Trader Middle school is in a major metropolitan city in the north east part of the United States. The city is very culturally diverse and has a long history of neighborhoods being sectioned off due to race, religion and ethnic origin. The school is situated in a section of the city that tends to have more middle to upper middle income families. Students attend from all areas of the city due to a special lottery program that allows for more integration of neighborhoods. The school has done fairly well in all areas of standardized test scores and rates regionally in sports and arts competitions. The principal of the school, Mr. Sloan has been there for 6 years. He is known for bringing in new programs and generally attending to the needs of all the teachers. Currently Mr. Sloan is working on his doctorate degree at a local University where he is researching alternative modes of teaching. Not only has he done a great deal to study this, he will shortly defend his dissertation on the benefits of cross curricular studies. The principal has convinced the superintendent and the assistant superintendent, that he would like to implement cross curriculum studies at Trader this semester. Mr. Sloan has noted that the school was suffering a wide achievement gap achievement gap between the minority students and the white students. This has been a great concern of his and one that the state has identified. Mr. Sloan feels that this new philosophy would eliminate the tracking system now in place in the school. Tracking at Trader appears more in the advanced classes, which shows up in the student make-up in these classes. The principal would like the new curriculum to be in place by the middle of the school year which will give the faculty 2 months to establish their curriculum plan.

The decision of the administration was taken to the Site Based Management team where many debates ensued. As a site based school all decision must first be discussed in the team forum which seems to have been bypassed on this agenda. Although the principal, who supports the site based management Site Based Management (SBM) philosophy, has the ultimate decision-making authority based upon the recommendation and input from the SBM school team.

Mr. Sloan met with the SBM team where they expressed their concerns regarding the curriculum change. Some in-fact implied that he was using this change to benefit his research for his dissertation. They felt compelled to bring this to the attention of the PTO and begin a campaign against this change.

Mr. Sloan met with the parents, teachers and students in an evening forum to address the concerns. He often would have these community meetings as he felt it tied the school to the community and made for shared decisions even though this meeting was in fact brought on by the SBM team. In wanting this to be a win win situation Mr. Sloan had a survey that was to be filled out and he promised the results would be published the following day on the schools' web page.

The following morning many teachers were congregated in the teacher's lounge. It seems that the results were in. It was clear that the community wanted the school to keep the curriculum as it is and not switch to cross curriculum at this time. Mr. Sloan later announced that in SBM ultimately it was the decision of the principle on all curriculum matters that could over ride the SBM team. News of the decision quickly spread throughout the community and soon the parents were phoning the office of the superintendent. The discussions became nasty. The principal has found a prevailing sense of classism classism in the school and feels that the recommendation of the SBM team comes from this "hidden agenda" since all of the parents on the SBM team are the white elite group of the school.

Parents whose children were at the school because of the lottery were worried that their children would loose the opportunity to go to Trader. These parents were not going to join the group of parents who were going to the superintendent but would not speak up in support of the principal in fear of isolation. The teachers began the grievance process needed through their union representative. The ultimate say is with the SBM team as they also decides to retain him or not and he knows that if he chooses to go against the SBM team, there is almost a sure decision not to renew his contract for next year.

Questions:

1. What are the true issues?
2. Are their hidden agendas from the teachers or the principal?
3. How much say do parents have in their child's education?
4. Is there only one way to teach every student?
5. Who determines the curriculum?
6. How will the new curriculum assess student learning?
7. Will Mr. Sloan risk loosing his job?