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SAMs State Coordinator Carol Lensing providing a hands-on training session
Proposal for use of District Stimulus Money
School Administration Manager
Rationale:
President Obama and the federal government are providing stimulus money to state and local governments and school districts with established priorities of providing additional jobs with a quick turnaround. The expectation is that these new positions will show results in terms of success and support for local and state initiatives. School districts, and specifically school principals, are overwhelmed in today’s educational systems with additional responsibilities for student achievement, staff development and ongoing management issues within their buildings. With this as a rationale, school districts might want to consider adding School Administration Manager positions to some or all of their buildings using federal stimulus money. The statewide SAM project is a “shovel-ready” project with infrastructure and support already in place for buildings and districts wanting to consider it. The SAM project is in place in nine states across the country, and is currently funded in part by the Wallace Foundation. It is a data-driven program that focuses on the use of time by the principal. Principals review their own time-use data to track time spent on instructional leadership while delegating management tasks to a School Administration Manager (SAM). Participating schools, on average, go from 28 percent of principal time spent on instructional improvement to 60 percent within a year or two. The project requires reflective work with teachers, support staff, parents and students.
Value:
- Jobs/positions can be added quickly.
- Readiness, data collection process, training, and ongoing coaching components already in place to support new buildings/district.
- Data-driven project; results are easily documented.
- Principals are able to release some of the management duties so they can focus more on instructional improvement and increased student achievement.
- Buildings can establish a contracted services arrangement with the new hires (SAMs) for the two-year period of the stimulus money, and then make a decision at the end of that time as to how to proceed in the district.
Options after stimulus money is gone:
- Pick up the cost of the SAM using other district funds and leave the SAM at the school full-time.
- Pick up the cost of the SAM using other funds and assign the SAM to two schools.
- Transition to a Model 3 SAM school which uses an existing staff member to serve as the SAM on a part-time basis as well as maintain his/her other position.
Costs:
- Contracted services (SAM position/personnel) - $25,000 to $35,000 paid directly through the school district to the employee.
- Training and support costs - $9,800, which supports all of the following: readiness activities for school boards and teachers, 5 days of data collection and data analysis, 2 day-training for SAMs and principal teams, a SAMs newsletter, and monthly coaching sessions with the SAMs and principals on site.
Results-driven and use of data to document success:
- Baseline data (weeklong shadowing)
- Daily use of Time Track tool
- Daily/weekly/monthly/annual data provided through the software
- Surveys of staff, parents, and students
- Student achievement data
Dr. Joe Murphy, author of the ISSLC standards for school leaders states, “This is the first time we can document a significant change in principal practice.” Consider adding a SAM or SAMs to your school district using some of your district’s stimulus money.
- Participation in the SAM project should be voluntary on the part of the principals involved! The best determinant of successful SAM/principal teams is a good match between the principal and the SAM.
Support and training is available immediately for any district interested in this proposal. Please contact SAI or Carol Lensing, state SAM project coordinator, for additional information or answers to your questions. E-mail carollensing@mchsi.com or call (319) 540-1677 (cell phone).
