This is another one of those belt-cinching times for education. Every day we get calls from administrators and teachers asking for help in building a caring, successful school community using The Responsive Classroom approach, but on a really tight budget. The larger classes grow, the fewer the support services available in a building, the more important it is for teachers to learn how to cultivate courteous, engaged learners.

The following is our 4-point approach to creating a Responsive Classroom environment in your school.
1. Training
The week-long training initiates teachers into the six components (Morning Meeting; Rules and Logical Consequences; Guided Discovery; Classroom Organization; Academic Choice; Assessment and Reporting to Parents). Tuition: $625 per person

At least a core group of 3-5 teachers, spread out across the grade levels, can start the school towards in-depth implementation. In year 2, the core group takes Responsive Classroom II, which helps teachers see all the components as an integrated whole, and provides them with many new practices for responding successfully to challenging student behaviors.

If there are funds in the first year for only these few teachers to take the week-long, other teachers can get at least a beginning from an in-house One Day workshop during the school year. Fees: $1200 per day for a maximum of 30 teachers, plus book costs.

Over a period of 3-5 years, all teachers need to receive the week-long training, and as many as possible, the advanced course, Responsive Classroom II.

2. Coaching
Teachers who have taken the weeklong will be far more successful in implementing the components if they get help from a Responsive Classroom consultant in their classroom. The core group can use the consultant to fully implement, get questions answered, watch demonstration lessons, and learn by doing, with an expert partner. Fee: $1200 per day. Schools can do as much coaching as they can afford, but full support would consist of about eight days per year.

3. Collegial support
Teachers can form study groups around books that are key to Responsive Classroom implementation. They can visit each other’s classrooms. They can engage in an in-depth look at a school-wide discipline plan. They can share experience with RC components at staff meetings. Any teacher to teacher support, peer coaching, suggestions, information integrates the RC practices into the living culture of the school. Such practices are crucial to grounding RC practices so that they will continue, long after the consultation period is over.

4. Leadership
A person with administrative authority helps design and gives energy and direction to the implementation of a comprehensive plan for school growth through Responsive Classroom practices. Principals, curriculum coordinators, assistant principals who have taken the week-long training are informed and able to see what’s working and what isn’t. Their expert guidance is crucial to steering this comprehensive school reform through all the troubled waters it may need to cross.

Origins is ready to assist your school in achieving its goals with The Responsive Classroom in the manner that fits your vision and your budget. We can begin with a two-hour overview to acquaint staff with the main ideas of this approach, and we can advise you how to build a truly comprehensive reform over as much time as it needs to take, given your circumstances. This is not a "one size fits all" approach, nor is it a quick fix. As all the professional development studies have shown, training and support from inside and out are a necessity for getting where you want to go in education. We invite you to call our office to find out more about a potential partnership to become the school you want to be. Ask for an administrative packet which will outline various implementation pathways.

Linda Crawford is the Director of Origins.

This article first appeared in Origins: A Newsletter for Educators, Spring 2002