Tag: Challenges

Top 10 Challenges Faced by Principals: Staffing & Engagement

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Principals are facing challenges each day toward improving student achievement on campus. Every principal face some of the biggest frustrations to control student behavior, recruiting teachers and staff, promoting personalized learning, improving teaching effectiveness, student retention, parent support, and more.

Technology integration translates into enhanced student achievement

21st-century classrooms strengthen tech-savvy teachers with the most advanced cloud, mobile, and digital technologies to teach and interact with students using videos, chat, notifications, social media, and email messaging. Creating future-ready classrooms and higher education institutions with the use of cutting-edge augmented reality systems in the classroom can enrich the learning process and improve student achievement.

Principals are faced with complex and difficult challenges to turn around the campus with academic underperformance. Here is a list of the top 10 challenges and successful strategies to promote student growth and success.

1. Paperwork

Paperwork and forms are one of the biggest frustrations of principals. Eliminate paperwork and automate data collection processes through online forms and applications for admission, course evaluations, and more to reach out to more students in a positive manner.

2. Decision-making

Principals’ decisions and strategies are critically important to institutional performance. They are accountable for high levels of student achievement. In order to accomplish the high expectations, administrators have to analyze data through dashboards and reports to identify factors related to student enrollment, retention, and success. There is clear evidence through insightful reports that the attributes of the institution such as admission, enrollment, attendance, discipline, grades, fee collections, etc. determined those outcomes.

3. Scheduling

Classroom teachers, staff, and students report scheduling problems with principals. Cognitive reframing of scheduling with an automated timetable system enables instructors to manage class schedules across multiple courses, faculty and rooms for different time periods. Innovative scheduling can help alleviate conflicts in manual scheduling and place substitutes for teachers in order to maintain continuity of instruction.

4. Recruitment

Recruiting competent teachers who are capable of teaching all student populations is at the core of the problem. In successful institutions creating an advanced student admission system with real-time application tracking, online assessments, and an automated ranking system always identified the talented and sensitive teachers who demonstrated competency, will, and commitment to implement innovative and high-quality education programs and deliver excellence for all learners.

5. Faculty Evaluation

Teachers are vulnerable individuals who are struggling to align instruction and assessments to the learning context of a diverse student population. Creating instructions in innovative ways and building flexibility in the curriculum will be easier for students to rest with the teacher. Using a faculty evaluation system, creating faculty peer evaluation reviews through online surveys will benchmark teaching effectiveness. Based on the evaluation feedback score, training and improvement action plan for the benefit of faculty can be chalked out to improve teaching performance and cohesiveness.

6. Attendance & Discipline

Principals perceive student absenteeism and misconduct are a major concern. Educational institutions can improve class attendance and improve students’ poor academic records using RFID and Biometric based attendance tracking systems to monitor student movements in real-time. Maintaining order and discipline and controlling violence, vandalism, bullying, racism, etc. in the campus using sophisticated discipline trackers that will capture incidents from mobile devices and notify authorities in real-time and ensure student safety.

7. Curriculum Design

Principals are faced with the critical task of teaching a curriculum that is comprehensive and more encompassing. Curriculum mapping software provides the technology tools for executing changes in the curriculum design and syllabus. Principals and teachers can create customized outcome-based education that will map competencies, graduate attributes, and standards to improve learning outcomes. Students can develop skills and competencies that is aligned with course outcomes.

8. Student outcomes

One of the biggest factors that stood out is related to student achievement. Principals want to promote learning and see better student outcomes. With cutting-edge academic planning tools, administrators can create a personalized learning plan with goals and tasks linked to lessons to meet the precise requirement of students, which can improve learning outcomes and ensure student success. Using online assessments including assignments, tests, quizzes, and surveys will be of great help to students and teachers alike. Using online and mobile devices, teachers can measure students’ progress in real-time and share the results with parents through instant notifications via email and SMS alerts.

9. Parental Involvement

One of the biggest frustration faced by principals is that parental involvement is lacking to support the institution’s effort toward improving student achievement. Parents also have to take joint responsibility for the poor grade of their children. Using real-time status notifications for events, meetings, grades, fee collection, attendance, and discipline via web and mobile devices can improve interactions between teachers and parents and close the achievement gap.

