Making Better Use of Instructional Assistants

After evaluating the school's expenditures, Horace Mann Elementary School's leadership team changed resource allocations to more effectively use instructional assistants. In the past, many of the assistants at this Glendale, California, school spent more time making copies, grading papers, and putting up bulletin boards than assisting students. To make better use of time and resources, the leadership team decided to assign one instructional assistant to do all of the copying, laminating, and supportive administrative tasks. This enabled the team to decrease the total number of assistant hours. They increased training for the assistants, focusing assistants' time on improving instruction and student results in the language arts period. Assistants are now assigned to classrooms for varying amounts of time based on student need. They meet regularly with a teacher specialist to discuss their responsibilities and how they can best support students and teachers in the classroom. Many of the assistants have taken advantage of this training and gone on to become credentialed teachers at Horace Mann. Furthermore, the school was able to hire a teacher specialist who focuses on data and assessment using the funds that in the past had gone to extra instructional assistant time. Read SchoolsMovingUp's full profile of Horace Mann Elementary School.

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