Elizabeth
Sciabarra: Chief Executive for New Schools Development
by
Joan Baum, Ph.D.
If
Elizabeth Sciabarra is stepping smartly up to the plate in her
new position as Chief Executive for New Schools Development in
the restructured Department of Education, the reason is obvious
after just a few minutes’ conversation. She brings to the job
a rich intelligence informed by both art and science, and a confidence
and enthusiasm that suggest she expects to hit only home runs.
Elizabeth Sciabarrais also an administrative pro, with a celebrated
track record as an educator, indicating that she knows how to
work and play well with others, as they used to say on report
cards of old. Significantly, the play includes an unusual creative
turn that epitomizes her educational outlook. Sciabarra began
her career as an educator at Brooklyn Technical High School, where
she taught English, became an Assistant Principal, and later,
the principal of New Dorp High School. More recently, she became
part of Rose DePinto’s team, at the district and central levels,
first as Deputy Superintendent, and then Superintendent. From
her early days as teacher up until two years ago, she coached
competitive dance teams that over the years have garnered over
100 regional and national awards. Dance? What has that to do with
creating and transforming the city’s high schools or with professional
development and administrative restructuring? The answer is, everything.
Her parents enjoyed ballroom dancing, and music, says Elizabeth
Sciabarra, has always been in her family, but what nature provided,
so to speak, creative imagination nurtured, and soon, jazz, novelty
dance, hip hop, high-kick and military-type dance drills became
for her a way to enhance the education of young people. As she
saw, dance routines and props designed to convey a theme, required
rigorous training and demonstrated the interconnectedness of learning.
She’s never been a linear thinker, she notes, preferring broad-spectrum
considerations that take into account the mutual reinforcement
of the arts and sciences, and in the larger world, the collaborative
approach of schools working with regional and central offices,
teams of educators, local communities, and funding constituencies.
And so, when Elizabeth Sciabarra talks about “theme schools,”
she means theme-based. A performing arts theme school, for example,
is understood not as having a narrowly defined career-track curriculum
but as offering an integrated academic program, informed by the
performing arts. The idea is that students who choose this theme
school will find their interests reflected in all their studies.
The words “rigorous” and “challenging” come up often in Elizabeth
Sciabarra’s descriptions of her role at Tweed central, where she
is continuing her work on transforming and creating schools. Under
the new education administration, “regents curricula” is a given
since all high schools are standards-driven. In addition, The
New Century High School Initiative, fueled by Foundation money—Gates,
Open Society and Carnegie—has required new high schools to link
with community based organizations, colleges, professional schools,
and/or industry, to create a smaller learning community model
with a lead partner. The Chief Executive is both excited and energized
by the speed at which new schools are being established. Last
September, for instance, under the New Century Initiative, 28
new high schools were opened, the majority in the Bronx. September
2003 will see additional New Century High Schools, in the Bronx
and Brooklyn with many new schools of various configurations opening
in the next five years. A new school does not necessarily mean
a new building, as long as the central idea of creating autonomous
space is realized. So there might indeed be 2-3 separate theme
schools housed in one facility. The existing school, with appropriate
resources and support will be transitioned out, along with their
rigid 45-minute periods, and the new schools will be provided
with support and creative opportunity, so that the themes, whether
in the humanities or sciences or more career-related areas, will
not be subject to artificial time constraints.
Particularly impressive about the new Chief Executive for New
Schools Development is her solid intellectual grounding and commitment
to critical review. “The bottom line,” she says with purpose and
passion, the absolutely “non-negotiable issue,” is to have every
school successful, a goal that can be achieved by studying best
practices around the country and by ensuring that those components
that make for success—effective instructional leadership, particularly
at the principal’s level, strong curricula, and a safe, welcoming
school culture—are implemented, funded, and sustained. Administrative
and teaching staff who are well-prepared, innovative and dedicated,
and programs that are challenging and engaging, provide all children
and parents throughout the system with “schools of choice.” Her
main role in effecting this objective? To be “the engine” and
“the facilitator” for the new projects and the new schools. Yes,
the going will be rough—learning new dance steps can be awkward
and frustrating, but the rewards for those who learn to dance
are richly satisfying—personal growth, belonging to a community,
and taking pride in performance, whatever the discipline.#
Education
Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001.
Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919.Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express
consent of the publisher. © 2003.
|