Quality Teaching and Learning: Teachers and their profession

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Quality Teaching and Learning Teachers and
their profession

• Elizabeth B. Kozleski
• University of Colorado - Denver

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Quality Teaching and Learning Teachers and
their profession

• Teacher practice and its link to student outcomes
• Professional Learning and its link to student
  outcomes
• Retaining the best and brightest in teaching

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Teaching all the Children
87,000 Public Schools
3 out of 4 children identified for special
education services are served in general
education classrooms
5.75 Million Students identified for Special
Education Services
7 out of 10 teachers are female
9 out of 10 teachers are anglo or white
57 million students
350 languages dialects spoken in the New York
City Schools
40 of all students are from non-anglo ethnicities
4
National Policy Context

• No Child Left Behind (NCLB) P-12
• National Board for Professional Teaching (NBPTS)
  P-12 and IHE
• Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support
  Consortium (INTASC)
• IDEA 03 The Presidential Commission on Special
  Education, Disproportionality

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No Child Left Behind
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No Child Left Behind
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No Dream Denied A Pledge toAmericas children
(NCTAF)

• Teachers
• Possess a deep understanding of the subjects they
  teach
• Evidence a firm understanding of how students
  learn
• Demonstrate the teaching skills necessary to help
  all students achieve high standards
• Create a positive learning environment
• Use a variety of assessment strategies to
  diagnose and respond to individual learning needs

http//www.nctaf.org/dream/summary_report.pdf
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No Dream Denied A Pledge toAmericas children
(NCTAF)

• Demonstrate and integrate modern technology into
  the school curriculum to support student learning
• Collaborate with colleagues, parents and
  community members, and other educators to improve
  student learning
• Reflect on their practice to improve future
  teaching and student achievement
• Pursue professional growth in both content and
  pedagogy and
• Instill a passion for learning in their students.

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INTASC

• What do they mean about the work of general
• and special education teachers?
• Understands discipline
• Student Development
• Learning Characteristics
• Uses variety of instructional strategies
• Motivation and student effort
• Communication technologies
• Plans for Instruction
• Assessment
• Reflective practitioner
• Fosters relationships

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Presidential Commission

• Current system places process over results
• Failure rather than prevention and intervention
• Unification of general and special education
• No recourse for families when special education
  fails their children
• Culture of Compliance rather than academic and
  social achievement
• Identification procedures lack validity
• Children with disabilities need highly qualified
  teachers
• Rigor of special education research questioned
• Under funded mandate

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Disproportionality

• Special Education Eligibility
• Based on failure models
• No guarantee that students have received state of
  the art instruction before being referred
• School Context Student Performance
• School resources, class size and teacher quality
  linked to student success
• Biological Social Risk Factors in EC
• Access to high quality early intervention
• Improved Data Collection and Research
• Scale up promising practices from research

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SES and Poverty Interact

• At every SES level
• AA students more likely to be labeled ED, MR and
  placed in self-contained, SPED classrooms
• AA students less likely to be labeled learning
  disabled or communication disordered and placed
  in general ed classrooms
• As wealth and better schooling increase, AA males
  are at greater risk of being labeled MR
• As the non-minority pop increases, AA are also
  at increased risk for MR and ED identification

Oswald, Coutinho Best (2002). Community and
School Predictors of minority children in special
education. In Racial Inequity in special
education.
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Intersections
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NRC The Influence of Schooling

• Differential resources
• Fewer well prepared teachers
• Poorer facilities
• Teaching differences
• Lower expectations
• Cultural differences in behavioral expectations
• Differential opportunity for parental
  participation in SE assessment may increase risk

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Ideal Relationships
Teacher Candidates
Schools
Universities
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It is one thing to know the events and situations
which cause or prevent change from happening.

• It is an entirely different question to know what
  to do about it. (Fullan, 1998)

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Elements of Teacher Practice
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Linking Practice to Student Outcomes

• Teachers reach their peak impact around the 10th
  year of their teaching and sustain that
  performance through their 16th to 20th year in
  the profession.
• Teachers become accomplished practitioners around
  their 5th year of teaching.
• Great teachers inoculate their student against
  poor teaching at least one year beyond.

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Linking Practice to Student Outcomes

• The effects of poor teaching are seen at least
  one year out
• Great teachers are successful with a wide variety
  of teachers.
• Competent teachers teach to the middle well but
  leave out the margins.
• Poor teachers affect all students but most
  particularly the students at the margins.

