Teachers for a New Era: Activities
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September/October 2005 Update
Our TNE project currently funds numerous efforts to address the three principles that frame the national initiative to improve teacher education:
- Principle A: Decisions Driven by Evidence
- Principle B: Engagement with the Arts and Sciences
- Principle C: Teaching as an Academically Taught Clinical Practice
Below is a summary of current projects and committee work. These efforts involve faculty from the College of Education and Arts and Sciences as well as P-12 education representatives. The primary contact is listed after each effort for additional information.
Evidence Based Projects
Urban Teacher Scholars Program: Bridging Theory and Practice for Novice Teachers: This project is designed to reconfigure the mathematics methods course to better articulate theory and practice. This involves creating week-long topics that will have an introduction in the university classes, a field-based observational activity, followed by de-brief in the field. The high school is committed to undertaking serious renewal work in mathematics at the same time. To facilitate the presence of A&S and COE faculty as well as preservice teachers, the funds support a first year TEP graduate who was hired by the school to release mathematics department teachers to participate in the effort and serve as a liaison between the UW and the department. She is keeping a weekly journal of her experiences related to how prepared she feels for her work in a diverse urban school. In addition, a Research Assistant will be tracking the differences in learning of this year’s versus last years TEP students.
Lani Horn, lanihorn@u.washington.edu
National Common Research: A TNE Common Research proposal was submitted to the Spencer Foundation in August to fund TNE sites in collecting common data on the cohorts of elementary preservice teachers as they enter their teacher education programs through the completion of their student teaching. Data collection would also be completed on the P-12 pupils of these preservice teachers. TNE expects to hear about funding by next spring.
Bill McDiarmid, bmcd@u.washington.edu
The Experiences of Students of Color in TEP—Implications for Pedagogy: This project will examine the experiences of students of color in TEP. It will include a content analysis of interviews of students of color who recently graduated from the program. Based on these analyses, the project will engage focus groups from several key groups (COE faculty and students, potential students, A&S faculty, and P-12 educators) in collective inquiry around how to build more inclusive teaching practices. The project will produce a handbook of pedagogical strategies for those involved in TEP as well as a survey instrument for monitoring the impact of these changes on students.
Jen Stone, jcstone@u.washington.edu
Elementary TEP Renewal: The Elementary Teacher Education Program recruited a tripartite group to begin the process of studying and renewing the teacher education program. Four tripartite teams met over the summer of 2005 to plan for a series of seminar discussions and two inquiry projects which will allow the larger teacher education community to deliberate priorities for renewal. The work, which will be carried out during the academic year, will focus on 1) the philosophy of a renewed program; (2) the nature of the integration of multicultural/social justice issues into the renewed program and what students currently learn about integrating social justice/multicultural education into their program; (3) what TEP graduates learn about teaching and learning from the current program, which would have implications for renewal. Recommendations for renewal emerging from this work will be discussed and voted on at the end of the academic year.
Elham Kazemi, ekazemi@u.washington.edu
Identity and Interest Development in Learning to Teach: The Role of Multiple Social Contexts: This ethnographic study of secondary teacher interns is in its second year. We are currently observing and interviewing interns, CTs and University Supervisors during full-time student teaching. Last summer two papers based on preliminary findings were presented at the EARLI conference in Cyprus regarding participants’ social action in terms of their identities and interests related to teaching and how participants think about themselves as teachers.
Sue Nolen, sunolen@u.washington.edu
Teachers Learning in Networked Communities (TLINC): The initial stage of TLINC online induction support system will "go live" on the Seattle School District’s Web site in October. This portion of the project provides "on demand" information to teachers who are new to Seattle Schools. In addition to vetted educational Web sites tailored to meet the needs of new teachers, the Web site offers one-stop access to District-specific professional practice standards, pedagogical strategies, and curricular materials as well as access to downloadable forms and documents. After the initial pilot with Seattle, TLINC will be scaled up for use by all TEP graduates to support their early careers in teaching.
Sally Luttrell-Montes, sallylm@u.washington.edu
Teaching/Learning Partnership Graduates’ Second Year of Teaching: This study followed a cohort of graduates in a specially designed certificate program to prepare teachers for diverse, urban schools through their second year of teaching. Online surveys, interviews, and student and teacher artifacts informed the work to determine what induction supports are available to novice teachers and what appears to be effective in both retaining them and increasing their proficiency.
