District Discusses Springboard Program

The Springboard program for the 2011-12 school year was the final curriculum issue discussed at Monday night's Board of Education meeting at .

The discussion pertained to the program's possible commencement this fall and whether it's a plausible idea.

Springboard is a curriculum that is put out by CollegeBoard, the organization that creates AP exams.

Differentiation is built into the program, said Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Technology Dr. Shari Camhi. This means teachers do not have to plan for different types of lessons to suit various levels of study within a single class. It is a continuum of skills that are built throughout grades six through nine.

“It ensures that a student is ready for an AP course, should they choose to be in one,” said Camhi.

Heated conversations during Curriculum Committee meetings erupted while discussing language, including adjectives, adverbs, capitalization, clauses, conjunctions and infinitives to name a few, according to Camhi.

McQuair asked for the percentage of teachers who were “on board” with the idea. She also inquired if the principals agreed with it as well.

Camhi said that some teachers were on board, while others were not. Ninth-grade teachers showed the most enthusiasm for the program.

Superintendent Dr. Joseph Laria said the program contains very good content, but lacks a decent “process.”

“I have found that when you want to roll-out a program which requires more effort, more work, more training, the end-users - the teachers - are going to embrace it with a sense of ownership; it’s dead-on-arrival if they’re not going to support it,” Laria said.

Further discussion about the implementation of the Springboard program is being scheduled for a later date.