If there were a smarter way to do something would you do it? Let’s take the invention of cars for example. Someone thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to walk everywhere?” We could travel longer distances in a shorter time period. Great solution, right? I think people in general are receptive to anything that can simplify a problem. In regard to transition, one of the problems I see often deals with effectively tracking and scoring student data. If there were a cost effective and efficient way to electronically track and score student data why wouldn’t you choose to work smarter?
Working Harder
Why is it that school districts continue to use transition material that makes the jobs of educators harder? Some of these materials are “free,” while others have subscriptions or annual fees, so most are not cost effective. Some programs are costly in the amount of unnecessary work they create for the teaching staff. This work comes about in various forms whether it be printing out lesson plans to implement in class or manually entering data into the so called “online management system.” All of this extra work raises the question, ‘how valuable is your time?’
We’ve recently discussed the tradeoff that normally exists between time and money in a blog post, Some Assembly Required: Transition Assessments and the Status Quo. The article talks about how some administrators are still choosing the “working harder” route, and choosing to spend valuable time and money. So what can districts do that is less labor-intensive, more efficient, more cost effective, and an overall better fit for their students?
Working Smarter
The answer: Conover Online! It is cloud-based, accessible anywhere there is an internet connection, including mobile devices. Credits can be purchased for just $5 and used to access any of the transition programs based on the students’ needs. Conover Online programs have progress monitoring and accountability built right into the management system. The Times Argus recently published an article called, Vermont Progressing in Special Education Reporting, which explains that Vermont special education programs were found deficient in transition plans. Vermont’s special education program is just one of many districts that could benefit from a cost effective system like Conover Online, to help with writing those transition plans.
Thanks to the Conover Company’s MECA programs, the teachers in our special education department are more comfortable writing transition plans. MECA has also helped our department tremendously in our last audit. We received a 100% rating on transition plans and there were no compliance findings in our report.
~Joe Ann Denning, Superintendent of Peach County School District
So back to my original question, if there were a smarter way to do something would you do it? If there were an easy, cost effective way to handle transition and specifically data tracking, why wouldn’t you?
