6 Key Questions to Decide if It’s Time to Upgrade Your Classroom Management Platform

With tight budgets, significant demands, and scarce resources, upgrading classroom tools doesn’t always take priority. But as the needs of students, expectations of productivity, and necessity of data grows, many schools and districts find themselves faced with a decision to upgrade their classroom management platform.

A comprehensive learning management system (LMS) that connects students, teachers, parents, and administrators can relieve some of the challenges that overwhelm school and district administrators. Here are six questions to help you better understand whether your teachers have the tools they need to support every student with data-driven teaching and learning or if it’s time to upgrade your classroom management platform.

1. How many classroom tools are your teachers logging in to daily?

According to a recent statistic, 74% of districts have 21+ edtech products.¹ A consistent user experience across the most commonly-used digital classroom tools can help mitigate the extra time spent toggling between platforms and encourage educators to own their digital classroom experience. Learning a new platform can take time, especially for new educators that are still becoming more familiar with the ins and outs of teaching.

The more your systems integrate, the fewer tools your teachers have to manage. Consolidating your teaching and learning tools into one comprehensive platform can help you give teachers more time to teach and allow them to focus on what matters most—the students.

2. How connected are your systems?

When entering the same data in multiple applications, there’s a high risk of data-entry inaccuracies and a lag in getting the most up-to-date information. These challenges can cost time and money, and inhibit individualized, whole-child instruction.

However, when your LMS, assessment management system (AMS), and special programs tools work well together, those challenges are minimized. A connected digital ecosystem simplifies a teacher’s workflow. It allows them to get a complete view of student performance data, which will enable them to adjust instruction more quickly.

3. Is data easily accessible from your current classroom platforms to understand the ongoing instructional needs of students and staff?

Accurate data with real-time updates is necessary for quality decision-making at the classroom, school, and district levels. It’s essential to easily see where students and teachers need more support to adjust the curriculum and tailor professional learning.

Though addressing unfinished learning is a current focus for many schools and districts, it is not a one-time event given the recent and ongoing disruptions to education. Accelerating learning gains requires consistent and comprehensive progress monitoring throughout the year.

When you combine a teacher’s intuition with the purposeful data collection that a comprehensive LMS provides, you’ll be in an excellent position to keep the learning going in your school or district.

4. Do your teachers have access to the data and tools they need to build and deliver whole-child instruction?

Supporting long-term student outcomes means focusing on more than test scores and class attendance. Teachers need data that gives them a complete picture of the whole child, so they can support their social and emotional learning (SEL) needs and their academic performance.

When teachers have access to the data and tools they need to build and deliver whole-child instruction, they can bring more life skills into teaching and learning that significantly impact long-term student success.

5. How well does your technology give you insights to manage students with special needs?

To improve student outcomes for all—from students with disabilities to English Language Learners (ELL) to gifted and talented students—it’s critical to have the technology that gives you insights to support students with a wide range of different needs effectively.

Educators need a clear picture of students with special needs and technology that helps them simplify case management. While technology solutions don’t necessarily take away from the documentation required to serve students with special needs, they can help reduce the administrative load and help teachers spend more time on education, growth, and outcomes. Simply put, less paperwork directly translates to more time devoted to the students.

We don’t have to search for [Special Programs] information in several locations anymore. Everything is right there, and [teachers] can access it at home or work.
JEANNE DUQUETTE EDUCATIONAL AGENT
NEW BRUNSWICK BOARD OF EDUCATION

6. How flexible is your classroom management system to adapt to new needs during times of disruption or change?

A list of online resources or a folder of documents will no longer serve an online classroom environment in today’s K-12 educational landscape. Modern LMSs are needed to address evolving needs, now and into the future.

The recent pandemic put all classroom management systems to the test. It highlighted the need for an adaptable platform that can keep the learning going from the classroom to the living room or wherever students are learning. Your LMS should be responsive and flexible enough to support a remote learning format whenever and however it is needed.

Explore the Classroom Management Platform Buyer’s Guide

Learn how to find the right classroom management platform for your K-12 school or district today. Take a deeper look into the key questions to address when evaluating and choosing a classroom management platform that effectively brings together classroom data and improves student outcomes in the K-12 Classroom Management Platform Buying Guide.