The Resourceful School

These are the days when we begin looking at next year's budget in light of the government education budget and speculation as to what they expect us to do with it. The United States seem worse off than Alberta from what I am reading in the Educational Leadership Journal. The December 2011/January 2012 edition of this journal is entitled "The Resourceful School". Looking at this edition and reading several articles has given me some insight as to what schools in the U.S.A. are doing to offset the economic recession.

To quote Michael A. Rebell in his article, "The Recession--and Students' Rights", In California over the last three years, the average amount spent per pupil has dropped by about $4,500, causing many school districts, including Los Angeles, to cut 8 to 10 instructional days from the school year. Last year, average class sizes in Los Angeles bumped up to 30 and were more than 40 in some high schools, and Hawaii furloughed teachers and canceled classes for 17 Fridays in a row. For 2011-12, school districts in California and South Dakota cut back the number of school days to four per week; the Miami, Florida, schools eliminated after-school programs for 4,500 students; Illinois eliminated funding for advanced placement (AP) courses for school districts with large concentrations of low-income students, and Texas terminated preschool services for 100, 000 mostly at-risk students.

Rebell is questioning whether or not, the constitutional rights of students get put on hold during a recession. Other articles go into the whys and wherefores of the cuts being implemented.

Then, in an article entitled "Turning Crisis into Opportunity" a North Carolina school, Ashley Park PreK - 8 School in Charlotte, North Carolina shows how they are a resourceful school. Intriguing changes in how they operate have me stopping to think how our small school can be more creative and think about our resources in different ways so as to meet the needs of our students within our budget constraints.

Grouping students and having them take the electives through the services of paraprofessionals allows teachers to plan lessons together, analyze data, talk about students, and call parents during a block of time each day while students are taking their electives. Individualizing instruction allows the cultivation of close relationships between teachers and students, and combining English Language Arts with Social Studies in a larger class enables teachers to create more flexible groupings, allowing for more differentiated instruction.

Other resourceful ideas include going to year-round schooling, lengthening the school day to have one third planning and two thirds teaching, and focusing on project-based learning. Some of these ideas would not be feasible in a small school such as ours, but they do give food for thought. If this school can look at their resources in different ways, so can any other school.