that mission to drive current and future budget cuts. For example, consider ending programs that don't directly support children, such as using outside contracts for professional development. Instead, train a cadre of staff to train teachers. Slight modifications like these can make a huge difference.
–John Deasy, Superintendent, Santa Monica-Malibu (CA)Unified School District

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
Challenge: Increasing student achievement in an era of extensive testing and assessment.
Solution: Develop a mentor/advisee program.
Create a mentor program that requires the mentor to stay in touch with the same student throughout the student's high school years. This allows a trusting relationship to develop over time. Organize regular group meetings with all the mentors and students to check in on progress, reassess relationships, and ultimately to evaluate the program's progress.
–Gerald Tirozzi and Dick Flannary, NASSP

Challenge: Closing the achievement gap.
Solution: Set performance targets around achievement and hold yourself accountable for reaching them. Use consistent sets of indicators (race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, language) to constantly measure and analyze test and achievement data. Review and update this information as often as possible. Then, identify for yourself the strengths and weaknesses of both students and staff. Brainstorm with key staff on how to begin correcting weaknesses in instructional practice and student progress. Then you can share your students' progress and performance with parents, students, teachers, and the community.
–John Deasy, Superintendent, Santa Monica-Malibu (CA) Unified School District

GROWING SECOND-LANGUAGE POPULATION
Challenge: How to meet the needs of non-English-speaking students.
Solution #1: Develop language-immersion programs.
To prepare a large influx of ESL students for tests this year, consider implementing intensive language-immersion programs to help accelerate the students' proficiency in English. If one goal is to get them ready to understand what's on standardized tests, immersion programs might just be the ticket.
–Herman Gaither, Superintendent, Beaufort County (SC) School District

Solution #2: Create specialized programs for kids.
Implement different programs depending on the age and individual need of the student. For example, a non-English-speaking six-year-old will have very different needs than a 16-year-old student who arrives in this country. In Mamaroneck's elementary schools, ESL teachers are trained to also be highly skilled reading teachers. The district is also researching "sheltered classrooms," in which ESL and regular teachers work in the classroom together. Additionally, the district provides training for parents to work with their kids at home regardless of their language.
–Sherry King, Superintendent, Mamaroneck (NY) School District

SAFETY & SECURITY
Challenge: Keeping students and staff safe
Solution: Have a clear, thorough plan for the entire school system and for each individual school. Research safety training sessions that require administrators to walk through various situations in a school or district and decide how they should respond to them (e.g., biochemical attacks, a school shooting, child abduction, bomb scare). If you can't afford outside companies to hold training sessions for your staff, have a detailed plan for how staff will handle various emergencies and conduct internal training sessions.
–Daniel Domenich, Superintendent, Fairfax (VA) School District.

Forum: Just-in-Time Tech Training
It's common knowledge that we administrators must help propel teachers to the level where they are as comfortable working with technology as they are with the subject they teach. The task for school districts is to devise training processes that facilitate this end.

The Tech-Support Kids
Many students know more about tech than their teachers do. But does this mean they should be part of tech-support teams? Two experts go head-to-head.

Texthelp Systems' Read&Write GOLD
Texthelp Systems' Read & Write GOLD