Hands shoot up furiously. Like the miller's daughter, Grout's classroom teachers are giving away their kids. But they're happy to do it. Of Lei's 26 students, five are attending an ESL literacy group, two are at a drama workshop, and three are with a special-ed instructor. Because all staff teach during the literacy blocks, student-teacher ratios drop dramatically.
Many specialized groups contain only five to eight students.
Classroom teachers' class loads dip to an enviable 16 or 18. There's even a group for chronic classroom disrupters. The multiple groupings also allow classroom teachers to send kids across grade levels to better meet their needs. While no bargains with Rumpelstiltskin were necessary to achieve the highly prized smaller class sizes, changes in staff roles and relationships were essential. They chose to go to another school.