©
Copyright 2002
by Ken Futernick
Statewide, 14% of all teachers are working with emergency permits. In the state’s poorest schools—those in which 90% or more of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches—nearly one-fourth of the teachers have no credential. Most of these schools also employ disproportionately higher numbers of beginning teachers than schools in wealthier neighborhoods. Not surprisingly many of the students in these schools fail to achieve.
California’s policy makers have recently adopted a variety of initiatives to recruit and retain experienced teachers to high-poverty schools, but these efforts are inadequate for several reasons:
The present approach relies too heavily upon financial incentives and overlooks other more promising incentives;
Most of the initiatives are targeted at drawing the least experienced teachers to the schools which are the most challenging;
Insufficient attention is paid to the conditions that lead to greater teacher retention;
The initiatives are not sufficient to achieve sustainable change in these schools.
The thesis offered here is that unless these schools can quickly be brought to the point of stability, a point where a critical mass of teachers is achieved—they will eventually return to their prior state of dysfunction.
The Tipping Point plan is based on the belief that the staffing challenge can be met if teachers and administrators are offered the very real prospect that they can succeed in these schools. Lower class sizes, clean and safe schools, up-to-date materials, and state of the art technology are among the incentives some districts are using to lure personnel to their hard-to-staff schools. While these are important, the single most important incentive for principals and teachers—the one that has the greatest chance of convincing them that they can make a difference in these highly demanding schools—is the promise of membership on a competent and committed team of teachers and administrators. The Tipping Point plan is designed to lead dysfunctional schools to the point where they “tip”—a point where teachers and administrators come and stay because together, as a team, they are able to create successful learning experiences for their students.
The following are key features of the Tipping Point plan:
Principals selected for this assignment will have several months with no other duties to devote to this project.
Teachers will be recruited from the target school, other easy-to-staff schools in the district, neighboring districts, and teacher credential programs.
Principals and a teacher leadership group will attempt to select a team that is well rounded and equipped with the qualities most needed at the target school.
The number of beginning teachers on the team will be limited to a small percentage.
The team will be given a significant amount of time for planning and professional development before the school year begins.
The team will have autonomy to make decisions on curriculum, instructional approach, professional development, and school policy.
The team will receive additional resources to make necessary improvements to the school environment and to purchase supplies and instructional materials.
The team will receive on-going assistance from an on-site external support group.
The team will invite parent and community groups to participate in the planning process and to become an integral part of the plan once the team begins its work at the target school.
The initial goal for the Tipping Point plan is to test its viability in a single elementary school, but the broader vision is to create a model that is transferable to other similarly challenged schools. If the plan attracts a competent and committed staff to one dysfunctional school, if it transforms it into places where poor children have a successful educational experience, there is a chance it could break the cycle of failure in hundreds of other dysfunctional schools in the state.
Click here to view the complete report. (730K PDF Document)