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Credentialing Teachers Teaching AND Practice
Subject Matter Competence AND Teaching Skills
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Teacher Leadership

• What we know about learning works for teachers
  too
• Assess
• Plan
• Act
• Reflect
• Scaffolded practice
• Independent practice
• Data Based Curriculum measures are the kids
  getting more proficient?

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Incomplete Relationships
SI
schools
TC
Universities
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Teacher Preparation and Professional Development
(NCES, 2001)

• 80 of all public school teachers were most
  likely to have participated in professional
  development that focused on state or district
  curriculum and performance standards
• 74 participated in professional development
  programs focused on the integration of
  educational technology into the grade or subject
  taught
• 72 participated in in-depth study in the
  subject area of the main teaching assignment

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Teacher Preparation and Professional Development
(NCES, 2001)

• 49 of all teachers did not participate in PD
  focused on the needs of students with
  disabilities
• 46 of all teachers reported encouraging parent
  and community involvement
• 45 of all teachers reported strengths in
  classroom management, including student
  discipline
• 41 of teachers reported addressing the needs of
  students from diverse cultural backgrounds
• Correlation with teachers belief in PD and their
  participation in such activities

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Least likely PD

• 26 participated in PD that addressed the needs
  of students with limited English proficiency
• For all but one content area of professional
  development, teachers typically reported that
  they had spent 1 to 8 hours or the equivalent of
  1 day or less on the activity during the 12
  months preceding the survey
• In-depth study in the subject area of the main
  teaching assignment was the only area of
  professional development in which participation
  typically lasted more than 8 hours.

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Frequent Collaborative Activity

• 69 reported collaboration with other teachers
• 62 reported networking with teachers outside
  their school
• 53 reported having a common planning period
• 52 reported individual or collaborative research
  on a topic of professional interest
• 26 reported mentoring another teacher in a
  formal relationship
• 23 reported being mentored by another teacher

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About their preparation

• 61 felt very well prepared to meet the overall
  demands of their teaching assignments
• 35 felt moderately well prepared
• 4 felt somewhat well prepared.

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Competencies

• 71 reported feeling very well prepared to
  maintain order and discipline in the classroom.
• 45 percent reported feeling very well prepared to
  implement new methods of teaching
• 44 prepared to implement state or district
  curriculum,
• 37 prepared to use student performance
  assessment,
• 32 prepared to address the needs of students
  from diverse cultural backgrounds and
• 27 felt prepared to integrate educational
  technology into the grade or subject taught

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Students with non-mainstreamneeds

• A little more than a quarter (27) of teachers
  indicated that they felt very well prepared to
  address the needs of students with limited
  English proficiency, and
• Less than a third of all teachers (32) of the
  teachers who taught students with disabilities
  felt very well prepared to address those
  students needs.

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PD helps to prepare teachers

• With two exceptions (classroom management and
  state or district curriculum and performance
  standards), teachers who spent over 8 hours in
  professional development on the activity were
  more likely than those who spent 1 to 8 hours or
  those who did not participate at all to indicate
  that they felt very well prepared for that
  activity.

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The Benefits of Collaboration, Networking
Mentoring

• Feeling well prepared for the classroom is
  associated with
• Regularly scheduled collaboration with other
  teachers
• Networking with teachers outside the school, and
• Mentoring another teacher in a formal relationship

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Forgotten Relationships
TC
SI
universities
schools
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Teacher Preparation University Programs
(Kozleski, Pugach Yinger, 2002)

• Shared Responsibility
• Curriculum Renewal
• Create a shared language around practices that
  affect students with disabilities
• Reconcile teacher-directed and student-centered
  approaches to learning
• Renew Clinical Experiences for TCs
• Experience wide range of student variability
• Extend field experiences
• Embed reflection and mentoring thru out
• Connect to career-long professional learning

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Teacher Preparation University Programs
(Kozleski, Pugach Yinger, 2002)

• Challenges in Field Experiences
• Collaborative mentoring and coaching
• Expand conceptions of CI
• Insist on inclusive settings for UDL
• Collaboration experiences
• TC competence required
• Multidisciplinary, performance based assessment
  of candidates

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Teacher Preparation University Programs
(Kozleski, Pugach Yinger, 2002)

