Posts Tagged ‘
teacher preparation ’
Dr. Judith A. Ramaley is President Emerita and Distinguished Professor of Public Service at Portland State University in the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government and President Emerita of Winona State University in Minnesota and The University of Vermont. Dr. Ramaley holds an appointment as a Senior Scholar with the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She is also a member of the board of Second Nature, an organization committed is to create a healthy, just, and sustainable society through the transformation of higher education and Oregon Campus Compact. She has worked with preK-12/higher education collaborations for many years.
Read Dr. Ramaley’s paper in its entirety.
In brief, not yet, but read on. A flurry of articles and books in the 1970s and 1980s explored concepts of professionalism. Educators have followed a path similar to other fields but K-12 teaching is still not seen as a true profession by many. There are several reasons for this, including how education itself has developed over the last century, where teachers receive their education (largely in less prestigious institutions) and who enters the field (mostly women).
Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, almost anyone could be a teacher as long as he or she had completed a level of education slightly above that of their pupils. The emergence of a formal school system throughout the 19th century carried with it both a demand for more and better trained teachers. The pathway to teaching branched in two main directions—preparation at a research university or at a regional comprehensive institution. The prestige enjoyed by research universities made it attractive to prospective practitioners of all sorts. However, research universities focused more on theory than on practice. Although these institutions welcomed the steady stream of tuition-paying students seeking to become teachers, they did not, as a rule, prepare highly qualified teachers who could both master the content of their chosen area of emphasis and practice the skills to help students succeed in school. (more…)
Category:
teacher preparation |
2 Comments »
Tags: dr. judith ramaley, hatfield, judith ramaley, K-12 education, Portland State University, teacher preparation, teaching as a profession, teaching in 2013
A few months back I met with a Sherwood High School teacher who told me that she and her colleagues were unable to get students to apply for a scholarship for college-bound students interested in becoming teachers. A week later I relayed this story to a group of educators and a school board member exclaimed, “Oh, that happened to us. We offered a scholarship for teachers-to-be and no one applied!”
Wow.
I was taken aback. I enjoy teaching so much, I guess I had assumed up until then that others would see what I see and find the job appealing. Granted, it is not an easy job–I put in relatively long hours (On average, 55 per week), and the work can be taxing, mentally, emotionally, even physically. (more…)
Category:
Teacher advocacy, teacher preparation |
4 Comments »
Tags: educator pipeline, Oregon Education, potential educators, sherwood high school, teacher preparation, todd jones, West Linn, West Linn-Wilsonville, youth uninterested in teaching
You can read these words because someone taught you how to read.
You can do your job because over the years, everyone from your kindergarten teacher to your college professor to your mentor taught you how.
We become the people we are, as Mr. Rogers said, because of the people who loved us into being. In schools—big and small, city and rural—across Oregon, the love and dedication of thousands of teachers help millions of students become the people they will be. Scientists. Mechanics. Engineers. Doctors. Farmers. Inventors. And yes, teachers.
Take a moment and think about one teacher who helped you become who you are.
Not to brag, but our new video predicts the future, and we’re pretty proud of it. Check it out below.
Category:
professional development for educators, Student Success, Teacher advocacy, Teacher Effectiveness |
5 Comments »
Tags: DEC, Distinguished Educators Council, education policy, education reform, innovation in education, Leopold Ketel, Oregon Education, professional development, support educators, support teachers, teacher preparation
In the summer of 2012, Kaitlyn Delaney interned at Chalkboard Project between her junior and senior year at a Florida State University teacher preparation program. After Kaitlyn graduates this year, she will be teaching either elementary or special education in the Greater Boston area through Teach For America. She plans to teach past her two Teach For America years.
During my summer interning at Chalkboard Project, I spent time researching Teach For America. I knew that I had a campus recruiting job waiting for me back at Florida State University, where I would be completing the final year of my undergraduate career, but I was still unsure of whether or not I would be applying for the corps.
