As we rolled into Christmas this past December, teachers, administrators, and students rested in relief they were receiving a 2 ½ week break with no school to show up to- whether in the classroom or online. But as we all watched the news channels and saw the COVID numbers continuing to rise, with December being the worst and deadliest month yet, the anxiety and anticipation is high regarding just how 2021 is going to start academically for all of our school districts.
As Dr. Phil would say, “How’s that working for ya?” Did returning all students back in the classroom this past fall work? The jury is still out.
Do what is best for the kids!
It sounds really good and looks great on paper but doing what is best for the kids can sometimes be a subjective moving target at best. At the end of the day, for a school district to look back and say, “We’ve given every option and spent every resource on our students”, sounds admirable…until the money runs out and the parents are still complaining.
According to Chalkbeat the school district of Berry, New Hampshire tried to do just that:
Give all things to all people and let the chips fall where they may. It sounded like a great idea at the time, until they saw the 2021 budget meetings scheduled for later in Spring and realized they don’t have enough money to benevolently make everyone happy.
Berry, NH and every other school district in the United States are going to have to make some crucial decisions this Spring that are going to be met with applause from some parents and anonymous hate emails and phone calls from the others. Each school district, and especially the people that answer the phones, know they are heading into a danged if you do, danged if you don’t type of situation.
What to do in a tight spot
What Berry, NH has decided to do is to just be honest. To not try and tell each parent or student what they want to hear, but to just inform them with the facts and help guide whatever decision they want to make.
They are going to be honest…but they are having a hard time being transparent and easily accessible. Between random phone calls, emails and written letters (yes people still do that) they are being bombarded and unable to keep every student, parent, teacher and administrator on the same page. Continuously.
Transparency, accountability and authority to all
However, a company in North Texas is serving many school districts who are trying to achieve this same level of transparency and accountability.
Performance Scoring has developed an all-in-one web-based engagement platform that allows teachers, students, parents, and even administrators to all be on the same page continuously whether the students are physically in the classroom or at home learning virtually.
This is not just a run-of-the-mill parent communication system, no, this notifies all parties involved regarding the health, behavior, assignments, and extra-curricular activities pertaining to each student in real-time.
For example, as soon as a teacher were to implement an online assignment package for the student, in less than 15 seconds, the student, parent and administrator would be notified as well. They could be notified in real-time or choose to let the notification rest until the end of the day.
Other examples are attendance, (which every school district is having a hard time keeping track of in order to get state funding) whether a student goes to the nurse and has a fever, the where abouts of a bus route at an extra-curricular event and if their son or daughter is on the bus. Any factor or level of accountability is now accumulated, aggregated, and displayed to the necessary party, giving them the opportunity to respond with immediate feedback.
There will be no more teacher/parent conferences that begin with, “I didn’t know.”
Everyone will be on the same page as we walk through 2021 together. That is doing what is best for the kids. www.performancescoring.com
Source: https://www.chalkbeat.org/2020/12/10/22167172/school-board-budget-federal-relief
