District 41 dropping specialization for second-grade teachers

Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 Superintendent Paul Gordon will outline a plan next month to retrain second-grade teachers after the newly seated school board dismantled an instructional practice in place for four years.

Some parents have strongly criticized the board for discontinuing the classroom structure in which second-grade educators specialize in an area of instruction instead of teaching multiple core subjects throughout the day. So-called teacher specialization will continue next year in third through fifth grades.

The co-presidents of the teachers union, the Glen Ellyn Education Association, also rebuked the board for a "rash decision" at a meeting last week when four new members - three of whom campaigned as a slate and approved the change - took their seats.

"The association believes that decisions like these should be made through the cooperation of the administration and educators, who are all trained professionals in the educational community," Tracy Guerrieri and Dina Sbarra wrote in a statement.

New school board President Stephanie Clark countered in her own statement that the issue has been discussed over the past several years and that the board has considered "administrative, teacher and community input and extensive data relating to the performance of students."

"A significant minority of teachers did not support specialization, nor did the data," Clark's statement read in part. " ... The action was taken early so that adequate time would exist for the superintendent to effectively manage the transition, and we look forward to the customary high level of performance of our staff to make the transition successful."

Elementary school educators have mostly taught either literacy and social science or STEAM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Proponents say that model allows teachers - who typically have a morning and afternoon group of students - to dig deeper into content.

It's not yet clear how putting the second-grade program on the chopping block will affect training costs. Gordon is expected to give those specifics at a board meeting on or before June 19. He recommended in early April to keep the practice in place for next year, when the district expects to enroll 404 second-graders.

Erica Nelson, the former board president, and Robert Bruno, who won the election in April, were the only members who wanted to maintain second-grade teacher specialization. About two dozen educators and parents also expressed support for the practice during a meeting last week that ended around 1:45 a.m.

Parents again this week said the five board members who voted to end the second-grade program had overstepped their role.

"This board decided to substitute its judgment for that of the experts," said Liza Sury, a mom of two daughters in second and fifth grades.

Gordon has said the district has "inconclusive" academic data about teacher specialization, which began in the 2013-14 school year. Nelson argued that "educational progress" takes time.

"It takes time to embed and plateau and then create more growth off that, so I want us to take a breath," Nelson said last week.

Teacher specialization was one of the cornerstones of the "Think Tank" plan developed by Gordon's predecessor and the board at the time amid changing state standards. The district last year dropped another element of the plan that grouped some students in multi-age classrooms instead of conventional grade levels.

"We did not see the growth that was promised over the past four years, hence why really all parts of this initiative besides specialization have been eliminated to date," Clark said.

Skeptics also note that none of Glen Ellyn's seven benchmark school districts use teacher specialization in second through fifth grades. They say the approach is inappropriate for young learners.

"There's something to be said about the emotional benefits of a single classroom teacher for younger children," Clark said.

Reviews of second-grade teacher specialization also were mixed in a 2016 survey of parents and teachers. Overall, 312 staff members and 957 parents were polled.

Roughly 35 percent of surveyed parents of kids in second through fifth grades said specialization should be implemented in second grade, compared with 28 percent of all other parents.

When asked whether they felt their child benefits from teacher specialization, 71 percent of parents of kids in second through fifth grades agreed. Sixty-one percent of all other parents, by contrast, answered "yes."

By the numbers

Second-grade teachers in Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 began specializing in areas of instruction in the 2013-14 school year. Here's a look at some of the second-grade test scores on the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) exam since the instructional practice was adopted.

<b>MAP math proficiency: Percentage of students at or above 75th percentile</b>Goal: 65 percent by 2021

Spring 2012: 53

2013: 50

2014: 49

2015: 43

2016: 52

<b>MAP reading proficiency: Percentage of Students at or above 75th percentile</b>Goal: 65 percent by 2021

Spring 2012: 51

2013: 47

2014: 52

2015: 53

2016: 59

Source: Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41