Last month, I wrote about our core competency of academic maturity. An effective online school builds a student’s ability to connect with their teacher and classmates, and operate efficiently and effectively in the online space. We focus on connection, choice, and comfort to help students find success in the online space.

But, some students need more. And, that, of course, is appropriate for a new experience, like learning online. So, how do you help students who need extra support? Let’s explore this. I’ve asked Liz Katz, our Director School & Student Support, to describe how this works at One Schoolhouse.

Connection with Teacher
Just as at your face-to-face school, the primary relationship and communication is between the student and his or her teacher. Teachers work immediately from the start of class to build strong connections with students. They start with a one-on-one video discussion (Skype, Hangout, or Zoom) to create goals for the year and develop a rapport. If a concern arises—say, repeated missed assignments, or a lower-than-expected score on an assessment, the teacher contacts, the Director of School & Student Support and shares the details. When I receive that information, we want to make the support web a little bigger by bringing the Advisor into the picture.

Role of School Advisor
At that point, I reach out to the student and copy the School Advisor on the communication. Usually, my note includes the teacher’s concern, the student’s current average in the course, and suggestions for getting back on track. Most often, the next step is for the student to set up a face-to-face meeting with the teacher—just as he or she would do at a face-to-face school. Depending on the challenge, other recommended courses of action may include creating a plan to make up missed work, revisiting a topic or an assignment, or creating a study plan for an upcoming assessment.

When a School Advisor gets this update, it's also a signal to get in touch with the student. They make sure that the student understands what the best next steps are, and helps the student set an action plan, as necessary. The School Advisor also communicates back to me any additional information that we might need.  We work with extraordinary students, and so often the reason for challenge is overcommitment at certain times of the year -- perhaps the student was recently the lead in the play, or just competed in a state championship.  Occasionally, we work through challenges related to student health or mental well-being. The School Advisor helps us understand essential information that can be used to offer more effective support.

Bringing Parents into the Fold
Sometimes, when the stakes are high, a student needs a bigger net. When that’s important, we consult with the School Advisor whether it makes sense to contact the student’s parents so they can offer additional support at home. Our goal is always to have the right team in place to help our students achieve success in their courses.

The systems we have for creating support look a lot like the systems you see in face-to-face schools. That’s by design. On top of those supports, we use the reflections and goals students develop with their teachers to align our feedback and make sure that students receive the help they need to grow and gain academic maturity in a new learning environment.

​As educators, one of our primary jobs is to create environments that challenge students, encouraging them to step out of their comfort zones and then providing the help, support, encouragement, and guidance they need to find success.  That’s true for both the English teacher who assigns a Dostoevsky novel for the first time, and the swim coach who challenges a student to compete in a 400 yard individual medley for the first time.

It’s also true when we ask students to take an online class for the first time.  It’s uncomfortable.  Sometimes, this discomfort manifests itself as the student saying, “Online classes aren’t for me.”  What they are really saying is that they need help navigating an uncomfortable experience.

Just as the English teacher doesn’t assign Dostoevsky right at the start of the year (let’s ease into Russian literature with some Pushkin, maybe), and the swim coach doesn’t challenge the student to swim a 400 IM (without having done a 100 and 200 IM first), online teachers can’t start with the assumption that students are ready for an online class just because they signed up for one. So, how do you prepare students for this new type of learning? There are three key elements: connection, choice, and comfort.

Immediately, an effective online course connects students to their teacher and to their classmates, in order to build trust and break down any preconceived notions that the online learning space is impersonal.  This happens in a number of ways.  Students and teachers alike create a graphic journal to introduce themselves and share their personalities (think pictures, favorite YouTube clips, songs, text, etc.).  They see each other in video discussion boards.  Most importantly, they meet one on one with their teachers.

When students meet with their teachers one on one, they have a conversation about the student’s goals for the year, immediately giving students a way to choose their own path to grow. Students also talk with their teachers about their learning profile, noting strengths and areas of challenge and discussing approaches for learning and applying course content.  In collaboration with teachers, students learn about sustaining a growth mindset and the power of “yet.”

Another purpose of students meeting with their teachers is to become comfortable with their teacher. We create other elements in the orientation and first week of the course to help students become comfortable in the online space: student expectations are clear and explicit; course modules follow a regular and reliable flow, ensuring that students can’t “get lost” or miss an assignment; help and instructional videos abound; support and help are always visible for students, both from their teacher and for any technology needs. We lead students through a series of  opening assignments, allowing them to “get their feet wet” in the online space when the stakes are low, to prepare them for the work ahead.

