GATEways 2006 (Volume 18 Issue 1)

GATEways to Teacher Education Journal of the Georgia Association of Teacher Education

Published by GATE and Armstrong Atlantic State University

Volume XVIII (1) Fall2006

•• :EEtlEil ••

Editor John J. Hobe, Armstrong Atlantic State University

Design and editorial assistance

Joan Lehan, Armstrong Atlantic State University

Officers President: Beryle Baker, Georgia Perimeter College

President .. elect: Shirley Andrews, Valdosta State University Past president: Julie Dangel, Georgia State University

Secretary: Yali Zhao, Georgia State University Treasurer: Sheryl Dasinger, Valdosta State University

Editorial Board Shirley Andrews, Valdosta State University (Georgia)

Deborah Bordelon, Xavier University of Louisiana (Louisiana) Patricia Brandt Armstrong Atlantic State University (Georgia)

JoAnn Coleman Armstrong Atlantic State University {Georgia) Julia Dorminey, Georgia Southwestern State University (Georgia)

Linda Gowans Weber State University (Utah) Ethna R. Reid, Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction (Utah)

1

2 • GATEways to Teacher Education

Appreciation My deepest gratitude flies to the more than dedicated people who prepared this GATEways journal. Shirley Andrews, Deborah Bordelon, Patricia Brandt, Jo Ann Coleman, Linda Gowans, and Ethna Reid strove ceaselessly to analyze, interpret, and edit the articles. Their commitment to the authors is commendable. Joan Lehan in the Office of University Relations at Armstrong Atlantic State University attended to each detail with the needed precision, tenacity, and professionalism, always in the most pleasant manner. Maryellen Cosgrove at Armstrong Atlantic State University invariably explained what I needed while smiling. No question was too mundane. Ethna Reid at the Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction elegantly allowed us to use the school photograph introducing this edition. Armstrong Atlantic State University College of Education Dean Jane McHaney affirmed our efforts with ceaseless support. Julie Dangel without pause and with generous affirmation encouraged us incessantly. Armstrong Atlantic State University present .. ed us generously with the support people dream about. Evelyn Dandy and Kam Fui Lau at Armstrong Atlantic State University, Holly Thorn .. ton at Appalachian State University, Diane Truscott, Brandi Wells, and Lydia Criss Mays at Georgia State University, Damaris Holt, Raymond Waller, and Miriam Johnson at Piedmont College, and Richard Clark at

.. I the Carl Vinson Institute of Government~ University of Georgia plenti~ fully wrote explaining their ideas, hopes, and dreams to us. Perhaps, with their efforts, we can learn and grow.

These are the types of people every editor is fortunate to know, the types of persons we want to be like; and the types of individuals we call to mind when remembering the good.

Please visit the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators website at www.gaate.org

. . -·- .. The opinions expressed by the authors belong to them and may fail to reflect opinions held by Annstrong Atlantic State University and the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators .

Note: GATEwa~s cot~er from Teaching New Words through Phonics (cooer), by Ethna R. Reid and Reid Associates, 2001, Salt lAke Cit), Utah: Cooe Publishers.

Copyright 2001 by Cooe Publishers . Reprinted with permission.

GATEways to Teacher Education • 3

CONTENTS

A Successful Model for Increasing the Number of Highly-Qualified Minority Teachers

in Low-Income Schools

Kam Fui Lau and Evelyn Dandy Armstrong Atlantic State University

5

The Disposition to Teach Against the Grain: Responsive Teachers as the Key to the Future of Middle School

Holly Thornton Appalachian State University

18

Exploring What Matters to Professional Development School Partners

Diane M. Truscott, Brandi Wells, and Lydia Criss Mays Department of Early Childhood Education

Georgia State University

32

Public Opinions Regarding High Stakes Testing in Georgia

Damaris Holt, Raymond]. Waller, and Miriam E. Johnson Piedmont College

Richard Clark Carl Vinson Institute of Government ... University of Georgia

43

Georgia Association of Teacher Educators Position Statement

Fall2005

52

4 • GATEways to Teacher Education

A Successful Model for Increasing the Number of Highly-Qualified Minority Teachers

in Low-Income Schools

Kam Fui Lau and Evelyn Dandy Armstrong Atlantic State University

This paper is to describe the important characteristics of the Pathways to Teaching Careers program at Armstrong Atlantic State University that re .. cruits, screens 1 prepares and retains significant numbers of minority teachers using a value .. adcfed approach lry drawing from the population of non .. certified school district personnel who have exceUent wark records and firm commit .. ment in teaching. It wiU present strategies that universities and local school districts can use to implement programs that foster high teacher retention rates 1

especially in low .. income schools. It wiU also provide a preliminary report on a stud-y to locate factors that contribute to teacher retention.

I I JiEt]R I e

Introduction: The Need for Teachers Teacher retention is a costly expense to our individual states and to the nation (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2005). It is reported that yearly there are thousands of teachers leaving the profession or changing schools in pursuit of better working conditions. About half of the teach .. ers entering the teaching profession will leave their jobs in the first five years. The field of teaching is much like a sieve, as one teacher enters, another one leaves. The cost for the nation is estimated at $4.9 billion per year (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2005 ).

The rate of attrition is roughly 50% higher in low .. income schools than in wealthier schools. Low-income urban and rural schools are charac .. terized by large numbers of poor and minority students, low student achievement and high teacher turnover that involves teachers leaving the profession and transferring to another school.

Low .. income schools that serve large numbers of poor and minority students have become revolving doors for teachers-a factor that contrib ..

6 • Increasing the Number of Minority Teachers

utes to the low performance of the children. Teachers who serve in these schools tend to have fewer years of experience, are less qualified and are often unfamiliar with the serious issues that plague the schools.

Teacher retention is a serious problem in Georgia. By 2009, Georgia will have to replace 51,498 teachers due to terminations. This represents an equivalent of more than 50% of the current workforce. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education (2005), the cost of teachers in Georgia leaving the profession is estimated at more than $81,000,000. Through .. out Georgia the problem affects both urban or inner .. city schools and rural schools classified as low .. income institutions.

Why are Minority Teachers Underrepresented in the Workforcel Torres, Santos, Peck and Cortes (2004) found that minority teachers are underrepresented in the workforce today for the following reasons: lnad .. equate academic preparation; attraction to other careers; unsupportive working conditions; lack of cultural and social support groups; increased standards and competency testing; low salaries; and high attrition rates among minority teachers.

Where would we look to find candidates who would work in the low income schools?

