14 Tips To Improve Schools and Overall Student Performance

Finding a way to improve schools and enhance student engagement and growth can be difficult, especially because there are so many elements involved in a school district’s decision-making process when trying to make changes. Not to mention, once a school district implements changes, it takes time, data collection, and research to determine whether those changes have proven successful or not. Regardless of the gains, modifying and adjusting to acquire additional improvements is an on-going, never-ending process. Nonetheless, over a five-year period, 62% of teachers and 81% of principals feel school improvement initiatives enhance schools.

To assist in finding ways to improve the educational experience, here are 14 areas that are worth considering when schools are looking to take education to the next level:

1. Technology Usage

Despite some naysayers who believe technology is a hindrance to education and a distraction from student focus and performance, research indicates that educational technology can be a helpful tool to increase student engagement and allow unprecedented interaction with curricular content. Nowadays, most schools use SMART boards, Chromebooks, video conferencing, and more to help students process information. While there is a gold mine of untapped potential through technology, some of the benefits include improved communication, advanced research opportunities, lecture enhancement, effective assessments, and the option for a more open-ended, student-guided learning experience.

2. Teacher Training

While the magnifying glass is often on technology, material resources, and assessment, these are just tools that are a means to an end - one which hopefully finds successful outcomes. However, no matter how promising these tools may be, it is crucial to spend time ensuring that the teachers themselves are creative, engaging, and efficient deliverers of their content. After all, the teacher is the classroom facilitator who makes the plans, designs the lessons, and makes use of all resources at their disposal (or doesn’t, as the case may be).

Therefore, it is imperative to ensure teachers receive adequate professional learning covering ground-breaking technology and educational techniques. Far too often, teachers attend training sessions, but the time is limited and they are not allowed to actually engage with the new technology or material themselves. Instead, they engage as an observer  and they are forced to learn new content through a means that research has proven ineffective. As a result, many teachers take in the information, are overwhelmed or unsure about its usage, and never make an attempt to implement the new resources or learning into their lessons.

3. Cultural Activities

Sometimes school improvement comes in a simple form: cultural awareness. Creating opportunities for cultural awareness takes time and preparation on the part of teachers and administrators. When schools find ways to connect content material to students’ cultural backgrounds, students become more engaged on a personal level and content is brought to life in a way that has meaning to them. As a result, students are more willing to put forth effort and are able to better understand how their learning relates to their lives.

Schools can hold additional events to encourage cultural awareness as well, such as social festivities, dance and music workshops, and heritage clubs. Creating these cultural connections for students can make learning fun while transferring knowledge to real-world situations.

4. Motivational Guests

Sometimes a teacher can motivate students without having to do all the work themselves. Inviting guest speakers from various professions that can effectively engage and interact offers students an endless set of topic possibilities. This can happen in a variety of ways, including in-person appearances or online connections through Skype or other video conferencing tools. Guest speakers have the potential to relate to students and inspire them by describing problems, likes, dislikes, and challenges throughout their own lives that connect to the classroom content. For example, a science teacher could ask a scientist to speak about the biggest success and the biggest learning experience they’ve ever encountered in a laboratory setting. Students can then ask questions of the scientist and learn first-hand from someone who is in the field.

5. Student Counseling

Not all students share the same qualities, not do they manage school pressure in the same way. A school should understand that students spend a significant amount of time away from their families during the school year. As a result, regular check-ins with school counselors are paramount to help reduce student stress and assist with students’ problem-solving skills - both academic and personal.

6. School Maintenance

Ongoing school building and its technological platform maintenance is important, as this helps reduce lost educational time. Electrical and technological maintenance are important to reduce lost educational time. In order to provide the best possible care for students, school administrators should ensure that all campus maintenance issues are resolved as soon as possible. Schools should also have backup generators and ensure that all safety measures are working properly, not only to ensure students remain safe, but also to allow teachers to continue their lessons uninterrupted. A technological mishap can undo weeks of planning, especially since teachers often have to schedule access to computer labs and other resources weeks or even months in advance.

There should always be a backup plan to combat outages and ensure that lights, fans, and air conditioners are always operational.

Additionally, schools should ensure that hazardous chemicals, such as lead paint, lead pipes or asbestos are not present on their campus. Though eliminating these toxins is costly and time consuming, doing so is crucial to ensure student safety.

7. Parent-teacher Communication

It is imperative that school administration, teachers and personnel maintain an open line of communication with parents and the school community. Doing so keeps all parties up to date on a school's successes, challenges and general information. Administration should conduct regular meetings to encourage teacher-family involvement and give the school community an opportunity to be heard. The knowledge gleaned from these meetings can potentially be used to modify campus procedures to ensure that the learning process continues smoothly. These meetings also impact the growth and development of a school in a way that satisfies all participants in the educational process.

