What it means to teach at LS...

Eighteen years ago fresh out of graduate school, I was hired to teach in the English department at LS. Although I had student taught at Lexington High School for a semester, I was woefully unprepared to handle the rigor of being a full-time teacher. Had it not been for my colleagues in the English department, who spent hours and hours working with me to clarify my goals, create interesting lessons, and negotiate the ins and outs of classroom management, I would not be the teacher I am today. The entire English department mentored me. What other school offers that type of profound commitment to the profession?


Here is a secret: just about every day for the first three years of my career, I wanted to quit teaching. Why? I did not think I could keep up with the standards set by my department. My colleagues taught to every child in their heterogeneous classroom. Do you know how hard this is? In one classroom, the teacher could have two ivy-league bound students, three students who could barely read because of deficits in their education, several students with language-based learning disabilities, some behaviorally challenged students, and a few average students. How were my colleagues able to maintain high standards for each and every child? The short answer: very, very hard work. Instruction and assignments were highly individualized. Class size was not large -- at most twenty-two to twenty-three students, and as a result there was more time to touch base with each student on a daily basis. My colleagues truly were able to meet students where they were. Kids did not get left behind, and the classroom experience was very rich.


For an inexperienced teacher, that was a tall order. There was so much to juggle, so much to discover (which assignment works? which book will appeal to every type of learner? how will I teach in a way that is inspiring and useful for every student?).
I kept thinking about my student teaching experience at Lexington High School, where students were tracked and teaching was not as complicated as at LS. For my student teaching assignment, for example, I taught one class of very talented sophomores and one class of students who were in the lowest possible track. I was given two binders of lesson plans and told to adhere to the curriculum. In addition, I was told that I would have only four weeks to “cover” the texts before I had to hand them over to the next teacher. It was easy to teach this way. Lots of days, all I had to do was pre-read the text, take some notes for lecture, and photocopy worksheets, which students had to complete in class. It certainly was not the expectation that I go in-depth on anything I taught, and class discussion did not seem to be a major requirement. I simply had to manage the material and manage the students. Deep down I knew this really wasn’t how I wanted to teach, nor was it how I was taught. You can imagine how simultaneously appealing and terrifying it was to begin my teaching career at LS where I literally had to find my own way into the text and then find the best way to teach it.


Many things have changed since my first years at LS in the 1990s. On the upside, I have amassed a large arsenal of teaching files and ideas to which I am constantly adding. Over the years, I have worked hard to refine the curriculum in a number of department offerings, and I have taught a variety of courses in our department. I have added a Memoir writing course to the curriculum. I have become confident enough in my skills to mentor other teachers. Since I genuinely care about the quality of professionals hired to work in my department, I have also been on every hiring committee for the English department since 1995. This has meant that I have volunteered hours upon hours to sift through thousands of cover letters, resumes, and transcripts, and I have sat through countless interviews. I am very proud to be a part of the English department and can say without hesitation that my colleagues are some of the most hardworking, talented, supportive individuals I have ever met.


Also, I can say unabashedly that I love all of my students and cannot imagine teaching anywhere else. My students inspire me to be the best possible teacher. I cannot imagine going into a classroom and not being totally prepared to advance my students’ understanding of the English language. I work very hard to return all assignments within a day or two (this includes essays) because I know that students learn more when they can closely monitor their progress. I am always in the building by 7:20 a.m. and most days I do not leave until 4:30. I offer up time before and after school, during my thirty-six minute lunch break, and of course, during my preparation periods to provide extra help on reading and writing. During the day, I often put down my red pen or whatever I am reading to talk to students who are under stress, in tears, and/or just need an adult to listen. I don’t expect any special recognition for what I do. I do all of this willingly and see it as a vital part of my job in the education of the whole child. At the same time, I know I am not reaching as many students as I used to simply because I have the largest student load I have ever managed in my entire career.


Of course, there are now more demands on my time than ever before. I am expected to attend meetings before the school day even begins and to fill out incredible amounts of paperwork associated with my special education students. Students in general are applying to more colleges than ever, and this directly impacts my school day schedule. Some years, I have written between forty and fifty recommendations, but this year I had to put a cap on how many I could reasonably write (I set the cap at twenty but ended up writing thirty) because it takes me about an hour and a half to write a single recommendation. But it’s not over there. When seniors drop off recommendation envelopes (between fifteen and twenty-five), I must fill out more paperwork, print out recommendations, and stuff envelopes, all of which takes at least another hour per student. Since not all students are able to afford their own private college counselor, my planning blocks in the fall are also taken up with appointments made by seniors who have asked me to help them with their college essay. Just about when seniors finish applying to college, I am asked by sophomores and juniors to write recommendations for summer leadership and academic programs or for CIT positions at summer camp. I do all of the above tasks during my planning blocks since all of the materials I need are at school. As you can imagine, there is very little time left in the day to plan my classes or grade. As a result, I take work home every night -- and it is never less than two hours worth of preparing or grading.


