Transcript What’s Ahead in the School of Ed

School/District/University
Partnerships:
What are the outcomes?
Elizabeth Kozleski, Associate Dean
University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences
Center
NCSD
December, 2005
Beliefs and Assumptions about our
Work
1.
2.
We have a responsibility to engage
local, urban schools and systems in an
ongoing partnership for social
justice and educational equity for
all students.
3. Our inquiry revolves around
understanding changes that have
been influenced by our collective
work.
Our practice work –
supporting the development of
professionals and their
communities – must occur in the
settings in which we want them to
practice.
District/University partnerships are
systemic and therefore we strive to
integrate our efforts with district,
school, university and community
governance and practice.
4.
Incomplete Relationships
SI
schools
TC
universities
School Improvement
universities
Ideal Relationships
schools
Teacher Candidates
universities
Ideal Relationships
schools
Context for Initial Teacher
Education
• Graduate and undergraduate
• Licensure for elementary, secondary
and/or special education plus MA
• 12, 18, 24 month options
• Internships in professional development
schools (800 hours) or own classroom
• Standards & performance-based
Site professor, a faculty
member who works in the
school one day per week
Principal, clinical teachers &
other staff
Site coordinator, a master teacher
assigned to work with the
partnership
28 PDSs in 6 districts, mostly
low-income
10-15 teacher candidates in each PDS for
800 hours while earning their initial license
University of Colorado at
Denver
• Downtown campus with 2 other higher education institutions
• 33,000 on campus; 12,000 at UCD; 28% ethnic minorities at
UCD; 2500 graduate students in SOE
• 26 years old
• School of Education: 1 of 7 UCD schools/colleges
• Graduate initial teacher program + MA (English, Math, Science,
Social Studies, Elementary, Foreign Language and Dual
Special Education)
• Undergraduate initial teacher program (Mathematics, Social
Studies, English, and Elementary)
University of Colorado at
Denver Professional
Development Schools
• PDSs began in 1992 & have steadily grown with program growth
(250 licenses per year)
• 28 PDSs in 6 districts, mostly low-income (19 districts in metro
area)
• All teacher candidates in PDSs or in own classrooms with 800
hours of internship and a gradual release of responsibility
• Concurrent internships, classes, performance -based
assessments
• Site professor: A faculty member in the PDS one day per week
• Site coordinator: A master teacher assigned to work with the
partnership
• 10-15 teacher candidates in each PDS for the year in full time
program (12 months)
Recursive Assessment
Framework
Adaptations
in Roles,
Structure, and
Culture
Best Practice
in Teaching,
Learning,
and Leadership
Organizational
Innovation
Desired
Learning
Outcomes
Lee Teitel, 2001
Organizational Innovation
Partnership Development
• Governance and organizational structures
– IPTE Leadership Team
– IPTE Council
• Site Professors
• Site Coordinators
• Others
– Lead Instructors
– Partner Principals
– Teacher Ed Research Lab
• Moving from school partners to district partners
Adaptations in Roles,
Structure, and Culture
• Site Professors
– From focus on “teacher candidate” to focus on “student
learning”
• Site Coordinators
– Varied roles with student learning focus
• Teacher Candidates
– Use of expertise
– Use as co-teachers
• Clinical Teachers
– Learners and teachers
– Co-teaching, coaching, PBA training
Adaptations in Roles, Structure and
Culture
• Course credit for PDS work
• Annual site professor evaluation
• University costs: $5000 per PDS on
average
• Enhanced grant potential
• Performance-based assessments:
Knowledge & performance
Best Practice in Teaching,
Learning and Leadership
• Collaboration
• Coaching
• Co-teaching
• Action research
Impact and Outcomes
• Outcomes for Teacher Candidates
– Scholar, Instructor, Student Advocate, Professional, Leader
• Retention
– 88.9% were still in teaching & 91% still in education related
position
– “teaching is personally rewarding”
– “enjoy working with students”
• Preparation
– 78% rated preparation as “good” or “excellent”
• Proficiency
– Over 80% rated themselves as moderate or high on 13 of 15
INTASC teaching items
Group Sharing
• What are you doing
now?
• What would you like to
be doing?
Adaptations
in Roles,
Structure, and
Culture
• What questions do you
have about (your
component) related to
your own partnerships?
• What’s one idea from
your discussion you’d
like to share with the
whole group.
Organizational
Innovation
Best Practice
in Teaching,
Learning,
and Leadership
Desired
Learning
Outcomes
Teacher Candidates
•
Liberal arts degrees
•
Most are in schools 2 days/week for 3/4ths
of the year & 4 days/week for the rest of the
year
•
Performance based assessments to meet the
teacher education standards
Teacher Preparation
• Teacher Candidates...
