Scarsdale Schools Adopt a Global View of Education

The Scarsdale school district has always been looked at as a leader in education in the United States, so it makes sense that the district is now looking outside our borders for partners in improving education. At the Board of Education meeting on Monday night, November 19, Lynne Shain, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, spoke about how the district is partnering with schools in other countries to identify best practices in education and to share these with each other. Shain's presentation, "A Global View of World Class Education," summarized Scarsdale's participation to date in the Global Learning Alliance(GLA), a consortium of international schools created in 2010 when Scarsdale asked researchers at Columbia University's Teachers College to gather evidence of what students in five of the world's high-performing nations know and can do, along with information on their curriculum materials, their teachers, their expectations and methods.

Schools in the GLA are from Finland, Singapore, Canada, Shanghai, and Australia, and include both highly selective independent schools and very diverse public school districts that are considered exemplars in their nation. According to Shain, it's always been possible to compare performance based on tests that yield quantitative results, but this is the first effort to share ideas about best learning and teaching practices. Members are working to develop a common language, identify common interests, as well as to develop assessments and benchmarks that transcend what current international tests can measure. Perhaps most importantly, working together will allow members of the GLA to make school to school comparisons and inform teaching and curriculum at the local level, where, according to Shain, instructional improvement actually occurs.

The core capacities identified by the research team as important in the 21st century should sound familiar to followers of Scarsdale's education system, as they include critical thinking, creative thinking, communication, and global perspectives, all values currently being emphasized here in Scarsdale.

Members of the GLA convened in Singapore this past August and uncovered similarities and differences in their educational systems. While among these high-performing districts there are differences in the length of the school day and school year, class size, hours worked by teachers and strength of unions, they all share ideologies that include having clear mission statements that foster critical thinking and non-standard problem-solving; a research-based approach to curriculum, instruction and assessment; and a strong spirit of service and contribution. Also, in all GLA schools, professional development is strong and comprehensive, and there is a high level of parent engagement.

Attitudes towards teaching seemed to be the most important differentiation of success among districts. Trust of teachers and teacher autonomy, two values that some consider as being undermined by the State DOE's imposition of assessments on local school districts, were presented as very important in schools in other nations. Dr. Michael McGill, Superintendent of Scarsdale Schools, pointed specifically to the experience of teachers in Finland, where there is stiff competition to be accepted into a teaching program, with only eight universities offering such programs, and where once in the program, all teachers are trained uniformly and by professors with PhD's. Said McGill, "It would be unrealistic to think we can replicate standardization here, but unless we address basic problems such as the quality of our teaching pool, it is unclear how much progress reforms can make." Joan Weber, Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Administrative Services, agreed, emphasizing the difference in mindset towards teaching in the U.S. and in Finland. "In Finland, teaching is defined as a profession," she said, "as opposed to a civil service approach," in the U.S., and that pay in both is commensurate to the views taken in each country.

Shain brought back examples of work done in GLA schools, and is sharing it with Scarsdale faculty in an effort to learn from it. The GLA will be working to develop protocols to judge their own work, which will then be exchanged, with ensuing dialogue about how the work was produced, is it replicable, and how can other districts emulate it. Members of the GLA hope to reconvene next year, although when asked by Board of Education member Jonathan Lewis whether the group had sufficient resources to continue, Shain responded, "No, not what we need to keep going."

For more information on the GLA, go to the website: http://blogs.tc.columbia.edu/worldclasseducation