8. Activities Outside Classrooms

A great way to provide students with a rich learning experience that connects content to real-world concepts is to provide them with activities that take place outside of the classroom. An example of this might be to make a garden at school and ask students to be involved in all aspects of the gardening projects. Students could then conduct classes about their learning and invite community members to attend for a small fee in an effort to raise money for the school.

Improving a school's "curb appeal" is another quick and cost-effective way to provide activities outside the classroom and improve schools and school performance. Clearing weeds, pruning hedges, planting flowers, and picking up garbage in fields and parking lots are all student-friendly methods to improve the appearance of a school’s campus.

These activities can be connected to school curriculum and the real-world through teaching lessons about plant growth when working in the garden or environmental issues, such as littering, when cleaning up the schoolyard.

9. Local Campaigns

Another great way to engage students is to organize campaigns. Whether to acquire funding or support for school initiatives or simply to give students a chance to have a voice about important real-world matters, allowing students to direct a campaign not only builds their leadership skills but also gives them the opportunity to demonstrate important skills they learn in the classrooms. One of the main goals for education is to transfer classroom learning into the real world, and campaigning provides a perfect opportunity to show students that what they do can make a difference.

10. Sports Activities and Clubs

Research shows that the more involved students are at school, the better they perform academically and socially. If a school lacks extracurricular activities or ways for students to build a sense of community, they should consider providing opportunities that encourage student-school connection.

With extracurricular options that appeal to the spectrum of student interests, students will enjoy school more and be willing to try harder to complete their learning objectives. Some possibilities to consider are:

• Sports (baseball, soccer, basketball, etc.)
• Arts (drama, drawing, dance, etc.)
• Academics (quizbowl, chess, board games, etc.)

11. An Engaging Environment

Teachers are encouraged to experiment with an innovative classroom to provide new experiences within the classroom itself. This includes a willingness to re-arrange furniture or even take the classroom to new locations to provide deeper engagement and interaction with the content matter and stimulate student minds. New experiences generate student interest and when the atmosphere is a combination of rigor and fun, students will learn far more - especially if they have the opportunity to actively interact with the material.

12. Communication of Needs

Sometimes improving a school is like turning a ship around — it’s a slow process that takes time. However, if nobody turns the wheel, that ship is going to continue on its course, even if it plows into a sandbar.

Teachers, parents, administrators, and community members need to be vocal and vigilant about improving the educational experience. This can include openly sharing and expressing ideas and speaking to the appropriate officials who can make change happen. Sometimes, this involves parents or teachers approaching school administration, or administration approaching district or community members with ideas to consider.

Holding meetings and communication forums with interested parties is another great way to present research on new technology, techniques, and other ideas for school improvement. This is also an effective way to generate interest and involvement in the school community, and it helps stakeholders learn about the process and costs required to make school improvements happen.

13. Compliments for Students

Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that can make the most difference in a student’s life. Complimenting students makes them feel as if they are valued as individuals and can provide a spark that encourages them to try harder and perform beyond expectations. All school personnel should make a concerted effort to find the strengths in students and compliment them on their behavior and performance.

Encourage staff members and teachers to give specific and genuine praises to each student that highlight what they have done well and what makes them special.

14. A Positive Atmosphere

Efforts to create school improvements will only have a long-term benefit if they can be sustained. Therefore, it is imperative to build a culture of success within the district that includes continuously seeking new improvement options and campaigning for them. It is also important to document change and place reminders throughout the campus to keep school improvement while placing reminders throughout the school to keep reform and creativity as a focus in everyone’s minds.

Positivity and reinforcement are important to ensure that initiatives do not lose momentum and interest and eventually disappear into the box of good ideas that were never realized. Be the cheerleader for educational revival and enlist students and other faculty to join you on this neverending mission for improvement.

Keeping a visible record of the positive changes that have already taken place and recording goals that the school wishes to achieve are tangible ways to keep school improvement on the forefront.

Here are some possible ideas to consider:

• Choose a historian for the school’s progress. They can keep track of any improvements made to your institution and pass that information on to the next historian so there is a solid and detailed record of changes.
• Check with your school to see if a special location can be set aside to memorialize this effort. This could be a space in the library or office displaying successful school initiatives and a memorial wall with photos, plaques, and other mementos of these successes.

The Bottom Line

Without individuals pursuing new opportunities to improve student growth, schools will remain stagnant or even lose educational value. With new research showing the many benefits of innovative and creative educational methods, it is important for all stakeholders involved in education to find new and interesting ways to capture the attention of students and improve engagement while working to ensure that content learning can be transferred to real-world situations.