Utilizing Resources...

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Metro Instructional Leadership Conference sponsored by the Georgia department of education. The sessions were geared towards improving school performance in a variety of ways. Dr. Paul, an assistant Principal in an APS high school presented a session on how to utilize the very many resources poured into the school (especially if the school is a priority school or a focus school) and swim towards success without drowning. I wondered about the very many resources provided by the state and federal government and the restrictions that come with it. For example the federal government invests a lot of money on the flexible learning program to support students that are in the bottom most 35 % of the school in performance; however, the support can be provided only during times when no other academic activity is happening at the school (this includes regular tutorials as well). There is again title 1 money that can be spent to buy technology that sometimes goes unused, to buy programs for which teachers are never trained enough and hence goes unused, or buy software that goes obsolete in a year or buy more teachers that will help in reducing the class size. I have often heard and seen how the money spent on various programs never benefits students because of various reasons that include lack of sufficient training to teachers, lack of time to implement in the classroom, lack of buy in from teachers etc. The presenter Dr. Paul explained in detail how their school leadership utilized every resource and support provided strategically to their advantage using their school-wide performance data as a guideline. As Dr. Paul pointed out, the school leadership has to effectively use distributive leadership in utilizing resources effectively with a laser focus on current data and goals to attain in order to increase student achievement.