New Teacher Center Policy News

June 2014

 

Time for Seismic Shift in How We Prepare and Support Teachers
By Ellen Moir, Founder and CEO

 

This full version of Ellen's column was published in the Huffington Post on May 30, 2014.

 

No matter our views on education reform, there are some things we can all agree on.

 

We want our students to thrive. We want them to graduate from high school and college able to think critically, self-motivate, and empathize with others. We want them to realize their fullest potential, achieve their dreams, and lead fulfilling lives. Meeting individual student needs is critical in how students learn, grow and meet new challenges. We need an education system that empowers our students and teachers to make this possible -- and we are not there yet.

 

The good news is there is greater demand for classrooms and schools that focus on greater student personalization, where students pace their own learning. Blended learning - which allows teachers to use technology-enabled tools and curricula alongside traditional teaching methods - is the most promising instructional strategy currently being deployed to drive toward greater personalization and empowerment for our students.

 

Today we have a paradox:

 

In colleges across the country, teachers are still being prepared for the profession using traditional methods for classrooms and with little exposure to a blended learning approach. And in school districts, ongoing learning opportunities to keep teachers up-to-date on new research, emerging technology, and the latest initiatives are often a one size fits all approach, with little attention to individual teacher needs.

 

At the same time, there is a movement toward greater personalization through technology for students. This movement similarly demands a seismic shift in the way we train and support teachers. If we expect our teachers to personalize learning for their students, shouldn't we personalize the learning opportunities for our teachers?

 

A shift like this has implications for three distinct but related areas: teacher preparation; support for beginning teachers; and ongoing professional learning.

 

Teacher Preparation

 

It's promising to see many initiatives aimed at improving teacher prep, including a state-led effort that we at NTC are involved in and some strong leadership on the issue from the Obama Administration.

 

What if, as a result of these and other initiatives, prospective teachers could curate their own credential programs by pulling the best parts of different programs at their own pace and in their preferred learning style? The suggested pathways could be based on, but not limited by, their local geography. This concept - which is similar to this recent white paper on competency-based teacher preparation and development - could lead to a teaching workforce that's far more comfortable implementing blended learning in their classrooms because they've experienced it in their own learning.

 

What if we could do this at scale?

 

Support for Beginning Teachers

 

Even when prepared through the best programs, teachers still struggle mightily when they get their own classroom with their own students. The challenges of the beginning teacher become heightened in blended environments. These teachers not only have to help their students adapt to significant changes that blended learning bri  ngs, they also have to adapt to these changes themselves. How do we support teachers with creating a classroom culture neither they nor their students have ever experienced before? Imagine a class so radically innovative as the ones at The Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools or Summit Public Schools - two districts we at NTC work with to design and implement intensive new teacher support systems. In these environments, the teacher is supporting the students through this change. Who is supporting the teacher?

 

At NTC, we help facilitate such difficult transitions for teachers through our coaching model for new educators. Our one-on-one mentoring model is the most intensive form of personalized learning. It's the relationship formed by the mentor and teacher that creates the condition necessary to facilitate difficult transitions in practice such as blended learning.

 

When our partners work with us to put an effective mentoring system in place for new educators - with rigorously-recruited and well-trained mentors - it becomes a powerful solution to effecting change in their districts and schools. Mentors help teachers turn the "what to do" into the "how to do it."

 

While districts typically provide mentors from their own teaching population, this model is not always possible. In rural and smaller districts, it's more challenging to do this given limited teacher populations and less ability to fully or partially release an experienced teacher from teaching duties in order to mentor a new teacher. One way NTC has met this challenge is through distance mentoring. We can expand the pool of mentor teachers to the entire country by connecting expert teachers with specific skills and experiences with beginning teachers on a virtual platform within a virtual community of other beginning teachers and mentors.

 

Ongoing Professional Learning

 

An additional barrier oftentimes exists for experienced teachers. Many of these teachers who have been in the classroom for decades are not as comfortable with technology as teachers new to the profession. They also have tried and true practices honed over many years that work well for them. For teachers like this - the majority of the teaching workforce - the switching costs for implementing blended learning are immense.

 

In this situation, the school leaders, coaches and mentors who support these experienced teachers need to consider how monumental this change is. Parallel processes are useful tools in this context. A parallel process is when you use the same strategies to deliver content to a group of learners as you are expecting those learners themselves will employ.

 

We should support the teachers who are required to lead highly personalized classrooms with highly personalized learning environments. We should expose them to the tools and strategies we are expecting them to use with their students. If teachers are using blended strategies or specific platforms with students, we should use those same blended strategies and platforms in their training, development and support in explicit, intentional ways. Summit Public Schools is modeling this work for their teachers and students.

 

It comes down to this:

 

We need to ensure that our students thrive. So it's critically important that teachers personalize their students' learning experiences even more via blended learning. But to make this happen, we need to support our teachers through more personalized learning opportunities than they're currently getting.

 

My colleagues and I are committed to leading this seismic shift in teacher support and student learning with others who are at the forefront of this work. We owe it to our students to deliver on the promise of an education to help them reach their dreams.

