The document discusses how schools can improve student outcomes by strategically allocating resources. It provides examples of how two schools/districts were able to do this. District A realized 9th graders had larger class sizes and more novice teachers so they reassigned teachers to reduce 9th grade class sizes. School X found math teachers had higher loads so they revised schedules to pair students with the same teacher for multiple periods to lower individual teacher loads. Reallocating resources like this based on data can boost student achievement compared to the traditional one-size-fits-all approach of the past 50+ years.
3. 1. Learn how to diagnose the alignment of current
resources to strategic priorities
1. Assess where your school system is strong, and where
it can grow the most
2. Consider potential solutions to take back to your
teams
Learning Outcomes
4. The Call to Action:
Allocate resources to boost
student achievement
10. Pause and ponder
Has your district attempted to leverage any of these
resource levers? If so, which ones?
A. Reductions in group size
B. Maximizing total scheduled time
C. Increased time in priority content area
D. Reduced teacher loads
E. Changes to teacher assignment in a particular content area
F. Increase teacher planning time
G. None of the above
13. Reviewing the Data
▪ Goal: Proactively support
students in their transition
between middle school and high
school
▪ Class sizes are largest in 9th
grade, and progressively get
smaller throughout the upper
grades
14. Making Meaning
Across the country, this trend
persists. It’s often a byproduct of:
▪ Reduced enrollment in upper
grades
▪ Additional course offerings
for electives in upper grades,
resulting in more, smaller
classes
▪ 11th/12th grade students are
under-scheduled
15. ▪ In District A, we saw
that enrollment decline
over the years was one
factor in the class size
variations in grades 9-
12...
Enrollment by Grade
16. Novice Team
Assignment
▪ 9th graders were most
likely to have a novice
teacher in core subjects
and nearly twice as likely
to have a novice teacher
than 12th graders
49%
36%
29%
27%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
9 10 11 12
Grades
Novice Teacher Assignment
% Novice
Teachers
(Core
Subjects)
%NoviceTeachers
35%
17. … beyond that, upon
reviewing their resource use
data, District A realized 12th
grade students were also
often under-scheduled for
a portion of the school day
Instructional Time
18. Action Implications
Upon a full review of data, District A supported schools in:
▪ Reassigning additional teachers to 9th grade
sections by reducing total sections in 12th grade
▪ Evaluating online/virtual learning options to maintain
the breadth of electives to 12th grade students
▪ Improving guidance support to 12th grade students to
ensure students are taking a full course load
19. ▪ Goal: Improve supports in ELA and Math by
reducing teacher loads
▪ To support this goal, School X double blocks ELA
and Math classes in an effort to reduce the total
number of students an ELA or Math teacher sees in
a given year
School X:
20. ▪ Despite, similar
structures in ELA and
Math, Math teachers
in School X see 1.5x as
many students as ELA
teachers
Reviewing the Data
21. ▪ When compared to
other schools in the
district, the higher
than average teacher
load in Math became
even more apparent
Reviewing the Data
22. Upon a full review of data, School X:
▪ Revised student assignment practices in Math
classes to ensure students were paired with the same
teacher across multiple sections
▪ Provided additional administrative support to Math
teachers to reduce strain of teacher load
Action Implications
23. Stay in Touch!
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