These days, many organizations are being asked to do “more with less,” as the responsibilities placed on personnel trend upward while the budgets funding the work seem to move in the opposite direction. The inversely proportional nature of this trend effectively mandates that organizations and teams find adaptive ways to squeeze the most out of what they have available in order to meet ever-changing challenges in the educational landscape.
It is with this backdrop in mind that members of the Educational Technology Service (EduTech) reached out to the CNYRIC to “talk shop” about data reporting and facilitation. EduTech - a subsidiary of the Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES - is in the business of managing student data in many of the same ways as members of the CNYRIC’s own Educational Data Services (EDS) team. The EduTech team had established a twofold goal of operating more efficiently, while also maintaining a proactive approach in meeting mandated deadlines - all under the overarching umbrella of better facilitating conversations about data within districts. And given the point in the school year (and the subsequent reporting requirements that are about to take effect), “now” seemed like the perfect time to talk about how the respective teams operate.
The challenge of meeting these goals has been magnified in recent years by a high level of staffing turnover within districts, combined with ever-evolving mandates for state reporting. As such, the EduTech team is targeting new solutions for onboarding new district staff more quickly while also identifying reliable ways to stay ahead on state reporting, and was curious how the EDS team handled these types of challenges (neither of which were, as the discussion proved, region-specific hurdles).
The EDS team, too, has noticed recent trends in district staff turnover, and discussed its own challenges with continually onboarding new individuals. The team also spent some time discussing vendor-related software challenges in the form of updates that are coming far more frequently than they used to, which required an efficiency adjustment of its own in order to keep district staff apprised on the current state of affairs.
Phil Owens from the EDS team also talked about the enormous benefit of having the entire team in-house one day a week to stay on top of updates and work through issues as a group to ensure that everyone was operating out of the same playbook, commenting that, “We’ve gotten really good at working together effectively as one team.”
The EDS team also reinforced the critical importance of having redundancy for every district seeking support, and reaffirming the idea that districts are purchasing a service, not a person. While rapport and relationship-building are hugely important parts of the equation, so too is being able to receive assistance when it’s most needed, which is why EDS strives to make sure that answers remain only a phone call away. Attentive service remains paramount.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the discussion proved that team members from different parts of the state aren’t afraid to work together and talk through the challenges of the day in order to ultimately better serve the districts who are educating our respective students. A metaphorical handshake such as the one initiated by the representatives from EduTech can go a long way in helping ensure that we’re all pulling in the same direction in the most effective ways possible.
