UIC s Approach to K-12 Teacher Preparation Victoria Chou

UIC’s Approach to K-12 Teacher Preparation Victoria Chou, Dean University of Illinois at Chicago College of Education July 20, 2007 Presentation to the Wellington Group

Preview • • • The Need Challenges to Schools of Education UIC’s “Approach” Monitoring Progress Summing Up

The Need

Background • Education a national and state priority • Urgent need for best teachers and school leaders in high-poverty schools serving predominantly minority K-12 students

African American and Latino 17 -year-olds Read at Same Levels as White 13 -year-olds Source: NAEP 1999 Long Term Trends Summary Tables (online)

Archived Information Cumulative Effects of Teaching Fifth Grade Math Scores: Tennessee 83% 29% After 3 Years of Very Ineffective Teachers Effective Teachers Source: Sanders & Rivers, “Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Student Academic Achievement” (1996).

Urban context matters • Sheer size and scale—big city bureaucracies – CPS as an example • Heterogeneity of cultures • Extremes of wealth and poverty • Cultural politics of urban school reform Sets up schools that have high-quality human and material resources, and those that do not have such resources

Challenges to Schools of Education

Challenges to Schools of Education • High profile responsibilities • Responsibility beyond locus of control, e. g. , § Math and science secondary education § Chicago Public Schools • Responsibility without authority and resources § Everyone knows best how to prepare teachers § Proliferation of alternative providers

A Problem of Locus of Control CPS requires its teachers to reside in Chicago. UIC teacher candidates with Chicago residency frequently graduate from Chicago’s under-performing public high schools that are overwhelmingly populated by low-income Black and Latino students. These are the same students most likely to elect to teach in Chicago’s communities of color. Such CPS graduates often arrive at UIC academically under-prepared and require remedial work in reading, writing, and math. Without adequate academic and social support, such students do not pass remedial math and other courses, drop out of UIC, and are lost to the teaching profession. The substantial numbers of White UIC graduates who teach in CPS often do not teach in the highest-need schools.

Demands on SOEs STATE REGUL. INTASC NASDTEC PUBLISHERS TEST MAKERS ETS/NES CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS NAACP URBAN LEAGUE AACTE AILACTE ACSESULGC TECSCU NATIONAL BOARD FOR PROFESSIONA L TEACHING STANDARDS MEDIA THINK TANKS FORDHAM INSTITUTE HECHINGER INSTITUTE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT STATE SYSTEMS NASH K-16 INITIATIVES ED TRUST SCHOOLS OF EDUCATION SPECIAL ORGANIZATIONS HOLMES/RENAISSANCE GOODLAD/STEP NCTAF PROJECT 30 LOCAL SCHOOLS AASA NSBA STATE POLICYMAKERS NGA SHEEO NCSL ECS CCSO U. S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OERI TITLE II/TQ INITIATIVE C/U PRESIDENTS NASULGC AASCU CIC ACE FOUNDATIONS CARNEGIE CORP. FORD PEW/BELLSOUTH ROCKEFELLER GATES ACCREDITATION AGENCIES NCATE/TEAC DISCIPLINARY GROUPS IRA NCTM NSTA ACLS RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT AERA/CTP TEACHER ORGANIZATIONS NEA BUSINESS LEADERS AFT Bus. Round Table/CB

Taking stock of our own relationships with schools Feeder schools Chicago area schools & communities Field experience UIC Teacher Prep programs Prof. development Providing teachers • Where we? Where weren’t we? • How are our relationships influenced by urban context?

Where we? Where weren’t we? • Well regarded provider of new K-12 teachers to CPS schools serving Latino students and suburban Cook County • Good supplier to magnet and selective enrollment schools • Scant supplier to the 56% of CPS schools serving predominantly African American schools

UIC’s “Approach”

UIC’s “Approach” • Prioritizing the teachers Chicago needs most: From what teacher candidate wants to what system needs – Disciplinary shortage areas – Geographic shortage areas • Moving from a “generic” model of teacher preparation to a model of preparation for teaching in Chicago’s neighborhood schools

Teacher Development Continuum • • Recruitment Professional preparation Induction and mentoring Continuing professional development

Recruitment • Grow Your Own vs. Teach for America strategies – – – “My children” vs. “other people’s children” orientation Not automatically excluding candidates with academic gaps Articulation with community colleges The importance of financial aid Recruiting cohorts

Growing Our Own • Value of meeting candidates where they are academically, instead of excluding them from teaching • Remedial courses are program stoppers for many • Example of alternative math course

Success in and after alternative math course Pre-Elem Ed students taking traditional MATH 090 remedial course Pre-Elem Ed students taking ED 194

Professional Preparation I • Ensuring sufficient subject matter depth and flexibility, e. g. , Natural Science courses • Developing signature pedagogies that are developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive • Integrating historically segregated curricula: Foundations and methods • Including content typically excluded from teacher preparation curricula, e. g. , SEL

Professional Preparation II • Unpacking the “black box” of clinical practice in urban neighborhood schools – Fiercely contested territories: What makes a good site for student teaching? What should field instruction look like? How much field instruction is optimal? Who are our field instructors? Classroom mentors? Who gets to decide all this? • Serious threats to teacher ed status quo

Chicago area schools & communities Field placements UIC Teacher Prep programs • From magnet schools and predominantly Latino schools to West Side African American schools • From asking what are “best practice” placements to how best to prepare candidates for schools where teachers are most needed • What makes a placement successful? : Starter list: – Teacher candidates who want to learn to teach “other people’s children” – PD for cooperating teachers – PD for teacher educators – Principal and staff buy-in

Induction and Mentoring • Supporting Teachers Supporting Teaching (ST 2) partnership with 12 CPS schools – Course for mentor teachers and new teachers – Site-based professional learning communities – In-classroom support for new teachers • “Intergenerational” mentoring of UIC new teachers and prospective teachers

Continuing Professional Development • Addressing human capital needs of the district, including leadership needs • Whole school change processes – Differentiated instruction and Response To Intervention (RTI) – Partnership READ standards-based change process • Demonstration schools

Monitoring Progress

Pre-service Placement matters. . . In where teachers take their first job (FJ). . . FJ After a White ST Experience FJ After an African American ST Experience FJ After an Ethnically Mixed ST Experience FJ After a Latino ST Experience

Secondary Education - Early Field Placements (ED 330 & ED 432) 1999 2007

First Job Locations – 1998 to 2005 Elementary Ed – Grad. Program Elementary Ed – Undergrad Program

First Job Locations – 1998 to 2005 Elem. Project 29 – Grad. Program MGM/MGS – Grad. Program

Summing Up

Summing Up • Significant, systemic change in business as usual • Preparing committed high-quality teachers for key disciplinary and geographic shortage areas—teachers who stay • Still learning how to support cooperating and mentor teachers better

How we’re doing it • Staying the course on commitment to longterm goals • Data-informed decision-making, especially Illinois Teacher Data Warehouse • Strategic, opportunistic faculty hiring • Significant external funding • Keeping eye on district

Where to Place Student Teachers. . .

What’s next? Feeder schools • Strive for critical mass of UIC educators in partner schools with UIC-trained principals • Find out how our teachers affect student learning Chicago area schools & communities Field experience UIC Teacher Prep programs Prof. development Providing teachers • Continue to engage our urban context and rethink our practice