Round Rock ISD has begun implementing practices from the American Productivity Quality Center for five pilot projects focusing on various departments within the district.
APQC, a non-profit organization focusing on improving K-12 education, offers instruction for process and performance management, which works toward collaborative planning and implementation for district-wide projects.
“School districts have multiple silos and different areas are responsible for different things,” said Mark Gabehart, Round Rock ISD Technology and Information Services executive director. “These projects bring in staff from different departments, therefore, we’re trying to break down the silos.”
The five projects consist of curriculum assessments, transportation, enrollment, supplemental instructional support personnel alignment framework, and help desk consolidation.
Round Rock ISD Executive Director of Elementary Teaching and Learning Dr. Lora Darden serves as the head of the curriculum assessments APQC project. The goal of the project is to successfully implement Eduphoria, a data system that allows educators to design tests and more effectively collect data from student results.
District leaders met at Kelley Reeves Athletic Complex earlier this school year for APQC training. The groups mapped out projects that will bring more efficiency to district operations in several areas.
“We’re piloting Eduphoria at six campuses and that also comes out of the APQC process,” Dr. Darden said. “Rather than trying to rush to go full scale, they really encourage you to take the time to test it on a smaller scale to look at your successes and failures with the pilot campuses before you turn around and go live.”
The transportation project aims to ensure all students are picked up on the first day of school while the enrollment project’s goal is to standardize enrollment into one process. The supplemental instructional support personnel alignment framework project will take an in-depth look at campus-based staff while determining roles and responsibilities. The final project, help desk consolidation, will work toward having campus and central administration office staff enter work orders for any issues that arise in the office.
“We’re looking to improve efficiencies,” Gabehart said. “These are the projects we’ve worked on with the goal of being able to improve our delivery, processes and services. At the same time, we want to be able to save money and then be able to direct these funds to meet other district needs.”