NTC News

Survey Captures Teaching Conditions In State of Oregon 

In late May, Oregon educational and policy leaders released results of the inaugural Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning (TELL) Oregon Survey administered by New Teacher Center. The survey asked Oregon educators about time, facilities and resources, community support and involvement, managing student conduct, teacher leadership, school leadership, professional development, and instructional practices and support. Though this was the state's first time administering the survey, just shy of 60 percent of all school-based educators in the state completed it.

  

TELL Oregon findings:

  • More than 80% of educators reported that they believe their school is a good place to work and learn.
  • 90% reported that parents and the community are encouraged to participate in student learning.
  • Almost 90% of participants agreed that teachers are viewed as instructional leaders.
  • About 90% of educators reported that teachers are held to high standards.
  • About 75% reported serious concern over class size.
  • Nearly half of participating teachers said they need more time to support students.

Among beginning teachers, more than 3 out of every 4 reported having regular communication with their principal, but only 6 out of 10 said they received formal mentoring and less than half of them reported meeting with their mentor at least once a month to plan lessons, align instruction with curriculum, analyze student work, review student assessment data, or observe their mentor deliver instruction.

 

The TELL Oregon survey also provides insight into teachers' perceptions of their schools' readiness to teach to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). While 80 percent of teachers reported that their school's curriculum is aligned to the new standards, the survey revealed significant differences in readiness both between and within districts.

 

"There is much to be excited about in these results," said Oregon Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Rob Saxton. "However, they also highlight... areas of concern.... We have to get serious about addressing these issues if we are going to substantially impact student opportunities and outcomes."

 

Leaders in the state have already taken steps to increase support for beginning teachers. In 2013, the Oregon Legislature allotted $10 million to expand the state's educator mentoring program, which provides mentors for first- and second-year teachers. The investment allowed 1,109 new teachers and 126 new principals to receive formal mentoring in the last academic year. Furthermore, schools and districts that reached the 50 and 35 percent (respectively) participation threshold in the TELL survey, will receive school and district level data and will use the data to inform school improvement plans.

 

Read the Oregon Department of Education news release here.

 

Read related news articles here and here.

Policy News

CEEDAR Center Seeks State Partners 

The Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR) Center is a national technical assistance center dedicated to supporting states in their efforts to develop teachers and leaders who can successfully prepare students with disabilities to achieve college and career-ready standards. NTC is a CEEDAR Partner Organization.

 

Last month, the CEEDAR Center released a National Call to Action, seeking state partners, including state departments of education and teacher and leadership preparation programs, to work collaboratively to promote, support, and reinforce teacher and leader effectiveness across the career continuum and thereby ensure that students with disabilities achieve college and career readiness in inclusive settings.

 

Through the CEEDAR Center, states will have opportunities to create strategic partnerships among SEAs and IHEs to support teacher and leadership education faculty and administrators, researchers, state policymakers and school based professionals, for the purpose of building and sustaining an aligned, coherent, and systemic approach to personnel preparation. The Chief State School Officer or designee must submit an on-line application in conjunction with SEAs and state IHEs.

 

State applications are due on August 1st. An informational webinar will be offered on June 27th.

Good Reads

'Waivers of Waivers'

In a recent article, the New America Foundation's Melissa Tooley asks, "Can more federal flexibility improve state teacher evaluation systems?" She suggests that the answer may be difficult to discern due to the growing complexity of No Child Left Behind waivers, waivers of waivers, and waiver extensions on top of state-level flexibility due to local control. She reminds us that 43 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and large school districts in California received NCLB waivers to implement college- and career-ready standards, school accountability systems, and teacher and principal evaluation and support systems.

 

As state waivers expire at the end of the 2013-14 school year, and as states and the U.S. Department of Education prepare for a waiver extension application process, Tooley suggests that the waiver initiative may be more successful if the Department requires greater state transparency, such as:

  • Analyses of beneficial and challenging system elements;
  • Design and implementation choices that may need to be revised; and
  • Overall ratings from initial implementation.

Rural Education Matters     

In May the Rural School and Community Trust released Why Rural Matters 2013-14, a report analyzing the context and conditions of rural education across all 50 states that has some interesting findings. The report aims to call attention to the variability and complexity of rural education, highlight priority policy needs of rural schools, and help policymakers better understand these challenges.

 

At NTC we have long understood that among the various challenges faced by rural schools, in particular the ability to support the professional development of new teachers when districts and schools have small teaching populations. Unlike their large, urban and suburban counterparts, small rural districts have limited ability to release the few content experts from classroom duties to focus on instructional mentoring. In an effort to address this challenge, NTC developed eMentoring for Student Success (eMSS), a cost-effective, high quality, innovative, program that matches rural teachers with an online mentor of the same content area and grade level.

 

NTC Policy News is a monthly publication by the New Teacher Center. It is produced with funding support from the Joyce Foundation. Based in Chicago, Illinois, the Joyce Foundation invests in initiatives to improve public education and works to close the achievement gap by improving the quality of teachers in schools that serve low-income and minority children.

 

  

 
In This Issue
Time for Seismic Shift in How We Prepare and Support Teachers
Survey Captures Teaching Conditions In State of Oregon
CEEDAR Center Seeks State Partners
'Waivers of Waivers'
Rural Education Matters
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