School Administrator Interview - Essay Example

Running head: ADMINISTRATOR INTERVIEW Administrator interview School accountability is measured in terms outcomes; And outcomes depends on inputs given by school in terms of facilities, educated and experienced teachers etc… School funding plays important role in quality of inputs given to students. This paper outlines an interview of a school administrator and shows links between school funding and student performance. Introduction Schools are basic building blocks for the nation. They play important part in a child development. Education needs high quality facilities and good teachers, which cost high. Schools has limited funding and quality education demand great amount of money. In this case, managing finance of school is very critical job. This paper outlines an interview of my school administrator. Interview My school is a private organization. Our finance administrator, Principal, has a master degree in accounting and finance. With 10 years of experience, He is excellent in accounting, budgeting and financial management. His analytical skills and accuracy are fantabulous. His organizational and communication skill are magnificent. He can efficiently work on team or independently with minimal supervision. Having knowledge of private school finance systems, policies and procedures, he can manage multiple tasks in fast pace environment. I asked the principal some questions about his position and responsibilities. As a principal, he generates the operations and capitol budgets for next academic year. As an administrator he has good influence in developing district budget. He works with department chairs to make requests for year ahead budgeting. According to him, he gained all knowledge by experience. When I tried to enquire about state funding formulas, he explained that being private school, they are not held to state funding formulas. Finance management is very critical job. But most difficult task, according to him, is understanding why teachers and staff find it difficult to plan ahead and use purchase order system. He is saturated with reimbursement system. On asking effect of future school finance on education he said, increased finance will improve school performance. The expenditure of more money for education would lead to improved student outcomes. There are evidence to prove relationship between the amount of resources and student achievement (picus, 1995). The strong belief that money is important to improving school performance maintains a strong following. The quality of school facilities are important to student learning. He believes that more money would help school provide a higher quality education, which in turn would lead to greater student achievement. Many important educational programs are aimed at improving opportunities for groups of students with special needs are based on the assumption that additional resources are essential to their success (Roy, 2004). With more funds, Classroom size can be reduce which ensures increased attention per pupil and improve student learning. According to him, important outcome of schooling will be success in the labor market, and there is link between higher cost resource allocation patterns and improved career earnings. It can be argued that an important outcome of schooling is the ability of graduates to find and keep good, high paying jobs. While making the link between educational resources and employment (as measured by lifetime earnings or a similar measure), men who were educated in states with relatively small classes in the public schools and relatively high teacher salaries tended to have higher earnings than did men educated in states with relatively larger classes and relatively lower paid teachers. This findings suggest that small classes and high teacher salaries (both of which would lead to higher per pupil expenditures), may have a greater effect on future earnings. Again teacher education also affects student performance. There is positive correlation between teacher experience, teacher education and student performance (picus, 1995). Higher resources allow high paying for teachers which attracts highly qualified and highly experienced teachers. At the same time permits higher education for existing teachers and retains experienced teachers (Roy, 2004). As school is a private organization and not held to state funding formulas, school finance totally depends on fees paid by students and donation. School funding can be increased by donation and increasing fees. School can attract high donation if it performs well. Again fees can be increased if school offers high quality facilities, highly educated and highly experienced teachers. School administration is also an important factor in attracting students and retaining experienced teachers. According to principal, these all things can happen if they plan and utilize available resources skillfully in order to save funds and use them for teachers’ salaries and education as education and experience of teacher plays very important part in students’ performance. Every student has different problems and so their need varies. School has to understand need of each student so as to guide and teach them accordingly. School has to hire more teachers to ensure low pupil to teacher ratio and so as to ensure increased attention. School can design special programs that are specifically targeted to needy children (Funding our future, 2007). Again increasing social activities like participation and success of students in state and national level competition also increase school reputation which in turn increases quality and quantity of enrollments. School can utilize their ground and school building for earning by giving them on rent for parties and functions. School students can arrange fairs or some programs publicly so as to earn fame as well as money. At the same time resources has to be used to improve quality of facilities school provide. With help of proper marketing school can increase its donation so as to improve quality of education. Again proper marketing increase chances of getting high paying job for students (Funding our future, 2007). Conclusion Money is more important in determining how well students are likely to do. Various studies and analyses are persuasive in showing that, with the possible exception of facilities, there is evidence of statistically reliable relations between educational resource inputs and school outcomes, and that there is much more evidence of positive relations than of negative relations between resource inputs and outcomes. hiring teachers with stronger literacy skills, hiring more teachers (when students-per-teacher exceed 18), retaining experienced teachers, and attracting more teachers with advanced training are all measures that produce higher test scores in exchange for more money. And in order to achieve this they have to offer substantially higher salaries to teachers to attract and retain high quality instructors. This would help confirm a link between expenditures and student achievement. This concludes that school can increase its funding buy showing student outcomes and that in turn can be done by using existing resources skillfully. Reference: "Funding Our Future, an Approach to Fund Education In Rhode Island”, April 2007 Picus, Lawrence. "Does Money Matter in Education? A Policymakers Guide", 1995. Roy, Joydeep. "Impact of School Finance Reform on Resource Equalization and Academic Performance: Evidence from Michigan". No 425, Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings from Econometric Society. Read More