Data dashboard, data tools, data visualization, data-driven decision making — data everything is all the rage in education. And for good reason. Timely and understandable data, appropriately used, can have an incredible impact on outcomes for kids.
There’s little buzz, however, about data on the operational side of schools. A strong operations function is like a house’s foundation: invisible, unglamorous, but absolutely essential. The ability to accurately assess performance, target problem areas, and drive operational improvement is as critical for a school’s long-term success as great curriculum and effective pedagogy. To kick-start a data-driven approach to operations, we suggest developing an operations dashboard.
This post provides information on what you may need to be thinking about in the areas of finance, student data, human resources, student meals, and technology as a result of COVID-19. We will continue to update this as we have more information. If there are specific questions you would like to see answered that you do not see below, please reach out to your EdOps Specialist.
DISCLAIMER: EdOps does not provide legal or tax advice. Consult an attorney or tax accountant for specific questions.
A personnel file audit is the periodic and systematic review of your personnel files to assess whether the documents in each employee’s personnel file are accurate, up to date, and complete. The audit helps ensure legal compliance, identifies HR process weaknesses and highlights HR successes.
We often begin our school budget training for charter applicants by asking the group to identify the major levers that impact total teacher salary expenses. Almost without fail, the two answers given are 1) teacher salary levels and 2) average class size. What most people overlook is that there is a third, equally important lever: 3) schedule configuration.
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The Student Information System (SIS) serves as a school’s database of enrolled students, their attendance, class schedules, parents and emergency contacts, and often much, much more. The SIS is like a school’s brain – critical to its ongoing functioning – and so adopting or switching to a new one is no small decision. Although needs vary between schools, some basic considerations apply across the board. This post aims to familiarize you with some of the main questions to ask yourself (and prospective vendors) before making a decision.
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As many school administrators and staff already know, approximately 90% of funding received by schools is driven by enrollment. Student recruitment can drive enrollment, and thus has a significant impact on the financial stability of your school.
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We all know how complicated it can be to run a single school, but growing organizations face even greater complexity. Through our work with expanding schools, we’ve found some useful questions to keep in mind when determining which roles and responsibilities should remain at individual schools and which should be centralized.
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