In the classroom, I do my best to provide the most challenging experience for all learners. However, I honestly do not have time to attend to the needs of each of my students, let alone get to know everyone on an individual basis. I would give anything to be able to sit with kids who are struggling and guide them as they need to be guided through the curriculum, something that was possible when enrollment was much lower than it is today. As it is, though, I no longer have time to check in with each and every student on a daily basis to see who has or has not done the work. Likewise, I can no longer call upon each student to speak at least once per class because I would never get through the curriculum. It has become so time consuming to move students from one activity to another that I have greatly curtailed cooperative learning exercises, which are by far some of the richest learning experiences. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, but it pains me to know that I could do so much more if my classes were not as large. And I honestly do not know how I can maintain my efforts for much longer, especially if class size continues to increase or teachers are expected to go from teaching four classes to five.

I have spent my entire working life at LS, and I am very grateful for the tremendous support I have received from colleagues, students, parents, and the communities of Lincoln, Sudbury, and Boston. Bottom line: I love what I do despite the challenges of my job. That said, I can see that forces beyond the immediate community are going to alter the educational face of LS.

The Cost Before the Cost

The costs of a budget crisis such as Lincoln-Sudbury is experiencing are concrete. Long before students, parents, teachers and staff see those effects, however, there are other less obvious costs. They are most simply represented by the fact that, as I write this, and have been thinking about writing this, what niggles is the number of papers that must be put aside, the number of pages that must go unread, to get this done. Although it may be less visible to the public eye, the mental and emotional energy that a budget crisis absorbs is drained from teaching and learning.

Even when one’s classes are going just as planned and the school is financially fit, teaching is tiring work. Add in the damper of a budget crisis and what begins to take place within the school is a series of “collapses.” The basic shape of these collapses is “Wait, why should I . . .” or “Well, I simply can’t . . .” Long ago, during a past budget squeeze, I decided I simply couldn’t keep doing independent studies, which, while often as educationally rewarding for me as for the individual students I took on, ate up too much of my prep time. At first, it was difficult for me to say no to students requesting an independent study, as they were frequently the very serious, inquisitive students every teacher feasts on. Now, “x” number of budget crises later, it is easy; I decline politely but without even thinking about it. Consider another “collapse” with broader implications: I realize that doing some research to find a background article to help a class better understand a novel would be a good thing, but the damper causes the thought, “Wait, why should I, when, instead, I could read something I want to read for myself, go to a movie, practice my saxophone. . .?” Picking up that book I want to read, or my horn, is great for me, but the students go without that extra bit of help or enrichment. Committee work is almost always volunteer work, but work done by the Faculty Advisory Council, the Teacher’s Association, professional development groups, etc. is work that preserves the school. So if staff start deciding “I simply can’t” or “Why should I?”, those individual collapses may lead to a bigger collapse of our school culture. Perhaps some would cheer if, through exhaustion, Lincoln-Sudbury became more like other high schools; many would not.

The ultimate and most concise expression of the phenomenon I am describing is the common statement of Polish workers during the communist period: “They pretend to pay us; we pretend to work.” Obviously we do much better than pretend pay and are a long way from pretend work. In fact, I can imagine some readers’ response to what I have written being “You’re paid to do a job.” True. The problem is that if one translates that comment into a question — “How different would your work be if you just did what you are contractually obligated to do?” — the answer is “Very.” I could meet contractual obligations and not do any of what I mentioned above. I could be a fine teacher without answering late night email messages of students, or writing college recommendations. If I pare down my work considerably, it will still be done to a perfectly professional standard — a standard that most parents and students would deem perfectly adequate — but I may feel professionally dissatisfied at not doing the job the way I want to do it. Doing the job with regard to only what is most visible to the public and what is fundamental to good teaching may be the standard we have to adopt in lean years, but it will be hard to recover the school that has won praise for doing more than that. That is a cost worth careful consideration.

Then there are the concrete costs of budget cuts . . .

Bill Ray
English Department

The Impact of Overall Student Load on Teaching and Learning at L-S
A Statement by Judy Plott - English Department Chair

We have an English Department policy of 4-6 essays per semester. If a teacher has 100 students and we take the conservative (and these figures are all on the conservative side) number of 4, that means 400 essays per semester. If a teacher spends 20 minutes per essay(again, conservative), that is a bit more than 130 hours of essay grading per semester. (Now, many English teachers require or permit students to revise essays. That obviously increases the number of hours AND requires one on one discussions with students in order to be most effective.)

This figure, of course, does not include tests (most of which are primarily essay) and quizzes. If a teacher gives 10 quizzes per semester and 5 tests (not including final exams), with 10 minutes to grade a quiz and 20 to grade an exam, that amounts to about 35 hours of grading. Again, the one-on-one instructional time with students is essential in the most effective writing instruction, and that kind of time with large numbers of students is simply not available. All of the above does not include the kind of reading, research, and thinking necessary to prepare adequately to teach a class. In order to maintain our excellent program that gives students choice and challenge, teacher have a variety of preparation tasks. Again, teachers need that time and want it to become the best resources for their students’ learning. Frustration results from lack of time to read and think.

In general, teachers should (and my colleagues really want to) approach a set of papers with curiosity about the students did, what they can do, what they were trying to achieve; we should be enthusiastic about seeing in writing the results of what was done in class, what was presented, practiced, discussed. However, when teachers have 100 students in their assortment of classes, this kind of attitude is at best an ideal. The total student load makes difficult curiosity, personal response, revision, complex analysis. In the areas of both curriculum development and assessment of student work, I have no question after 40 years of teaching that total student load is one of the major factors in the success of students. Another is, of course, the quality of the teaching , and the two are not unconnected.

