Differentiated Staffing

Fenwick W. English

The differentiated teaching staff concept emerged in the mid-1960s as a movement to (a) find ways to deal with critical teacher shortages in selected curricular areas, (b) find some way of breaking away from the lockstep salary schedule without resorting to merit pay, and (c) creating within the teaching profession room for a talented teacher to remain a teacher without having to leave the classroom for school administration. One of the earliest proponents of differentiated staffing was Dwight Allen, then a young professor at Stanford University. Allen proposed a four-level structure comprised of different offices and roles for classroom teachers. He envisioned places for associate teachers, staff teachers, senior teachers, and professors. The first two levels would be hired on a 10-month contract, the second two on a 12-month contract. Allen proffered three essential conditions for a model of differentiated staffing: (1) a minimum of three differentiated teaching levels, each ...

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