EDLD wk 4 part 3

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Part 3:
Differentiated Staffing
Differentiated Staffing refers to classroom teachers at various responsibility levels and pay, subject specialists, special service personnel, and number of sub professionals and non-professionals. Analyzing Rice ISD and how differentiated staffing may impact or improve goals. These six characteristics of differentiated staffing were found:
a. An extended use of assistant teachers to do specific instructional tasks while under the supervision of a certified staff member;
b. Teacher specialists have provided for the instruction of teachers and assistants in modern teaching methods and developed curriculum for individualized instruction;
c. Decentralization of decision-making to the teacher level or the lowest responsible level consistent with good management, was evident in the areas of curriculum, learning and deployment of their team in the classroom;
d. The use of community resource persons on teaching staffs have provided increased manpower for the schools by utilizing their special talents, knowledge and competencies in the instructional program;
e. A differentiated work period has been provided.
f. Earlier training experience has been provided for future teachers through clinical experience both at elementary and secondary levels.

If these six items are used as defining characteristics of differentiated staffing, the conclusion would be that currently Rice ISD does not implement differentiated staffing effectively but its proper implementation would be of value to achieving the goals of the district. Rice is a 1A district in a rural area. This works against Rice ISD in relation to differentiated staffing in several ways. First, the district is very poor and operates on limited funds. Second, they have very few paraprofessionals and specialists. It seems Rice ISD almost operates contrary to the concept of differentiated staffing in that many of the staff members are stretched too thin. Dan is the principal on campus and the only administrator. There is no assistant principal, one counselor, and even the nurse is only at school two days a week. The result is that many people are asked to do many different jobs from the administration level to the teaching level. This does not allow for the development of specialties differentiated staffing seems to call for. However, allowing teachers and staff to develop in specific areas would be of great value to accomplishing the goals of the district. We know all children learn, but not all learn the same way. Differentiated staffing would allow the schools to look for teachers with different specialties and train teachers to better meet the needs of the students. We feel the difficulties in Rice to really implement differentiated staffing to its fullest is only going to get worse in education as districts are faced with massive budget deficits. It seems today the more specialized your job, the more likely you are to lose it when jobs begin getting cut.
Another problem associated with differentiated instruction staffing is the number of alternatively certified teachers. One study asks how the teaching profession can hand out emergency licensing to teachers when you would never find emergency licenses being handed out to architects building bridges. Of course, there are many great teachers who were alternatively certified, but still the case is made for the fact that the state continues to make the teaching standards harder and the accountability greater limiting teacher supply. This causes many districts to become desperate to get a qualified teacher in the classroom. This is a problem in a small community like Rice where there is not a large pool of teachers to pull from. Once these alternatively certified teachers are in the classroom, there is little support for them. Superintendents are now acknowledging that a system that differentiates the status of the teacher with those with greater expertise and experience would be effective. This system would greater account for teachers who are alternatively certified or have little teaching experience. The long range goal would be to offer differentiated levels of teaching certification. A certification process like this would help a district like Rice be more intentional about who it is hiring and why. This would help the district be more intentional about hiring differentiated staff to better meet the needs of the students.
Differentiated staffing is a sound concept that was first seen in the 70’s as schools began moving their staff to a more team driven approach. Today the concept is taken even further in hiring and training staff with specialties to better address the ways children learn. This concept of differentiated staffing is also centered on addressing the problems of supply and demand when hiring good, qualified teachers. Although Rice ISD is small and has limited funds and resources, differentiated staffing would help the district better meet the needs of students such as addressing TAKS, special education, dyslexia, speech, reading recovery, credit recovery, and the many other things school staff are asked to be an expert on in today’s education system.

Source

Hunt, L.M. A Descriptive Study of Differentiated Staffing. Retrieved February 6, 2011 from http://www.saskschoolboards.ca/old/ResearchAndDevelopment/ResearchReports/HumanResources/22.htm