Why Wellness?

Lincoln-Sudbury has always prided itself on being "a different kind of place" -- a place that not only tolerates but truly values diversity in style and substance. This quality manifests itself in the academic program and in the general atmosphere of the school, and may best be seen in the respectful and warm relationships between students and adults and a school culture marked by commitment to innovation and experimentation, as described in the L-S Mission Statement 2007.

This is in essence what Wellness is all about. As a member of the Wellness Department for the past fifteen years, I’ve seen that Lincoln-Sudbury’s mission is what this department teaches every day.  Just as L-S is a different kind of place, so is the Wellness Department.  We are not your typical gym program that you often find parodied on television or what most of us grew up with.  Lincoln-Sudbury’s Wellness Program has been a leader in the field of physical fitness and health education for over 40 years.  We were one of  the first public high schools to offer a high ropes course and to build a fitness center to support our curriculum.   We are continually highlighted in the state as well as the country as being a model high school program.  This has been due to the overwhelming suppor t of the Lincoln, Sudbury, and Boston communities.  

So, as each community grapples with its budget, many thoughtful questions have come to the surface as ways to save money: from cutting back programs, to looking at why certain classes are offered and what the real needs are.  What I can offer is a glimpse into a department that gives the adolescents of your communities a time to focus on their well being, to discuss choices they are making, to move, to destress, and to play.

The Wellness Program is designed to help students seek a balance between the expression of individuality and a responsible concern for the needs of others, and to give them the opportunity to examine and monitor personal wellness toward the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle.  We do this through a wide variety of course offerings that students can choose. These course range from traditional games classes of badminton, volleyball and territorial games to alternative classes such as back country travel, rock climbing, fencing and self-defense to fitness classes such as yoga, group exercise and functional training.   It is through these programs that many Lincoln-Sudbury students have found a passion, a network of friends or a career path.  For some, it is a time to be in the moment and to take a break from the academic rigors of the day.  

As one of my colleagues put it, our classes are a very important safety net within the community.  We see students in a different setting: from up on a high ropes course to our health issues class.  Students show us a different side of themselves and this allows us as educators to have open discussions about decision making and their well-being.  In turn, we can get students the support they need, whether it is a referral to a clinical counselor or a quick observation to a housemaster.  

It is this diversity of curriculum, the student buy in to the program, and the support of the school community that keeps the wellness teachers passionate and creative.  It has also allowed us to recruit the best physical and health educators in the field.  The creativity and opportunity to try new ideas is what has kept me here at Lincoln-Sudbury.  To know that a brainstorming session with a collegue can turn into the First Adventure program, or encouraging a young teacher about his passion ca n develop into a back country travel course is Lincoln-Sudbury at its best.  

It is the challenge of the budget cuts that has our department critically discussing  how we teach, reviewing course offerings, and acknowledging our fear that we do not want to fall into a “gym” mentality that kids do not buy into.

We have already seen the impact of class size in health issues classes.  It is more difficullt to read and respond to daily journal reflections on stress, depression and teen drug use.   The large class size challenges the level of discussion and confidentiality in a class where people do not know each other.  It is more difficult to connect to students and create that open caring relationship that encourages student disclosure.

As class sizes continue to grow, course offerings, student choice and curriculums will change.  Many of our courses have caps on class size for safety or educational purposes.  For example, for safety protocol, a High Adventure class cannot go over 26 students. So, if a High Adventure class is scheduled within a block, another course needs to be offered to take the overflow of students.  

Other classes that are student favorites will also not be offered as often or will take on a new approach.  Our Self-Defense program will be limited to one section or not offered at all due to the cost of running the program, and the same will happen with our newest course, Back Country Travel.  Courses such as Nutrition will not offer food labs and the Rock Climbing course will no longer have a field trip.  

Our priority as a Wellness Department for the next year is to continue to offer student choice with our course offerings as best as we can and maintain class size in our Outdoor Pursuit class (Group Dynamics/Adventure Ed based course) so students will have a positive, small group class experience.  Curriculum components and assessments will change as class sizes increase. Students in our Coaching, Teaching Recreational Leadership will not be able to travel to the elementary schools to teach a lesson as part of this course, which has been a valuable experience.

We recognize the budget challenges and have been working diligently to offer a wellness program that students enjoy.  

Susan Shields
Wellness Department Coordinator

FATA(Fine, Applied and Technical Arts)

Loss of 1.5 FTE
This means cuts in: Choral, Applied Tech, Drama, Visual/Media

All of these cuts would lead to the following:

*Bigger classes in all areas, and fewer sections across the department
*Less individual attention for students during class
*Smaller scale projects due to less space in the classroom/lab
*Reduction in materials budget and therefore changes the nature of the courses: fewer choices for students
*Less outside-of-class help for students due to increased student load for teachers
*Fewer opportunities for students to take advanced level courses because they will not run unless the numbers are large -- even though students who take advanced courses usually need more one on one time with the teacher
*A general change in tone which has been emerging over the last 3-4 years given that the budget has been reduced each year.

