Recruiting Schools and Teachers. RE-SEED keeps
a database of teachers or administrators who want Science
Resource Agents in their classrooms and schools. The
initial school recruitment effort took place in 1993 when
RE-SEED sent information about the program to school
administrators across the state, encouraging them to put
their schools on the request list for volunteers. RE-SEED
also gave the teachers involved with the antecedent SEED
program the opportunity to request volunteers. As a
result, in two years, RE-SEED had requests from over 120
schools in New England. Now, as the program grows, more
and more school administrators and teachers know about
RE-SEED and are added to the database. Once an SRA is
active in a school, it is not unusual for more teachers
at that school to request SRAs.
Meeting the Demand. For some areas, it simply
isn't possible to meet the demand because not enough SRAs
are there. The SRAs are encouraged to select schools on
the request list, but SRA preferences come first.
Once an SRA is in the school, he or she will often
assist several teachers. If there are too many teachers
for the SRA to assist, the teachers have to decide how to
allocate the SRA's time.
RE-SEED encourages a teacher and SRA to stay together
beyond the first year if the relationship is working and
if the SRA wants to continue to volunteer.
Financial Contributions from Schools. When
RE-SEED began training leaders, schools were asked for
$300 voluntary contributions for each RE-SEED SRA in the
school, but this process proved very complex. A new
strategy is being initiated in which training funds are
requested.
