Lecture 15--

Lesson Element .9: A Definition of Differentiated Staffing

• Dr. Allen Believes that Differentiated Staffing is Very Important.
• The idea behind differentiated staffing is that different teachers should be paid differently according to how well they do their job, and the different responsibilities they complete.
• This is the incentive to get teachers to do the kind of things that are necessary to be great teachers.
• Differentiated staffing is not merit pay.
• Merit pay is awarded to excellent teachers who do outstanding work, but beyond this financial bonus, they are doing exactly the same work that other teachers do.
• Differentiated Staffing Means Different Pay for Different Responsibilities.
• The best teachers should be earmarked as a valuable resource.
• The ideal situation is to get these outstanding teachers to influence the lives of more kids.
• The old system actually works against this concept. Great teachers get the lower class size, and thus influence less kids.
• The old system also influences great teachers to go on and become administrators. Then they don't directly influence any kids.
• Dr. Allen Has Been Working More than 25 Years to Bring Differentiated Staffing into Reality.
• Despite his best efforts, the concept has met great resistance.
• Working as a consultant to the National Defense Education Act, he administered 500 million dollars for differentiated staffing.
• Unfortunately, the participating schools generally didn't embrace the idea, but simply wanted the money.
• The majority of the schools just changed the names of the programs they already had going, to make them sound like differentiated staffing programs.

Lesson Element .10: A Professional Hierarchy

• Differentiated Staffing Means Different Professional Levels.
• The lowest level is paraprofessional.
• Paraprofessionals are students who volunteer in the PRIME program.
• They are available to do whatever the teacher needs done.
• Tutoring, stapling papers, copying, etc.
• Paraprofessionals would generally have one or two years of college.
• They are different from clerks or technicians in that they aspire to be a professional, but are presently unqualified to do the full work.
• The next level is Assistant Teacher:
• These are students doing their practicums, and they occasionally teach something.
• There is a teacher present when assistant teachers teach.
• They are not really regarded as teachers, just considered to be knowledgeable in certain areas, and used to make presentations when the teacher is swamped.
• The next level is Intern:
• Interns are students of education during their student teaching year.
• They have full responsibilities in class.
• The student teacher is similar to the assistant teacher, but is really just training. The intern is different.
• The intern is considered a predictable staff member, and can be counted on to take care of things like a regular teacher.
• The primary difference between interns and full teachers is that interns are closely supervised.
• Under the Prime Program there is a PRIME supervisor who is paid $2,000 dollars to help during the year. During the first part of the year, the supervisor actually co-teaches one class with the PRIME advisor, so that they can see how they solve the day to day problems of teaching.
• Another level is the Associate Teacher:
• This is a sideways level.
• The associate teacher if fully prepared and credentialed, but chooses to only work part-time.
• Dr. Allen believes that we don't currently use our part-time teachers effectively.
• The system is geared up for them.
• Lots of people could be very effective part-time teachers.
• Ex: The conductor of the Virginia Symphony could be the orchestra teacher in a high school.
• This person could teach only a couple of days a week.
• Think of the benefit to the orchestra by having this professional teach them.
• The associate teacher are not low level teachers. They are just there part time or to do a specialized task.
• The next level is the fully Professional Teacher:
• These are fully trained and experienced teacher who perform well and can be counted on.
• The highest level is that of Master Teacher:
• These teachers act as mentors.
• They should be paid the same as the highest paid administrator.
• Dr. Allen also believes that the highest paid kindergarten teacher and college professor should be paid the same.
• This special category could make that a reality.
• Depending on the size and level of the school, a varying number of Master Teachers could be assigned.
• Ex: Lake Taylor High School with a staff of 125 would probably have 6 Master Teachers.
• An elementary school might only have two master teachers.
• The Master Teachers would be leaders of their professions who are able to help other teachers and outstanding professionals who are called upon as consultants.
• One of the reasons that things currently don't work so well in schools is that only 47% of the money spent on personnel in schools is spent on teachers.
• More than have the money is spent on administration.
• This means that we have to hire specialists or administrators to help weak teacher.
• But their salaries are so expensive that there is little money left for teacher salaries, so the problem just gets work. Our priorities are wrong.
• In order to change the system, we need to re-conceptualize the role of the senior professional teacher or mentor in the classroom.