10. Communication & Collaboration

Principals and staff spend so much energy on building relationships with students, teachers, and staff. Powerful communication tools like discussion forums, chat, messaging and social media will have a positive impact on the institute community and promote collaborative learning.

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October 18, 2024
Supreme Court Rejects Biden Administration’s Request for Relief in Title IX Legal Challenges – CUPA-HR

by CUPA-HR | August 19, 2024

On August 16, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Biden administration’s request to partially overturn preliminary injunctions from lower courts that block the Department of Education from enforcing the administration’s April 2024 Title IX final rule. The decision leaves the preliminary injunctions from the lower district courts in place, preventing the new Title IX rule from taking effect in 26 states and hundreds of schools in other states.

Background

Shortly after the Biden administration’s Title IX final rule was published, over two dozen states and advocacy groups filed lawsuits challenging the rule. Over the course of the summer, decisions from lower district courts across the country placed preliminary injunctions on the final rule, leading to the blocking of the final rule in 26 states, as well as at hundreds of schools where members of the Young America’s Foundation, Female Athletes United and Moms for Liberty are in attendance.*

After several preliminary injunctions were issued, the Biden administration appealed to the Supreme Court with an emergency request asking the court to limit the scope of the preliminary injunctions placed by the lower courts. Specifically, the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to limit the scope of the preliminary injunctions to only block provisions of the Title IX final rule related to gender identity, arguing that the lower courts’ decisions to grant the preliminary injunctions were based on concerns with the expanded protections for transgender students. The Biden administration had hoped that by limiting the scope of the preliminary injunctions, other provisions like the new grievance procedures and training requirements would be able to take effect on August 1.

Supreme Court’s Decision

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court rejected the Biden administration’s plea to limit the scope of the preliminary injunctions, leaving in place the lower courts’ rulings. The majority opinion stated that the Biden administration did not provide a strong enough argument to sway the Supreme Court to overturn the lower courts’ decisions, and they argued that the gender identity provisions the Biden administration had hoped to limit the scope of the preliminary injunctions to were “intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule.”

Looking Ahead

With the Supreme Court’s decision, the preliminary injunctions from the lower courts are still in place. Further decisions from the district courts on the legality of the final rule are still pending. The Title IX rule could return to the Supreme Court in the future, however, depending on how lower courts rule on the legality of the final rule and whether those decisions are appealed.

CUPA-HR will keep members apprised of any updates on the legal challenges against the Biden administration’s Title IX rule.

*The 26 states where the rule is blocked from being enforced by the Department of Education are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. The final rule is also blocked from taking effect at hundreds of colleges and universities across the country, including in states that did not challenge the Title IX final rule. A list of those schools can be found here.

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August 19, 2024
ALP 2024: Higher Ed Challenges, HR Opportunities, and a Side of Kansas City BBQ – CUPA-HR
by CUPA-HR | July 31, 2024

The road home may have been a bit bumpy (thanks, CrowdStrike), but the two days CUPA-HR leaders spent in Kansas City at the annual Association Leadership Program (ALP) were packed with opportunities to smooth the way for higher ed HR in the year ahead.

On July 18-19, leaders from CUPA-HR’s national, region and chapter boards; cohorts from the Ignite and Emerging CUPA-HR Leaders programs; team members from the CUPA-HR national office; and key corporate partners gathered to discuss higher ed HR challenges, share successes, learn from one another, and build relationships. Here are some of the takeaways from this year’s event:

To be relevant and effective, higher education HR leaders must partner with their presidents and other campus leaders to connect their work to the institution’s mission and priorities and to understand current and emerging challenges for higher education.

CUPA-HR chapters are knocking it out of the park when it comes to creating information-packed programs to support higher ed HR professionals at the local level.

The key to creating and sustaining inclusive campus communities is to focus on processes, policies, and learning opportunities that mitigate bias and promote belonging and civil discourse for all. CUPA-HR resources are available to support this work!

Gender gaps in leadership positions persist. To expand the pipeline for leadership positions to include more women, start by reviewing promotion processes and criteria to mitigate bias and by training decision makers to recognize bias.

CUPA-HR higher ed workforce data is second to none, and the Research Center is an excellent source of high-level data to support workforce planning.

