Scarsdale Forum Releases Report on Scarsdale Teacher Institute

The released the Education Program Committee's report on the Scarsdale Teachers Institute (STI) this week.

The report "was released under expeditious treatment procedure by the Executive Committee to ensure consideration by the School Board before its final and vote," Forum President BK Munguia said in her announcement.

EP Committee Chair Mary Beth Evans is scheduled to present the Forum's full report at the next Scarsdale Board of Education Budget Forum and Budget Study Session on Wednesday, April 11 at 8:00 p.m., Munguia said.

Below is an excerpt from the report. To view the full, 43-page report, click on the PDF to the right of this article.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

WE RECOMMEND that the Scarsdale Union Free School District administration (the “District”) and the Scarsdale Board of Education (“School Board”) take the following actions:

1. The School Board should maintain its tradition of support for the STI to ensure that it continues to play an integral role in ongoing professional and curriculum development and in Scarsdale’s high quality of education.

2. The School Board and the District should continue to recognize the central role of professional development in educational quality and to provide incentives in line with those of other area districts to encourage and reward continuous, career long STI program staff participation.

3. The School Board, the District and the STI Policy Board should consider recent STI participation and course enrollment rates to ensure that STI program offerings continue to meet the learning needs of a large, diverse and changing staff.

4. The School Board, the District, and the STI Policy Board should consider ways to make even more explicit to the public the connection between particular STI course offerings and current 21st century educational imperatives and continue efforts to inform the Scarsdale community about the essential role of staff professional development in general, and of the STI program in particular, in
Scarsdale educational quality.

INTRODUCTION

STI Background Information

The STI is a teacher center provider of continuing education to the professional staff of the Scarsdale and Edgemont schools, teachers from other school districts, and community residents. It has existed as an institution in Scarsdale since 1969, served as the model for
staff development throughout New York since 1984, and included Edgemont in a teacher center consortium since 1995.

The STI program’s four primary purposes are to:

(1) Support school board educational goals and district curriculum initiatives/programs;
(2) Enhance and enrich teaching and learning for Scarsdale and Edgemont students;
(3) Provide staff with planned, ongoing opportunities for professional development; and
(4) Encourage classroom and district-wide curriculum innovation.2

The STI program is an integral part of the District’s overall approach to curriculum and staff development. It involves voluntary staff participation outside of regular work hours, on weekends and during the summer that is encouraged via financial incentives. Each year the STI Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer catalogs offer a broad selection of approximately 140 courses, seminars, workshops and study groups that can be taken for either salary credit or stipend.3 The STI also provides “Incentives for Innovation” competitive mini-grant awards for individual or group projects aimed at improving teaching and learning.

STI courses are designed collaboratively by teachers and administrators to meet the specific needs of Scarsdale and Edgemont teachers and students, aligned with Scarsdale School Board educational goals, and taught by teachers in the Scarsdale and Edgemont school districts, as well as outside educators and other professionals. Approximately 75% of the Scarsdale staff use the STI for professional development and about 25% are involved in STI course coordination each year.

A full-time Director, who is a Scarsdale teacher on leave, administers the STI, which is governed by a 34-member STI Policy Board made up of Scarsdale and Edgemont teachers, administrators, School Board members, community members and a university professor.

Teacher tuition, contractually negotiated Scarsdale and Edgemont school board contributions, and Scarsdale school board funding of the STI Director position together currently support the STI. This year the STI also received $67,000 in New York State Teacher Center grant funds.