Haberman ( 1989) suggested that paraprofessionals (also known as teacher assistants, teacher aids or paraeducators) were a viable pool from which to select minority teachers because of their predominance in those positions and their actual experience in schools. Haselkom and Fideler (1996) repor~ed that the nation's nearly 500,000 paraeduca .. tors held promise for creating a more diversified workforce. According to their national study, programs designed for populations such as these carry the following advantages. Paraeducators • bring mature individuals with extensive classroom experience into

the profession; • have far lower rates of attrition than many traditional teacher educa ..

tion programs; • foster high expectations for K .. 12 students, because they internalize

a commitment to doing whatever it takes to help students set high goals and achieve them;

• strengthen the connection among classrooms, colleges, and commu .. nities to make higher education more accessible, more affordable, and

Kam Fui Lau and Evelyn Dandy • 7

more relevant to the demands of contemporary classroom life; live in, work in and understand the community of their students; and

• are motivated to increase their salary and earn higher degrees.

Many experienced paraprofessionals and other non .. certified personnel have few if any surprises when it comes to working with children. They have more than likely seen children at their worst and are not apt to be caught off guard by inappropriate behaviors or striking cultural differences.

The AASU Pathways Program In 1992, both Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU) and Savannah State University (SSU) received $600,000 grant from DeWitt Wallace Reader's Digest Fund for establishing the Pathways to Teaching Career program to increase the number of certified teachers, primary minorities, in four counties. Recognizing the need for minority teach-ers and in an effort to address the teacher shortage, Savannah~Chatham County Public School District (SCCPS), a local school district that em .. played 2,500 teachers and staff serving 55,000 students, also entered into agreement in 1992 with AASU and SSU to release 30 .. 40 paraprofes .. sionals with pay one day per week for four years, so that they could com~ plete their educational program at either institution. The estimated total in .. kind contribution of the SCCPS for this endeavor was $336,000.

Value Added Philosophy. The Southern Education Foundation (SEF), located in Atlanta, has long .. held commitment to promoting the profes .. sional development of African American teachers and diversifying the teacher pipeline in the South. In their efforts to recruit and enhance teacher education curricula, SEF proposed the value~ added philosophy, which comes from the discipline of economics and states that quality, in large measure, depends on how elements are blended and crafted to produce a final product. To them, the transformation from raw material to the final product is the key (Fenwick, 2001).

Applied to the recruitment and preparation of teachers, this philosophy supports taking teacher applicants from where they are to where they need to be. Instead of recruiting the "best and brightest" by identify .. ing such measures as GPA, college entrance exam scores and college progress, the value .. added philosophy look! for other primary indicators of ability and future success. This philosophy encourages a search for those who had already developed a successful track record in the public schools for the minority and poor to which they would ultimately return. (Fenwick, 2001)


In AASU's Pathways model, value .. added support was made avail .. able through 80% tuition schohuships, textbook vouchers, flexible scheduling, orientation sessions, refresher courses, tutorials, cultural awareness activities, family support activities, networking, mentoring, and incentive awards. The Program fostered a family-like atmosphere where Scholars progressed through their educational programs in cohort groups. They were encouraged to hold study sessions, share babysitting responsibilities and participate in car pools.

Program Mission and Goals. The mission of AASU's Pathways Program was to increase the number of certified teachers, primarily minorities, in four counties. As other counties were served, the goals expanded to enhance the districts' induction programs, to facilitate matriculation of master's and education specialist degrees, and to disseminate the program to other venues.

Program Design. Each of the rural counties had a director and its own advisory committee. The original program employed a program Direc .. tor, Coordinator and a full .. time secretary. The Director dealt with the day-to-day operation of the program. The Coordinator aided the Direc .. tor in developing the curriculum, assumed advisement responsibilities of the Director, assisted in the hiring of part .. time faculty, and chaired the overall Program's Advisory Committee that had the responsibility of monitoring the program's operations. The SCCPS representative and those appointed as directors of all three of the county programs main .. tained ongoing dialogue with the Program Director, acted as liaison to their county's services and personnel and served on the large Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committees included representatives from the various university majors, district human resources personnel, and committed representatives from local communities. In most counties the Advisory Committee doubled as the Screening committee as well as the county's advocates for the program.

Program Eligibility. The Program's target population was non .. certified personnel: Paraprofessionals, substitute teachers, school clerks and secretaries. Program applicants had to be an employee in good standing; declare education as their major at AASU; qualify for regular admission; and commit to teaching in inner city or low income rural schools for a minimum of three years following program completion. The local school district's Human Resources Deparnnent distributed initial applications and made principals and other administrators aware of the Program's goal to recruit and train minority teachers.


The Screening Process. Because a program is only as good as its students, the Pathways program's screening process served as a quality control mechanism. There were three levels to this strategic process. The initial Screening/Advisory Committee was made up of faculty of the College of Education and the School of Arts and Sciences, the Office of Public Relations, the Minority Affairs Officer, a local psychologist, and the Program Director. Preliminary applications, distributed by the Office of Human Resources, included a 2QQ .. JOO word essay on "Why I Want to Become a Teacher." If a committee of AASU faculty from the Depart.ment of Languages and Literature readers did not pass the essay, appli .. cants were sent a letter of rejection. If the essay was passed, applicants were sent a letter stating that they should pick up the Secondary Appli .. cation Packet.

The Secondary Application required the applicants to fill out a form requesting additional information on employment and included a short written paper describing an educational dilemma they had faced. Appli, cants at this stage were to submit three detailed recommendations from their supervisor and two teachers with whom they had worked and have all transcripts sent to AASU. Once all documents were received, the Committee met to review the files. If invited for an interview, applicants were required to write an on,site essay and answer questions posed by the Committee. The applicants were rated on recommendations, essays, grade point average, grooming, personality, level of commitment and oral reading performance. Although the Teacher Education Program required a 2.5 GPA for admission, the value .. added philosophy approach would permit accepting applicants with GPA as low as 2.0 and provide the necessary support to enable them to succeed. All decisions of the Committee were final.

Applicants who were accepted as "Scholars" signed a contract that de .. scribed the obligations of the Program and the Scholars. Once all of the final selections were made and acceptances received, Scholars and their spouses attended an orientation workshop that gave them a thorough understanding of the project. This strategic screening process selected only one out of every ten applicants (Dandy, 2004).

Special Features of the Program How to Improve Your GPA Workshops. Any Scholar who was accepted with a GPA below 2.5 or whose grade point average dropped below a 2.5 was required to engage in a series of tasks. Initially, all were counseled by the Program Director to determine their immediate goals. The College

1 0 • Increasing the Number of Minority Teachers

of Education's Counselor held a mandatory four-hour workshop on "How to Raise Your GPA''. Each Scholar met individually with the Counselor and outlined a plan of action. Scholars' grades-were recorded for three consecutive semesters. Subsequently, two Scholars in that group earned eligibility for the 100% tuition HOPE Scholarship given to Georgia students who maintain at least a 3.0 GPA. After one year, Scholars who failed to improve their GPA were placed on probation and given two more semesters to improve. Those whose GPA continued to suffer were asked to leave the Program. A total of 11 Scholars have been dismissed from the Program due to low grades.

