Transcript Supporting the Teachers Who Support Our Students

Patricia A. Popp, Ph.D.
The College of William and Mary
[email protected]
National Center for Homeless Education
July 11, 2013
 Access
 Attendance
 Success
 Increase
percentage of hcy
included in state math and
reading assessments
 Increase
percentage of hcy
included and meeting or
exceeding proficiency levels
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Reading
Mathematics
2007 McKinsey Report
What does this
have to do with
us?
 Commitment
to advocacy at all
levels
 National and State Conversations
 Supporting effective local
practices
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Respecting content knowledge and pedagogy
Challenging the old adages,
◦ “Those that can’t, teach.”
◦ “I’m just a teacher.”
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Challenging the status quo
 Revisiting
our GPRA measures
◦ Attendance
◦ Discipline
◦ Dropout
◦ On-time Graduation
◦ Let’s discuss…
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Attendance
Discipline
Dropout
On-time Graduation
Other?
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Race to the Top States
ESEA Flexibility Waivers
◦ Priority and focus schools
 Rate of homelessness and student mobility?
 Is identification of homeless reasonable given the
poverty level?
 Have teachers been provided resources to better reach
our students?
 The challenging conversation: Equity: comparing our
teachers working with students in poverty to those in
affluent communities
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Let’s discuss…
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Teacher evaluation
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What are the standards for evaluating teachers in your
state?
Which are highly related to qualities of effective teachers
for HHM students?
What metrics are used to document student growth?
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Value-added or student growth percentiles
Student achievement goal setting
Curriculum-based measures
What happens when teachers have large number of
students that are not captured by the broadly-used
assessment measures? What happens to those students?
Let’s discuss…
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Teacher recruitment and preservice training
Lesley University – new 3 credit foundations
course, Child Homelessness: A
Multidisciplinary Discourse (evolved from a 1credit pilot)
Sharpe Scholars – William and Mary
Embed in courses on: diversity, assessment,
classroom management, special education,
collaboration, children’s literature, trauma
Let’s discuss…
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From Milwaukee, WI
◦ Each principal is asked to identify a staff person as
the homeless contact in the building. To avoid
inconsistency, we taped a media site presentation
that is now mandatory. Each principal must show
the video at a staff meeting in the fall and then
sends Administrative Leadership a form that verifies
the date it was shown. (A separate video is shown
to secretaries with enrollment details.)
Thanks to Catherine Klein!
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From Madison, WI
We use our PBiS (Positive Behavior Support) staff to continue many
"good for all students" initiatives. Building communities, building
safety and welcoming activities and making sure that students are
ready to learn. Each of our schools has a PBS coach. … Once the PBS
interventions are in place, the focus can come down to the
individuals who need something more than what everyone gets. This
is where many homeless children enter. The need for someone to
check in with them and check out each day comes in handy. Even if
it is to make sure they had a good day or that they have everything
they need to go home with.
Our classrooms receive support from our PBS coaches daily through
explicit teaching and shared school wide "cool tools." I come in when
there is a student who is not responding to the overall support and a
need for brainstorming beyond their own ideas is needed. I also
work as a district wide consultant on after school connections, early
childhood supports, professional development, community outreach,
summer school, shelter contacts, and helping our homeless student
find a way to share their voices (WWA project - meeting and writing
a book to share in the community).
Thanks to Jani Koester!
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From Roanoke, VA
I am planning to offer trainings and presentations at faculty
meetings this fall to get the info to the teachers. I keep track
of where all of our referrals come from and this past year,
several of them came directly from the teachers who received
info directly from the parent or student.
I also ensure each principal gets a list of all students who
enrolled or were enrolled in their school who were living in
transition. This has been a great source of communication.
For this upcoming school year, I am also working on the
approval of a newsletter to be sent to principals updating our
number of students and also any specific needs for our
assisting our students, (i.e., school supplies, hygiene items,
clothing, shoes and coats) and "thought provoking"
information regarding some of the challenges our students
and families face to give it more of a personal approach. The
principal would be asked to email to the faculty in their
building, so this will be another way of getting info to the
teachers.
Thanks to Malora Horn!
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From Minneapolis, MN
Building Bridges Project has been done here
in MPS for seven years with excellent results.
This is an intensive professional development
program for School Social Workers, who then
work directly with the teachers at their school
sites to support students. This past year we
also instituted Classroom for Success, a
software tool that provides dynamic access to
academic student data with features that
allow careful monitoring of students who are
homeless to inform and guide instruction at
the individual student level.
Thanks to Zib Hinz!
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From NC
I have the homeless liaisons work directly with school social
workers (SSWs) each year to provide a mini training to staff. The
training is usually a 10 - 20 minute presentation during the
opening staff meeting. The SSWs discuss warning signs, provide
a classroom tip sheet to staff, discuss the process for referring
a student in the building and supports/services that are
available. The SSW shows a power point and use something I
provided to the liaison who is required to add local information.
By providing the materials to the liaison, I am able to reduce the
work for the liaison and the SSWs, reduce anxiety of anyone
needing to prepare a presentation, and I am able to ensure
information is accurate and consistent not just in the LEA but
also across the state. I talk with liaisons about developing a
training that includes 1 hr sessions each month after school for
teachers (and others) that helps them learn about working with
homeless students and those at risk. At the end of this training,
the teachers receive CEU credit from their LEA (of course the
liaison works with their professional development office prior to
doing this as well). This is just another strategy to assist
teachers to obtain at least 1 credit towards their licensure.
Thanks to Lisa Phillips!
 Recruitment,
 Preservice
training,
 Induction and in-service training,
 Retention
Aristotle