The problem with education reform: No. 4 of a series

Most children learn to read and begin their journey of life’s fulfillment in our public elementary schools. These are indeed magical places with sometimes magical teachers. Yet as organizations they are terrible models of staffing inefficiency and waste. The waste is not due to those who work there – it is the system and model by which daily regimens take place. It is the manner by which the teachers are assigned, scheduled, and the rooms staffed that are inefficient and artificially costly.

In any given elementary school, whether 5 classrooms or 50 there is a state certified teacher in each room, all day. Some of the teachers possess only the required baccalaureate degree, some have additional college credits and some have earned advanced degrees – each of these with salary implications.

Experienced teachers with advanced degrees will tell you they spend some of their daily time in critical teaching and learning situations that require all of their education, training and abilities, yet also spend much of their day doing what any competent and trained adult could do. Things such as watching children read, complete math worksheets and other assignments, go to recess, take breaks, and carry out routines.

The truth is that we need our identified best teachers creating and directing those critical teaching and learning situations in more than just their classrooms, and we need to quit wasting their time and our money paying them to watch a class on temporary auto-pilot.

Imagine the cost of health care if a clinic had an RN in every examination room, all day, regardless of what the patient was doing. There is a reason why the doctor diagnoses and prescribes – then leaves, the nurse questions, takes blood, etc. – then leaves, and a lesser trained staff person guides you around for other treatment or services.

So it could be in our elementary schools. Yes, an adult employee must be in each room to supervise and care for the children. But an expert reading teacher earning an expert’s salary could work multiple classrooms throughout the day, with no time wasted on shoe-tying or independent student work. Lower paid, district trained “para-teachers” with associate degrees could serve those functions.

The same holds true for math, science, and other critical areas. An elementary school of 20 classrooms might need only five masters degreed expert teachers, five baccalaureate degreed standard teachers, and ten para’s. With good scheduling and strong teamwork led by an inspired principal such a school could make an educational impact and gain greatly in its economic and staffing efficiency.

The expert teachers could be paid truly “expert” salaries, with the money coming from the savings gained by hiring the para’s at below standard teacher wages. It is simply a matter of having your best employee on the line in the most critical situations and then paying them the best salaries – and those are very sound business principles.