Mid .. term Grade Reports. On all mid .. terms rolls Scholars are designated with the letter T. Two weeks prior to mid-term, faculty who had Scholars in their classes were sent a brochure and fact sheet describing the Pro .. gram. They were requested to submit the mid .. term grade to the Program Director, who discussed progress, study habits and located a tutor if necessary for any Scholar who received a C or below in any subject. The Scholar was directed to meet with the instructor, thus opening dialogue between them. Only in rare cases were courses dropped at mid-term.

Friday Replacements. This was a unique win .. win arrangement for Schol .. ars, teachers with whom they were placed, school principals, and AASU senior level education majors. Notices were sent to qualified majors, who signed an agreement to replace a designated Scholar every Friday during the quarter and earn $25.00 per week. Scholars, released with full pay, were responsible for orienting their replacements, seeing that they signed in at the school and followed through with work plans.

The university offered two three~credit classes, sometimes taught by re .. tired principals, every Friday during the quarter. Principals were pleased with this arrangement because their most valuable paraprofessionals were replaced at no cost to the school, and they had an opportunity to observe potential student teachers. Education majors had an opportunity to "get their foot in the door", engage in authentic classroom expefi .. ences, and earn up to $100 per month. This arrangement allowed some Scholars to take a full load of courses and eliminate the need for child care required during evening classes. This effort was subsidized by inter .. est earned from the initial grant award.

Replications The Apprentice Teacher Program in Muscogee County. Muscogee County Schools and Columbus State University - In January 2000 Margaret


Ingersoll instituted the Apprentice Teaching Program with a $50,000 grant from the county's general fund. The grant paid for tuition, books, fees, PRAXIS, and a liaison at Columbus State. The program targeted paraprofessionals who were already successful in the system. To date, ten Scholars have completed the program and are teaching in Muscogee County Schools. The program has spread to include neighboring Troy State University.

Para to Pro at Wesleyan College. Wesleyan is a religious-affiliated women's college in Macon, Georgia. They developed a collaborative with Bibb County Schools. This decision is a result of a site visit from Dr. Patrick Pritchard and officials of Wesleyan to the Pathways Program in 2002. After numerous e-mails and telephone conversations, Wesleyan and Bibb County established a collaboration. Officials of Wesleyan and Bibb County schools met with the Program Director to discuss the details of instituting a program to prepare paraprofessionals to become teachers. The collaborative has applied for a federal grant and has screened and admitted seven paraprofessionals from Bibb County Schools.

Georgia Alternative Teacher Preparation Program. The selection procedures for the Pathways Program have been used as a model for institutions in Georgia who have decided to offer an emergency I __:_certificate to applicants who already have a college degree. Georgia's Professional Standards Commission in 2002 initiated the Georgia Alternative Teacher Preparation Program (GaTAPP).

Destination Teaching. In ] une 2002, the Georgia Board of Regents' P -16 Initiative received a $4 million grant from the United States Depart .. ment of Education to establish the Destination Teaching Program, designed to respond to P-12 students, especially those in low .. income schools by placing a qualified teacher in every classroom. Using the Pathways model, this program established six pilot sites in university system institutions, and hired the program director as consultant respon .. sible for assisting the colleges and universities in this effort.

The Ongoing Impact of the Pctthways Program Curricular Modifications. A total of six new courses have been added to the university's curriculum in an effort to directly address and clarify the needs of urban and minoritY populations. FOUNDATIONS 5400U/G Issues and Practices for Teathing,in High Need Schools: As a result of the Pathways .. sponsored forum attended by 14 local principals to ad-


dress the question of how we can better prepare our teachers to work in low .. income schools, the Urban Studies Committee was established. This committee included SCCPS principals and teachers from low .. income schools and college faculty and was charged to develop a course that would be offered every semester. FOUN 5400 Issues and Practices for_ Teaching in High Need schools was subsequently ratified by the College of Education and Graduate Council and has become a required course for undergraduates. SCCPS have supported the course by allocating a local school site and providing the textbooks as well as a stipend for the teachers who complete course requirements. The course is team taught by college faculty and a local school principal and included extended field experiences that take teachers out of their comfort zone and into local service agencies that serve poor and minority populations. Additional courses include the following:

Cross Cultural Commun_ications ECEG/MGED/SCED 7070 (required of all graduates)

African American Literature ENOL 5350 The African American Experience in History HIST 3900,3910 Contemporary Social Issues of the Family ECUG 3100 The African American Male Contributions to Literature ENOL 3000

Scholarship Assistance. The College of Education has established a schol .. arship for assisting students who cannot pay the $250.00 student teach .. ing fee.

State Policy. The university system's Regents' Principles-guidelines by which every teacher education program is evaluated-now includes a provision for recognizing that paraprofessionals can use their classroom experiences as they become teachers. So, paras who apply to earn profes .. sional certification can receive credit for their experience by the waiving of the 900 hour practicum experience requirement. A look at docu .. mented successes of the program might influence national policy, most especially in the area of teacher retention in low income urban and rural schools. What are the factors that attributed to the exceptionally high retention rate of these teachers?

Teacher Retention Study The authors are currently conducting a study of the factors that contrib .. uted to teacher retention by surveying and interviewing the Scholars, their principals and their students as well. What follows is a brief report on the preliminary findings of the study. A more thorough analysis with sta .. tistical application will be conducted once all data have been collected.


As listed in the previous section, there are many activities planned for the study. Thus far, we have set up two websites for collecting scholars' and principals' data. We held two focus group meetings, one for scholars and the other for principals for discussing the attributes, successes of the Pathways program, retention activities of school principals, charac .. teristics and contributions of Pathways scholars, and other factors that contributed to the high retention rate of Pathways program, along with concepts for preparing teachers to be effective in low .. income schools. As data gathering is still underway, we plan to present our complete findings along with statistical analysis in a full report by Spring, 2006.

Data Collection. Contacted through their school e .. mail addresses, the Scholars were directed to a website that provided a questionnaire requesting demographic data and responses to attributes regarding teacher retention. A five-category rating Likert scale was assigned to ascertain the extent to which respondents totally agreed, agreed, were neutral, disagreed or totally disagreed to a listing of the attributes. In our prelimi .. nary findings we included the attributes that 90% or more of responding Scholars designated with the rating totally agree or agree. The same principle applied to the principal's survey. The results below are pre .. sented from a 62% return rate on the surveys completed by Scholars who have responded on the first request.

Motivational factors for choosing the profession. From the Scholars' re .. sponses, the following are the reasons that motivated them to choose the profession: Wanted to teach; strong sense of personal mission .. calling; and strong sense of need to give back to community.

About 50% of the scholars are paraprofessionals who had worked in the classroom for quite some time. They were familiar with teaching condi .. tions once they became certified teachers. Unlike teachers who may have entered through the traditional four .. year teacher preparation route, they were not pure idealists who did not know the realities of teaching. They seemed to be motivated by their true desire to give back to the community.