What this means in more detail:

--Students will lose out on breadth of knowledge in the absence of advanced offerings. Students who may have a passion will be unable to continue in that subject area. An example would be the student who loves photography but would be unable to continue to develop her skills in the darkroom, or a student who loves pottery and would only be able to take the basic course. The loss of advanced level classes in Visual Art will preclude many from the ability to take Portfolio Preparation junior or senior year. This highly successful and rigorous class has helped dozens of students to prepare for and gain college admission, whether to art schools or to liberal arts programs.
One teacher explains: “I have found that I am less able to accommodate the advanced students and the types of students that like to push themselves beyond basic skills. In the past, with smaller classes, I could teach specialized techniques and skills to someone whose concepts required that knowledge. For example, one year a student wanted to make a large scale figurative work that needed a more robust clay body. I was able to help her make her own clay for that project, and taught her how to mix and test glazes in the glaze lab. This gave her more control over the surface of her finished piece. Spending that amount of extra time both in and outside of the class meeting time wouldn't be possible today.”

--Teachers will have less time to catch students up on missed classes and less time available for outside-of-class help. Students would lose depth of understanding here as well.

--FATA will be looking at the serious possibility of eliminating independent studies, another place where the serious, college bound student can concentrate on highly advanced and specialized work. One teacher notes, “The increased student load means more reports, parent meetings, and grading which naturally takes more time, leaving less for independent study students. I also direct most students needing portfolio help to the Portfolio Prep class, or suggest they hire a professional photographer if taking that elective is not possible. Although I can often help them with editing and reviewing, teaching students to photograph work takes a great deal of time, more time than is available at most points in the semester.”

--There are disenfranchised students who find their place in an art studio, music room, video lab, tech lab, or black box both during class and during their free blocks: students who might otherwise have little incentive to come to school. They could lose this safe space and in some cases their only place for true success.

--The cut in the choral position means no more coordination of the after-school voice lesson program, which currently serves 20+ students, staff, and community members through two professional voice instructors.

--Also, students who are currently in band or orchestra, who currently have the opportunity to also be members of chorus by crossing over to chorus once a week, will not be able to anymore, depending on which chorus block is cut. With only one section of chorus being offered, it will be even more difficult for dedicated singers to fit in the classes they need AND remained enrolled in chorus.

--LS singers have achieved a variety of accomplishments in recent years (a gold medal for Chamber Singers at the MICCA Choral Festival, an invitation to sing at Symphony Hall, an invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall under the direction of renowned composer John Rutter, and many singers accepted for the Eastern Massachusetts honors choirs). A reduction of the choral program will not allow much time for "extras" like these, which are often the highlight of the year for many students.

--The Mulitmedia Music class, which was created as a pilot "wrap around" elective, would be eliminated as a wrap choice. The wrap around was conceived and created to allow music students to fulfill the computer technology requirement without dropping their music classes. Some music students may now be forced to drop music for a semester. Large and small ensembles are like teams with instruments and singers of many voices. Losing those trained voices has a devastating effect on the whole group and disrupts the growth and continuity of the ensembles.

Bottom line: Increased class size means less time to check in with each individual student; you have to concentrate your energies on being sure they all meet basic standards. Outside of class help is spent with students who miss class, or who are striving to achieve basic standards.

Impacts of Shrinking Supply Budgets and Rising Class Sizes in Science

It is an underlying premise in science instruction that students should observe, question and investigate the world around them in order to gain sufficient understanding of the sciences and the process of science is done. To do this requires time and equipment. Cuts to the school budget, and consequently to the science department budget, will clearly limit the student's access to both of these things. Currently, the science department budget is targeted primarily at equipment, expendable materials (like fetal pigs, chemicals, organisms for study, etc.), and books. A smaller budget will mean very little purchase of new equipment and more money directed toward repair of things we currently own. New book purchases will likely be put on hold and students will have to make better use of other materials to get up-to-date information. In short, the science department, which is very heavily dependent upon equipment and materials, will have to do more with less. This means that each student will be getting, proportionally, a smaller piece of the experience we can now offer.

Limits to time are a little more difficult to get a handle on. Time, as a quantity, will not likely change. Student schedules will remain close to what they are at the moment, and teachers will always be required to be in class with the students. What will change is the quality of the time spent with students, which will be degraded as class size increases beyond the current averages, due to decreases in staff throughout the school. In a recent conversation with a colleague about the potential for degrading "quality" in science education, I heard all of the following comments about the effects of increased class size over the past few years.

• It takes me longer to cover material to the same level of understanding from most of the class. Each student has less opportunity to ask their questions or make a comment if I stick to a tighter timeline in class discussion.
• I do fewer labs than before, for several reasons: The labs themselves take longer to get done in class because of crowding and thus I have to plan and choose very carefully for these since class time is limited. Also, the number of students I have makes it more difficult to do a quality job on grading these -- the volume is such that I have to cut back on how many assignments I can collect and grade per quarter.
• Along with graded lab assignments I have also cut back on open-response / essay questions on quizzes and tests because of the grading load. I rely much more heavily on multiple-choice style tests with scantron bubble sheets for answer recording & grading.
• I do not have as strong a personal connection to my students because my time and attention is spread across a bigger group, meaning each individual gets less of my time and I don't develop as thorough an understanding of their learning styles and personalities. This impacts how well I am able to communicate information to them and my ability to individualize my approach to teach a new concept.
• As class sizes have grown, class management has become more difficult. Interruptions are more frequent due to larger numbers of students and these disrupt the flow and focus of class.
• Communication and coordination of services with colleagues and parents is slower, less responsive & less proactive due to increased student load.
• My sense of job satisfaction and morale has also been impacted, as I am not able to do as good a job as I used to, teaching and connecting with my students.

