Douglas Reeves, Ph.D.
Creative Leadership Solutions
School leaders are understandably worried about budget cuts and policymakers’ concerns about how they can justify spending taxpayer dollars on professional learning. Here are seven ways to show skeptical board members and policymakers that investing in professional learning provides a great return on investment.
First, reduce the failure rate. The single most significant impact on school budgets is the per-pupil enrollment. In California, for example, per-student spending exceeds $20,000 (https://californiapolicycenter.org/californias-k-12-spending-exceeds-20000-per-pupil/). Therefore, when we can reduce more than 1,000 student failures, as we have for several years in one high-poverty district, the savings amount to 1,000 times $20,000, or more than $200 million. Very few professional learning programs can provide that level of return on investment.
Moreover, reducing failures saves not just the school system but the entire community. When students stay in school rather than drop out, they avoid a lifetime of poverty, unemployment, involvement in the criminal justice system, and excessive health care costs. Reducing failure is the greatest return on investment any professional learning effort can provide.
Second, when schools reduce the failure rate, they can increase the number of electives they offer. Schools that offer more electives attract students who might otherwise go to charter schools, home school, or other alternatives.
Third, schools that provide intensive and early academic support avoid the high costs of special education and academic intervention. When students are having difficulty in reading and math, it is not necessarily a disability, but rather a need for academic support that can be addressed with appropriate support in the regular education classroom.
Fourth, successful schools identify student needs well before remediation is required. One principal simply asked for “a name and a need” before any student was sent home with failing grades. “Is it tutoring, food, transportation. . .?” When teachers were challenged to provide a “name and a need,” the failure rate plummeted because the school was proactive in meeting student needs.
Fifth, attract and retain great teachers. It is hardly new research that great teachers are the key to student success, yet schools are losing those great teachers because many of them are burned out and disrespected by students, parents, and administrators. The good news is that we know how to attract and keep those great teachers. While money is important, it is not enough. Schools need to provide not only a respectful environment but also time for collaboration and professional learning. The same is true for administrators, and turnover among administrators and teachers is particularly high in schools serving low-income students. If schools can reduce the turnover among teachers and administrators, they can save millions of dollars that can then be allocated to nurturing and encouraging the faculty and leaders that they have.
Sixth, reduce initiative fatigue. Schools and districts are better at starting new initiatives than they are at canceling them. In “The 100 Day Leader,” Bob Eaker and I argued that every school plan should have a “Not to Do List.” A wonderful principal in Wisconsin has an annual “dumpster day” in which she removes decades-old word searches, reading inventories, and other outdated material, keeping the faculty focused on the top priorities of the school. Many readers will suggest that the dumpster should also be located in the district office. At Creative Leadership Solutions, my colleagues and I have frequently found initiatives that, however well-intentioned in past years, have long outlived their usefulness.
Seventh – wasteful meetings. We know a principal in Virginia who starts every staff meeting with the words, “Good afternoon, colleagues. Here are the announcements. Read them at your leisure.” The rest of the meeting is devoted to getting real work done – assessments, scoring guides, collaborative work, and so on, saving 44 minutes and 50 seconds of every meeting I have attended. Multiply the cost of every person-hour in meetings and the enormous cost savings. That is especially true in central office and cabinet meetings where the cost can run into six and seven figures.
Legendary Coach Vince Lombardi said, “If you have a cheap head, get a cheap helmet.” The same is true of professional learning. Great professional learning – one-to-one coaching for leaders and teams of teachers – will provide a great return on investment. We know that budgets are tight and that we must be good stewards of public funds. Therefore, it is more important now than ever to ensure that every professional learning dollar is invested wisely to gain the maximum return on investment.