Pathways program factors that kept Scholars in the program. While Pathways Scholars are committed individuals who want to teach and give back to community, they needed to overcome many obstacles. Scholars reported the following factors assisted them in overcoming the obstacles: Positive cultural identity; self .. commitmeni: for completing the program; being .. se~ lected to enter the program; substantial tuition assistance (80%); full ..

14 • Increasing the Number of Minority Teachers .

book reimbursement; routine (daily) interaction with mentors and other new teachers; a formal mentoring and support team; and being paired with a mentor in a specific subject area. Conditions that facilitate teacher retention. The importance of mentor ... ing has been confirmed by numerous studies and it finds support from the Scholars. Pathways Scholars reported that the following conditions helped them to remain in the profession: Mentors who are constructive, compassionate and non .. judgmental; training regarding school culture, classroom management, expectation of school administration; support group of teachers; and encourage and support the relationship and con .. nections between teachers and administration.

Rewarding experiences that procride incentives to teacher retention. Pathways . Scholars reported the following rewarding experiences that determine that they remain in the profession: Seeing the "light .. bulb go on,, as in seeing the moment when the student grasps the concepts being taught; watching students grow over the years; verbal appreciation from parents and administration; and parents that recognize the achievement of their child.

Attributes of Pathways Scholars as Teachers. The table below lists the at .. tributes Pathways Scholars reported they themselves exhibit as teachers. The attributes provided on the survey were those cited by the Alliance for Excellence in Education (2005) as personal characteristics of teach .. ers who have high retention rates. When a factor analysis was completed to note the most significant attributes, the overwhelming responses were related to emotional qualities. The old adage that teaching starts with the heart may apply here. This does not take away from the importance of content knowledge that Scholars dearly gained as can be seen in their exiting grade point averages. But good teaching starts with the desire and commitment to pursue the profession. These emotional qualities provide the foundation for good teaching.

Note that professional qualities were the next most frequently chosen. These responses would seem to support the concept that the value .. added philosophy is a viable consideration in the selection of teacher candi .. dates who are committed to working in low .. income schools. Candidates may not have the initial grade point averages to enter the traditional teacher education, but their transformation was based upon the value added to the program once they were selected.


Ranked Attributes Scholars Report they Possess Social Qualities Professional Qualities Emotional Qualities Personaliey

15. Personable lJ. Organized I . Compassionate 14. Honest

12. Open~minded 5. Loving 10. Enthusiastic

11. Creative a. Caring

6. Practical 4. Nurturing

7. Focused 3. Empathetic

10. Balanced 2. Understanding

9. Inspiring

Salary Differential. One of the primaiy motivations for earning higher level degrees is the change in salary as Scholars moved from non .. certi .. fied to certified school district personnel. In 1993, the starting annual salary for a paraprofessional was roughly $10,000. The chart below displays the dramatic salary changes Scholars experienced as they have earned additional credentials and have moved into new positions in the school district. This program has changed their lives.

