Growth and Security 1984-Present
The STI took a quantum leap forward in 1984 with the advent of the New York State Teacher Resource and Computer Training Center Grant. Helen Hartle of the New York State Teacher Center Program Office describes the advent of the Center:
Teacher Resource and Computer Training Centers were established in law in 1984 in order to provide systematic, ongoing professional development services for the State’s teachers. The Statute, modeled after the federal Teacher Center Legislation which expired in 1980, created a new dimension for staff development; built upon the research-supported premise that a critical component of effective staff development is the full involvement of those being serviced in decisions about the content and method of delivery of staff development. The New York Teacher Center model is a collaborative in which all participating groups work in the interest of providing the best possible staff development services to teachers and other school professionals. The Policy Board comprises a majority of teachers who are selected by their bargaining agents.
Forty-four centers were funded in New York State. The STI was awarded its first grant as a previously existing center. The Board of Education enthusiastically supported the STI’s grant and supplemented the state funding with a $10,000 grant to equip a Computer Resource room for teacher experimentation and learning.
The first grant funded three special seminars: the teaching of writing, the analysis of supervision and the educational uses of computers. The New York State grant led to other changes within the STI as well. The Institute Committee evolved into the STI Policy Board which expanded to include administrators, parents, Board of Education members, university and community representatives as well as teachers. This new governing body learned to work together and assumed greater responsibility for the future of the STI by setting direction for the program, assisting in grant writing, leading courses and serving as representatives of the STI to their various constituencies.
The STI also quickly became a model for staff development throughout the state. Given the small number of existing centers, those with some experience had the responsibility of helping new centers become viable. The New York State program evolved, the structures for sharing information and learning were established. Regional networks, training programs for new directors, statewide committees to plan programs and establish policies were started. Funding continued to build, and with the increase in funding came the opportunity to develop new formats for staff development and to service more effectively the needs of individual schools as well as districts.
The exuberance and enthusiasm generated by the first grant continued throughout the rest of the 1980’s. The “Seminar on Supervision” led to the adoption of a new model for the evaluation of tenured teachers and was quickly negotiated into the STA contract. Computer seminars expanded, so that there were programs for each level of the school district designed specifically to meet grade level needs and to coordinate the K-12 program. The writing seminar continued to experiment with writing strategies and expanded into a teacher research program where teachers became researchers of their own practices and developed the skills to do classroom research.
With the expanded resources of the STI, the Mentor Program, led by Trudy Moses, was developed. The charge of the program was to “offer a support system for those teachers designated as mentors of teachers new to the district.” Designed by a joint STA/Administrative Committee and offered by the STI, the seminar was to give teachers the opportunity to work together and improve communication among new and experienced teachers.
Another innovation fostered by the grant was the “Seminar of the Senior Year” which grew out of teacher and administrator concern about senior slump and end of the year activities. The examination of the senior year led to the Senior Options program. Though it would take more that one course to generate a proposal acceptable to the faculty, the seeds were sown and a six week “Senior Options Program” for seniors in May and June of their senior year ultimately was put in place.
The late 1980’s also saw a rash of national reports on the state of education, from the 1983 “Nation at Risk” to the Carnegie Report, “A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century.” The report stated that “...the key to success lies in creating a profession equal to the task--a profession of well-educated teachers prepared to assume new powers and responsibilities to redesign schools for the future.”
Anticipating the need for reform called for by the Carnegie Report, Judith Schwartz, President of the Scarsdale Teachers Association and Thomas Sobol, Superintendent of Scarsdale Schools, launched a “Seminar on Teaching Career Opportunities” to “discuss the implications of this work for policy and practice in Scarsdale. “ Leading educational consultants such as Linda Darling-Hammond, and Ann Lieberman were among the many educational thinkers who engaged the faculty and administration during the course of the program.
Teacher research, conflict resolution, computer education, school climate, group interaction and leadership skills for high school students, and cooperative learning enriched the wide variety of offerings over the years of the late 1980’s. The programs became long term, evolutionary, and sustained. The numbers of teachers participating on a voluntary basis continued to rise each year with 60 to 70% of the staff involved each year and over 90% of the faculty over a three year period. More teachers emerged with ideas for programs, and teachers and administrators collaborated to develop programs. Groups within the district worked together, and staff development became more integrated into the life of the schools.
The other major factor influencing school program during these years was the large increase in the number of foreign students entering the schools. The STI began a series of cross-cultural programs designed to help teachers understand the worlds of their students. Ably led by Gwen Johnson, “Bridging the Culture Gap: Developing Intercultural Awareness” considered the values and attitudes of other cultures, the process of culture shock, and classroom dilemma. This was the first of many courses helping teachers understand how to work with and understand their foreign, mainly Japanese students. These programs ultimately led to a grant from the Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation to the STI to promote cultural understanding.
The late 1980’s also saw a change in leadership in the school district. Thomas Sobol, longtime superintendent, became the Commissioner of Education for New York State. Many of the ideas that had been so successful in Scarsdale helped shape some of the agenda for statewide programs. Richard Hibschman became Superintendent of Schools and continued the support for the STI that had been a hallmark of the district.
The 20th anniversary year of the STI, 1988-89, culminated in a Superintendent's Conference day of celebration that showcased programs teachers had given through the STI. Teachers had the opportunity to attend many workshops given by their colleagues, and get a taste of the wide range of offerings the STI provided. During the program, STI Director Judith Schwartz said,
The STI serves as a research and development center of the District, the place where ideas can be tested and tried in a safe environment. It serves as a center of inquiry where teachers can be researchers of their own practices, use their classrooms as laboratories and work with colleagues and university researchers in an examination of practical problems. Teachers can formulate hypotheses, test them out in the classroom and share their findings. All our programs and new topics for teachers were and continue to be tested and developed through the STI-Option A, the Mentor Programs, research associates, computer resource room teachers, cooperative learning, group skills, the mentor program for foreign students, and teaching career opportunities, just to name a few.
This structure of teacher leadership and teacher development has been cited in the State and nationally as a model and sets a direction for school reorganization. We have been acknowledged as a model center in the New York State evaluation of teacher centers and been awarded the highest grant in our category. We are called upon as a lighthouse district to provide training for new centers and other professional groups, and we continue to serve as a site for experimentation for developing new methods of providing professional growth opportunities for teachers.
This spirit of experimentation and collaboration continued with “Schools for the 21st Century,” a program coordinated by Dick Hibschman and Judy Schwartz. The course addressed the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Teaching Career Opportunities: to establish the avenues for supporting and assessing school personnel, for revising licensing and accreditation procedures including an internship program, and for revising licensing and accreditation procedures including and internship program, and for restructuring of schools through school site management. Again Scarsdale was fortunate to be able to attract significant educational leaders such as Thomas Sergiovanni, Michael Apple, and Grant Wiggins to share their thinking with the faculty and administration.