What is school administration and how can you improve it for your institution? Hundreds of administrative operations happen behind the scenes of schools, universities, and colleges to keep them up and running. These administrative processes involve a variety of tasks and documentation including class-related information, fee payment, regulatory compliance and staff management activities.

We will tell you exactly what it is and why it is important to get it right. We also share tips on how to improve your institution’s administration with automated software. This includes different kinds of software, like student information systems, financial aid software, admissions solutions, and more.

Diamond Student Information Service (DiamondSIS) is a comprehensive toolkit that combines these and other elements of school administration for your college. It can manage almost every facet of your staff’s work and your student data.

Let’s look at what school administration is and what it involves and some tools and tips to help you improve it at your institution.

What is School Administration?

The term refers to the administrative operations necessary to run educational institutions like schools, universities, and colleges. This includes the management of staff, students, facilities, finances, student data, or other administrative functions.

School administrators and governing bodies oversee these operations. Effective administration allows students and staff to use what their institution has to offer so that they can have a better educational experience.

Administrative operations include the management of:
 – Finances, salaries, bursaries, and budgets.
 – Faculties, departments, and curriculums.
 – Communication between students, educators, and parents.
 – Student data and admissions.
 – Grades, transcripts, and academic history of students.
 – Disciplinary procedures.
 – Programs, classes, timetables and schedules.
 – Career Services
 – Regulatory compliance including FERPA, accreditation bodies and more.

Why is Effective School Administration Important?

It’s important because it keeps an institution running smoothly. It also fosters a healthier academic environment that meets the needs of faculty and students alike.

Educators Focus on Teaching

Educators do not need to waste precious academic time on tedious school administrative tasks.

The administrative body should provide educators with easy ways to access and track student data, assessment marks, curriculums, and other teaching information. That way, teachers can prioritize lesson plans and the improvement of student performance.

Fosters a Safe Learning Environment

School administrators are responsible for the well-being of their students and they provide access to school or campus resources. Students can reach their full potential when their needs for a safe and healthy learning environment are met.

Eliminates Communication Gaps

School administration should foster effective communication between students (within the guidelines of FERPA), staff, instructors and parents.

Institutions need to have communication channels in place that relay accurate information on time, alert instructors and staff to a student’s academic progress, and important events.

Make Informed & Data-Driven Decisions

School administrators need to make strategic big-picture decisions when challenges arise, new technology is implemented, or there is a change in institutional vision and goals. They must extract and analyze accurate data to make informed strategic decisions.

DiamondSIS software gives administrators access to tons of data. They can use it to pinpoint the school’s strengths, weaknesses, and needs before making decisions.

Optimize Schedules and Timetables

Most colleges and universities have hundreds or thousands of students. There is so much room for human error when an institution manages timetables, class schedules, and exam and test dates manually.

SIS software like DiamondSIS can solve this problem with automated computer programs that create timetables and schedules.

Track Gradebooks and Transcripts

DiamondSIS and other software can track and record grades, marks for tests and assignments, career services and final academic transcripts. This makes it easier for educators, students, registrars, and others to stay in the loop with students’ academic progress. Students prefer self-serve portals that can be accessed by smartphone or computer so they can review their academic records and confidential communications between institution and student.

Tuition Payment and Financial Records

Students and parents like to utilize self-serve payment portals that allow them to make electronic tuition and fees payments (credit card and ACH). The convenience of these portals can’t be overemphasized as many payers time their payments to payday or non-business hours to pay bills in general. Diamond SIS is a leader in payment processing and payment posting automation, making the life of the administrator much easier.

Career Services

Uniquely tasked within a college, Career Services (Placement) assist the process of practical experience through extern and internships, interview skills and resume preparation. Good educational software can handle the record-keeping required by accreditation agencies and the related reporting. The right software, like DiamondSIS, can handle placement, recruitment, extern and intern reporting and record-keeping and much more.

Tips for Improving School Administration

Most administrative operations require meticulous record keeping which needs to be extremely accurate. This creates copious amounts of work for administrators who have to enter and manage data on their computers. Or worse–on paper.

Luckily, you can avoid this issue by using a student management information service’s automated software technology to serve these needs.

Implementing a Student Information System

A student information service (SIS) or student management software platforms are computerized and automated programs. An SIS manages and organizes all data related to institutions with hundreds or thousands of students.

A robust SIS creates a timely, effective, and accurate administrative platform. And here’s the best part–you can find SIS software that has all your solutions in one place.

DiamondSIS is such software. It has you covered with nearly all types of operations. It can manage student data, grades, academic content, communication portals, finances, placement and much more.

Use Software to Create a Unified Online Platform

Students, educators, or administrators can get confused when important information, messages, deadlines, meetings, and projects are scattered all over the place.

Important information can get lost in an abyss of emails, paper notes, Google Docs, Teams Groups, and text messages. The right software can simplify things and create a unified platform that is accessible on campus or remotely. The best solutions are cloud-based for this reason. Who knows what comes next–work from home, work on campus, work at both places? An SIS platform, like DiamondSIS, can enable just about any work configuration you deem appropriate to your institution.

You can use software to create a unified platform for sharing and accessing important information. This fosters a functional, collaborative, and time-saving environment.

Securely Store Data

The days of relying on paper and computer hard drives to store and protect data are over. You can access data at any time and place with a cloud-based storage technology.

Cloud-based servers also protect data from unwarranted access. DiamondSIS, Inc. secures your data with excellent cyber security. There is no need to worry about hacking, data theft, or unauthorized access.

Student Software Tools to Improve School Administration

Software tools like Diamond SIS can help your institution to run smoothly. We want to tell you about some great software features and how you can use them to improve school administration.

Communication Portals

You can use software to establish a single streamlined platform where FERPA-compliant communication can take place between institutions, students, and parents. These communication portals foster accurate and timely communication.

These communication portals keep important information, discussions, and communication from in-app notifications to discussion forums. You simply push a button to reach an entire school with automated emails and SMS.

Collaborative and Unified Learning Platforms

reate a unified and collaborative digital space that stores all relevant information. Each student and educator can have their own profile with access to course material, deadlines, assignments, and course frameworks.

DiamondSIS will streamline online learning, handle academic coursework, and keep track of due dates, grades, and much more.

Conclusion

Institutions with effective administration rarely get caught on the back foot. It fosters a healthy learning environment and prevents educators and administrators from getting bogged down with time-consuming administrative tasks.

You can use student and educator software like SIS to streamline and simplify school administration. It has awesome features that can manage finances, schedules, grades, student data, human resources, coursework, and much more.

For more information on the NEW Diamond SIS, go to diamondsis.com.