Entering and Current Salaries for Pathways Scholars

DODD I

" 8 Entered Salary

• Curttnt Salary fGDGD

..... 50001 ----·-·----------... ~·-··· --· ...... -... - .. --·

40000

nooo

21011

• 10100

~~~ 'II~! .~. Iltl , J '' ·u 11 ,, u u ,21 n " n Jl ,, n ., 41 •• C1 •• ,, n II l l

Lessons learned. What are the lessons learned from this program? In order to succeed, programs that seek to increase the number of teachers of color who are likely to remain in low .. income schools should reconsider the traditional screening and preparation programs as a method for selecting


candidates. Grade point average, scholastic aptitude scores, and certi .. fication test scores should not be the sole criteria colleges of education use to screen their candidates. Rather, they need to consider a value .. added philosophy that focuses upon how essential elements are blended and crafted to produce a valuable final product. The transformation of candidates is the key. It is our strategic selection of committed individu .. als who are undaunted by the realities of teaching and motivated by the opportUnity to better themselves and their community that will facilitate the production and retention of teachers of color.

Here is a summary of the lessons learned: • Committed leadership that knows the resources and is willing to do

whatever it takes to access them for the students; • A -supportive administration that declares the program an institutional

priority; • Broadly .. based collaborative advocates who promote and lobby for the

Program and its students; • A strategic screening process that selects the most resilient, committed

candidates; • Support monies that provide for tutorials, scholarships, books and

unexpected emergencies; • A relevant curriculum that prepares teachers to excel in low .. income

schools; • Incentive opportunities that reward persistence and achievement; • Mentoring opportunities that expose candidates to those who have

proven themselves successful in the same environments; and • Networking opportunities that provide time for candidates to interface

with those who are meeting the same challenges.

References Alliance for Excellent Education: Left behind: Six million at..fisk secondary stu ..

dents . Issue Brief, revised, November 2003. Retrieved March 11, 2006 from www.all4ed.org/publications/SixMillionKids. pdf.

Excellent Education: Teacher attrition: A costl-y loss to the nation and to the Alliance fqr states, Issue Brief, August 2005. Retrieved March 11, 2006 from www.a114ed.org/publications{feacherAttrition.pdf.

Dandy, E. (April 2004 ). The pathways to teaching careers program: Final Report for Grant# 9]0 .. 1579, the Ford Foundation, Kennedy School of Gov .. emment, Harvard University.


Fenwick, L. (2001). Patterns of excellence: Policy perspectives on diversity in teaching and school leadership. Atlanta, GA: The Southern Education Foundation.

Haberman, M. (1986). Alternative teacher certification programs. Action in Teacher Education (2), 13-18.

Haselkom, D. & E. Fideler. (1996). Breaking the class ceiling, Paraeducator pathways in teaching. Belmont, MA: Recruiting New Teachers, Inc.

Author Note Kam Fui Lau, Department of Information Technology, Armstrong Atlantic State University

Evelyn Baker Dandy, Department of Early Childhood Education, Arm .. strong Atlantic State University

We thank BellSouth and the Armstrong Atlantic State University Research and Scholarship Foundation for funding this study.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Kam Fui Lau, Department of Information Technology Armstrong Atlantic State University 11935 Abercom Street Savannah, Georgia 31419 E .. mail: [email protected]

..

The Disposition to Teach Against the Grain: Responsive Teachers as the Key to the Future of Middle School

Holly Thornton Appalachian State University

We have a solid knowledge base related to teaching and reaching young adolescents grounded in the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development ( 1989). As professionals we have been examining "why" in terms af struc .. tures such as time, instruction, curriculum, environment, and professional development. This article examines 4'why" in terms of key people involved in the middle school movement, teachers. Even if structural changes have been fully implemented, whether or not instruction is transformed may be deter .. mined by teacher dispositions. However, dispositions remain largely iU .. defined ( Ritchhart, 200 1) . This article examines the construct of dispositions in action which is concerned with on how dispositions manifest themselves in classroom practice (Thornton, 2006). We can then use this knowledge to inform teacher preparation and professional development.

I I -·- I •

Knowledge related to theory and practice in the middle grades spans several decades. In current times it is easy to identify harriers that keep the middle school movement from realizing its full potential. Yet, even in times where the educational, political, and social contexts were re, form minded and in support of the middle school concept, it still did not flourish in a manner that enabled middle school to become institutional .. ized and the way schools teach and reach young adolescent learners for the long run. As professionals we have been examining "why" in terms of structures such as time, instruction, curriculum, environment, and professional development. This article examines "why" in terms of key people involved in the middle school movement, the teachers.

What We Know About Effectively Teaching the Adolescent Leamer We have a solid knowledge base related to teaching and reaching young adolescents grounded in the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Develop .. ment ( 1989). In essence, middle level schools should be built around

Holly Thornton • 19

and capitalize on the developmental characteristics of young adoles .. cents. The Carnegie Council on·Adolescent Development's (1989) recommendations are foundational to the development of the NationaL Middle School Association's (NMSA) This We Believe (2003). The components of the middle school model as designated by NMSA include educators who value working with this age group and are prepared to do so; collaborative leadership; shared vision; an inviting, supportive, and safe environment; high expectations; partnerships with families and community; advocacy for students; varied, relevant, curriculum; and engaged learning with a focus on the whole child.

Middle level schools that more fully implement the NMSA components have greater student achievement than those in non .. implemented schools and substantially better than those in partially implemented schools (Felner et al., 1997). Lee's and Smith's (1993) findings show that such elements of restructuring were positively associated with academic achievement and engagement of eighth graders. Implementation of the middle school concept is positively related to student achievement scores (Russell, 1997). Although the issue is complex, schools that implement more of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development's (1989) recommendations show greater gains in student outcomes, with the aim being equitable high achievement for all types of students (National Middle School Association, 2002).

Why Isn't It Happeningl Even though our knowledge base about middle school theory and teach .. ing young adolescents is solid, and multiple studies indicate it is posi .. tively related to student achievement, the middle school movement has yet to be fully realized, and due to the focus on high stakes testing has encountered a new barrier. What other barriers are standing in our way?

Talking to high quality, professionally involved teachers reveals concern about meeting individual student needs, assessment, student motivation, and collegiality. These teachers view the barriers to student success as related to the teacher's lack of power to do what is best for student learn .. ing (Thornton, 2004 ). In spite of these barriers, typically related to high stakes testing, pre .. packaged curricula, pacing guides and mandated no tolerance "discipline" policies, there are successful middle level schools and teachers implementing best practices. Studies suggest thai begin .. ning teachers filter away the ~owledge and beliefs they learn in teacher preparation programs when they enter the real world of the classroom (Lortie, 1975; Zeichner & Liston, 1987; Zeichner & Tabachnik, 1981;

20 • Responsive Teachers

Zeichner, Tabachnik & Densmore, 1987). However, this is not the case with all teachers, some who continue over the years to work to realize their visions of creating academically, socially, and ethically responsible students (Levin, 2001 ). These teachers are 44teaching against the grah'i.'' Their success can be documented by such initiatives as the National Forum to Accelerate Middle .. Grades Reform's "Schools to Watch" (1999) that exemplify the middle school concept and have high student achievement. So what is different about these teachers that enables them to enact the research related to best practices? It may be that they possess the disposition to teach against the grain.

Teacher Dispositions May Be an Answer Teacher dispositions go beyond the knowledge and skills necessary to be developmentally responsive educators and may be central to moving the middle school concept forward. Knowledge, skills and dispositions (NCATE, 2000) are embraced within standards as essential elements of teacher preparation and teacher quality. Lipsitz, Mizell, Jackson, and Austin ( 1997) wrote, "the critical components of the reform process en .. able deeper instructional changes to occur, (p. 535). Even if the campo, nents are in place, whether or not such changes occur in a manner that actually transforms instruction may be determined by teacher disposi .. tions. Yet dispositions remain a neglected part of teacher education, and according to Collinson (1999) are nearly non .. existent. Wenzlaff (1998) writes that teacher education must be concerned with more than teaching methods, classroom management, lesson plans, and assess .. ment, and that in order for teachers to be more than mere "cogs" they must possess the dispositions necessary to teach and reach students. Katz ( 1993) defines dispositions as patterns of behaviors that are exhibited frequently and intentionally in the absence of coercion. representing a habit of mind, referred to in Dewey's ( 1922, 1933) writings. Dispositions animate, motivate, and direct abilities and are present in the patterns of one's frequently exhibited behavior (Ritchhart, 2001). In essence, they directly impact how teachers act (teach) in the classroom.

