From our keynote speaker, Angela Maiers, to our intensive pre-conference workshops perfect for FACTS beginners, there’s a perfect session for everyone this July 11-14 at Elevate 2022. This year’s conference in Dallas will feature over 100 sessions, covering topics like finance, communications and marketing, database management, and more.
With so many sessions to choose from, however, it can almost seem overwhelming to decide which ones to attend – especially if you’re in charge of enrollment management at your school and have your eye on nearly all the sessions. That’s why we’ve pulled together this handy list of our top five professional development sessions for enrollment managers. Use this as a guide to start planning how you’ll make the most out of your Elevate 2022 experience, but feel free to explore all the sessions that interest you. With so much to offer, you’re guaranteed to never get bored!
Effective Retention Strategies to Keep Your Families Enrolled – By Dr. Rick Newberry, CEO of Enrollment Catalyst
Are you concerned about retention for the new school year? Do you have a retention plan in place to keep your families enrolled? During this workshop, we will discuss effective strategies you can implement to keep your families enrolled, highlighting ways that you can inspire your school community to focus on their role in the retention effort.
The Marketing Jumpstart – By Kurt Lewis, Consultant at Education Marketing Solutions
This action-packed hour of techniques, tips, and tricks will kick your marketing efforts into high gear! Kurt Lewis will provide practical advice on topics including value propositions, parent ambassadors, websites, and financial aid.
Supercharge your Enrollment! 7 Quick and Easy Steps to a Full & Engaged Funnel – By Jesse Roberts, CEO of Unbound 360
In this interactive session, Jesse Roberts will provide tips, tricks, and strategies to get the most out of your admission efforts, whether you are an office of one or twenty-one staff members.
Using FACTS for Continuous Enrollment – By Tracy Smith, Enrollment Specialist at FACTS
Is Continuous Enrollment right for your school? Learn more about the anatomy of Continuous Enrollment and the various options you have in FACTS to support this enrollment practice. Hear about all the ins and outs and decide which option is best for your school.
What’s New in FACTS Application & Enrollment? – By Courtney Haindel, FACTS Product Marketing Manager
Would you believe us if we said almost everything? Application and Enrollment has changed a lot. This session is designed to help you understand all the new features released in the past two years – from reporting and easier bulk communication to checklist upgrades, tasks, events, and so much more!
For up-to-date information on session times, speakers, and more, view our full Elevate 2022 agenda.
Still haven’t registered yet? Reserve your spot here.
While many of us know the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL) for students, providing teachers with similar tools can be just as beneficial for schools – especially in a world that’s been turned upside down by COVID-19. Educators have always had their hands full but are now tasked with not only navigating the changes and uncertainty of the pandemic, but also supporting their students through this crisis. It’s become clearer that prioritizing the mental health of teachers is a critical component in addressing the needs of students and communities. To put it simply, if we don’t take care of teachers, we can’t take care of students.
One of the easiest ways to see the effects of not prioritizing teachers’ mental health is retention rates. While teacher turnover has been a pervasive problem in school districts throughout the country, with nearly 40% of all teachers leaving the profession within their first five years, rates have increased dramatically since the pandemic began. In fact, 1 in 4 teachers considered leaving their job in 2021. Teachers that leave the field cite many different reasons for their departures, but one of the biggest common themes is overall lack of support. So what can schools do to create a supportive environment for educators and keep them in the classroom?
The Link Between Teacher SEL and Retention
Many experts agree that the answer may be in SEL training and resources that allow administrators to support teachers’ mental health needs, demonstrating how valued and heard they are. A recent study from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Collaborative for Social Emotional and Academic Learning (CASEL) of 5,000 teachers found that they are more in need of SEL than ever before, citing anxiety and stress related to the pandemic.