I can echo each and every one of these comments, and as a former department coordinator am troubled by the long term effects these things might have on the well-educated and talented faculty that Lincoln-Sudbury currently offers to the community of learners that it serves. As access to quality contact with teachers becomes more scarce, it will be in every individual student's best interest to ask more from their teachers. But there is little incentive to pay attention, or even notice, the tiny degradation in the teacher's passion and morale as more is given. With more students, each working rationally in their own interest to get what they need, how long will it be until a gifted and devoted teacher like the one quoted above, gets "burned out" and leaves? A case of everyone doing just what they ought to do, rationally, and in the process bringing loss to the entire community.

In the current financial climate budget cuts are inevitable, but we need to be very wise with regard to our beliefs that simple solutions like budget cutting alone can provide the answers that we are looking for.

Steve Roderick
Science Department

Excerpts from the L-S Technology Plan submitted annually to the State

Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School is a one school district enrolling only students in grades nine through twelve. Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School is in a new building, which was completed in September 2004. The building project allowed the school to purchase a vast amount of computer equipment because a majority of the costs reimbursed by the state. Currently, L-S has over 1000 computers including laptops and 200 printers serving 1600 students and 240 staff members. There are 3 computers in each classroom, 22 computers in the library, 6 departmental computer labs and 11 mobile labs.

The school has a great deal of hardware, but the personnel for the maintenance of the hardware and support for learning the potential of the new system is inadequate. The Educational Technology Coordinator serves as 0.5 coordinator and 0.5 Instructional Technology Specialist. In addition, the technology department has a network administrator and a computer technician servicing the school community. The computer technology staffing remains the same from the old building of 300 computers, 20 printers, 5 servers and 300 network account holders. This represents a 400% increase to the present numbers of hardware and account holders. While L-S students and staff undoubtedly benefit from these increased resources, it will be difficult to sustain them given the current budget situation.

In addition, in the 5 years since moving to the new building, we have grown in terms of numbers of computers and sophistication of technology, but have not had the resources to train staff to use them to their full potential. We have implemented iPass, a new administrative database that allows us to manage student information, but there has been no time or money allocated for proper training. Although teachers now have computers in every classroom, they have not had time to plan for the effective use of these computers. In other words, teachers mostly only know how to plan for a one-to-one computer use - they prefer to be in a lab. They have not all developed projects or lessons that use the computers as a resource in student group work. The goal for the next few years is to utilize the available computer technology to its maximum potential. The obstacle to this goal is the insufficient funding on both the state and local level.

Lincoln-Sudbury has been astute to provide a budget for the school wide computer technology operating budget. The new building project 04-05 year resulted in a large capital investment in hardware which was funded predominantly by the state. The new equipment - hardware and servers - are 5 years old. In the FY ’09 budget there was a 10% decrease. This puts the budget at the same dollar amount as FY ’06. The technology department has done its best to maintain standards given the financial constraints. Although the line item amounts may increase or decrease over the years depending on circumstances, no line item has ever been completely eliminated, for example, budgeting for replacement equipment. The ability to maintain standards will steadily erode as the budget continues to shrink. In regards to staffing, professional development and support, minimal funding has been available; the numbers of computers along with the increasing school population can not be accommodated with the limited present staffing.

When appropriate, the computer technology department applies for local and global funding. Outside funding opportunities require time to write, which in turn takes from the time to help staff and students during the school day. Funding issues now fall into all categories: hardware, software, staffing and professional development. The priority for funding needs to be applied to computer technology personnel, annual software updates and maintenance of the infrastructure. The entire community has become dependent upon computers. When we lose power or we need to perform maintenance work on our network, students and staff alike feel crippled. Approximately 30 sections of classes rely solely on the use of computers - so if the network is down those classes are unable to do any meaningful work. For example, if the password server goes down, it impacts every person who uses a computer in the building: staff, faculty, administrators and students. If the email server is unavailable it impacts communication within the school and with those outside of the school and staff. Technology and the maintenance of the school’s equipment is vital to the everyday life of the school.

ANTICIPATED IMPACT OF CLOSING A HOUSE OFFICE

Each of the 3 remaining houses will have to absorb about 130 additional students (a 33% increase). Anticipate a 33% increase in paperwork processing and communication via mail/e-mail/ phone regarding attendance, cuts, discipline reports, warnings, student emergency contact information. Also expect a similar increase in student supervision in the house office for detentions, in-school suspensions, and supervised study.

Each of the 3 remaining houses will also have to absorb the teachers that are supervised at present by the 4th housemaster. The support that house assistants now provide related to teacher supervision (preparation of goals, scheduling meetings with housemasters, ensuring that required paperwork is distributed and returned in a timely manner) is expected to also increase 33%.

