Impact+of+Salaries+on+Both+Districts-+my+part+of+group+project+part+three

__ The Impact of Salaries on Both Districts __ When I take into consideration the compensatory funding, I can see how the poorer district utilized the funding for additional staff; however, the compensatory funding combined with the local funding was not enough to create more teaching positions. Both school districts have employed the same number of teachers. However, when I look at the actual staff that has been hired by the district, I can see the impact of the compensatory education dollars. If it was a matter of hiring teachers with the additional state dollars from compensatory education, the poorer district had the funds to hire more teachers. Evidently, the decision was made to hire more support. As referenced by my example: The poorer district has decided to hire more professional staff (49.46) as compared to the more affluent district (33.6); this is an obvious attempt to provide more direct support for teachers who may need assistance with the TEKS interpretation, assessment, planning, and monitoring or strategy preparation. Professional salaries are more than teacher salaries and if the poorer district limited itself to the same number of professionals that the more affluent district had hired, then the number of teachers would have increased by 17. It is evident that the poorer district made a choice between more classroom teachers without the assistance of adequate professionals or the quality of instruction that could be provided and a lower teacher to professional ratio.

When considering the number of Educational Assistants, the poorer district hired 37 Educational Assistants as opposed to the more affluent district hiring 56 Educational Assistants. In using the earlier example with regard to hiring professional staff, the poorer district could have increased the number of Educational Aides by at least two for each professional staff hired. However, if the quality of Educational Aides available is in question, then the simple fact of more bodies will not equate to success of students.

Each district has to have School Administrative Staff in order for their schools to function properly. It should be noted that the poorer District has more School Administrative Staff than does the more affluent school district. The needs of the campuses are greater at the poorer school district. It is a fact, “that what gets monitored… gets done”; the poorer district needs more administrative support to monitor teachers. This monitoring can include, but not limited to: proper usage of the TEKS, proper use of best practice strategies and proper assessment of student success or lack thereof.