Dispositions in Action Building on the work ofRitchhart (2001) and others a study of disposi .. tions, pedagogy, and student learning a three .. year case study was con .. due ted. Dispositions that directly affected teaching were identified and defined, leading to the construct of dispositions in action (Thornton, 2006). Unlike other constructs that may be concerned with attitude, professional dress, beliefs, and values, dispositions in action focus on how dispositions manifest themselves in classroom practice. They are evi ..


denced in teachers' discourse and indicate a definite pattern, preference, or disposition of how teachers think. The study identified two emergent categories of dispositions: Responsive and Technical (see Table 1 ). Teachers evidencing Responsive dispositions were consistently identified as more effective teachers than those evidencing Technical dispositions (Thornton, 2006 ).

Table 1. Dispositions in action Responsive dispositions Enacted Teaching Elements Technical dispositions

Critical Assessment Assuming Challenging Accepting

Empowering Management Controlling Connected Disconnected

Facilitative Curriculum & Instruction Directing Creative Repetitive

Change, Driven Professionalism Compliant Inclusive Hierarchical

Responsive Dispositions The Responsive dispositions represent a way of thinking about teaching and learning that embraces the notion of teaching as a learned profes, sion. It is a thinking,based orientation that is responsive in many dimen, sions: responsive to the needs and actions of the learner, their develop .. mental characteristics, their cultural background and experiences, their levels of understanding, student questions. student work samples, the learning context and the expectations of the profession and society as a whole. The disposition to be critical in thinking is evidenced in class .. room dialogue that focuses on questioning that which may be assumed and typically left unexamined. It involves probing, digging deeper, establishing quality, and using dialogue as a means to work toward that end. Critical dialogue may be deconstructivist in its nature and seek to unpack the black and white nature of statements, and simplistic nature of responses or assignments. In the classroom this teacher is disposed to address issues from multiple perspectives, to ask students to justify their responses, to ask why, and to engage students in research well beyond the text. The disposition to challenge focuses on talk about the char .. acteristics of quality and what can be done to work toward continuous improvement. It assumes student competence and pushes all students toward high levels of achievement. The disposition to empower is often evidenced in classroom management and instructional decisions, prob, lem solving and expectations rel~ted to the classroom as a community of learners as students are naturally involved in decision, making and have


a legitimate voice. Connected dialogue is responsive to students' devel .. opmental needs and characteristics and reveals "withitness" (Kounin, 1970) and a general awareness of student interactions with a focus on problem solving, conflict resolution, and responsiveness to students as diverse individuals including their personal lives and experiences. The disposition to be facilitative is evidenced in dialogue with students that is guiding, inquiry oriented, and uses facts and knowledge as a means to build toward application and understanding of knowledge. A learner's prior knowledge, connections to students' lives, multiple representa .. tions, and real world examples are present and brought forth from the students. Multiple answers and suggestions are sought and built upon through the exchange of ideas. The disposition to be creative in one's thinking can be found in dialogue in which teachers exhibit multiple ways of framing learning, solving problems, approaching instruction, providing examples, and utilizing multiple paths to work toward student understanding. Professionally related dispositions center on continuous change and improvement typically in a collaborative mode, including participants across boundaries such as colleagues, adminis'trators, stu ... dents, parents and community members.

Technical Dispositions Technical dispositions are largely non.-responsive and exemplify the role of teacher as technician, knowing how to successfully employ the skills of teaching, but typically not examining the why. There is little variation from situation to situation and student to student from one who has Technically.-oriented dispositions. The disposition to assume often equates the completion of tasks and assignments with learning and understanding. There is little focus on probing, questioning, and moving beyond the clearly stated "givens" of the assignments or learning tasks as progressing through the process is a central focus and goal. The disposi .. tion to accept centers on accepting the effort of students as equivalent to their ability. If students try hard, they are praised as being successful. The dialogue indicates that some students are capable of attaining high standards while others are not, so expectations reflect this and focus on effort and compliance with requirements. The disposition to control is evidenced in dialogue centered on the teacher managing behavior and actions of students in the classroom including movement, talking, and other forms of interaction. Within the dialogue the teacher is the locus of control and decision ... making and typically uses authority to make requests or demands of student behavior. The disposition to be disconnected often produces a limited amount of interactive talk. Comments that are made are generally not directly responsive to students' needs or behaviors,


but rather general in nature, remaining the same from class to class and situation to situation. The disposition to be directing focuses dialogue on reacher direction of the learning experience so that students do not miss any of the facts, information, or answers necessary to develop understand .. ing as they work through the learning process. A repetitive disposition is characterized by a lack of variety in explaining, exemplifying, or representing learning. Repetition of steps, processes, and explanations remain nearly the same for all students. In terms of professionally related dispositions, Technical teachers talk about complying with mandates and rules handed down from authorities and enacting the decisions of others who are above them in the educational hierarchy. The focus is on dealing with the "givens" rather than "making waves" or they express they it is not their role or level of expertise to make decisions beyond implementation.

Further Studies For the purpose of this article, further studies were conducted to validate the findings from the original dispositions in action case study and to examine its potential further implications in the field. One study reported here involved 36 teachers who were observed based on the categories developed representing Technical and Responsive dispositions. The teachers were equally distributed within three middle school settings (urban, suburban, and rural). Twelve of these teachers had been identified as exemplary by key informants and were further identified as exemplary for purposes of the study based on common characteristics including: National Board Certification (National Board for Professional Teach .. ing Standards, 2006), (or current involvement in the board certification process) advanced degrees, participation in a professional development school initiative as master teachers, continued involvement in profes .. sional organizations leadership within the school community, high levels of reported student and parent satisfaction, and satisfactory or above student achievements test scores. The remaining two-thirds were randomly selected within the same school sites. A frequency distribu .. tion was made to represent each teacher observed as to their tendencies across the identified dispositions as evidenced through the dialogue and interaction between the students and the classroom teacher during mul .. tiple classroom observations across one semester. The exemplary teachers consistently evidenced a higher frequency of responsive dispositions, with all12 consistently demonstrating greater Responsive dispositions in each observation across the entire study. The randomly selected teach .. ers varied across the Responsive and Technical dispositions, with some teachers consistently evidencing only Technical dispositions, with others having a combination of both.