The increase in paperwork and scheduling responsibilities will likely have the following effects:

- More time spent processing paperwork will mean less time available to interact with and support students, teachers, other staff, and parents. Less time interacting and observing students will mean that we won’t know the students as well as we do now and won’t be able to identify students who are struggling with issues until the problems are very visible.

- Response delays (to phone messages and emails) – emergencies will have priority.

- House offices may need to be periodically closed to allow uninterrupted time to process paperwork, return messages, check and answer emails, and update databases.

- Other services provided by house assistants (e.g. administrative support for the Student Assistant Team, peer tutoring, parking permit and ticket processing, tracking community service hours and processing necessary paperwork) may have to be eliminated or reassigned to other people.

- House offices will definitely not be as user friendly as they are now – rules may have to be imposed regarding use of house offices as a spot for students to hang out.

The House Assistants

Counseling Department

Someone once said “counselors are ambassadors of hope for students.” Our job is to care for students and support their academic, social and emotional needs. We are also relied on to provide support for teachers and families who are in need. Counselors are in many ways the “point person” who connect students, family,faculty and staff. We wear a number of hats on any given day- advisor, confidant, friend, cheerleader, advocate etc. Multitasking is a skill that is learned early on in order to juggle the litany of diverse demands that come at us on any given day. Counseling is a relationship based job that is effectively practiced when there is time to give individualized attention. As a department we pride ourselves on our interpersonal skills and the ability to be “present” in each and every counseling situation. We are currently balancing the needs of 207 students per counselor. Increased numbers in our case loads and the impact of the budget cuts throughout the school will undoubtedly jeopardize the the time and attention that each and every student, family, and faculty member deserves. There really is no “typical” day for a counselor and yet we have attempted to create a list of things that we are responsible for and involved in here at L-S on any given day.

Academic Counseling/Consultation:


Future Planning:

Social/Emotional Counseling/Triage

Special Education:

Meetings: Attendance and participation at weekly house meetings, IEP meetings, parent/teacher meetings, department meetings, faculty meetings, various committee meetings, STAT meetings for students with substance abuse issues,meetings with middle school counselors to proactively identify concerns before students arrive at L-S.

Today’s adolescent faces more and more academic, social, and emotional challenges. They are in need of counseling services. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to meet the needs of each in every student and family given our numbers and the overall stress that is felt by the L-S community.

What does No Child Left Behind really look like?

I can tell you what it does not look like. I taught AP Psychology at Swampscott High School for 13 years prior to coming to LS. Classes were leveled and the criteria for admission to upper level courses was set by administrators. Each year my AP Psychology classes contained between 18-28 highly motivated and able students. Although this small portion of the overall student population achieved excellence, (as measured by mean AP scores over 4.0) the majority of students were left behind. I also taught lower level courses and was frequently concerned with the negative impact of lower expectations and tracking together needier students. This lack of equity and accessibility to excellence was one of the main reasons why 6 years ago I left SHS and came to LS to teach psychology. LS offered me the opportunity to achieve equity and excellence through professional collaboration with other staff and meaningful partnerships with students.

My first year at LS I was impressed with the high expectations set for all students. I was equally impressed with the many opportunities available for students to develop the tools necessary to achieve such rigorous academic goals. All students enrolled in heterogenous psychology classes are given the opportunity to attend early morning enrichment AP Psychology sessions and to take the AP Psychology exam. The mean score for LS students on the AP exam in 2003 (my first year) was 3.8.

I thought that this is what No Child Left Behind really looks like. The schedule affords students with a wide variety of challenging choices and the time for individualized instruction necessary to support meeting college level expectations. Over the six years that I’ve taught at LS, I’ve noticed a steady erosion of the resources necessary to ensure that all students achieve at their highest potential.

A psychology class I taught, two years ago, illustrates the impressive heterogeneity found in LS and not in other schools in Massachusetts. Among the 28 students in the class, 2 were significantly hearing impaired. One student had two signers in the class and the other student had an aide who typed all classroom notes and discussions. There were numerous students on IEPs, including a student from our Link program which serves students with significant language processing issues. There were gymnasts, and football captains, talented actors and editors of the award winning school newspaper. There were students who applied and were admitted to Ivy League colleges as well as students who were the first in their family to attend community college. The opportunities to learn from this diversity is astounding; this is what No Child Left Behind really looks like. Heterogeneous classrooms provide students with 21st century leadership, communication and problem solving skills. It is, however, becoming more and more untenable to adequately meet the needs of so many students.

What causes this steady erosion of achievement? Why are teachers less successful educating students? With larger student loads, relationships suffer, and students receive less feedback and individualized instruction.

An unique and important factor that explains the impressive achievement of LS students is the culture that promotes students initiating individualized instruction. Students initiate individual extra help sessions, which take place during their ‘free’ periods, for a variety of reasons: mastering material, improving writing, researching or test-taking skills, or pursuing further conversations about topics covered in class. Some students seek out teachers about choices and issues in their life. Research conducted by the Gates Foundation has shown that personal relationships with teachers correlates highly with college success.

Brain research indicates that students learn best when they feel connected to the material, and when new information is presented in terms of what students already know, building on each student’s island of competence.

