1.
Same Resources, Better Student Outcomes:
Finding Inefficiencies with Data

2.
Introductions
Nisha Garg
Principal Associate
Education Resource Strategies
Mariel Matze
Community Manager
Schoolzilla

3.
1. Learn how to diagnose the alignment of current
resources to strategic priorities
1. Assess where your school system is strong, and where
it can grow the most
2. Consider potential solutions to take back to your
teams
Learning Outcomes

4.
The Call to Action:
Allocate resources to boost
student achievement

5.
Most schools organize people, time, and money the
same as they did 50+ years ago
One teacher
per class
20-30 students
per class
Studying a
particular subject
For a set period of time
(e.g., 50 min/day)
For a set duration
(e.g., full year)
© Education Resource Strategies

6.
FROM:
A one-size-fits-all learning
environment that holds
everyone back.
School Design
TO:
A re-imagined school day with
new schedules, dynamic groupings and
targeted instruction.
© Education Resource Strategies

7.
Every year, schools make designs on how to allocate
resources through a seemingly similar process
Clarify
the Vision
Assess
the Need
Design
the
Strategy
Make it
Work
Implement
& Monitor
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5
Throughout the process, strategic leaders
reflect and revise initial answers and approach each step with
a willingness to make trade-offs.
© Education Resource Strategies

8.
A typical needs assessment or gap analysis
includes…
▪ Academic Performance: Student performance
trends, growth, and proficiency
▪ Student Culture: Survey data, absences,
suspensions
▪ Adult Culture: Survey data, teacher
absenteeism
Needs assessments often miss Current Resource Use
How have we configured the resources in our school, or district, to support
improvement in academics or culture? What structures exist?
What structures are missing?
© Education Resource Strategies

9.
ERS’ Strategic School Design Essentials
© Education Resource Strategies
Resource levers to strategically support
students’ most urgent needs include:
● Reductions in group size
● Maximizing total scheduled time
● Increased time in priority content
area
● Reduced teacher loads
● Changes to teacher assignment
in a particular content area
● Increase teacher planning time

10.
Pause and ponder
Has your district attempted to leverage any of these
resource levers? If so, which ones?
A. Reductions in group size
B. Maximizing total scheduled time
C. Increased time in priority content area
D. Reduced teacher loads
E. Changes to teacher assignment in a particular content area
F. Increase teacher planning time
G. None of the above

11.
Improving student
outcomes via strategic
resource allocation

12.
▪ Goal: Proactively
support students in
their transition between
middle school and high
school
District A:

13.
Reviewing the Data
▪ Goal: Proactively support
students in their transition
between middle school and high
school
▪ Class sizes are largest in 9th
grade, and progressively get
smaller throughout the upper
grades

14.
Making Meaning
Across the country, this trend
persists. It’s often a byproduct of:
▪ Reduced enrollment in upper
grades
▪ Additional course offerings
for electives in upper grades,
resulting in more, smaller
classes
▪ 11th/12th grade students are
under-scheduled

15.
▪ In District A, we saw
that enrollment decline
over the years was one
factor in the class size
variations in grades 9-
12...
Enrollment by Grade

16.
Novice Team
Assignment
▪ 9th graders were most
likely to have a novice
teacher in core subjects
and nearly twice as likely
to have a novice teacher
than 12th graders
49%
36%
29%
27%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
9 10 11 12
Grades
Novice Teacher Assignment
% Novice
Teachers
(Core
Subjects)
%NoviceTeachers
35%

17.
… beyond that, upon
reviewing their resource use
data, District A realized 12th
grade students were also
often under-scheduled for
a portion of the school day
Instructional Time

18.
Action Implications
Upon a full review of data, District A supported schools in:
▪ Reassigning additional teachers to 9th grade
sections by reducing total sections in 12th grade
▪ Evaluating online/virtual learning options to maintain
the breadth of electives to 12th grade students
▪ Improving guidance support to 12th grade students to
ensure students are taking a full course load

19.
▪ Goal: Improve supports in ELA and Math by
reducing teacher loads
▪ To support this goal, School X double blocks ELA
and Math classes in an effort to reduce the total
number of students an ELA or Math teacher sees in
a given year
School X:

20.
▪ Despite, similar
structures in ELA and
Math, Math teachers
in School X see 1.5x as
many students as ELA
teachers
Reviewing the Data

21.
▪ When compared to
other schools in the
district, the higher
than average teacher
load in Math became
even more apparent
Reviewing the Data

22.
Upon a full review of data, School X:
▪ Revised student assignment practices in Math
classes to ensure students were paired with the same
teacher across multiple sections
▪ Provided additional administrative support to Math
teachers to reduce strain of teacher load
Action Implications

23.
Stay in Touch!
ERS is hiring in Boston and the Bay Area!
https://www.erstrategies.org/info/careers

24.
Thank you!