Focus on connection, choice, and comfort does not mean that every student will feel that she is ready for the challenge of online learning, though.  There are extra supports necessary for some students regardless of how we prepare them for the experience -- just like there are at a face-to-face school.  I’ll write about that next month.

I love August because we get to be problem solvers for schools at One Schoolhouse.  As schools get ready for the academic year to launch, challenges bubble up. Issues arise with student schedules.  Students return from the summer with new passions they want to pursue in the school year. Students need greater flexibility than a traditional school day would allow for. Teachers leave unexpectedly or have unexpected constraints on what they can teach. And, in a final review of course offerings, schools sometimes realize that they are better served by not having low enrollment courses on campus.

August 1 hits and we have conversations with schools and parents about these issues every day -- just yesterday I had four such conversations.  The exciting thing is that we can help schools solve problems, while giving students the high quality, high touch academic program that students and parents expect from their schools.

Let’s hear from some of the students who we helped in these situations last year:

Allow an athlete to pursue her passion
“My entire life since elementary school, I've been balancing,” says Katie, an elite skater and high-achieving student from Miss Porter’s School. In the fall of 2017, she decided to devote more time to skating, traveling to Dallas to train intensively. “It was an incredible experience… I never had the opportunity to test out what that lifestyle would be like. Doing the One Schoolhouse courses and having that flexibility gave me the opportunity to try that out.” By taking three courses with One Schoolhouse while she was away from school, Katie says, “I found classes I was really interested in and passionate about.” Her AP Comparative Government class inspired her to take an international relations course at Miss Porter’s after she returned to campus. When she got back to a more typical school experience, we asked her, ”Would you take another online course?” Absolutely, says Katie. “You can learn anywhere and connect with people around the world--that's the future.” ​

How well would you do on a short quiz about independent school finances?
• What percentage of independent day school revenue comes from tuition: 59%, 69%, or 79%? 
• How about the percentage from gifts and grants: 8%, 12%, or 25%?  
• What about other programs and auxiliary services (campus rentals, summer camp, after school, etc.): 5%, 7%, 10%?
Now, let’s switch to the expense side. 
• ​What percentage of independent day school expense comes from faculty and staff salaries and benefits: 48%, 60%, or 72%? 
• How about instructional costs: 2%, 4%, or  8%? 
• And, finally, how about facilities: 10%, 14%, or 24%?
​
If you are like the cohort of great educators who just took the course that Jeff Shields and I taught for NBOA & One Schoolhouse, “Budget Meets Mission,” the answers may surprise you.

79% of revenue in independent schools comes from net tuition, with only 8% from gifts and grants, and 7% from other programs and auxiliary services.  72% of that revenue goes to cover faculty and staff costs, with 4% to instructional costs, and 10% to facilities.  These numbers often surprise even experienced members of the independent school community.  Why?  There seem to be a few reasons:

• On the revenue side, most assume that development is a larger percentage of the overall revenue picture… in part because it used to be.  In the 1990s, advancement accounted for as much as 15-20% of revenue, or more.  What happened?  Even though we increased development efforts (and costs) and actual dollars raised increased, it became a smaller share of the revenue because of annual raises of tuition.  In other words, we became more tuition driven by increasing tuition so quickly.
• Looking at revenue, we’ve been led to believe -- through publications, blog posts, conference presentations, and the like -- that there is some magical silver bullet out there for increasing revenue.  “If only our summer camp was more successful.” “What if we started a micro school?” “Could we rent out our campus for lots of money?” As a result, administrative teams and boards spend a disproportionate amount of time on “alternate revenue streams.”
• On the expense side, most assume that facilities are a larger expense, especially considering the building boom on many campuses in recent years.  However, new and upgraded facilities costs (while significant) can’t keep pace with the number of faculty and staff that we’ve added over the last twenty years.  One study notes that between 1992-2013, the average number of students to faculty/staff dropped from 8:1 to 5:1.  We’ve added to program costs by adding people across all facets of our schools.
• In addition, on the expense side, educators are often led to believe that instructional costs are a much larger part of the school’s budget than they actually are. This can, unfortunately, stem from business offices focusing on “departmental budgets” rather than the true drivers of department costs: the number of teaching faculty.

These misconceptions about independent school finance have encouraged us to focus efforts on school sustainability in the wrong places.  We’ve cut and tweaked and gained at the margins rather than examining and challenging the big drivers: tuition and faculty/staff costs. What if we were to focus our energies there instead?  What innovations might emerge?  Would we be as willing to add new staff, or replace every leaving staff member with the exact same job and position description? Would we raise tuitions at the same rate? Would financial aid look the same?

Are there models we should be looking at to get at the these two main drivers?  Sure. I’ll explore some of those next month.


* Data accessed for 2017-2018 school year from NAIS DASL