By Scott Brinton, Hector Flores and Laura Lane
Articulation is education jargon for communication among teachers of different grade levels. The idea behind it is to prevent teachers from repeating information that students already learned in lower grades, or missing topics that they haven't studied.
Some consolidation proponents have said that having one school district, not five, would enable Bellmore-Merrick schools to articulate better. So the Herald asked representatives from each of the five Bellmore-Merrick districts how and to what extent local schools are sharing learning materials and goals. Reporters spoke with four assistant superintendents for instruction and one elementary-school principal.
Without exception, all five administrators said Bellmore-Merrick schools are articulating. Most said communication could be better, but that's true of any school district. No school system, the administrators noted, articulates perfectly, but the objective must be perfection.
The five Bellmore-Merrick assistant superintendents for instruction meet monthly. Arnold Goldstein, the Central District's assistant superintendent for instruction, said the group discusses goals, teaching strategies and materials. He sees the meetings as brainstorming sessions in which the five assistant superintendents bounce ideas off one another and look for ways to create what educators call the "seamless curriculum." From these meetings, shared objectives are passed down to school administrators and teachers.
In particular, the group has focused over the past year and a half on character-education projects. Last summer, Goldstein said, the five Bellmore-Merrick districts offered a three-day seminar for teachers on service learning at the New York Tolerance Center in Manhattan. Service learning requires students to give back to their communities through their schoolwork. For example, students might do an ecology unit in science class. Rather than simply study ecology in books, the teacher might also have students clean up a local park, Goldstein said.
For a service-learning unit, he said, students have "got to take it further and give it meaning. They invest a lot more in it. It's something any kid can excel at."
Goldstein also said the assistant superintendents group is focusing on the curricula in grades five to eight in light of a battery of new state tests for those levels. Bellmore-Merrick middle school and elementary teachers recently worked together to develop joint science curricula, he said.
Both Arthur Solnick, a North Merrick elementary principal, and Ann Peluso, Merrick's assistant superintendent for instruction, said their districts purchased microscopes after meeting with middle-school teachers and learning about the growing emphasis on microscope work in seventh and eighth grades.
Peluso said that the five Bellmore-Merrick districts needn't teach in precisely the same way, but learning goals must align. "We may use different paths, but we have a common outcome," she said.
Peluso also said that having four other assistant superintendents to rely on benefits her. "Working together has been wonderful for me. Articulation creates a wonderful circle of support, an opportunity to work with four colleagues from other districts," she said.
Marilyn Johnson, the North Bellmore assistant superintendent, said, "Although [the five districts] are separate, we work together and keep communication open. The end result of the elementary components working together is that children do well in elementary school."
Dr. Joseph Famularo, the Bellmore assistant superintendent, said the five districts are now working on math curricula. "The math curriculum committee has met to review the new New York state math standards," he said. "Our goal is to align the standards to our current math program and ensure that our program covers all the standards. We are also looking at revising the sequence of topics taught throughout the year."
Goldstein said, "People shouldn't think nothing's going on. ... There's a real commitment to [articulation]. It's evolved."
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
