Smart Changes, Big Results 3 Clever, High-Impact Ways to Boost Classroom Support by Placing More Substitutes and Certified Teachers in Your Schools

The struggle to place more substitutes – let alone more certified teachers – in your classrooms has been one of the most enduring and difficult problems for school administrators to solve. There are strategic changes you can make that not only answer these shortfalls but also do so in a way that significantly adds to the quality of classroom support. See a few suggestions of what ESS and Proximity Learning, experts in K-12 personnel solutions, recommend:

Leverage Absence Data to Plan Ahead and Answer Absences Before They Occur.

Taking a comprehensive view of absence data can offer insight into reducing their frequency and ensuring a teacher in every classroom, which in turn will drastically improve classroom continuity. To use this data to make improvements, try:

• Looking at Absences Per Year, Per Employee. The national average for teacher absences is ten days per school year. If your staff exceeds this average, consider adjusting PTO or substitute policies to ease your above-average need for substitute coverage, e.g., changing requirements for “no substitute needed” absences or adding notice time to PTO requests.

• Finding Clustered Absence Dates. If you notice that many employee absences are concentrated around the same specific annual events, you can proactively increase the number of available substitutes to meet expected absence needs for those dates in the future.

• Checking Callout Times. Addressing patterns in the types of absences can significantly improve substitute coverage. For instance, a high number of last-minute callouts could be mitigated by creating a pool of “permanent” substitutes whose responsibility is to be available to fill any last-minute absences as needed.

Improve Substitute Coverage by Focusing on Retention.

Specialized firms such as ESS that run significant retention initiatives for their substitutes transform them from temporary employees into permanent education resources that elevate student education. These firms achieve this retention by:

• Providing Career Training. Giving in-depth training to substitutes builds their confidence and success with the job, encouraging them to keep coming back for new assignments. Look for firms that provide practical classroom management skills in their training.

• Creating a Substitute Mentoring Program. ESS offers its best substitutes the opportunity to act as substitute mentors. These mentors give new substitutes vital training and help connect them to your teaching community, getting to know students, classrooms, and faculty and building confidence and comfort toward their position.

• Giving Performance Rewards and Incentives. Whether it’s regular “Substitute of the Month” awards or cash performance incentives for working a set number of assignments, rewards programs such as those commonly implemented by ESS are efficient and effective ways to improve retention.

Fill Teaching Vacancies With Exceptional

Educators by Partnering with a Solution Provider.

Partnering with teaching and learning solution providers such as Proximity Learning, is one of the most impactful decisions you can make in solving personnel levels. These quality-focused companies will help you make sustainable, long-term solutions by:

• Providing Certified, Highly Qualified Teachers. To place the best teachers in classrooms, Proximity Learning only provides teachers who are certified, subject-matter experts, and have a wealth of teaching skills. These qualifications help solve the real issue of a teaching vacancy, which is students receiving substandard instruction.

• Fully Customizing to Match Your School Systems. Through synchronous virtual instruction, Proximity Learning’s instruction is customized for each partner by using their curriculum, their LMS & other systems - and our teachers become part of the school community by participating in an all aspects of a schools’ instructional program including PLCs.

• Leveraging Virtual Efficiencies To Expand Course Offerings. Besides filling teaching vacancies, live instruction solutions such as those offered by Proximity Learning offer incredible variety in subject matter, allowing you to expand your course offerings efficiently and effectively.

Whether it’s looking closer at absence data, focusing on retaining substitute employees, or embracing high-quality virtual education, there are many smart changes you can make to improve educator coverage that significantly add to classroom support. If you’re serious about making such improvements in your District, consider contacting ESS and Proximity Learning today.

K-12 Substitute Teacher & Management Solution

Fred Bentsen, Vice President of Business Development FBentsen@ESS.com | 832.244.5015 ESS.com

K-12 Live Online Instruction

Annette Rodriguez, Senior Director of Sales ARodriguez01@ProxLearn.com 512.773.5030 ProxLearn.com