iEducate can be confident knowing their tutors are in classrooms and helping students instead of missing shifts

iEducate is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization devoted to lowering the number of high school dropouts in Texas and encouraging them to instead pursue higher education and graduate from college. iEducate has found that the most decisive factor between a college graduate and a high school dropout is early academic achievement. This is a large issue in Houston where only half of public school students are passing 5th grade at the state-recommended level.

This, unfortunately, leads many schools to continue using strategies that haven’t given them the results they’re looking for all while they continue to not address two very important critical points:

1. It’s impossible to educate increasingly disparate classrooms because one teacher alone can’t differentiate instruction for a widening array of learning levels.
2. Students need inspiration in order to value their education so they can develop the self-efficacy needed to drive and sustain academic growth.

iEducate hopes to tackle these points and take on the issue of academic underperformance by challenging the idea of the traditional classroom model and having college students come in to tutor & mentor underperforming 3-5th grade students in the classroom during the school year as well as offering an enrichment camp each summer for 4-5th grade students that’s led by college & high school students. With a large team of College Readiness Mentors made up of college students, iEducate must be sure everyone is on time and in the right classroom to ensure their operations run smoothly.

With so many College Readiness Mentors working to better the lives of underperforming students, iEducate ran into a good bit of issues when trying to organize their workforce and ensure their College Readiness Mentors were in the right place. One area of issue is that iEducate was using pen & paper to build the schedules for their College Readiness Mentors. This meant they were spending hours on out creating their schedules each week which really held them back from using their time to focus on finding ways to better the business.

Along with that, they required their College Readiness Mentors to clock in and out by going to the front desk of the school and signing on a piece of paper. This proved to be a large disadvantage because there was no way for iEducate to know whether or not a student missed a shift until much later due to them not having a direct way to check who did and did not sign in for their shift. With iEducate working with so many schools, it was difficult to keep up with who was and wasn’t showing up at each one.

“There wasn’t any way for us to know whether or not the College Readiness Mentor signed in for a shift until we saw the sign in sheet, so there were times when certain shifts went unfulfilled,” says Joana Nunoo, the Senior Operations Manager at iEducate.

If a College Readiness Mentor ended up missing out on a shift they were supposed to work, iEducate wouldn’t find out until much later, which means the kids that day were left with one less College Readiness Mentor to help them learn.

With the issues at hand, it’s important iEducate worked to solve them in order to ensure their brand grew and lived up to its full potential. One way they got over it was by implementing the help of Deputy’s employee scheduling software platform, which helped to streamline their operations.

One example is that with the help of Deputy, they were able to completely get over their issues revolving around not knowing whether or not a tutor showed up for a shift.

“Instead of not knowing a tutor didn’t show up for a shift until a whole day later, Deputy allowed us to know immediately whether or not someone showed up for a shift. Thanks to Deputy, we were able to really decrease the number of shifts that went unfulfilled and better make sure our students got the support they need,” says Joana.

iEducate also experienced a large improvement within their workplace communication due to Deputy’s messaging features that allow their tutors to send a message whenever they’re running late or won’t be able to show up for a shift. Which has contributed to a drop in the number of no-shows they experience at work.

“If someone was running late or didn’t show up for a shift, we used to be left in the dark but now all we have to do is send them a quick message on Deputy and we’re able to immediately get in touch with them,” says Joana. “It has also made it easier for iEducate to communicate announcements as well as other important information to its staff.”

When it comes to creating their employee schedules, Deputy proved to be an invaluable tool for iEducate. While using pen & paper in the past, iEducate knew they couldn’t keep using this strategy and needed an upgrade. After using Deputy for their schedules, iEducate was able to really cut down on the amount of time needed to make their schedules. “Making schedules isn’t anywhere as hard as it used to be, now we’re spending a quarter of the time making schedules compared to the time we use to spend.”

With the help of Deputy, iEducate is one step closer to ensuring the academic future for numerous students in Houston.