An observation tool (see Appendix) was developed from the case and validation studies to serve as a means to evaluate teacher candidate dispositions in action. This tool was developed from the initial study {Thornton, 2006) and used with a cohort group of 14 seniors who were placed with master teachers in a professional development school setting {PDS) for the period of a year. As part of the PDS process, multiple data sources were used to assess teacher candidate performance and their impact on student learning. Artifacts such as lesson plans, student work samples, lesson reflections, observation feedback (focused and open ended), and multiple formative evaluations from the master teacher were readily available. Teacher -candidates were placed on teaching teams utilizing the middle school concept. At the end of the year a case study was completed by each team of master teachers who were each asked to evaluate each teacher candidate utilizing the dispositions in action tool based on their observations across the year and multiple arti .. facts. A minimum of three master teachers evaluated each of the teacher candidates. The inter .. rater reliability was .81 and feedback from the participants was that the tool possessed face validity and was representa .. tive of key elements that enabled them to differentiate important aspects of quality teaching that typical evaluative measures often lack.

Conclusions Dispositions and Adolescence The Responsive dispositions parallel the very nature of adolescent needs and characteristics. The dispositions to be critical and to challenge match well with the young adolescents' needs to question and find ways to be successful. The disposition for the teacher to empower meets the students' needs to be involved in learning to make decisions and con .. tribute to the classroom community, as well as to have voice as emerging adults. The connected disposition direcdy relates to the young adoles .. cents' need to belong. The dispositions to be facilitative and creative al .. low middle grades students to explore within safe boundaries and to dis, cover who they are and to address the development of self ... identity. The change driven and inclusive dispositions are not always present within classroom interactions but can be found in meetings with colleagues and others. These dispositions are valuable to teacher growth, educational improvement and moving the middle school concept forward. All of the Responsive dispositions support the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development*s ( 1989) goal of enabling a young adolescent to be "an intellectually reflective person, a person enroute to a lifetime of mean.ingful work, a good citizen, a caring and ethical individual,, (p. 15}.


Implications of Dispositions: Professional Development and Retention Validation studies have been conducted and continue to inform the ongoing studies of the identified Responsive and Technical disposi-tions (University ofNorth Carolina Greensboro, 2004). The validation studies have involved panels of exemplary teachers and the use of the construct to evaluate student teachers to determine reliability. Rubrics and observation processes by which these dispositions may be more read .. ily assessed by educators are also being developed and studied. If we can begin to more broadly define and identify dispositions of effective middle level teachers we can begin to use these concepts and knowledge to inform teacher preparation and professional development.

Moving professional development away from pre .. packaged teacher proof programs and curricula is vital. Making certain that teachers not prepared in middle level education are familiar with and can use the ele .. ments in Turning Points ( 1989) to implement knowledge of curriculum, pedagogy, student characteristics, and assessment to help all students attain high levels of achievement is important. However, Stevenson and Erb (1998) state, the recommendations of the Carnegie Council on Ad .. olescent Development (1989) are necessary but not sufficient to result in improvement in the academic performance of students. The quality of life for students and teachers due to the school and classroom climate makes a difference between the implementation of middle school struc .. tures and practices and impacting student achievement (Stevenson & Erb, 1998; Feiner, 1997). Confidence in and commitment to students and low levels of resistance to reform are also cited as elements that affect student learning (Roney, Brown & Anfara, 2003). All are related to teacher dispositions.

To cultivate Responsive dispositions, professional development needs to be collegial and focused on change and improvement. It should encour .. age teachers to challenge and critique what is and envision what could be in education, to unpack assumptions about students, parents and the curriculum as well as the assumptions they bring to teaching. Teach .. ers need the opportunity to deconstruct what is readily accepted about schools and learning and to rethink what schools and practices that are developmentally appropriate and responsive to adolescents would be like. They then need to figure out how to take small, educated steps to get there together, with strong support from an educated administration and community. Ritchhart (2001.) indicated that a focus on the cultivation of dispositions leads in the direction of better and more powerful thinking. What might the benefits of such professional development be?


Retaining teachers who possess Responsive dispositions may be diffi .. cult. These teachers can be viewed as '1teaching against the grain" and in K .. 12 schools where raising student test scores has become the major and sometimes only goal, teachers who work against the grain are often not in demand, and in fact, new teachers who work completely with the grain may be the most sought after (Cochran .. Smith, 2001). However, if real issues of middle level student achievement are related to dispo .. sitional dimensions such as high expectations, commitment, and the disposition to embrace reform, as suggested by Brown, Roney and Anfara {2003 ), we must focus on their retention.

By their dispositional orientation such teachers are focused on empowerment, connecting with others, and being critical leaders of change and school improvement. If these dispositions are supported within their lives as teachers, they have the potential to help all young adolescents engage in meaningful learning, deep understanding, and achievement of high standards. If they instead live in a context that is focused on the technical aspects of education, it is likely that they will leave. Cochran .. Smith (2001) wrote, "we are chillingly close in some states to 'learning to teach by the numbers' at a time when more than ever we need teach .. ers able and willing to teach against the (new) grain of standardized practices that treat new teachers as interchangeable parts" (p. 4 ).

If teachers with the dispositions to teach against the grain leave the class .. room we will again have missed the opportunity to realize all that the middle school movement has to offer. Cultivating Responsive teacher dispositions and supporting teachers who possess them may the step beyond the full implementation of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development { 1989) recommendations. Establishing schools to meet students' needs is imperative. So too is filling them with teachers who have the dispositions to implement best practices in ways to maximize the potential of young adolescent learners.

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Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association. Brown, K. M., Roney, K. & Anfara, V. A. {2003). Organizational health di~

reedy influences student performance at the middle level. Middle School Jounud,34{5),5-15.

Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development. ( 1989). Turning points: Preparing American youth for the 21st century. New York: Carnegie Corporation.


Cochran .. Smith, M. (2001). Learning to teach against the (new) grain. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(1), 3~4.

Collinson, V. (1999). Redefining teacher excellence. Theory Into Practice. 38(1 ). 4 .. 11.

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Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman.

Feiner, R., Jackson, A. W., Kasak, D., Mulhall, P., Brand, S. & Rowers, N. (1997). The impact of school refonn for the middle grades: A longitudinal study of a network engaged in Turning Points based comprehensive school transformation. In R. Takanishi and David A. Hamburg (Eds.), Preparing adolescents far the twenty .. first century: Challenges facing Europe and the United States (pp. 38 .. 69).Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Katz, L. (1993). Dispositions as educational goals. Urbana, IL: ERIC Clearing .. house on Elementary and Early Childhood Education. [ED363454]

Kounin, J .S. ( 1970). Discipline and group management in classrooms. New York, NY: Holt, Reinhardt and Winston.

Lee, V. & Smith, J. ( 1993 ). Effects of school restructuring on the achieve .. ment and engagement of middle .. grades students. Sociology of Education, 66(3), 164 .. 187.

Levin, B. B. (2001). Liv~.Qft~achers: Update on a longitudinal case study. Teacher Education Quarterly, 28(3) 29 .. 47.

Lipsitz, ] . , Mizell, M. H., Jackson, A. & Austin, L. M. ( 1997). Speaking with one voice: A manifesto for middle .. grades reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 78, 533 .. 540.

Lortie, D. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological perspecti'Je. Chicago, IL: Uni~ versity of Chicago Press.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (2006). Making the commitment to accomplished teaching. National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Arlington, VA.

NCATE 2000 Standards. National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Washington, D.C.

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National Middle School Association. (2003 ). This we believe: Developmen .. tally responsi'Je middle le~Jel schools. Columbus, OH: Author.

National Middle School Association. (2002). NMSA research summary #12 : Academic achie'Jement. Retrieved October 9, 2004, from www.nmsa.org

Ritchhart, R. (2001) . From IQ to IC: A dispositional view of intelligence. Roeper Review. 23(3). 143~50.


Roney, K., Anfara, V. A, Jr. & Brown, K. (2002, April). Revealing what's in the block box: The middle school movement and high student achievement. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.

