Teachers for a New Era: Activities
Activities Home | August 2006 Update | September/October 2005 Update | May 2005 Update
August 2006
Update for Steering Committee:
Elementary Teacher Education Program (ELTEP) Renewal Retreat:
Approximately 50 members of the Elementary TEP community, including partner school colleagues, faculty, A&S colleagues, and TEP field supervisors, convened for three days in late June to consider findings from the past year of inquiry efforts related to ELTEP renewal. Presentations of findings from eight inquiry groups were interpreted in terms of their implications for the goals, structure and content of the program. The retreat concluded with a referendum on six design principles to be used by a Summer Work Team charged with developing a new program proposal for ELTEP. The design principles were:
- TEP should be organized with conversations about equity, social justice, and multicultural education as its core values.
- TEP should change admissions policies to reflect a commitment to recruiting candidates from underrepresented groups.
- TEP should emphasize placement of students in high needs urban and suburban schools.
- TEP should change program structures and practices to provide greater supports for students to integrate what they are learning in the context of complex problems of practice.
- TEP methods courses should be specific and systematic in emphasizing teaching practices which are responsive to diversities of race, language, class, culture, (dis)ability, gender, and sexual orientation.
- TEP should be structured to support deeper collaboration with P-12 colleagues in the work of teacher education.
The Retreat ended with a variety of very positive reflections about both the process and outcomes of the three day effort. Notable among these was Ken Zeichner's observation that he had seldom, if ever, seen this type of collegial collaboration around the work of teacher education in a research university. The ELTEP Summer Work Team continues to be busy developing the new proposal for ELTEP that will be presented to COE faculty in the fall.
Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) Renewal:
We chose to begin this renewal process with an inquiry orientation—asking ourselves what we really knew (empirically) about what students were taking up from their experiences in the program and successfully enacting in their teaching practice. Several pre-TNE inquiry activities, most notably the study of TEP graduates teaching in urban schools as well as the video produced by TEP students of color, raised a number of new perspectives on the program. However, the most compelling "news" about the secondary program came from the Nolen, Horn and Ward (2004-06) study funded by TNE which took an in-depth look at learning in teacher education, and its findings have challenged many assumptions about what and how students learn in TEP. In Spring Quarter of this year, STEP program faculty and staff voted formally to undertake a substantive process of program renewal in order to pursue issues arising from the new kinds of conversations and concerns they were having about their students learning in TEP. This summer we invited individuals from each of the three partite constituencies of TEP, including program graduates, to participate in a series of work sessions aimed at analysis of available program evaluation data and other information resources with the objective of interpreting these in terms of implications for program design. The group is working on data-grounded "program design principles" which will guide subsequent renewal deliberations in TEP. The process is intended to remain in tune with the emphasis on inquiry and data which has motivated much of our renewal work to date. It is also intended to make the process of decision making about renewal as visible and transparent as possible. The STEP Summer Work Team will produce a document which will be used as a conceptual framework for program planning beginning this fall.
Evidence Conference:
Jerry Herting, Susan Jeffords, and Ramona Pierson (from Seattle Public Schools) will attend the TNE Evidence of Learning Conference in San Francisco Sept 17-19.
SCC Partnership:
Wanda Brown continues to work with Lisa Saunders and Tony Ogilvie as part of our partnership with Seattle Central Community College to help recruit students into the teaching profession, focusing particularly on the recruitment of underrepresented groups. The idea is to recruit students from SCCC’s Education AA degree into UW where they would finish their BA including the Education Minor. We would then hope to recruit them into the UW TEP program. We are working on the administration issues through the Interagency Agreement and beginning to look at how credits would transfer as well as raising scholarship funds.
The Ackerley Partnership:
On August 17, the Network Summer Strategic Planning group met, with the morning focused on liaisons, Survive and Thrive mentors and mentees, and principals. In the afternoon, folks came together to review the revised mission with Allen Glenn, the new director, and then discuss and strategize the communication amongst all participants and settings in the Network.
Zeus Leonardo (outgoing interim director of the Center for Multicultural Education), Jonathan Warren (Professor of Sociology), Wanda Brown, and Caprice Hollins (SPS director of equity and race relations) have begun to meet to develop the Race Literacy Modules that they will be presenting to the Ackerley Network over the next year.
Integrated Science Major:
The Integrated Science Study Group had a final meeting May 31, and on June 7, Julie Lutz came to the monthly meeting of science chairs to give a short presentation on what the imagined degree would look like. Concerns were raised, and a vigorous discussion ensued. This was anticipated. This fall someone will take the show on the road, visiting the key science departments (Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Earth and Space Sciences, Atmospheric Sciences, Biology) individually and getting their thoughts. After that, based on what we learn, a refined degree program would be created, in closer collaboration with relevant people in the departments, so that we can be sure the departments will be comfortable with it.
Carnegie’s Renewal Process:
The folks from the Carnegie Corporation have been discussing our proposal with us, and we have been responding to their questions. Carnegie will make its renewal funding decision on September 29.
Education Minor:
Toward the end of Spring 2006, the Education Minor Committee met to consider feedback from College of Education faculty regarding the proposed minor in Education, Learning, and Society (ELS). While the course requirements and the administrative structure remained pretty much the same, there were a few key changes reflected in the new revised proposal developed by members of the Committee on the basis of the input: 1) Funding for the Minor will be provided equally by the Colleges of Education (CoE) and Arts and Sciences (A&S); 2) The Academic Advisor will be housed in the Student Services Office of the CoE; 3) A Faculty Advisory Committee will be established to oversee the work of the Director and the Academic Advisor; 4) While responsibility for overseeing advising and the curriculum will be shared by the Dean's Offices in the CoE and A&S, the Dean's Office of A&S will be responsible for providing a budget number and administrative oversight. The new proposal will be presented to the CoE faculty for their consideration in Autumn 2006 and, if approved, will be processed through A&S. The Education Minor Committee anticipates that the ELS Minor will be approved for Winter 2007 implementation.
Master in Instructional Leadership:
A 3-credit course called Instructional Leadership and Coaching was held at the UW between June 26 - July 7 taught by Chrysan Gallucci and Sally Luttrell-Montes along with Jane Goetz and Anneke Markholt from the Center for Educational Leadership. This course was an overview of teacher leadership in preparation for a new focus area for a College of Education Master in Instructional Leadership (MIL) that will begin in the summer of 2007. This MIL grew out of the Strengthening and Sustaining Teachers partnership to build capacity for teachers to take on leadership roles. Through a prior Boeing grant, we were able to offer 22 scholarships to our Partner Schools and Districts. We had 24 total teacher participants complete the course. The preliminary feedback has been very positive.
Personnel:
We are pleased to announce that Patrick Sexton has accepted the position of Associate Project Director. Patrick comes to us from the Alliance for Education where he has spent over 6 years as partnership manager. His facilitation, communication, coordination, and project management skills are superb and will be well utilized here at TNE! He brings a strong passion for education and for Seattle Public Schools. We look forward to introducing you to him soon.
Juan Guerra begins his position as Associate Dean and Director of the Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP) in the Graduate School. We will sincerely miss him in his leadership role in TNE, but we are pleased he will join the Steering Committee as a representative from A&S. We will be updating you soon on our process for identifying the new Arts & Sciences TNE Director.