In the beginning of the year, to try to get to know each student, I have students write a letter describing their strengths, weaknesses and goals. Many teachers use similar techniques. With smaller class sizes, I used this information more regularly in class activities, to engage individual students. For example in a class about conditioning I could ask “Johnny, is your new puppy house trained?,” or in a class about language acquisition, “I know that Maria is bilingual, she speaks both Portuguese and English, who else is bilingual?” Recently, because of larger class sizes, I have had to cut off students who wish to participate in order to cover a topic thoroughly. I have also had to abbreviate group presentations, debates and other activities designed to engage a variety of learners. Last week, I met with two students during lunch to clarify questions about a study guide. I had time to answer only half of my students’ questions. This will surely impact their grade as well as their understanding.

There are many assignments which help students connect their life experiences with psychology terms and theory. For example, students write a paper where they use different methods to analyze a personal dream. Often students, struggling with decisions about college and future plans, ask for extra help analyzing their dream. Recently students have gotten left behind because I do not have enough time to meet individually with each student who requests help.

When I started teaching at LS, I was impressed that this ‘different kind of place’ provided an innovative environment where both excellence and equity could be attained. I am concerned that both equity and excellence are becoming increasingly unattainable because of growing demands and limited resources. Academic rigor and personal relationships go hand in hand. I am disappointed that what made LS such a great professional opportunity and clear choice over Swampscott HS, is steadily eroding away. I feel bad for the growing number of LS students who are being left behind.

Statement from L-S Health Office (Nurses)

All students have the right to have their health needs safely met while in the school setting. The Lincoln Sudbury health office is currently dealing with the results of budget cuts from last year that certainly put our students at risk for meeting their health needs. Based on staffing /student ratios LS currently has one nurse for every 1025 students. Massachusetts state recommendations are one full-time nurse for every 500 students.

We currently see 30-50 students a day in the health office. During selected screening periods we may see an additional 5-30 students per day. There is only one nurse in the health office at the beginning and the end of the day. Students must wait longer to see a nurse, often missing up to 20 minutes of class time. There is less quality time with each student, resulting in less time for assessment of a student’s needs. We have seen an increase in students with socio/emotional and anxiety issues resulting in panic attacks, chest pain, stomachaches and headaches. These particular issues require longer and more involved assessments than routine headaches, sore throats and minor cuts/abrasions. Legally student medications can only be dispensed by a registered nurse who can assess the need and subsequent side effects of the various medications being given. The nurses are also responsible for dealing with health emergencies that occur throughout the school. We have seven diabetic students and many students who have severe food allergies requiring an epi-pen. In the past we have been called to deal with seizures, fainting, drug side effects, allergic reactions and injuries in various locations of this very large school. When this occurs and there is only one nurse on duty, we feel it is an unsafe situation.
We are responsible for constantly updating the yearly confidential health records of all our students, including screening results, immunizations, medications, parent permissions for over the counter medications and the recording of physical exam dates. All screenings and physical exams for students must be filed in their charts. This work is usually done between seeing students, and sometimes after school hours when free time is available. Last school year, 10th and 11th grade students - a total of 812 students- were screened for vision and hearing. This year we are only able to screen 11th grade students due to the cutback in nurses’ hours. In addition, all 425 9th grade students are required by law to be screened for scoliosis. We are also required by law to obtain physicals on all 39810th grade students and collect and record all physicals required by the MIAA for sports - which is approximately 80% of the student body. As of next year the nurses will be required to measure and record heights, weights and BMI (Body Mass Index) on all 10th grade students. The State will also require the school nurse to notify all guardians by mail the results of these measurements. All of the above is accomplished while attending to the daily needs of staff and students.
There is a recognized relationship between health and learning as there is between school nurse availability and student well being and educational success. According to a recent MSNO ( Massachusetts School Nurse Organization) memo: "National research has shown that school districts with adequate professional school nurses have fewer student absences, decreased drop out rates and higher test scores. These professionals have a direct impact on learning for all students. Massachusetts students with adequate access in 2006-2007 each averaged six school nurse office visits that year and for the last three years have consistently experienced a greater than 90% return to class room rate after a school nurse intervention.” We the nurses feel that further cutbacks would be detrimental to the safety and well-being of Lincoln Sudbury students and staff and perhaps to their overall academic performance.

Jan Cavallo, Joan Gaumnitz and Gail Nozik
L-S School Nurses

The Future of the Career Center

For 23 years the Career Center has provided a direct link to the community. It is a place where students know they can get information and help any time, where parents can drop in, where community members can ask for student help on odd-jobs, and where anyone in the community can sign up for an adult education class. College admissions representatives work closely with the Career Center; they appreciate the opportunity to meet with interested students and to update me with new information. The following is a description of the essential services that the Career Center provides.

Administer work programs, including the following:

Bring alternative post-secondary options to the school, including the following:

Organize and maintain information for students on the following:

More specifically, we provide the following services:

Maintain connections with the community:

It is hard to imagine not having someone or someplace to provide these services in the future. The burden would probably be shifted to the counselors, whose workloads have already increased due to increased student loads. As Career Center Coordinator, I am also continually looking for more ways to respond to the needs of the community.

