The Business of Learning: How School Management Delivers Results

A lot goes into school management. There are so many moving parts: teachers, coaches, administrators, students, non-certified staff. It’s no wonder there was a 37 percent increase in school closures from 1995-2018!

For our purposes, we’ll be talking about the technologies that you use to manage it all. The tools you use can have an extremely positive, results-driven effect on the school as a whole.

In this article, we will be examining all the ways that an effective school management system can aid your school as it grows with the tides of education. Let’s begin!

Management Fills Communication Gaps

First off, education management technology can keep the lines of communication open between staff members in a way that’s accessible and time-saving. Using phone, text, email, and other integrations ensures that messages do not go unanswered for too long.

It also ensures that everyone is on the same page, from those on the payroll to students and parents. Essentially, there is a portal where all the relevant parties can touch base at their convenience.

Saves Time For Educators

Another benefit of school operations management that will result from doing it effectively is maximizing time. Teachers especially have a constant demand on their time with papers to grade, grade books to update, clubs to sponsor, and parent-teacher conferences to set up.

Plus, there are in-services, taking attendance. Having a system in place that largely automates these time-draining activities will give your staff more time to actually teach.

Maximizes Instruction Time For Students

That added instruction time isn’t just there to benefit teachers. It also helps students get more face-time that can help them over educational barriers.

A teacher may only have 50 minutes with her 30 students. When you subtract five to 10 of that with administrative duties, that’s barely a minute of face-to-face instruction time per student. Eliminating that burden can help teachers spend more time with students who need it most.

Aids With HR

Human resources are as important to the operations of a school district as they are a Fortune 500 company. Both are employers with paid staff.

That comes with forms, rules, regulations, compliance demands. Your digital infrastructure and software tools should serve your employees and the HR professionals who support them (and are also employees, by the way).

Provides Extensive Student Data

An effective education management system is capable of tracking a student’s progress, not just from week to week or semester to semester but from year to year. This gives schools and the teachers who work for them unprecedented knowledge and the ability to reach students.

They can spot potential learning issues sooner, help students realize their full potential in a given subject area, and make special accommodations as needed. That’s the power of data.

Eases Lesson Planning

One activity that takes up a great deal of a teacher’s time is lesson planning. School districts typically require teachers to turn in their lesson plans, which, while understandable, adds an extra burden to an already overtaxed employee.

Fortunately, a school management software system that integrates technologies and provides efficient modules for lesson planning can alleviate the headaches. Teachers can build lesson plans more quickly, save them for dexterity, and make easy updates as necessary (in case they are moved to another grade).

Simplifies Transactions

Throughout the year, there will be a number of financial obligations that teachers, students, and parents may have to attend to. Being able to facilitate new forms of payment and convenient processing to bring school technology into the 21st Century is essential.

By simplifying the transactional process, schools have to do less paperwork and bookkeeping. This saves time, money, and hassles.

Cuts Out Physical Gradebooks

Many school management software programs integrate one of a teacher’s greatest headaches in an easier to understand, read, and use manner. We’re talking about grade books, of course.

As many teachers working today will attest, these flimsy (usually green) books were not created with the visually impaired in mind. They forced teachers to write small, navigate grid lines, and break out the calculator every time they needed to know how a student was doing.

No more. Today’s management programs allow teachers to keep students and parents updated in real-time. This provides plenty of notice if there are issues with turning in work or under-performing.

Creates Safer Student Environments

Education technology has the ability to track student locations throughout the day. This acts to keep children in school and safe from themselves as well as the outside.

As schools take the place of parents throughout the day, it’s essential that they understand where their students are at all times. It’s also important to keep the outside world from interfering with a child’s instruction time or personal safety.

Manages Physical Inventory

Your school management system can track more than just student safety and performance. It can do more than simply help teachers create lessons and log grades.

It can also serve as an inventory management system. This is important for tracking everything from furniture and fixtures to other forms of property, textbooks, and even library selection.

Makes Management Easier Across Schools

Thus far, we’ve spoken only of what school management means to the individual school. The helpful implications go far beyond this, however. Many districts consist of multiple elementary, middle schools, junior highs, and even high schools.

Boasting a system that can track and integrate all these schools under a single umbrella is essential to efficiency and management. The tech is there to tie it all together, ensuring the left hand always knows what the right is doing.

Delivers ROI Through Savings

It’s not the only point behind school management software, but it’s an undeniable benefit that effective technology solutions save money. Programs like this new product make it easier to keep up with the property, qualify for funds, and manage resources in a way that also cuts unnecessary costs.

What Can Your School Management System Do?

Putting a school management system to work for your district can produce results that benefit every party to the educational process. Take a look at the sum of your parts to make sure each is operating as efficiently as possible. For more technology tips and articles, check out some of our additional posts!