Erin Hiley Sharp: "Keeping an Open Mind"

Community member Erin Sharp asked that we post the following letter, which is also on our Facebook page and which she has sent to the Board:

October 17, 2013

Dear Dr. Morse and Members of the ORCSD School Board,

Thank you for last night’s opportunity for the community to again consider proposals for equalizing enrollment numbers between our two elementary schools. The Board probably feels like it has to make a choice between two bad options, but honestly, I believe the Board is really being asked to make a choice between two good options. Our District’s children and families will manage and adjust successfully whether some children attend a different elementary school than they anticipated because transportation lines are redrawn or whether our children transition through both elementary schools during their education.

In my public comments last night, I stated that I am keeping an open mind about the options presented. I have friends who believe that the K2 – 3, 4 (and sometimes 5) model is the best option for our children. I have listened with interest to their perspectives. I appreciated hearing Dr. Morse’s thoughts about the benefits of Option 2. That being said, after digesting all of this information and reflecting on my knowledge of development, I write today asking the board to choose Option 1.
Board members asked the question about the educational merit of Option 2 (changing school grade configurations) for our children, and I wanted to share my thoughts on this question.

Although my area of expertise is Adolescent Development, the developmental literature on school configuration and school transitions has fairly robust findings, across developmental stages, that additional school transitions are associated with a drop in psycho-social and educational outcomes for children. Not horrible outcomes. Not for all children. I have provided primary citations of some of the key research in this area to the Board in a past letter, but I was excited to stumble upon this review paper written by another School Board as they considered this topic:

http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/138604/1/Impact%20of%20School%20Transitions%20and%20Different%20Grade%20Configurations.pdf

Research suggesting that additional school transitions are linked to positive outcomes for children simply does not exist.

- Yes, many other communities across New England and the United States have added elementary school transitions. However, I would argue that these additional school transitions are never the result of a strategic plan to enhance educational experience. These decisions are a result of a practical need to distribute the student body across facilities based on capacity. If the Board selects Option 2, the District could certainly be strategic about how to implement this option, but I do not believe this choice can be justified by the assumption that it would improve the educational experience of the District’s students.

- Yes, there may be some positive outcomes that result from Option 2. However, I would like to argue that the Board and Administration could work together to craft strategic goals that would allow some of those positive things to happen without having the children move to a different school. For example, it sounds like professional development of teachers could be enhanced through greater collaboration between teachers across the two elementary schools. Could this kind of collaboration be facilitated at the Administrative level without physical space changes?

- I have heard many community members and parents comment that too much is being made of the impact of school transitions on children. I think they are probably right. We don’t want to make too much of this concern. Most of our children would thrive in the current model and thrive in the K2 and 3, 4 model. But, again, the research consistently indicates that school transitions, at minimum, result in a time period of instability in children’s well-being. A respected friend stated “I just don’t get people’s attachment to a building.” For children, I don’t think the complications linked to additional school transitions is about a building. It is about their sense of competence and confidence in their environment. When I am asked to move one of my classes to a different classroom space at UNH, my sense of competence and confidence in the environment is shaken. The physical space in the new classroom may even be much better. And, with one class in the new room under my belt, I quickly return to my base level of competence and confidence. However, time is required to adjust. Why add that period of adjustment to our elementary student’s educational career when we don’t have to? These years already go by quickly.
Learning to adjust to change is a skill I want my children to develop. Both of my boys have experienced lots of change in their lives and they always adjust well. However, in their elementary school years, I want them to have a period of time to just build their sense of competence and confidence as learners in their school environment, one school environment.

I had one other thought about the educational merit of Option 2. This was the one that woke me up at 5:30 this morning. How would Option 2 impact instructional time for our children? With the start of each new school year, our elementary school children spend what seems to be a fairly significant amount of time learning about their new classroom environment; establishing new rules, building new connections, learning a new set of expectations and becoming comfortable in the physical space. If our students enter a new building and a new classroom in third grade, this adjustment time would increase taking away from instructional time with meeting a new staff, learning a new system, establishing a new routine. Is this the end of the world? Definitely not. But, I do think this is a legitimate concern. When there is little empirical evidence that we can look to to understand the educational implications of adding a school transition to the elementary years, I think it is important to consider these kinds of practical implications of Option 2.

I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this discussion. I am confident that the Board will make a well-informed decision and that the children and families of the ORCSD will adjust and rise to the occasion regardless of whether Option 1 or 2 is implemented in the Fall 2014. Thank you for taking this on.

Sincerely,

Erin Hiley Sharp