Should Schools Replace Resource Rooms?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why replacing resource rooms with classroom small groups can shortchange students who need extra time and extra teaching.
Key Takeaways
- Intervention Requires More Time - Students who are struggling usually need extra time to learn, not just a different grouping structure during the same class period.
- Small Groups Don't Create More Teaching - Dividing one class into groups doesn't magically add instructional capacity; it still leaves one teacher and the same amount of time.
- Resource Rooms Provide Real Support - Eliminating resource rooms can remove two essentials students need most: additional time and access to additional teachers.
- Efficiency Isn't Effectiveness - Keeping intervention in the classroom may be cheaper and simpler, but that doesn't mean it meets students' actual needs.
- Be Wary of the Tradeoff - When schools are told intervention can happen in the classroom, the hidden next step is often expecting the classroom teacher to do it alone.
Full Transcript
Get rid of resource rooms and replace them with small group instruction in the classroom to provide the intervention that students need. Is that a good idea? I don't think so, but that is what Dr. Lian Zhang is suggesting over on Twitter. And I think if we get rid of resource rooms, we have to recognize that we're getting rid of two things that students absolutely need. They need extra time and they need extra teachers.
And I think we try to flip that over a notch into extra teaching and then try to make it something that the classroom teacher can do. And I want us to be aware of the kind of sleight of hand that's happening here when we're told you don't need intervention to happen somewhere else.
You can make it happen in your room. Because the next step that will happen is you're told you don't need somebody else to do that intervention. You can do it yourself. And I think we have to really ask ourselves, is that still intervention?
Are we giving kids what they need? If they're not getting extra time and they're just getting taught in a small group by the same teacher in the same classroom, I don't think that is going to work. Now, obviously, it's cheaper. Obviously, it's simpler to say, well, everybody can just do this on their own.
But I don't think it is going to work. See, behind the idea of small group instruction and intervention is this idea that when kids are struggling, they just need you to teach in a slightly different way.
And I don't think that's the main thing they need. Maybe there are ways that you can explain it to them. Maybe there are ways that you can meet their needs in a small group. But the main thing they need is extra time. And the reason they need extra time more than anything else is because that is how kids vary. Think about the difference between your learners.
We know learning styles are a myth. Everybody pretty much learns in the same... So, the type of teaching that people need is not different just based on, you know, special needs or anything. Like, even students who have profound disabilities, like, generally learn in the same way.
What students need is extra time. What they need is extra teaching from a human being. And we don't create that extra teaching out of thin air when we divide a class into small groups, right? Like, if you slice a pizza into eight slices, it's still just one pizza. It's not eight pizzas now. And there's this idea with small groups that you're giving kids more instructional time because you've got them in a small group.
No, you are not giving them more instructional time. You're giving them the same amount of instructional time at best, and you're giving most kids a lot less instructional time. As a secondary teacher, it never made sense to me to say, well, spend part of your class time in small groups
so that you can meet the needs of the individual kids. Well, that means I'm going to just teach a whole lot less. I never had any extra time at the end of class or extra time at the end of the year that I could have spent on small groups.
If kids need that extra time, we have to give it to them and not pretend that we can just invent it out of thin air during the regular class period.
Let me know what you think.