I was still unsure because a lot of the criticisms resonated with me. Here I was, spending two years in a teacher preparation program, but in my first two years of teaching, I would be working alongside college graduates who could have majored in biology or political science. How could we be held accountable to the same standards? I also worried about the “burn-out” rate I had heard about from a few vocal opponents of the program. These opponents stated that the five-week training did not adequately prepare corps members for the teaching profession, especially for the schools that TFA corps members are placed in. I was not worried about burning out, but I worried about any fellow corps members’ struggle. I did not want to see my peers consider themselves failures if they did not succeed in their classrooms right away. I wanted to be part of a program that inspires people to stay in the profession. (more…)
Category:
teacher preparation |
1 Comment »
Tags: Boston, Chalkboard Project, education, Florida education, Florida State University, inspired teachers, Kaitlyn Delaney, MA, Teach for America, teacher preparation, TFA, why do teach for america
One of the great challenges in our field is how to address the many myths that exist about schools and the teaching profession. I still hear it frequently stated that a physician from the 19th century would be totally lost in an operating room today, but a teacher from the same century would be quite at home in today’s classrooms. That is, of course, far from the truth. Similarly there are many myths about teacher preparation that exist in the general public and to some extent even within the profession itself. In my next couple of blog posts I will attempt to address some of the major myths I deal with on a regular basis. I will be speaking primarily from a Portland State University perspective but most of my comments apply broadly to many, if not most, teacher preparation programs in Oregon. I welcome your comments and your suggestions for other myths or questions I should address.
Myth: Most teachers are prepared at the baccalaureate level.
That may still be true in general across the nation, but it is certainly not true in Oregon. Over 85% of the teachers we prepare in this state are prepared at the Masters level. This is perhaps the most prevalent myth among the general public in Oregon. Most people outside the profession are surprised when I tell them this and that PSU teacher candidates are prepared at the Masters level. The fact that most teachers in Oregon are prepared at the Masters level challenges many of the other myths as you will see later. (more…)
Category:
teacher preparation |
1 Comment »
Tags: A Nation at Risk, education, education policy, K-12, masters in teaching, MAT, Oregon Education, Portland State University, PSU, Randy Hitz, teacher prep programs, teacher preparation, Vera Katz
Educators throughout the nation and state are strengthening the profession by recruiting a more diverse and talented pool of candidates, improving preparation, and improving ongoing support for teaching and learning. We seek a more seamless, efficient and effective system. In this blog post I will specifically address two ways we are improving teacher preparation.
Portland State University and many other universities with high quality teacher preparation programs are making many changes in the clinical experience and two are of utmost importance. First, we are moving away from placing student teachers individually in random schools and classrooms to systematic and strategic “clustering” of four to eight student teachers in schools where they can gain an optimum clinical experience AND contribute to the success of the P12 students in the school. (more…)
Category:
teacher preparation |
1 Comment »
Tags: andy hargreaves, Chalkboard Project, CLASS Project, clinical experience, co-teaching, cooperating teacher, michael fullan, Portland State University, PSU, Randy Hitz, student teacher, teacher preparation
On Wednesday, December 12th, we hosted a webinar on the topic of teacher preparation in Oregon. We heard from both higher ed and K-12 professionals about the current state of teacher preparation, what needs to change, and what a few Oregon school districts are doing to better prepare teachers for K-12 classrooms.
SPEAKERS:
Kevin Carr, Professor of Science Education at Pacific University
Karen Pugsley, Principal at Green School, Newberg High in Newberg School District
Watch or download a recording of the webinar here.
In the future, what topic would you like to learn more about?
Looking to keep you informed and your questions answered, we want to know what you think our next webinar topic should be. Post your ideas in the comments section or email them to info@chalkboardproject.org, and stay tuned for information about our next webinar!
