Recently I was in a small charter school, unaffiliated with a district - and was pleasantly surprised that they had some specialists (full time even) that would be a direct benefit to the students. I wondered how a small, independent school could afford these staff members. Then I realized that the money the charter school received per student is the same that a public school would receive, yet they didn't have the salaries, rent, or maintenance for a district office. HMMMMM - resources per student being spent MUCH closer to the students themselves. Interesting concept!
So then I started to wonder - how can we actually apply this in a smaller instance - maybe just a single classroom?
I got sidetracked by an article about a troubled school that diverted its path to "doom" by getting rid of its security detail and then hiring art teachers . . . maybe it wasn't something in a small classroom setting - but for sure in a single school setting. Impact being made by reallocating resources. NOT ONLY were the students more positive and they were seeing a reduction in disciplinary cases - the school actually saw test scores improve. Now anyone reading this knows that I am not very excited about measures being taken to improve test scores, however I also acknowledge that it does have to happen. But in this instance - where something can be done to benefit the students and it helps the schools - that is a win-win in my book.
Okay - back to a smaller implementation - how can this idea be put to use in a single classroom?
So that is my question - how can a teacher, in his or her own classroom, redistribute resources to provide a better education to the students? PLEASE let's share some ideas!
Some (no particular order) thoughts on this:
ReplyDeleteBe careful of asking for money directly in classroom, not in district budgets. Because things like library aides, often times even class room aides, technology specialists, a lot of times these are categorized in the budget as District costs.
So a school with lots of great aides and help for kids can look like it has a bloated, district-heavy budget. And cutting the 'overhead' is a big thing people use now to cut money from schools.
Sometimes, it's just a matter of how they're coding it & people are wayyyy too fast to want to cut. Because even something like a library aide can free up the librarian to teach reading and do cool projects which frees up the teachers to work more individually with kids. Also, there's a lot of tech that needs to happen in modern schools which usually has a centralized purchaser, repair training, etc.