School districts today face significant change driven by intense pressure from both parents and government to deliver improved student performance. This is occurring at exactly the same time state budgets have collapsed and governors across the country are struggling in desperate attempts to achieve constitutionally mandated balance in their state budgets. Add to this the pace of technological change; competition for students and evolving learning requirements and it is obvious that school districts are at the beginning of a sea change in K-12 education. Successful schools survive and thrive due to their ability to manage the process of change in a disciplined and structured manner.

A2B Transformation Tools

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A2B Transformation Tools is a comprehensive change management platform designed for school districts that need to successfully implement organizational change. The system facilitates planning, implementation and evaluation of all organizational change initiatives. A2B provides unparalleled flexibility to meet specific education requirements and creates a knowledge base that enhances learning and synergy, and strengthens organizational resilience.

A2B is a powerful, easy-to-use web-based application that can be easily deployed across the educational community. Security is ensured through advanced user administration employing user groups and permission controls.

(1) Best Practices Library

A2B provides a comprehensive library of best practices methodologies and tools including the five Action Strategies of the Change Portfolio and Six Sigma. Included are all the activities, surveys, documentation worksheets, and data templates required. Commonly used interactive worksheets and templates including action plan forms and charter documents are also included in the library. Completed samples are included to guide users through the process.

You can choose to use a standard methodology, select only particular activities, or tailor the process to your district within the Design Center.

(2) Design Center

A2B Transformation Tools provides the capability to design your own change methodology for initiatives ranging from single process improvement solutions to district-wide redesign projects. Virtual Consultant, the system's enhanced help function, acts as a coach to help plan the process by leading you through the steps, showing options along the way. You can draw from a comprehensive library of activities, surveys, and data elements — or create your own.

(3) Reporting and Analysis — Data Capture, Management and Search

A2B creates a centralized district-change knowledge base of your methodologies, strategies and action plans. The system captures and retains meeting minutes, important decisions, supporting data, and notes all in one place. You can assign action items to team members via email. The system makes tracking progress easy and provides the flexibility to drill down to monitor individual action items. Powerful search tools allow you to retrieve and share information across the organization. You can search by keywords, such as "goals" or "strategies", or access information for a specific educational team or process.

Reporting

A2B provides reports that allow you to manage and monitor change initiatives across the organization from both the administrative hierarchy and educational process perspectives. You can view projects by district, building, or division, or view all initiatives targeted at a specific process. You can create custom reports for distribution on-line or off-line using advanced search and filtering tools.

Analysis

With A2B Transformation Tools you can analyze captured data to measure the impact of change initiatives. Advanced features include custom scorecards to evaluate performance using indicators that provide an immediate, easy to understand, color-coded view of performance for the measures you select — and the ability to drill down into further levels of detail as required.

(4) Administrative Services

A2B gives you the flexibility to tailor the system to your district. You can add your district name and logo, specify district operating units and business processes, and integrate existing district programs. System security is managed via user access groups and comprehensive permission controls. You can specify access to system functionality such as the design center and libraries as well as control access to various components of the knowledge base.