Alternative staffing models could boost some teachers’ pay by as much as 134 percent without increasing existing school budgets, according to a new series of briefs by Public Impact, an education policy and management-consulting firm in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The organization has looked at 20 alternative models through its Opportunity Culture Initiative, which is underwritten by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (The Gates Foundation also provides funding for Education Week.) The newly issued briefs offer financial analyses of three of those—"the multiclassroom leadership model,” “the elementary subject-specialization model,” and the “time-technology swap model.” Each of the models ultimately aims to put the best teachers in front of more students, or increase their “reach,” as a means of improving student learning.
Such staffing models would encounter major policy barriers in implementation, some observers say.
