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posted by:
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Judith Fonzi
on May 19, 2003
at 5:19PM
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subject:
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Legacies
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I am really enjoying this conversation ! A read Mark's paper with a pen
in hand and found myself writing "yes" next to everyone of his
"suggested areas of legacy". Then, as I read everyone's comments I was
recording more "yeses". Now I want to suggest a few additional ones.
Our Middle School Math LSC ended 5 years ago (it was only a 3 year
project) in the midst of new state test requirements for graduation. By
the end three of the four districts had met all of the requirements in
terms of PD hours and adoption of a challenging curriculum - CMP. Many
of the teachers and lead teachers came to the project staff and said
they were not finished learning / working and asked us to collaborate
on a next grant proposal (DDE) -- they wanted to broaden to a K-12
focus. In the end, only 1 of the original four districts ended up
joining the new collaborative. So, a brief update on the four
districts: unfortunately two had a change in assistant superintendent
immediately following the end of the project both of these
administrators believed that the way to improve state test scores was
to "go back to basics" (in all subjects) and teach to the test, so
despite the building level administrators' and teachers' desire to
continue into the new project the administrators refused to join
claiming lack of the necessary district funds; one district operated on
a definition of "academic freedom" as 'all teachers can do whatever
they want' and thus ran into troubles with their Union in the very
first months of the LSC - though the district completed the LSC
obligation they opted not to continue to a new project, even still they
continued their implementation plan for CMP, have provided additional
PD for the middle school teachers, and seek out experienced CMP
teachers whenever they need to hire. The fourth district not only
continued to the new project (which included 4 other districts) but is
now part of our MSP and has adopted challenging curricula K-12,
maintained teacher leader positions (no release time), and created
part-time released teacher on special assignment positions.
The LSC has also left a legacy on our region - an extraordinary number
of teachers and administrators now see collaboration (within, as well
as across grades, schools, and districts) as a crucial part of their
professional life - this I believe will never disappear as the numbers
continue to grow by leaps and bounds; have we now have a challenging
curriculum adopted in about 12 districts; we have a large cadre of
expereinced PD providers (most of whom continue in their roles as
classroom teachers) who believe that supporting the whole region
(probably the whole state !) is their responsiblity as educators. As
part of this support we provide extensive consultation to districts to
help them develop long-term cohesive and comprehensive PD plans and
curriculum implementation plans.
And, our MSP has now brought our focus to K-20 and included
matheamticians as well as mathematics teacher educators from our region
(about 8 IHEs) and around the state.
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