Deciding to integrate with academic tracking software is a huge step for any school. It will positively impact teachers, guidance counsellors and year heads. It will also help students to make the most out of their time at school and reach their full academic potential. That said, no matter how valuable, rolling out new systems, processes and tools can be challenging.
At Athena Analytics, one of the most common questions we get asked relates to how to effectively roll out the Athena Tracker to a new school, ensuring that it is embraced by staff, teachers, parents, and students alike.
In this blog post, we share our 8 steps to effective rollout.
This comes directly from our team of account managers who have helped hundreds of schools roll out the Athena Tracker. They know what works, and what doesn’t. Following these steps will help your school get the most out of the tracker and embed it into your overall school philosophy.
Quickfire Advice From Our Account Managers
- Make sure the data used in the Athena Tracker is kept up to date at all times. If you are trying to receive buy-in from staff, it is vital that the data is accurate, up to date, and reliable. If, for example, a teacher logs in and sees that the recent Christmas results are not there, they may lose faith in the software right away. Delegate this responsibility to a single member of staff. This is typically the academic monitor or post holder, who becomes the lead driver of Athena Tracker engagement. The chosen person can lean on the support of their Athena Account Manager throughout.
- Use a phased implementation strategy. Commit to a 2-3 year plan and start small. Complete school-wide adoption from day one is neither realistic nor optimal. The goal is long-term adoption. Trying to get complete buy-in from all staff immediately can be overwhelming for all involved.
- Focus on awareness first. Make sure staff and school management understand the software, its uses and how it can make life easier for them.
- At a certain point, put academic tracking policies in place. After building awareness, roll out school policies related to the Athena Tracker.
8 Key Steps to Rolling Out the Athena Tracker
Step 1: Select a Project Owner
The most effective rollouts are those that are led by someone who truly believes in the software and actively drives engagement throughout the school. This person becomes a champion for the software. It is their responsibility to understand the uses and benefits of the software and pass on this knowledge to others.
Choose one person to take ownership of the software and the rollout. This person is responsible for keeping data up to date, listening to feedback, addressing queries from staff, teachers, or parents, and becoming a point of contact for all things related to academic tracking. This role is often filled by a member of management, a post holder, or guidance counsellor.
We recommend that all project owners attend a SuperUser workshop to build their own Athena Tracker skills and get fully up-to-speed on the software.
Step 2: Have a Vision for the Athena Tracker
When integrating with the Athena Tracker, many schools will have an overall vision of what they want to achieve. They may eventually want the Athena Tracker to become a cornerstone of their educational philosophy and adopt a ‘Whole School Approach’ where guidance counsellors, year heads, teachers, parents, and students are all using the Athena Tracker and it seeps into all facets of daily school life.
While it’s important to have an overarching vision, it’s also important to start small. To begin with, our advice is to have a short-term idea of how the Athena Tracker will be used initially. There are multiple avenues you can use for these ‘first-step initiatives’.
You might start out with year heads, who log into the software after each exam and identify students that are falling below their potential in a number of subjects. This one act will drive engagement as year heads open conversations with teachers, students, and guidance counsellors. It’s a simple act that will lead to a number of stakeholders getting a taste for the software right away.
Other schools have started out with target-setting, where year heads set target grades with students. This provides a simple entrypoint for students and teachers alike, and is especially popular with third and sixth year students who are preparing for state exams.
Step 3: Identify Initial Stakeholders
Building on the previous point, it’s important to identify initial stakeholders. As part of a phased implementation strategy, you might introduce the software level by level. Depending on resources and objectives, you may focus on a particular level for a few months or even an entire year before slowly expanding.
This phased approach is completely up to you. Your project manager (selected in step 1), might start by introducing the software to senior management, guidance counsellors, or year heads. They then roll the software out to teachers before finally moving on to parents and students. This phased approach is highly effective as Athena Tracker enters the school education strategy in a more incremental, systematic way.
Step 4: Build Awareness in the First Year
For most schools, the overall objective for the first year should be very simple — build awareness. While this might seem like a baby step, it will have a huge bearing on long-term integration and engagement. Below are some key tactics for building awareness.
Communicate with staff: From day one, let all staff know about the software and how it will be rolled out throughout the school. Even though the rollout will be incremental, it’s important that everyone knows about the software and its uses. Send an email to all staff about the new software and announce the launch at staff meetings.
Introduce the Athena Tracker at Teachmeets: Many schools start out by introducing the features of the Athena Tracker at teachmeets or at a seminar at the commencement of term.
Train year heads and initial stakeholders: To start out, you can set up introductory training sessions with a member of the Athena Analytics team — your account manager. As your project owner becomes more comfortable with the software, they may conduct training sessions themselves with other members of staff.
Step 5: Introduce Academic Tracking Policies
When trying to introduce new software, there is often resistance whether subconscious or otherwise. For this reason, as you try to get teachers on board, we recommend introducing official academic tracking policies. These are obligatory actions that all staff must take. This moves academic tracking usage from being something that is recommended to something that is required.
Policies can be big or small. A few examples include:
- Activate your Athena Tracker account and log in for the first time.
- Upload two in-class tests per term.
- Set target grades with exam year students.
- Replace the teacher journal or gradebook.
Step 6: Introduce New Features
A phased, incremental approach to implementation does not just apply to who is using the Athena Tracker. It also applies to how staff are using the Athena Tracker.
Initially, you might just focus on year heads using the Athena Tracker to spot students that are falling below their potential or encouraging teachers to upload two in-class tests per year. However, as teachers become more familiar with the software and see its value, you may encourage them to use it as part of parent-teacher meetings. This can later be added as an official academic tracking policy.
Step 7: Expand Your Academic Tracking Team
Effective Athena Tracker implementation starts small but slowly expands to all corners of school life. As new stakeholders are introduced and staff start to use a broader range of features, you may need to expand your academic tracking team.
For most of the rollout, your academic tracking team may only consist of a single person. But as usage grows, it’s important not to overburden your project owner. Expanding your team of Athena Tracker champions will accelerate rollout and drive adoption throughout the school.
Step 8: Increase Your List of Stakeholders
In Step 3, you identified your initial stakeholders. As your academic tracking team grows, and the Athena Tracker becomes a part of daily school life, you might increase the number of stakeholders using the software.
This could include increasing your initial user base from being year heads only to including guidance counsellors and teachers.
However, it could also mean introducing the Athena Tracker to students and encouraging them to start actively using the tracker. Once again, this requires a systematic rollout. Many schools have started by introducing the Athena Tracker to first-year students as they enter the school, with the goal of achieving school-wide coverage within six years. Other schools start by encouraging exam year students to log in and set their own target grades.
As with all aspects of our effective implementation strategy, the most important thing is to start small and think long-term sustainable use throughout the school over short-term, fleeting engagement.
Want to Learn More About the Athena Tracker?
We run regular information sessions that introduce schools to the software. These sessions are free to attend and outline the various features and benefits, while providing a walk-through of the software. These sessions are attended by both non-users who want to learn more, and existing users that are looking for a resfresh.
We also hold in-depth training workshops for new and existing customers of the Athena Tracker. Learn more here.
