Allocating Resources to Improve Student Learning

Introduction

The size of the classroom can affect the ability of the student to engage in the material, as well as the teacher’s ability to remain effective presenting the material. School enrollment often affects the ratios of the classroom, which can become a factor in student success. Budget restrictions result in larger teaching loads, which decrease the time and attention teachers can give to a student. Large portions of institutional expenditures go to salaries, which supports the argument that most education dollars are spent on people, and not on the product. Thus raising the questions what can be done to spend education dollars more effectively with out over crowding classrooms and increase workloads. To address these issues the structure for the organization of the staff must be examined.

Over the past five decades, the number of teachers as a percentage of school staff has declined substantially. Since 2000, the ratio of teacher to school staff has decreased. Thus causing classrooms to be overcrowded, while the administrative staff continues to grow. The ratio of support staff to students also has seen a decrease, which indicates a need for restricting and reallocating of resources (Burke, 2012). This paper discusses the student-teacher ratio, classroom size and the reallocating of resources in order to increase effectiveness of expenditures and budgets.

Student-Teacher Ratio

As the local governments reduce education employees the student-teacher ratio will increase. Student-teacher ratios have been on the decline over the past five decades. They are lower than they were in the 1950s and 1970s. The Obama Administration’s “Investing in Our Future” does state that “since the fall of 2010… local governments have ...

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...nal vision, funded by reallocation of extant resources is needed (Odden & Picus, 2008). Reallocation can be effective however when a school is not able reallocate resources, the decision to introduce new resources or alternative funding must be explored. The challenge for education administration is providing a funding for all expenditures without exhausting funds, while providing a product that meets or exceeds the mission and goals – to provide an education that promotes student succeeds.

Works Cited

Burke, L. (2012, October). How escalating education spending is killing crucial reform. Backgrounder .

Johnson, J. A., Dupuis, V. L., Musial, D., Hall, G. E., & Gollnick, D. M. (1999). Introcution to Foundtions of American Education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Odden, A. R., & Picus, L. O. (2008). School finance; A policy perspecitve. Boston: McGraw Hill.