To promote civility and build authentic relationships in the workplace, speaker Alonzo Kelly emphasized the importance of:

Entering conversations with humility

Keeping in mind that your information may not be wrong, but may be incomplete

Being direct and kind

“A mistake repeated is a decision.”

CUPA-HR leaders lead because they are drawn to service, they are lifelong learners, and they value the friendships they’ve formed and the support they receive from the CUPA-HR community.

You can take CUPA-HR with you wherever you go — especially if you have a Roamin’ Robyn to keep you company. Think “Flat Stanley,” but featuring CUPA-HR’s board chair, Robyn Salvo! (Thanks to Joanne Santarelli for the awesome photo!)

Interested in Taking Your Professional Development Further?

CUPA-HR’s volunteer leaders have committed to advancing the profession and the mission of CUPA-HR. They understand the complexities of higher ed HR, and they want to enhance the knowledge and skills they need to lead their institutions into the future.

Are you ready to take that next step in developing your leadership skills, shaping the profession, and gaining one-of-a-kind access to successful practices and HR professionals from across the country? Then CUPA-HR leadership — in a chapter, at the region level, or even on the national board of directors — might be right for you. Learn more about how you can get involved.

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July 31, 2024
Biden Administration’s Vaccine Mandates Face Legal Challenges in Court – CUPA-HR

by CUPA-HR | December 9, 2021

Over the past several months, the Biden administration announced and implemented several vaccine and testing mandates for federal workers, federal contractors and private employers. States and business stakeholders quickly responded with lawsuits against the administration’s mandates, which continue to be challenged in courts around the country. To keep CUPA-HR members apprised of the legal challenges, we have detailed below the most recent litigation updates for the federal contractor vaccine mandate, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) vaccine mandate for healthcare workers — all three of which are on hold pending the various lawsuits’ outcomes.

Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate

On September 9, President Biden issued Executive Order 14042 (EO), “Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors,” as part of his “Path Out of the Pandemic” plan. The EO tasks the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force with implementing guidance that requires all federal contractors to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for their employees. The current effective date is January 4, 2022, meaning all covered contractor employees must be fully vaccinated by January 18, 2022. A federal court recently enjoined the government from implementing the EO, however, so it remains unclear when, if ever, the mandate will go into effect.

Numerous lawsuits have been filed against the mandate arguing that the Biden administration does not have authority to require vaccinations, and two federal courts have already issued decisions. On November 30, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issued a preliminary injunction against the mandate, stopping enforcement in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee only. On December 7, a federal judge at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia granted a motion for a nationwide preliminary injunction against the vaccination mandate for federal contractors, halting enforcement for federal contractors in all states. The Biden administration is expected to challenge this decision.

OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard

On November 5, OSHA issued its COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing ETS requiring employers with 100 or more employees to implement vaccination or testing policies for their workers. As it currently stands, the ETS requires covered employers and employees to be fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022. A federal court has enjoined OSHA from implementing the ETS, however, and it remains unclear whether the ETS will be in effect on January 4 or anytime thereafter.

Over three dozen lawsuits were filed against the rule, with at least one in all 12 circuit courts in the country. On November 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit granted an emergency motion to stay the ETS, and on November 12, it extended the stay while it further reviewed the motion for a permanent injunction, ordering OSHA to stop implementation and enforcement of the ETS until further court order. Due to the high volume of cases at various circuit courts, a lottery was held on November 18 to determine which circuit court would hear the case to make a sweeping decision, which the 6th Circuit won, meaning the stay remains in place until the 6th Circuit makes a decision on the motion. It is likely the stay will remain in place until at least December 10; that said, the 6th Circuit can decide to lift the stay before that if it chooses to do so.

CMS Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers

On November 5, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a rule requiring healthcare workers in facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid funds be vaccinated against COVID-19 by January 4, 2022. This rule also has been stayed by federal courts.

Four lawsuits were filed against CMS challenging the agency’s authority to issue the rule. On November 29, the District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri blocked implementation and enforcement in the 10 states that challenged the rule: Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Hampshire. On November 30, the District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the mandate nationwide, except in the 10 states impacted by the Missouri ruling. Decisions in the two other lawsuits are still pending.

CUPA-HR continues to monitor the ongoing litigation for all of the vaccine and testing mandates and will keep members apprised of any decisions that will impact institutions’ compliance efforts.

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December 9, 2021