2025 February-April Compass Magazine
2025 February-April Compass Magazine
Published three times a year, AASPA’s Compass magazine features articles, news and association information of interest to AASPA members. Check out the latest issues of the AASPA Compass Magazine!
Click here for the 2025 February-April AASPA Compass Magazine
Featured Articles
Uncovering the Roots: Addressing Systemic Barriers To Retain Diverse Educators
The American education system faces a critical challenge: a significant disparity between the increasingly diverse student population and the limited representation of diverse educators. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2020), the student population has become increasingly diverse, with the Hispanic or Latino population growing by 23% between 2010 and 2020. This demographic shift underscores the urgent need for a diverse educator workforce… Read More!
International Teachers Bring Diversity at Language Immersion School
At the St. Louis Language Immersion School (SLLIS), diversity and innovation intersect to tackle one of the most pressing issues in education today: teacher shortages. With nearly half of its teaching staff coming from outside the United States, SLLIS leverages international talent to fill critical roles while enriching the educational experience for students. This year, the school welcomes educators from 18 countries across four continents who speak 15 languages… Read More!
Leveraging Partnerships To Promote Teacher Retention
Teacher recruitment and retention are hot topics in the world of school personnel. School administrators are charged with finding highly qualified teachers, inducting them into the school culture and empowering them with professional development opportunities to retain qualified teachers and future leaders. This task does not need to fall on the human resource department alone. District partners, such as universities can assist with teacher recruitment and retention... Read More!
Guiding Human Capital Leadership with a Portrait of an Educator
In 2020, Glenbard Township High School District 87 embarked on a transformative journey to define what effective teaching and leadership should look like in our district. Building on the success of our Portrait of a Graduate—an initiative that highlights core competencies like critical thinking, collaboration and self-empowerment for students—we recognized the need for a complementary vision for our employees… Read More!
Adapting School Recruitment Strategies for a Competitive Labor Market: Four Key Steps
If working in HR through the COVID-19 pandemic taught me anything, it is that you should never become static in your role as an HR professional. Strategic leadership requires constant change in the way we approach our work. During the “great resignation,” the importance of the recruitment, hiring and onboarding process was highlighted more each day. The workforce had all the power, and we had to figure out how to adjust. Failure to make adjustments to our processes and procedures would result in failure of our students, and that simply wasn’t an option... Read More!
Connecting Purpose to Practice: The Role of Employee Orientation in Understanding Your Why
In his video presentation, comedian Michael Jr. explores the transformative power of understanding one’s “why.” He illustrates this concept with a memorable interaction from an event where he invites a music teacher to sing the opening lines of Amazing Grace. The teacher delivers a technically flawless performance, showcasing a rich, resonant baritone. Michael Jr. then challenges the teacher to sing the same piece again, this time imagining deeply emotional circumstances, such as the release of a family member from prison. The resulting performance is profoundly moving, infused with emotion and depth that captivate the audience. Michael Jr.drives the point home with a powerful insight: “When you know your ‘why,’ your ‘what’ becomes more impactful, as it aligns with your purpose”... Read More!
I’M NOT REALLY AN A**H*** Changing the Perception of the HR Department
A hard truth we have to accept in our role as HR administrators is that we’re often cast as the villain. The hammer. Some people have even gone so far as to use the word “a**h***” from time to time. But we all know that’s a gross distortion of reality—if not an outright lie—because most of us HR folks are not a**h***s. In fact, we’re pretty decent people. We’re just misunderstood… Read More!