Lesson Element .11: A Horizontal Differentiation Skills: Presentation, Counseling, Content and Instructional Design

• In Addition to a Vertical Differentiation, There Are Horizontal Differentiations.
• These are different tasks that teachers do that are hierarchical in nature.
• One of these skills is that of presenter.
• Dr. Allen believes that a presenter is more important than a facilitator.
• Both are parallel professional skills, but different people have these skills in different combinations.
• Another skill is that of counselor.
• This person is able to help others with career decisions, help them think through alternatives, or to develop study skills.
• Typically, counselors are above teachers in the hierarchy. This isn't right. Counseling is a parallel skill to teaching.
• Yet another horizontal skill is content specialist.
• This is the person who can develop new curriculum or interdisciplinary units, figuring out how things fit together.
• This person is the one who has a store of really neat anecdotes to liven up things.
• Ex: To whom do we owe the concept of daylight savings time?
• Answer: Adolf Hitler.
• Another horizontal skill is that of instructional design.
• These are the people who know how to put courses together. How to make things fit.
• Sadly, most teachers are not very good at instructional design.
• Most are set in one particular format, unlikely to mix things up to keep it interesting.
• The instructional specialist is the one that isn't afraid to suggest innovation
• Instructional design really makes a difference in terms of the classes.
• The how, why, when, where, and who rules apply in the successful design of a course. This is the instructional specialist's job, to make it all happen smoothly as possible.
• Instructional design is not a simple job. It will be with you as a teacher for your entire career.
• You will need to avoid a set pattern for your entire teaching career. If you don't, then it becomes routine and usually, boring.

Lesson Element .12: A Evaluation Skills and Grading Systems

• Most Teachers Are Not Very Good at the Skill of Evaluation.
• Dr. Allen thinks that teachers need to learn how to use the skill of evaluation in a very different way.
• Learning How Use Combined Grading Is a Complicated, but Very Necessary Skill.
• Most teachers don't do very well in this area because it can be confusing.
• Example of Combining Grades.
• Three students: A, B, and C.
• Each student takes three tests during a six week period.
• The order of the tests is not important.
• All three tests should count equally.
• There is no one test more important than the others.
• For each test, one student gets an AA, one a AB, and one a AC. Who is the top student in the class?

T1 T2 T3

• Student A grades: 20, 10, 30.
• Student B grades: 19, 20, 28.
• Student C grades: 18, 15, 29.
• Based on these sets of grades, what grade should each student get? Who is the top, middle and bottom student? Or are they all tied?
• Taken from a strictly numerical average of all three tests:
• Student A= 20
• Student B= 22.3
• Student C= 20.7
• Therefore, Student B must be your top student, Student C in the middle, and Student A on the bottom. Right? WRONG!
• Dr. Allen believes that if you subscribe to the this method then you are being professionally irresponsible. Why does he think this?
• Consider that student A was the top student in tow of the three exams, yet you put that student at the bottom of your ranking. Also consider: is Student B really the top student when he/she placed first, second, and third on the three exams.
• Remember the rules of the example. No one flunked. The lowest score was a AC, which is a passing grade. So is student B really your top student?
• Look at the scores. What you did was to fall into the trap of not paying attention to tests one and three, and essentially, used only test two as your entire grade.
• This was not intentional, but resulted because of the fact that simple numerical averaging of raw scores does not weigh the differences between the range of scores for the tests.
• In other words, when the range is very small on one test, the large range of scores in the middle test overwhelms the results.
• To combine grades accurately, you have to have ranges of ten or two for all of the grades, in other words, you need to standardize the range as a reference for equable measurement.
• You should convert the raw scores into standard grades.
• Standard grades are what should be entered into the grade book. Then you can accurately determine averages and class ranking.
• To standardize the raw data you must look at the range of the scores for each test. What is your greatest range, and what is your lowest range?
• For the example given:
• Test 1 the range was 2 (20-18=2)
• Test 2 the range was 10 (20-10=10)
• Test 3 the range was 2 (30-28=2)
• Is the range of 2 the same as the range of 10? No. Do you feel a bit uneasy about the different ranges? You should. So standardize the ranges. Multiply by an appropriate index number the raw scores received on tests 1 and 3. In this case the index number is 5. (5x20=100)
• Do nothing to the widest range. That is the reference point.
• Thus, the scores now are:

