1. Estabrook School HSR Feb 26, 2013

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Joseph Estabrook School: Historic Structure Report Executive Summary I L Executive Summary On March 3, 2012, members of the Joseph Estabrook School community gathered to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the school's Parent Teacher Association. Enthusiasm for the school and its early team teaching educational system was palpable in the room.' Speakers at the event recalled their delight in being part of an innovative program among like - minded people committed to a new kind of education. As David Horton, former principal and early teacher, said, "It was like the heavens opened up." To this day, students from the early years remain in contact, and they turned out in numbers for the recent weekend -long celebration of the school. Speakers remembered the special circumstances of the school's conception. The Lexington Team Teaching Program, "begun in September, 1957, at the Franklin School, .. was probably the most highly developed team teaching organizational structure in the country. "Z Recognizing the limitations inherent in teaching such a program in a conventional school building, Lexington took the bold step of creating a school that would actively support it. The Estabrook School's significance rests on the fact that it was first elementary school in the country built to serve a well- established team teaching program. Team teaching can be defined as "an arrangement whereby two or more teachers, with or without teacher aides, cooperatively plan, instruct and evaluate one or more class groups in an appropriate instructional space and given length of time, so as to take advantage of the special competencies of the team members. ,3 Collaboration with the faculty of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University through its School and University Program for Research and Development (SUPRAD), which had financial backing from the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Advancement of Education from 1957 to 1964, gave the Lexington Team Teaching Program the support and stability that allowed it to flourish. The program received national coverage in books, academic articles, popular publications, and network television broadcasts. Many educators came to Lexington to observe team teaching, or to attend summer institutes on the program. Team teaching and other innovative educational programs were part of a larger progressive movement to improve the quality of life for everyone after World War IL In particular, team teaching initiatives and the buildings they inspired represented attempts across the country to address the school population explosion and the shortage of teachers at the time. The school population in Lexington increased by 3000 students or 100% between 1951 and 1959. The perceived need for innovative teaching methods became even more urgent after Sputnik went up in 1957, when, according to Bill Terris, former principal at the Estabrook School, "the whole country went into cardiac arrest over the situation." The Estabrook School was one of several schools in Lexington to include a bomb shelter in its construction. ' A videotape of the celebration is available from LexMedia. 2 Medill Bair and Richard G. Woodward, Team Teaching in Action (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1964), 15 -16. 3 David W. Beggs III, ed. Team Teaching: Bold New Venture (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1964), 16.