Differrentiated+Staffing

EDLD 5342 Week 4 Part 3

The status quo is always difficult to overcome. Many districts who have gone through Strategic Planning understand the concept of strategic abandonment of programs or tasks that are no longer needed but have stayed around “because we have always done it that way.” Businesses today survive by learning how to economize and that is due a large part to differentiated staffing. Schools by their structure and organization are slower to change. In an intermediate school they hired a designated receptionist so other office personnel could get their work done without being interrupted by every incoming phone call or visitor to the school. The person they hired was a high school student that was in a Cooperative program and worked at the Intermediate after attending high school in the morning. Differentiated staffing was also done at the school by hiring people with generalist certifications that allow them to teach multiple subjects. Two generalists were hired who could each of the courses in the sixth grade curriculum. One had a background in both social studies and English language arts to they taught students those two disciplines. The other teacher was a science major with a minor in math who taught those two subjects to the students. This was done because the number of students in the grade level increased and the central office only allowed two additional teaching units. Certifications are “key” when dealing with teachers at any grade level. Many years ago a teacher at the secondary level could teach one class in a discipline which they were not fully certified. This allowed campuses a more flexible schedule even if the students did not sometimes receive a quality education. Similar scheduling is done at the high school that is fed by the intermediate. Upper level classes French 3 and 4 are combined as well as Art 4 and 5. These classes, because of their higher level, require less direct supervision and the teacher is more of a facilitator of the learning process.