T1 T2 T3 Total Avg

• Student A: 100, 10, 150 260 86.7
• Student B: 95, 20, 140 255 85
• Student C: 90, 15, 145 250 83.3
• This highlights the difference that not converting the raw scores to standard scores can make. The correct ranking of students is actually:
• Student A: AA
• Student B: AB
• Student C: AC
• By standardizing the scores you have returned to your original premise that all tests are equally weighted! It also recognizes the fact that student A had the highest scores on two out of three exams. It normalizes the scores to fit reality.
• I you always change your grades to standard grades, A, B, C, then you can add them together. But if you leave them as points, you can't add them together.
• Teachers Give Meaning to Points However They Choose.
• Points don't mean anything until you as the teacher assign them a relative value.
• Having the tests being all equally weighted is only one method. You as the teacher can determine the relative value of the various exams, homework, etc.
• This gives you the opportunity to be flexible.
• Raw Points Can Be Used, But Only if They are Criterion-Referenced, Rather Than Norm-Referenced.
• ODU ECI 300 grading system is an example of this use of raw points.
• The grading scheme is that:
• 90-100 is always an AA.
• 80-89 is always a AB.
• 70-79 is always a AC.
• 60-69 is always a AD.
• Below 69 is always a AF.
• However, if there is a question that in hindsight isn't correct or that the instructor decides that they don't like, then they can add points, or do something else so that the grades in the book reflect the instructional policy and intent of the course, not just simple arithmetic.
• Dr. Allen also believes that everyone needs some slack, so a 21 point quiz only counts for 20 points. This is a deliberate policy, with nothing to do with arithmetic. It reflects an instructional policy.
• If they wanted one of those tests to count double, then they can change those scores to 3's, 4's, or 5's, and then double the 5 to 10. It then would count double, because you have actually also doubled the range.
• Dr. Allen recommends a twelve point grading scale:
• A=12 B-= 8 D+= 4 F= 0.
• A-= 11 C+= 7 D=3,
• B+=10 C=6 D-= 2
• B=9 C-= 5 F+= 1
• The top score is always 12 and the bottom score is always 0.
• This way you know what grade you are giving and you always enter that grade.
• If you want something to count double, then you simply double it.
• At the end of the semester you have a bunch of scores, and you can double the ones you want to, and leave the others alone as you wish.
• Then you can simply add them up and divide by the number of trials. This will give you an average that accurately reflects the work of the student over the entire semester, with the average not skewed by the range problem.
• It provides an easy, automatic correction.
• If you only enter raw points in the grade book, then you will penalize people who you don't want to penalize.
• To Combine Points, There Must Be A Standard Currency.
• Points mean whatever you, as the teacher, say they mean. But, after you've given them, the way you combine them together doesn't always mean what you think they mean.
• Example: China and U.S. Currency.
• A ping pong ball in the U.S. costs $1.00.
• If you were to sell that ball in China, you would sell it for yuan. (Chinese currency).
• But 1 yuan does not equal 1 dollar. You need to know the conversion rate.
• The conversion rate is 1$= 8 yuan.
• So you would need to sell the ping pong ball for 8 yuan in order to avoid penalizing yourself.
• If you have one grade that has a different level of range than another grade, you need to convert it so that you're talking about the same unit of measure.
• You can do this by always entering standard scores.
• If you enter points, you have to worry about being very sophisticated in knowing how to deal with range problems.
• If you enter standard scores, you don't have to be sophisticated at all.
• The Bottom Line: Always Enter Standard Scores So That You Automatically Correct for Any Differences in Points.

Lesson Element .13: A Professional Relationships

• The Third Category of Differentiation is Professional Relationships.
• This is how to deal with other professionals in different categories.
• Professional Categories:
• Administrators:
• Administrators are the lawgivers.
• Supervisors:
• Supervisors are theoretically there to help you.
• Staff Developers:
• They are the people who know how to help teachers get new skills.
• Staff development sessions are supposed to be helpful.
• They should follow up lecture presentations with some opportunities to practice examples.
• Staff development takes place when the developer works with the staff until they really understand and are able to apply the new concept.
• District Administrators:
• Important players.
• Different from building administrators in that you don't have daily relationships with them.
• However, you still must know the direction they are going so that you can anticipate what to do.
• Parents & Community Leaders:
• Since we have already discussed the importance of dealing with them in a previous lecture, suffice it to say that learning to deal with them is a big part of learning how to make things work better.
• Teachers' Unions:
• Lots of different unions out there: NEA, SVEA, and AF of T.
• You need to figure out how you will deal with these and other professional associations.
• Ex: Math Teachers' Association, Elementary Teachers' Association, Urban Teachers' Association, or the Montessori Association.
• Universities:
• Even after becoming a teacher, you should still want to deal with universities.
• Universities are a source of your continuing education as well as resources for schools and professional development.
• Ex: ODU is in partnership with the PRIME project in Norfolk.
• PRIME interns work in six special schools that have a special relationship with ODU and the community.
• Through PRIME, ODU has arranged for the Navy to enter into a ten-year partnership with PRIME to supply mentors during on-duty time, to the six schools.
• State Departments of Education:
• There isn't a well defined relationship between state DOE's and teachers.
• Teachers often blame the state DOE for many regulations, even though they don't understand the fine point of the regulations.
• Teachers need to better understand regulations.
• Most teachers rely on their administrators to explain the regulations.
• However, you aren't a real professional when you do something just because someone else tells you to do it, without knowing for yourself what is really going on.
• Read and understand the regulations yourself.
• Funding Agencies:
• The economic realities are that teachers are getting more involved in the grants game.
• Dr. Allen doesn't like that because it distracts teachers from what they are supposed to be doing. It takes time to hustle for grants.
• Reality check: If you don't hustle for grants, then your school won't have as many resources. A part of a bad system, but unfortunately, the only system we currently use.
• Support Staff:
• These are the people who serve as go-betweens to make things happen.
• These are the facilitators which keep the teacher from being bogged down with details.
• Ex: A facilitator who coordinates field trips.
• Teachers can do all the scheduling themselves (i.e. arranging for busses, tickets, etc.), or the facilitator can handle those arrangements and leave the teacher free to teach.
• Guest Speakers are also part of the support staff.
• Ex: In this area of high Navy interest and availability, why not have a Submariner come in and talk to the secondary school students?
• The talk is easily relatable to many disciplines.
• But to avoid paralysis of getting such speakers, it is best to have a support staff member who facilitates all requests for guest speakers.
• This eases the burden on the teacher, and it also encourages more requests for guest speakers.