Linda Hawes
Career Center Coordinator

When I was in college, I remember some of my friends going directly up to professors and talking to them. As if they had the right to do that! They even went to professors' office hours and dared speak to them. Not I. I didn't feel entitled to any extra time from my teachers. I saw them as being on another level of existence: one I was neither privy to nor invited to. My friends who were comfortable approaching professors had come from private or good public schools, and their gift from these schools was the confidence to consider themselves worthy of attention from those who taught them.
Fast forward 10 or so years and I am teaching at L-S. I see the same confidence in my students. They approach me without hesitation. They believe in their right to a great education. I am proud that they are so bold and eager.

So what does this have to do with cutbacks?
In a class of 20, even 24, I can cultivate these relationships. I can take a moment during class discussion to bond with a student: to let him or her know that I am interested in his/her life, that I care. In a class of 27-30, it's harder. It takes longer to do everything: to hand out papers, to answer questions about procedure, to take attendance, to make sure each student speaks at least once. It may not seem like a lot, maybe five minutes a day. But that adds up to 20 minutes a week, roughly 200 minutes per quarter, 400 minutes per semester of time not spent on direct teaching.
Back to the smaller class. I have the time to give attention to individuals, to answer a student's earnest question in depth. The next day, maybe that student feels empowered to ask another question, to come seek me out for extra help. But what of that extra help? I will have less time for it if my classes go up in number. Instead of meeting with a student for extra help or even a life altering independent study, I have to grade the extra 5 or so essays I have (this will take me two hours). That's two blocks I could have spent talking to a student, catching Him up or helping Her understand the story better. That's two fewer opportunities to empower the students and to convince them that I care about their thoughts, progress and feelings. Another element to consider is students who need extra help. I’m legally bound to take care of students on IEP’s (individualized education plans) first, and then I can get to my other students. The latter group, the other 80% of the class, has my ear less and less as their actual numbers increase (as does the number of students on IEP’s, and so on).
And what of that grading time? With at least two extra hours per class per set of papers (and four paper assignments per class per semester), that’s another 32 hours of grading per semester (not counting exams). That’s almost another week of work, but I have to fit it into the time I’m actually given. So comments are a little shorter. Or the paper assignments are. Either way, the students lose out. I can’t create time out of thin air.
What about planning for classes? That planning time shouldn’t be affected by bigger class size, should it? No, except that when I created many of my lessons, I did so for classes between 20 and 24 students. Some of these lessons might not be adaptable for larger classes, or doing so might not be worth the extra time. I can think of a particular assignment I do, involving scenes from a Greek play. I want students to translate these scenes into modern situations. I remember figuring out which scenes from the play might work for groups of three or four students, writing down the line numbers, making sure the scenes were of roughly equal length and contained reasonably equal speaking parts. I remember this being a lot of work, but the result is that students get a second shot at the play, at struggling with the difficult poetic language, at imagining how it is relevant to them. I remember them struggling a bit, giggling a lot, working with others in groups, and feeling pride in the finished project. If I wanted to do that lesson this year or next, I'd have to put at least an hour or two into refiguring it. Not a lot of time for one lesson, but imagine having to do that at least once a week for every class. Maybe students will get more days of “just read and discuss.” That will be a shame.
Not to mention volume: as in the decibel level in the room. I did some observations of classes as part of my evaluation last year, and I can tell you as a spectator, it is HARD TO HEAR in a room with 30 people. Every little move of a chair, every sniffle, every notebook being flipped through....adds up. In addition, there is less physical space in the room, so the groups are on top of each other and lose the ability to quietly and privately take risks as they go through the material together. As much as I love group work and think it benefits students to reflect on material with each other, I can’t do it as much because the students literally can’t hear themselves think. That is also a loss: of them getting to process together and hear other opinions.
Finally, a word about individualized instruction. Not all people appreciate it, but it is part of what makes L-S the kind of place that students value and come back to year after year and to which they're proud to send their children and their children's children. Why? Because they know we care. But it's getting harder and harder to be humane. Why? In any given week, some of the students I teach will be dealing with serious health issues (their own or a parent or sibling’s), missing family members (a recent divorce or relative overseas in the military), taking care of younger siblings, or mourning the loss of a grandparent, parent or pet. In a class of 20-24, I barely have time to find out this information (through conversations with the students, with their counselors, with their parents-it takes time to call, email, or track down key people when a student seems “off”). In a bigger class, I won't find out. So when a student hasn't done her homework in weeks, I won't compassionately ask how things are at home and how I can help. I'll ignorantly ask why she hasn't done her homework, adding to her burden. When a young scholar hasn't turned in a paper all year, I'll probably send home a warning rather than offer a shoulder to cry on. Maybe you don't think the latter is part of my job as a teacher; I think it's part of my job as a human being.

As much as I would like to make my students’ experience rich and varied, as much as I’d like to forge genuine, deep relationships with them, as much as I want them to feel empowered and excited, I can only do so much. And two to four more students per course makes that harder and harder each day.
When my students go to college, I want them to be bold and curious, as I was not. At this point, I can’t even write them the kind of college recommendations I used to because I don’t have the time to get to know them. Not really.

Danielle Weisse
English teacher