Why are so many elementary teachers out of work?

I hate to sound heartless, but it's not just because of budget cuts and the economy.  Mike, over at Intercepts, has some links to interesting facts about the number of elementary teachers out there, which is far more than has really been necessary ever.  In other words, a big part of the reason that there are so many unemployed elementary teachers is that there are just more people getting elementary credentials and seeking employment than there is a need for elementary teachers.

First step in analyzing a charter school budget

When I approach a charter school budget, especially for a school that has very tight finances or is financial trouble, I look at the payroll line.  More specifically, I look at the detail of who is on payroll, salary by position, and total payroll as a percentage of revenue.

Because I work with multiple schools, it's easy to compare against other schools.  The difficult part is that due to the differences in methods between charter schools, it's often hard to distinguish which employees need to be on staff and which don't.

I often begin with the administrative staff because administrative areas are the ones that schools have in common.  If two schools are roughly the same size, then they should have similar administrative staff budgets, but often they don't.  This can be caused by some schools doing more than they need to do.  Some schools, often due to very controlling directors or principals, end up tracking even more than is important for operation and compliance.  It also can be due to directors simply not really knowing much about administrative functions.  That's a reason that some schools outsource administration or finance.  This can also happen when schools hire their own custodial crews.  They often pay much more than they need to.

The academic staff is a much more touchy subject.  Often schools have built an untenable staffing model.  Because of their desire to serve children and their educational methodology, they think that they have to employ a certain number and type of employee.  The over staffing can be due to excessive numbers of tutors, extremely small class sizes, a variety of specials and extra-curricular activities.  It can also be due to a desire to provide additional counseling assistance.  None of these desires are bad.  In fact, they are the opposite.  However, when the budget cannon handle the number of staff, then something has to change.  Because charter school leaders (and often board members) are idealists, they don't want to cut staff or change their model.  They fall in love with their model.  The problem is that the financial model doesn't pair with the academic model, and the financial model isn't going to change without substantial external funding.

Too many charter schools try to make this up through grants.  The problem is that their isn't enough grant money available to cover all of the charter schools who want to employ additional teachers and tutors to implement their academic model.

While it isn't the only place to cut or rearrange, payroll is always the largest expense for a school.  There just isn't usually enough play in the remainder of a budget to create additional positions.  A payroll and benefits budget can be 70% of a charter school's budget.  Because facilities is usually between 15% and 20% of a budget, there simply isn't much room to cut the other expenses, especially when most of those are not really discretionary. 

I'm now doing more for charter schools

I've recently opened a consulting business doing more for charter schools.  While I'm still doing the accounting and back office work that I've always done, I've now set up Smarter Directions, LLC to assist with strategic planning, board governance and financial analysis and turnaround.  I can travel to you and also run classes for multiple schools.  My work is flexible and my facilitation process is based on visual brainstorming methods that accelerate any planning or decision making process.  Thanks for reading. 

Five things that charter schools should do?

According to an article over at Huffington Post, "A 2011 study identified five successes of charter schools: "frequent teacher feedback, the use of data to guide instruction, high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time and high expectations."

The Huffington Post article also says that most charter schools don't do these five things.  Why doesn't yours?
 

Keeping good teachers

An article over at the Christian Science Monitor looks at ways to keep talented teachers.  It says, "These teachers need to see opportunities for career advancement, better compensation, and meaningful evaluation and professional development."

We've argued for a long time that good teachers should be paid better than average or bad teachers.  This will increase their desire to stay.  We believe this is true, even if it means taking from the money allotted to bad teachers and giving it to good teachers.  In other words, we don't believe that the total budget for teacher pay needs to increase in all cases.   

Read more here.

Try cross curricular instruction says Ben Johnson

Over at his blog on Edutopia, Ben Johnson explains why cross curricular instruction allows students to go deeper in their learning.  He does note that one problem is that students aren't used to going so deep, so students may need to be led along to the deeper knowledge. 

A charter school is not just a charter school

A charter school isn't just a charter school because there are so many other things that define an individual charter school.  People complain about profiteering, but not all charter schools are for profit.  People complain that charter schools are test oriented or standardized test based, but there are many expeditionary schools and others that only take standardized test because the government requires standardized testing. 

While the charter school movement makes some sense to me, there is also so much diversity among the schools that saying something like "charter schools are great" or "charter schools are bad" borders on silly. 

A charter schools is only a good school if it educates children.  Unfortunately, there are many measures of what a good education is.  However, as I've talked to educators and parents around the country, there is a common concern, especially among lower income and middle income areas, that reading and math are the most important subjects for elementary children.  A lot of those skills can be assessed with standardized testing.

A benefit of charter schools is that they can innovate and create different ways to get kids to those goals.  A child who may not fit in a public school, might fit in a charter school.

Technology standards should drive the standards

In a review of the technology standards for the common core, this article finds that the standards are already behind the times. In our fast paced world of technological change, it will be increasingly difficult for the common core to define the standard.  So, does that mean we ought to abandon technology standards in the common core?  The article notes several places where the common core hasn't kept up with trends in something as basic as the iPad mini.  What's a school to do?  If it follows the common core, then it won't be using the latest technology.

Can you make a kid more resilient?

An article by Renee Jain explains how resilience comes about in kids.  It is interesting because she explains that Adversity, Beliefs and Consequence can change a student's resiliency when he or she has performed badly.  The ABC method means that students need to believe that they can do better in order to bounce back. 

Children prefer books in bed

A study on e-readers and kids suggests that good old paper is best when in bed, but kids like reading using the electronic tablet.  However, kids do not read more than they would otherwise, and parents find it challenging to control content if a kid has access to the internet or to games to play while pretending to read.

Does your charter school have a BPM?

Never heard of a BPM?  Does your charter school need one?  Yes.  It does.

A BPM is a Board Policy Manual.  Why do you need one?  Because otherwise your board is operating either on an ad hoc basic or your by-laws are far more detailed than they need to be. 

A BPM captures all of the relevant policies that allow your board to operate efficiently as well as predictably.  What might a BPM look  like? 

The board policy manual contains essential policies that allow both board members and members of the charter school community to know how the board operates.  The BPM should include sections on:

• Board configuration and operations
• Standing committees
• Matters on which the board has authority
• Authority and Expectations of the Executive Director/Principal who reports to the board
• A statement of the mission, vision and values as well as how they are developed and how they might be changed
• A statement on strategies and goals

The board policy manual has many advantages.  If used well, it can be both a document to assist with current board members and processes as well as an essential document for new board members.  A side benefit is that it can be used to educate members of the community so that they understand how the board works and who has authority over various decisions.

The board policy manual should be used consistently with the understanding by board members that it can be modified at any time by a board vote.  Because it is binding and yet easily modified, it need not restrict a board when it realizes that a policy was not well written or is no longer useful. 

The BPM is also helpful for the head of school to know his or her boundaries and the basis on which evaluation will take place.  The initial writing of the manual could be time consuming, but future review and editing need not take much time at all.  While editing can take place at any time a policy is found to be out of date, a board should also review the document formally at least once a year for potential updates, additions or edits. 

Using a BPM and using it consistently makes the entire governance process both more transparent and more efficient.