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Joseph Estabrook School: Historic Structure Report Team Teaching Philosophy 7 <br />The immediate result of the discussions was the establishment of the School and University <br />Program for Research and Development ( SUPRAD). Among the faculty members included in <br />the planning were Assistant Dean Judson T. Shaplin, author of an important book on team <br />teaching in 1964, and Dr. Anderson, Professor of Education, who would supervise the Lexington <br />Team Teaching Program (LTTP) and who became known as "the father of Team Teaching for <br />his years of leadership in implementing the concept. "16 <br />Team teaching and other innovative teaching programs received a boost of support in 1957 after <br />Russia launched Sputnik, the first manned space flight in history. The event produced an <br />outpouring of concern that American education, especially in the sciences, had fallen behind <br />education in the Soviet Union. "People saw Sputnik as a golden opportunity to initiate <br />innovations. 07 Within a year, the National Defense Education Act was passed. The act provided <br />$877,000,000 to be spent over four years on education intended to improve national security. <br />The funds provided financial assistance primarily for study of science, mathematics, and foreign <br />languages. 18 Earlier in 1951, the Ford Foundation established the Fund for the Advancement of <br />Education "as an independent organization to support new and experimental programs at all <br />levels of education. "19 The Lexington Team Teaching Program under the direction of SUPRAD <br />was among the large number of educational programs that the Ford fund supported in the 1950s <br />and 1960s. <br />Other universities, such as the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California, were <br />involved in innovative educational programs and in team teaching in particular, using various <br />models of collaboration with school systems. Dr. Robert H. Anderson described the rationale for <br />school and university collaboration: <br />Among the reasons for establishing the School and University Program for Research and <br />Development ( SUPRAD) was the belief that public school systems might more easily <br />close the gap between educational ideals and educational realities if they joined with <br />private universities in programs for research and demonstration. Relations analogous to <br />those between medical schools and hospitals were seen as a way toward tough- minded <br />research and unbiased evaluation of new ideas. Among these ideas was the contention <br />that the existing organizational pattern of American schools and classrooms may be <br />inadequate and unsuitable in view of the vast population increase and the severe shortage <br />of professional workers as needs are now defined . 20 <br />Team teaching can mean many different things depending on who is practicing it. Fortunately, <br />people directly involved in the program explained the Lexington Team Teaching Program, which <br />was recognized in 1964 as the largest and most comprehensive team teaching program for the <br />16 Medill Bair and Richard G. Woodward, Team Teaching In Action (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1964), v. <br />17 Bill Terris, interview with Anne Grady, March 9, 2012. <br />18 1950's Education. http: / /www.enotes.com/1950- education - american- decades /national- defense - education -act. <br />19 John J. Scanlon, "The Fund for the Advancement of Education," Bulletin of the American Institute of Biological <br />Sciences (A.I.B.S. Bulletin) (June 1957): 12. <br />20 Robert H. Anderson, Ellis A. Hagstrom and Wade M. Robinson, "Team Teaching in an Elementary School," The <br />School Review Vol. 68, No. 1 (Spring 1960): 72. <br />Anne Andrus Grady June 2012 <br />