–
–
–
–
bring positive energy into the classrooms.
stimulate cooperating teachers to perform their best
facilitate learning by reducing the student to teacher ratio.
work alongside with cooperating teachers, moving from an
apprenticeship to a full co-teaching situation
– demonstrate high quality skills and knowledge
– reported feeling disenfranchised from planning and
decision making
– reported the year-long relationship does not provide the
time for the development of trust with a colleague that
precedes honest, and possibly, critical dialogue
Site Professors
• University faculty
• 1 day per week for school year
• Equivalent of 3 courses (out of 5)
• Member of the school’s leadership team
• Participates in IPTE Council (program
governance body)
• Challenges: Becoming part of the school &
focusing efforts on student learning
The Evolution of A Robust
Partnership
If I walked into the school today, I could walk into classrooms
that I never used to be able to walk into, because those
teachers don’t mind having observers in the room. And we
could, and do, have those conversations afterwards, about
“Boy, I wondered why you handled it this way, and so-and-so
often handles it the other way?” And they not only would be
very interested in the conversation, participating in it, but they
might change what they do as a result of that, or they might
have a rationale for what they do as a result of that. But I
don’t think those conversations were possible in these schools
four years ago.
Site Coordinators
• Pivotal role in the partnership
• School faculty on special assignment
• Most full-time
• Participate in IPTE Council (program
governance body)
• Challenges: Learning the job & focusing
efforts on student learning
The Evolution of A Robust
Partnership
It helps us in our professionalism. Makes you stop and think
how you do things, why you do things. It has given us a link
to the university that we didn’t have before, and
consequently, we have benefited professionally. We learn
about more current trends in education. We tend to get
bogged down in the nuts and bolts of everyday school life,
and not stay at a level where we are learning new things.
The partnership helps us stay current. At the district level,
the partnership has had an impact particularly on literacy.
PDS Principals
• Partner principal meetings
• Key spokesperson for the partnership in the school
district
• Work with teacher candidates
• Problem solve as needed
• Challenge: Use of partnership resources in school
improvement plans
Clinical Teachers
• Teachers who mentor teacher candidates
• Co-teaching
• Learning focused discourse & development
• Social justice dispositions
• Versed in technical, contextual & critical dialogue
and practice
• Performance based assessments
• Challenge: Sharing the classroom & cultivating
responsibility for student learning
Research and Inquiry
We are becoming more aware of
action research. The class that the
TCs have taken and a presentation
they did on action research has
helped us think about ways to work
smarter, not harder. We wouldn’t
have had any knowledge about action
research at all without the
partnership. It was worth it giving up
my Saturday to attend the
presentations (the Action Research
Conference).
I don’t know if I want to
spend time, really, as a
teacher, in research.
This is an area of weakness
for us for sure but we
certainly reflect a lot and we
moan a lot about the data
we have.
Learning Focused
Relationships
• Mutual respect
• Working as partners
• Collaboration as key
• Co-teaching central to planning
• Co-teaching variations
• Challenges: Time for collaboration & co-teaching
for student learning
Coaching: Key
Ideas
• Develops shared language and common understandings
through interaction
• Enhances teachers’ thinking and decision-making
• Represents a powerful strategy for implementing
instructional improvement that impacts student learning
• Challenge: Building clinical teacher skill in coaching
Costs & Benefits: Schools &
Districts
• Time: SC, CT, Principal
• Immediate & long-term teaching resources
• Grant resources & opportunities
• Educator support: clinical teacher pay, tuition
• Ongoing, embedded professional
development
• Other opportunities
Costs & Benefits: University
• 3/5’s of full time faculty salary at each PDS
• University costs: $5000 per PDS on average
• Initial downturn in research productivity
• Enhanced grant potential
• Ongoing, embedded professional development
• Other opportunities
• Challenge: Budget cuts
Reflections on Robustness
Sustainability
Roles
Boundaries
Issues
Quality
and Agendas
of Expertise
of teacher candidate experiences
Major Challenges
• School performance
• School instability Principals w/ 3 years or
less experience
• Number of PDSs needed for program
• New challenge: Financing site coordinators
Major Challenges
• Change & accountability in teacher
education
• Change & accountability in schooling
• District recognition & support
• Relating PDS efforts to student achievement
Varying Approaches to
Partnership
The PROFESSIONAL Strategy:
Upgrading job specific skills of
human service professionals and/or
introducing them to practices based
on an asset paradigm.
The Community - Professional
Collaboration Strategy:
Re-educating human services
professionals in community oriented
practices while concurrently
empowering community residents to
advocate for themselves and solve
their community problems.
The Community Strategy: Increasing the
capacity among community residents to address their
own needs and to advocate for themselves within the
social service system.
Direction
• Establish a shared understanding of the purpose, function
and potential outcomes of the two institutions.
• Improve dialogue and interaction between district and
university faculty to create a systemic and infused
partnership.
• Form and sustain leadership teams that represent the
diversity of voices in a building.
• Deprivatize teaching.