• The first 3 years of Teaching
• Pair experienced teachers with novices
• Regional Institutes
• Mentor Education
• Shared Governance

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Alternative Routes

• Teachers in Residence
• Fast Tracks
• 70 of all alternative programs are led by IHEs

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Imbalanced Relationships
TC
SI
U
S
U
S
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Balancing Change Dynamics
Practice Point of View Justice Flexibility Context
Research Equity Capacity Coherence Generalizabilit
y
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Systemic Change Framework
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Looking at Change over Time

• 70s Family advocacy, Uncharted Territories and
  Great Opportunities
• 80s Growth of professional knowledge the
  focus on Inclusion
• 90s Educational Reform What constituted
  best practice?
• 00s Increasing regulation and science as the
  means to understand

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Successful education reformers develop practical
strategies to manage change in a systemic way.
(Fitting the
Pieces, US. Dept. of Education, p.iiii)
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Results of the Pressures

• New standards for student learning
• Accountability/accreditation pressures on
  buildings for continuous improvement cycles.
• New standards for Higher Education
• New teacher prep. standards / State control of
  Personnel Prep funding
• Partnerships for teacher education
• For-profit teacher preparation programs.
• Research indicators of what teachers need to
  succeed - indicate ideal world

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The Economic Facts

• 480,000 new jobs in CO since 1993
• Average salary for a B.A. professional 41,138
• Average salary for B.A. starting teacher
  24,475 (a gap of 16,663)
• Gap between starting M.A. teacher and other M.A.
  professionals 22,316
• Range of highest possible teacher salaries from
  sample of districts 32,45 - 62,000 (after 39
  years experience)

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Ideal Relationships
School Improvement
Schools
Universities
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Research Facts

• A variety of research identifies factors that
  enhance and impede quantity and quality of our
  education task force.
• Factors that enhance student achievement
• Lowering Pupil/ teacher Ratio -.04
• Increasing salaries - .16
• Increasing the amount of teacher experience - .18
• Increasing teacher education - .22

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Research shows these factors support teacher
retention

• Working conditions (reasonable workload)
• Administrative Support
• Personnel development
• Effective communication
• Opportunities for shared decision making
• Collegiality
• Career options
• Formal mentoring programs
• (Spense 02 Kozleski, Mainzer, Deshler et al.,
  00)

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Research Also Indicates Why Special Educators
Leave

• Overwhelming class size
• Too much paperwork
• Lack of adequate support staff
• Too many non-teaching responsibilities
• Lack of administrative support
• Other teachers attitudes to special education
• No input into policies
• (Spense, 02)

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The single, biggest factor that Special Educators
leave -

• Lack of administrative support - more often from
  central office administration than building level
  administrators (Kozleski, Mainzer, Deshler, 02)
• Teachers felt unsupported, unprepared,
  overwhelmed by student needs or job
  responsibilities, disempowered, or all of these.
  (Brownnell, 97)

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Research that points to a need for more support

• SPED complain they need help with
• No time to develop curriculum
• Overwhelming student concerns and negative
  attitudes about school
• Perceived lack of student progress, student
  behaviors
• Emotional and physical exhaustion
• Administrative obstacles,/ paperwork
• Increased liability and legal issues
• (Kozleski, et al., 02)

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Effects and Responses Special Education
Recruitment/retention

• SPED continues to decline as attractive career
• More on TTES/emergency licenses - those working
  with the most challenging students, the least
  qualified
• Students in teacher preparation programs less
  qualified, busier, already working in the field
• Lower degree requirements for SPED
• Generalist special educator license

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Thinking about How we change
Personal Interdependence Faculty
Buy-In Commitment to School Improvement
Technical Development Initial Training
Systemic Self-Monitoring Implementation Review
Correction

• Contextual Development
• Follow-Up
• Coaching

• Organizational Sustainability
• Networking

Critical Development Public reflection about self
and others Focus on improvement social justice
for each student
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The 00s -Teacher Performance

• Pressures
• Reports of student achievement by classroom
• CSAP scores disaggregated by disability
• Alternate assessments
• More students, more diversity
• 106 proposed education bills in legislature
• Supports
• Regional training and supports
• State and regional CSPD plans

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Margaret Mead

• Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
  committed citizens can change the world indeed,
  that is the only thing that ever has.