Category:
teacher preparation |
1 Comment »
Tags: Karen Pugsley, Kevin Carr, teacher preparation, teacher preparation webinar
Teachers know. They know who the best teachers are. As a teacher I watch an interesting phenomenon every spring. All of my teacher friends scramble to make sure their own children are placed in classes with the best teachers for the next year. They make the rounds to counselors’ and principals’ offices double-checking their child’s schedule. Ask any teacher, and they can tell you who the quality teachers are. It is common teacher talk. Recently, an elementary teacher in my district left the classroom for another educational position. As a teacher told me about the move, she said, “A lot of parents are going to be upset that she is no longer teaching. She is a dynamite teacher.” All students need the assurance they are going have a dynamite quality teacher next year.
Why is it important to have a dynamite teacher in every classroom?
In my last blog, I wrote about the “magic formula” for success with struggling learners and high achieving students alike. The largest component in that formula is to have a quality teacher in the classroom. Robert Marzano (2003) analyzed considerable research on what works in classrooms. All the research he studied concluded that the impact of the classroom teacher is far greater than any other factor in the child’s learning and achievement. The research is astounding. If a child begins school as average in math achievement—at the 50th percentile—and she has an average teacher for two years, she will remain at the 50th percentile. If she is in a classroom in a less effective school, and she also has a low-quality teacher, she actually drops to the 3rd percentile in math achievement. On the other hand, even if she is in a less effective school, but she has a high-quality teacher, two years later she leaves class in the 63rd percentile. She makes a 13 percent gain just by having a highly effective teacher. Quality teachers exert more influence on student learning than both socio economic status and family background. (more…)
Category:
professional development for educators, Teacher Effectiveness, teacher preparation |
2 Comments »
Tags: DEC, Distinguished Educators Council, how to be a good teacher, Mary McGinnis, master teachers, quality teachers, teacher effectiveness, teacher preparation, the best teachers
Julie Smith has spent the past decade in various educational leadership roles helping to raise student achievement in her schools through the support of teaching and learning. She began as a teacher leader and instructional coach moving to an administrative role as a Professional Development Specialist with the Evergreen School District. Julie is currently a Chalkboard CLASS coach and was appointed in August to the Quality Education Commission.
As an educator it was often hard to find time to have collegial conversations with teammates about improving teaching and learning in our classrooms. There were always too many other topics to discuss like: “Who is going to get next week’s homework packet done?” “How are we going to organize next months thematic unit to cover all of the standards?” Or, “Help me fill out a survey from last weeks staff meeting.” Don’t get me wrong, these conversations are essential in order to keep the workload manageable and support a school’s daily rhythm. (more…)
Category:
professional development for educators, teaching strategies |
No Comments »
Tags: Chalkboard Project, CLASS, Evergreen School District, Julie Smith, PLCs, professional development for teachers, professional learning communities, QEC, Quality Education Commission's Best Practice Panel, teacher collaboration, teacher preparation
This summer Kaitlyn Delaney interned at Chalkboard Project between her junior and senior year at a Florida State University teacher preparation program. As a blogger for ChalkBloggers, she decided to write about one of the most pertinent and contentious reform platforms in Florida—K-12 school grades. (You can find the blog posts, here and here.)
A quick summary: Florida school grades measure the overall performance of schools each year on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). The grades are calculated by adding points earned from three criteria: 1) the overall performance on the FCAT, 2) the percentage of eligible students who took the test, and 3) whether or not students made progress in reading and math. Each school is assigned a letter grade (A-F). The better grade a school receives, the more per-pupil additional funding the school receives the next year.
The most recent academic year brought along changes to the FCAT scoring. Education Commissioner Gerald Robinson believed that Florida schools would improve when asked to, so standards were increased—most notably in the writing component exam. However, when the scores were released this summer, they were much worse and people immediately feared the financial strain put on Florida schools. (more…)
Category:
student achievement |
3 Comments »
Tags: FCAT, Florida, Florida Department of Education, Florida State University, Gerald Robinson, Kaitlyn Delaney, teacher preparation
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