Ipswich Chronicle
Posted Mar 05, 2012 @ 11:28 AM
Article from Wicked Local
Ipswich —
Richard Howard deserves thanks for his linking of cognitive (intellectual) and social development as well as student self esteem to early childhood and kindergarten education. He points out in the Chronicle’s March 1 edition, “A child who does not come into first grade with both social and academic skills will be left behind.”
All the evidence points to the early years as having enormous importance. Yet Ipswich, and, for the most part, the rest of American school systems, have never taken full advantage of the opportunity that early childhood presents for the cognitive and social development of the young. Instead, pre-schooling and even full-day kindergarten, with rare exception such as Head Start, have been available only to families that can afford it.
There is another time that there is a spurt in the development of children and that is the middle-school years. Not only are the obvious (and I believe overrated physical changes associated with sexual development) taking place, but also there is the possibility of enormous growth in other developmental domains notably the cognitive, affective, and social. Children in this stage of development have the opportunity to learn how to form concepts and think abstractly; to develop attitudes and values and to build them into systems that inform their actions; and to interact effectively and ethically with others, with their school and political communities, and with society in general.
Since the new building was completed, the Ipswich Middle/High School has done a superb job of dealing effectively with the opportunity presented by the middle-school years. This was mainly due to the adoption of the team teaching model and by demanding that the design of the new building would support that model of learning and teaching. The model calls for a team of subject-matter teachers and a group of students working together all year, with support from specialists and the principal, to attain educational goals set by the team, the school and the state. The burden of success or failure rests on all the team members collectively. Unlike some educational reform now being touted, it is not designed to blame individual teachers, but to encourage all teachers to work more effectively.
Ms. Cheryl Forster-Cahill, the current principal, deserves most of the credit for having the vision for adopting the team model for the exciting middle-school years and the pizzazz to battle for its implementation. More than anything else, the Middle School with its team teaching model; its “kivas”; flexible schedules decided by teachers in terms of what is best for their student’s growth; the seamless integration of technology into the curriculum; and teachers taking command of and responsibility for outcomes put the Ipswich schools on the educational map.
The team-teaching model of fostering the educational development for middle-school students in a physical environment that supports the philosophy behind the pedagogical model has worked beyond expectations. The Ipswich students in the middle-school grades consistently score among the highest in the state, particularly in math and it must be kept in mind that while the U.S.A. does poorly when its 8th graders are compared with similar kids in other industrial countries in math, Massachusetts kids do better than similar aged kids in almost all those countries. This means that our 8th graders have been among the tops in the world in international tests of math achievement.
I was appalled when I read in your latest addition that the School Committee is considering firing so many middle school teachers that the team teaching model will have to be scrapped while at the same time it has decided to hire a new principal to replace the irreplaceable Ms. Forster-Cahill.
Clearly wisdom should have dictated waiting a year or two while maintaining the teams before going into the market to find the rare someone who might have the potential of being another Forster-Cahill. I am almost certain that the able Middle School teachers who have worked together in teams for a number of years now could have been able to manage their teams. They would have needed some help from the other three administrators in the building as well as from the staff at the Central Office but in time they might have come up with a new paradigm for the administration of team taught middle schools.
But we will never know because the sort of creativity, vision, and spirit of experimentation that schools, as educational institutions, should model for their students is no longer a part of the Ipswich Public Schools. Instead the teachers will revert back to their individual autonomous classrooms, shut their doors, and do pretty much what they want to do, ignoring their colleagues as much as they want. This might make life easier for administrators who fear teacher empowerment, but it won’t help kids. What a loss. Ed Traverso — Ed Traverso, East Street
Article from Wicked Local