“Meeting the social-emotional needs of students, staff, and communities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic is every educator’s number one priority,” explains Greg Walcott, author of Significant 72: Unleashing the Power of Relationships in Today’s Schools. “The past two years have not only brought about new levels of stress and anxiety, but have made more apparent the equity, financial, and learning gaps prevalent across the globe. This reality has left educators feeling unprepared to meet the needs of their students and themselves. Quality professional development during this time is crucial not only to student and staff well-being, but staff retention as well.”
Research supports Walcott’s position, with a strong link seen between SEL and teacher retention rates. CASEL reports that teachers with more highly developed emotional skills report greater job satisfaction and less burnout. These teachers also have better relationships with their students and administrators, creating an overall more positive work environment that fosters retention. With 80% of educators from across 15 countries stating that positive emotions and emotional well-being are crucial to success in the classroom, it’s clear that SEL can no longer be just for students if we want to slow down teacher turnover.
Teacher SEL in Action
Schools that know the true value of SEL take steps to ensure that this approach is implemented schoolwide, with a focus on adult learning serving as one of the key indicators that the school is taking a systemic approach to SEL. In these settings, staff have regular opportunities to cultivate their own social, emotional, and cultural competences, just as students are encouraged to do. Educators are also able to collaborate with one another, build trusting relationships, and maintain a strong community.
A schoolwide SEL approach doesn’t just mean creating a supportive environment, however; it’s important to take concrete steps to find ways to support staff SEL efforts. This can include encouraging teachers to create their own personalized SEL professional learning plans, creating a culture of appreciation, or implementing and modeling a growth mindset across the school. It can also include providing dedicated opportunities for teacher self-care and re-energizing, as well as putting in place other retention tools and programs for teachers to participate in.
One of the best – and most underutilized – SEL tools for teacher retention is coaching. Teacher coaching creates a personalized path for educators to develop the skills they need to manage the daily stresses of teaching. It allows teachers to focus on their social-emotional needs, increasing their confidence in both their teaching abilities and their ability to handle stressful situations. By giving teachers the tools they need to focus on their mental health, they’ll feel more confident facing new challenges and ultimately staying in the profession.
Incorporating SEL into other programs like mentoring, professional development, and teacher leadership opportunities can also help to build a stable workforce and minimize teacher turnover. In the same way that teachers are encouraged to gain professional skills, they should be encouraged to develop social-emotional skills – especially new teachers. “The more supported teachers are in their early careers, the more likely they are to stay in the profession,” explains Laurie VanderPloeg, Director of the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs.
With teachers ranking personal resources to support mental and physical health as the second-most helpful contribution in educator well-being, second only to more personal time throughout the day, it’s clear that establishing formal SEL programs is worth the investment. SEL opportunities like coaching programs and mentorships should be easy for teachers to access, demonstrating not only that their hard work is appreciated, but that there are programs in place to help them keep growing within their roles.
Final Thoughts
While students will always be the focus of education, it’s important to ensure that teachers are taken care of too. Just as students need a safe emotional environment to learn, teachers need to know their mental health is a priority to provide the best education to their students. Investing in SEL programs not only creates better learning outcomes, but also fosters an environment that teachers are happy to work in for years to come.
Identify at-risk students earlier and easier
As educators and students around the world can attest to, the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the importance of being able to shift our perspectives. From redefining what it means to be together to what exactly a classroom looks like, we’ve had to adjust to a constantly changing environment. Technology has played a huge role in shifting these perspectives, providing the tools needed to keep up with changes, as well as a way to connect with the outside world as we sheltered in place.
Even with the best technology available, learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic affected schools worldwide, disrupting education for 1.6 billion students at its peak, according to a recent report by the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNICEF. Students experienced critical declines in learning in important subjects like math and literacy, as well as in social-emotional development. Many schools are turning to classroom intervention, tutoring, or after-school services as part of learning recovery, but it can be difficult to determine which students need the most help.