Security and Monitoring Personnel:

• This category of support staff poses an interesting challenge.
• The teacher should know how to use security personnel when they need them.
• They should be able to alert these staff members to dangerous situations, and to foresee difficulties.

Lesson Element .14: A Implementing Systems for Staff Differentiation

• Dr. Allen Believes That Teaching Will Not Really Be a Profession until We Have the Potential to Pay Teachers Differently for Different Level of Responsibility in the Schools.
• He is talking about huge differences, not just a small stipend.
• Ex: The mentor teacher may be getting paid 2 or 3 times as much as the junior members of the staff.
• His belief is that the highest paid administrator and highest paid teacher should be paid the same.
• Ex: The highest paid principals in Norfolk earn around $80,000. That's what the highest paid teacher should earn also. This is about double what the highest paid teacher currently earns.
• Facing Reality: Implementing Differentiation:
• How soon can this happen? There are two issues: having differentiated staffing with more money, or having differentiated staffing by reallocating money.
• It doesn't necessarily require more money to achieve differentiated staffing.
• One way is to reduce the number of administrators instead of paying them less.
• This could be handled by attrition.
• Another way is to take an administrator and put them back in the classroom as a teacher, and simply accept the fact that they are getting paid a lot more than the other teachers. This will eventually correct itself as they retire.
• The PRIME advisor at the school is an example of letting action speak louder than words.
• Although the stipend is only $2,000 dollars a year for filling that responsibility, it is still a visible amount of money for have the extra responsibility.
• PRIME is a cost neutral method.
• It doesn't cost the district anything because even after adding together the $8,000 dollar salaries of the PRIME mentors, and the $2,000 dollar salary of the PRIME Advisor, you still come in under what the salaries and benefits package of a regular teacher would cost. Yet you get the services of 4 people for less than the price of one.
• Dr. Allen doesn't see society putting great amounts of money into differentiated staffing all at once, but unless we become organized to go in that direction systematically right now, it will never happen.
• Differentiated staffing and tenure concerns:
• As a professional teacher with tenure, you could still have additional stipends for differentiated responsibilities.
• Another approach is that when you are promoted to master teacher, you must earn tenure as a master teacher.
• This is the same probationary period as the way you go through a probationary period as a principal or anything else.
• There is nothing about the tenure system that is necessarily relating to differentiated staffing. You can have differentiated staffing with, or without a tenured environment.
• Dr. Allen Believes That the Way to Get More Money Is for the Profession to Come Together as a Profession.
• Currently, no one speaks with the voice of the profession.
• Most people are not speaking up for differentiated staffing because it is controversial.
• This silence leaves the profession divided and give the public the impression that as educators, we don't know what we are doing.
• This prohibits a clear cut mandate to the public.
• If we could get the profession united, go public and make a clear cut statement of what it is going to take to get the children educated, we as teachers would get a lot further along in acceptance as professionals.
• Currently we do not have any systematic means of experimentation, and no way of implementing the results of that experimentation. We waste a lot of good ideas this way.
• We are also very suspicious of having anyone tell us what to do, we don't want big government. As a result, we are in a state of anarchy.
• Dr. Allen Believes That the Problem Is That Currently, Nobody Is in Charge.
• He believes that we need to have a combination of better regulation and more local control.
• One of our current problems is that we refuse to have a national curriculum.
• Even though we might put the wrong person in charge of this curriculum, it will none the less force the issues.
• If the curriculum was in place we would have something to push against, and something to be accountable to, and still have the flexibility to change it as appropriate.
• Dr. Allen thinks we are headed in that direction, but very uncertainly.
• This is the most biased and controversial lecture of his entire lecture series for this class.