Grants and reporting can be overwhelming. But do they have to be?

Hi, friends — Kunjan Narechania here. Shortly after we published our newsletter about Louisiana’s Super App, I read Superintendent Piper Bognar 's opinion piece in The 74 Media titled, “Grants & Reporting Can Be Overwhelming. They Mustn’t Distract from Student Needs.”?

Bognar writes that in most states, district leaders have to “get creative to bring successful student outcomes back to the forefront” because “the demands of compliance management and data analysis often overshadow the very work that funding was approved for.” Bognar is 100% right.?

Her recommendations for superintendents operating in this environment are good ones, but isn’t it unfair to put that burden on superintendents, who already face incredible pressures and are still experiencing some of the highest rates of turnover in decades??

Educators shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to meet grant requirements and deliver outcomes for kids. Those two goals should be in alignment, and states have the power to align them.?

That’s what’s happening in Arkansas right now. Our team has been thrilled to work with the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education over the past year to develop the AR App, which consolidates 17 applications (!!) into one. ICYMI: Jocelyn Pickford recently interviewed Stacy Smith, the Deputy Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education in Arkansas, about how the state was able to break down so many “longstanding silos.”?

“The AR App is, at its core, an opportunity to help districts think strategically about funding all of their initiatives in one plan. Too often, this work happens in siloes; budgeting happens by different leaders in different departments, such as special education and English language learning. In larger districts especially, this leads to misaligned curriculum purchases that do not work together with the district’s core materials. The AR App guides the professionals working across the districts to collaborate on a single application that crosses all the various populations and departments and leads back to the district’s core materials. It has eliminated so much duplication of effort at both the state and the district levels, freeing up time and reducing the burden of overworked staff.” — Stacy Smith, the Deputy Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education in Arkansas, to CurriculumHQ

Aligning state resources to prioritize desired outcomes and reduce burdens is a big undertaking, but it’s so worthwhile. After all, at a moment when districts are stretching to do more for kids with less room for error in their budgets, isn’t now the perfect time for states to be the ones getting creative??

Let’s Get Muddy

I know Thanksgiving is all about loading up our plates, but what is one thing you’d most like to take OFF the plates of our busy superintendents? Any creative tools you are seeing that help relieve pressure??