Bill McDiarmid, bmcd@u.washington.edu
Evidence of Pupil Learning Tied to Teacher Education Graduates – Seattle: This pilot study will be initially conducted in the Seattle Public Schools and designed to link approximately 20-30 teachers to gains in reading and mathematics for the pupils in their classrooms. Preliminary arrangements are being made 1) to access individual pupil test scores and prior academic data (with prior consent) and 2) to link gains in these scores to teachers (also with proper consent) The intent is to provide information back to teachers regarding pupil growth in learning in a timely manner and to provide evidence back to the UW College of Education and participating schools regarding how systemic features of teacher training is linked to pupil learning.
Jerald Herting, herting@u.washington.edu
Committee Work
Education Minor: A committee comprised of COE and A&S faculty met periodically last year to discuss pertinent issues related to the development of the Ed. Minor Program. They were responsible for the drafting of the Minor in Education, Learning and Society Proposal. This year the committee will focus discussions around issues of course development, Teacher Assistant cost, funding sources, timeline, governance, and sustainability.
Wanda Brown, brownw@u.washington.edu
The Meeting the Needs of Diverse Urban Schools Study Group: The Urban Study Group Team met between January- June 06 to review and analyze pertinent data, read related literature, and listen to presentations provided by specialist in the areas of special education and ELL then drafted a set of recommendations that included specifics to assist the TEP Program in their renewal efforts (better alignment with the needs of "high needs" urban schools). The recommendations focused on the following areas: Vision and Climate, Integration of Course Work and Field Work Experience, Regularized Systems, Sustained Conversations, and Diversity Audits. The proposal will be presented this fall to various governance groups for implementation.
Wanda Brown, brownw@u.washington.edu
Undergraduate Science Degree: A committee is being formed that will meet this fall to develop an integrated science degree. The committee will comprise faculty members from six science departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, a science education faculty member in the College of Education, science supervisors and teachers from local school districts, someone involved with science writing, and someone from the Pacific Science Center. The degree to be developed is intended to serve the interests of future secondary science teachers, science writers, museum professionals, those interested in public policy issues on which science impinges, and those who want to have a broad education in the sciences combined with a more in-depth look at some specific area of science.
Ron Irving, rsi@u.washington.edu; Julie Lutz, jlutz@astro.washington.edu
Study Group on English Language Arts: Members of the Study Group on English Language Arts spent the summer putting the finishing touches on a report and a set of recommendations they plan to share in Autumn 2005 with key academic advisors in and the chair of the English Department. The plan is to establish a pathway in the English Department for undergraduate majors interested in becoming P-12 teachers, provide a seminar series on teaching and learning for interested undergraduate students, as well as implement a series of workshops for English Department faculty who may want to infuse their courses with pedagogical content knowledge, and explore the possibility of a joint appointment of an assistant professor who specializes in English Education.
Juan Guerra, jguerra@u.washington.edu
Study Group on English Language Learners: Recently, a group of ten individuals representing COE, Arts and Sciences, P-12 schools, and the local community attended the second annual TNE Conference on English Language Development at California State University in Northridge. Members of the group used the occasion to share and to learn about activities related to English language learners taking place at TNE sites to serve as the basis for developing a UW Study Group on English Language Learners. The group will review the latest information available on ELL and develop a set of recommendations for insuring that the curricula in the College of Education’s Teacher Education Program and in affiliated departments in the College of Arts and Sciences (English and Linguistics, for example) do a better job of preparing future P-12 teachers who plan to serve the highly specialized needs of a growing population of English language learners in our public schools.
Juan Guerra, jguerra@u.washington.edu
Partner School Work
Nineteen elementary through secondary schools in Seattle, Bellevue, Renton, Shoreline, and Edmonds are participating in the Ackerley Partnership for Teacher Development Network. A meeting was held late in the spring to focus on the current status of their induction programs and two summer institutes followed to explore reciprocal activities and governance structures to support teacher development and retention for preservice teachers through the early phases of their career. Each school has identified a Network Liaison to meet monthly starting in October. Three professional development seminars on Video Traces, Cultural Competency, and Induction have been offered for Oct. 14th. Some of the schools are engaged in work around Video Traces and others are ready to participate in an inquiry project called Survive and Thrive to investigate how new teachers are enculturated into their school communities.
Cap Peck, capeck@u.washington.edu; Sally Luttrell-Montes, sallylm@u.washington.edu
Upcoming Events
All TNE Site Deans’ Conference: Pat Wasley, Dean of the College of Education and David Hodge, Dean of Arts and Sciences, will host an invitational conference for the education and A&S deans from all of the 10 other TNE sites in Seattle, Dec. 5-7, 2005. Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie, and Dan Fallon, principal investigator for TNE will attend.
Susan Jeffords, jeffords@u.washington.edu