Giving Compass' Take:

• A new report entitled Innovative Staffing to Personalize Learning outlines successful methods for schools looking to reorganize their classrooms. 

• How can philanthropy support further research in this area? How can schools make the most of the resources they already have? 

• Learn why it may be beneficial for elementary teachers to follow a class between grades.

Emerging school models are supposed to ease the transition to personalized and blended instruction—or at least make it possible. But new ways of teaching like station rotation and fluid-schedule flex models can hit a snag when they run up against the familiar one-teacher-one-classroom setup. According to the authors of a new report, it’s not schools that need a “rethink” as much as school staffing.

“The mental model of how schools are organized is very strong, especially when it comes to staffing,” says Bryan Hassel, the co-president of Public Impact, which authored the report along with the Clayton Christensen Institute. “So changing that requires some effort.”

For the report, called “Innovative Staffing to Personalize Learning,” the two organizations scoured their personal networks and lists of high-performing schools to find ones that took a different approach to classroom organization, eventually finding eight schools and school networks with instructive lessons to share.

From the research, the authors pointed to eight key elements that can help make new staffing models a success. They include providing:

  1. differentiated roles for educators, like teacher-leaders, collaborating teachers, support staff, and teachers-in-training;
  2. intensive collaboration on small teaching teams;
  3. cultures of intensive coaching;
  4. paid fellowships and residencies that enabled schools to build their own pipeline of future educators;
  5. school leaders who reinforce high standards;
  6. educator schedules that allow for school-day collaboration and coaching;
  7. higher compensation for teachers and teacher-leaders at many schools, within existing budgets;
  8. facilities created or adjusted—generally not at great expense—to support team teaching.

Read the full article about emerging school models by Stephen Noonoo at EdSurge.