Model For Community Involvement In School Decisions

Reading news reports this week about the Scarsdale Public Schools’ proposal to abandon high school Advanced Placement courses has been an eye opener for us—and hopefully, for Fairfield’s Board of Education, Superintendent and administrators. Click here to read the 2/18/07 New York Times article. (Note: You will need a New York Times subscription to view the article - it's free).

It seems that when high school administrators seek to implement curriculum changes in that New York town, they lead their district in a community-wide, public discussion. Scarsdale’s open and full deliberative process appears in stark contrast to the way changes are occurring in Fairfield’s public schools.

In Fairfield, our high school administrators, for example, have already cut aspects of our foreign language program and are proposing changes to our high schools’ longstanding practices of class rank by decile.

While Fairfield’s proposals are different from Scarsdale’s, we hope that our school community begins an open and full discussion following Scarsdale’s model. We ask for transparency. We want to understand the reasons for the changes and we’d like to see data and analysis about the impact of the changes on our children.

We are particularly impressed by these aspects of Scarsdale’s process, as that public school system considers replacing their Advanced Placement program:

1. Parents were informed right from the start of the administrators’ investigation of these issues. Administrators held meetings with parents from the beginning and also communicated with all parents by letter.
2. From the start, faculty was involved in the study of these curriculum issues. Faculty and administrators then presented their initial ideas to parents at PTA meetings, even before an open forum with the Board of Education last fall.
3. School administrators undertook research to understand the effect of the proposed curriculum changes on college admissions for Scarsdale students. Administrators surveyed 100 of the colleges most popular with Scarsdale high school students asking open ended questions of college admissions personnel.
4. Parents and the entire community could see and study the results of the survey of the 100 colleges. The survey instrument, the survey results, the specific names of colleges, and the specific results by college were all posted on the district’s website. Parents could analyze the data collected, knowing the validity and limitations of the survey data, before public meetings on the proposals.
5. Parents were informed of the way the process for deciding on these curriculum changes would unfold. Numerous Board of Education meetings were scheduled and parents were told in advance of the multiple opportunities for their participation in these discussions.
6. Students and parents were encouraged to share their views in a variety of formal and informal settings during a “listening period.”
7. The Board of Education and administrators used various means, including programming on the local TV station, pod casts, and extensive postings on the school website, to communicate with the community and to solicit community input into this discussion and decision.
8. The Superintendent took a leadership role in informing the public about the nature of the process, the issues and rationales, and his own view of the proposal.

To see Scarsdale’s website presenting all of this information, click here.

To see the Scarsdale Superintendent’s 2/18/07 opinion piece in the New York Times dated 2/17 click here. (Note: You will need a New York Times subscription to view the article - it's free).

To find out information about Fairfield’s changes to the foreign language program or high school class rank, please contact your school administrators.

Please check back for updates and email PIE with your comments.