Shifting the Perspective on Data
The key to identifying learning loss in students may be as simple as reframing the data schools receive through their student information system (SIS). When viewed holistically, data received from an SIS like FACTS can help schools predict trends and proactively identify students showing signs of learning loss. While identifying learning loss has traditionally relied on a hunch from a teacher, knowing what signs to look for across different data sets provided by a school’s SIS or learning management system (LMS) offers welcome support for educators stretched thin with the ongoing challenges of COVID-19.
Data That Indicates Potential Learning Loss
So what sort of data are we talking about? While there’s no perfect algorithm to identify learning loss, reading between the lines of available data can help teachers identify students that need help catching up. From attendance to behavior, here are some of the key indicators that leaders and teachers should look for in their SIS and LMS in order to intervene as soon as possible.
Declining Grades or Test Scores
One of the clearest ways to identify learning loss is a decline in a student’s grades or scores. Consulting firm McKinsey found that first through sixth graders were an average of five months behind in math and four months behind in reading after the 2020-2021 school year, which can lead to lower scores on assessments.
With an SIS like FACTS, parents and tutors have access to online reports of assignments, quizzes, and test scores daily, allowing them to get involved in academic progress. Analytics can help identify students that are falling behind in the classroom and what topics they’re struggling with, making it easier for educators to identify trends and adapt lesson plans based on students’ learning levels.
Incomplete or Missing Assignments
Learning loss doesn’t apply only to academic subject matter. Due to the constant changes and upheaval of the previous school year, many students disengaged from school altogether, forgetting the behaviors and mindsets instilled in them through in-person instruction. This lack of commitment and interest can lead to incomplete or missing assignments.
Using an SIS or LMS allows teachers to quickly and easily access gradebook data to identify which students are not completing their assignments. Systems may also allow for teacher comments, providing a record of specific areas in which a student may be experiencing a decline in learning, as well as further information for parents and tutors to work with students at home.
Behavior Events
Looking at student behavior is another way to identify learning loss. When students don’t understand the material being covered, they might act out in order to hide or avoid subjects that are difficult for them. Personal difficulties may also lead a student to display a lack of interest, motivation, or engagement – which has a direct result on their performance, grades, and overall behavior.
Leaders can make use of behavior reports via their school’s SIS to identify behavior concerns that, when viewed in conjunction with low test scores or unfinished work, point to learning decline. These reports also provide invaluable information to parents who may not be aware of how their child is adapting to returning to the classroom or switching to a new style of learning.
Attendance Trends
Poor attendance is often the first and most obvious sign of learning loss. While some students struggle to attend virtual or hybrid classes, others may be struggling to reintegrate into a physical classroom. Growing absenteeism has been reported, likely reflecting quarantine regulations and other challenges unique to education during a pandemic.
Leaders and teachers can identify students with poor attendance easily through data available via their SIS or LMS, as with FACTS’ Excessive Absent/Tardy – Student Report. Reports like these allow educators to see what students are not receiving the instruction needed to keep on track with learning goals and identify learning loss before it becomes a serious problem.
Parent Communication History
If a student’s parents are frequently being contacted by their child’s teachers regarding bad behavior, missing assignments, or poor grades, it’s possible that learning loss may be to blame. Communication logs within an SIS allow schools to keep track of emails sent to parents regarding students’ progress and needs. When a threshold set by a school has been met, it may be an indicator that learning decline is occurring and intervention may be necessary.
Keeping track of these communications is especially helpful if a student has multiple teachers that may not be able to communicate with each other about an individual student’s progress or performance. Logs allow both schools and parents to get a sense of a student’s overall performance and identify academic issues as soon as possible.
Although there’s no one-size-fits-all formula to identify learning loss, shifting our perspectives on what the student data we’re so used to seeing means is a great place to start. With an SIS that keeps different sets of data in one convenient location, it’s easier to notice similarities between reports and identify trends that can point to learning loss in students that teachers may not have initially suspected. While recognizing learning loss is only the first step in learning recovery, the sooner it’s identified, the sooner schools can move forward in preparing students to face the challenges of a changing world.
Learn more about FACTS Student Information and Learning Management System here.