Russell, J. F. (1997). Relationships between the implementation of middle .. level program concepts and student achievement. journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 12(2), 169 .. 185.

Stevenson, C. & Erb, T. 0. (1998). How implementing Turning Points im .. proves student outcomes. Middle School journal, 30(1 ), 49 .. 52.

Thornton, H. (2004). "What can we learn about retaining teachers from PDS teachers' voices?" The Middle School]oumal. 35(4), 5 .. 12.

Thornton, H. (2006) "Dispositions in action: Do dispositions make a differ .. ence in practice?" Teacher Education Quarterly. 33(2), 53 .. 68.

University of North Carolina Greensboro. (2004). Middle grades exemplary teams USTEP Grant Report. (Available from The University of North Carolina Greensboro, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, P.O. Box 26170, Greensboro, NC 27402 .. 6170).

Wenzlaff, T. ( 1998 ). Dispositions and pcyrtfollo development: is there a connection? Education, 118(4). 564 .. 573.

Zeichner, K. & Liston, D.P. (1987). Teaching student teachers to reflect. Harvard Educational Retliew, (5), 23 .. 47.

Zeichner, K. & Tabachnik, B.R. (1981). Are the effects of university teacher education washed out by school experience? Journal of Teacher Educa .. tion, 32, 7 .. 11.

Zeichner, K., Tabachnik, B.R. & Densmore, K. (1987).Individual, insti .. tutional, and cultural influences on the development of teachers' craft knowledge. In J. Calderhead (Eel.), Exploring teachers thinking. London, UK: Cassell.

Author Note Holly Thornton Appalachian State University

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Holly Thornton Appalachian State University Curriculum and Instruction Box 32047 Duncan Hall Room 108 Boone, NC 28p08 E .. mail: [email protected]

Appendix

Assessing dispositions in action


This tool is premised on the following assertions related to dispositions:

1. A basic dictionary definition of "disposition" is "one's custom .. ary frame of mind." For research purposes we define dispositions as "teachers habits of mind that shape ways that they interact with students and the ways they make decisions in the classroom."

2. As researchers, we can make inferences about teachers' dispositions based on the ways they interact with students and the kinds of dia .. logue we observe in their classrooms.

Based on everything you know about the preservice teacher who is work .. ing with you, please rate him or her on each of the following dimensions:

1. Ways of interacting with students (empowering/connected)

Indicators of dispositions via Indicators of dispositions via Indicators of dispositions via Dialogue High I..eilel (3) Dialogue Medium Level ( 2) dialogue Low Level ( 1)

a. The teacher regularly a. The teacher occasion· a. The teacher focuses on seeks input from students ally involves students in covering information and related to instructional instructional decisions by material with very few strategies, assessment and giving them options with modifications or adjust .. the focus of the curricu .. assignments or projects ments made related to lum in the classroom. student feedback or input.

b. The teacher elicits stu, b. The teacher gives stu- b. The teacher rarely seeks dent questions and inter- dents have some choices feedback from students pretation of curriculum to about what to study and related to relevancy and gain data to inform future how to study. understanding of cur-plans related to all aspects of classroom curriculum.

riculum

c. Structure and organi- c. Students have some c. The teacher talks with zation in the classroom choices regarding class- students and interacts supports dialogue and room procedures. with them in ways that interaction with individu- emphasize following direc-als and groups of students. tions, completing tasks,

recalling information and getting good grades

d. Student dialogue with d. Classroom conversa- d. Teacher talk rarely veers each other and teacher tions indicate a congenial from focus on "given" con-is truly collaborative atmosphere (not a col· tent and coverage of this (focuses on quality and laborative one) . content. mutual support in setting and attaining goals).


e. The teacher talks with students and interacts with them-in ways that show "withitness,, keen awareness of individual students, and flexibility in management.

f. The teacher proactively addresses disruptions and promotes engagement in ways that encourage shared responsibility and a sense of community.

e. The teacher talks with students and interacts with them in ways that show some awareness of individual differences and some variation in manage, ment.

f. The teacher addresses disruptions and promotes engagement in ways that primarily emphasize extrinsic motivation.

e. The teacher talks with students and interacts with them in ways that center on asserting the authority of the teacher.

f. Teacher addresses disruptions and promotes engagement in a primarily autocratic fashion ("be, cause I said so").

2. Ways of interacting with assessing understanding (challenging/critical)

Indicators af dispositions WI Indicators af dispositions tda Indicators of dispositions via Dialogue High Level ( 3) Dialogue Medium Level ( 2) dialogue Low Level ( 1)

a. The teacher regularly a. The teacher indicates a. The teacher talks with talks with students and that some students are students and interacts interacts with them in capable of meeting high with them in ways that ways that communicate expectations while others emphasize effort' and high expectations for are not. compliance. learning.

b. Dialogue and interac, b. Dialogue and interac, b. Dialogue and interac, tion regularly encourage tion occasionally goes tion focus on completion deeper levels of under, beyond the "givens, of the of tasks and assignments standing and emphasize task toward higher levels of with little probing or progress toward high understanding questioning to move quality performances of beyond the "givens., of understanding. the task.

c. Dialogue and interac .. c. Dialogue and interac# c. Dialogue and inter .. tion focuses on question# tions typically center on action centers on the ing and probing to reveal questions that focus on teacher typically provid-the students' depth of seeking he correct answer ing information, with understanding to move to a questions or set of little focus on questioning beyond surface assump, questions, with occasional students. tions and statements of follow up questions "facts", often seeking students' opinions, or jus .. tifications and reasoning behind responses.

d. Assessment of learning d. Some projects and learn, d. Assessment takes place occurs regularly within the ing tasks provide supple, in isolated events such as flow of student/student/ mental assessment data. tests and quizzes. teacher interactions throughout instruction and is used to set goals for students and to guide further learning.


3. Ways of interacting with instruction (facilitative/creative)

Indicators of dispositions via Indicators of dispositions via Indicators of dispositions via Dialogue High Le11el ( 3) Dialogue Medium Le11el ( 2) dialogue Low Level ( 1)

a. The teacher frequently a. The teacher occasion; b. The teacher emphasizes responds to student ques; ally responds to student one approach to learning tions, notes their progress, questions, progress and for all students. shares their ideas and ideas and builds their builds these responses responses into instruction. into instruction.

b. Lessons regularly feature b. Lessons occasionally b. Lessons emphasi:ze the the scaffolding of skills vary the explanation of explanation of concepts in and concepts to build on concepts and the perfor; a prescribed order and the students' current under~ mance of skills in response performance of skills in standing toward deeper to students. the same ways. levels of understanding.

c. The teacher talks with c. The teacher talks with c. The teacher talks with students and interacts students and interacts students and interacts with with them in ways that with them in ways that them in ways that are rarely are very responsive to show some awareness of responsive and are often the individual differences and individual differences and same from class to class developmental needs. developmental needs. and situation to situation.

d. The teacher regularly d. The teacher occasion~ d. The teacher talks with relates classroom learning ally relates classroom students and interacts experiences to real world learning experiences to with them in ways that situations and connects real world situations and emphasize the coverage of issues to students' lives rarely connects issues to information. Any connec~ beyond school. srudenrs• lives beyond tions beyond the class~

school room are incidental.

e. The teacher encourages e. The teacher offers e. The reacher emphasizes multiple ways of demon~ limited opportunity for single pathways to learn~ strating understanding. student demonstration of ing and assesses whether

understanding during the or not students demon~ learning process. strate prescribed skills and

procedures.

f. The teacher regularly f. The teacher occasionally f. The teacher generally provides multiple forms provides feedback to stu~ limits feedback to grades of feedback to students to dents to guide the growth on assignments. guide the growth of their of their understanding. understanding.

Exploring What Matters to Professional Development School Partners

Diane M. Truscott, Brandi Wells, and Lydia Criss Mays Department of Early Childhood Education

Georgia State University

This research study explores what matters most for urban school partners as they consider and commit to collaborative Professional Development School (PDS) relationships with a local teacher education department. A suwey was designed to eUcit responses from five university faculty PDS liaison, two school educators, and two administrators from five schools to the PDS level criterion used by National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). Each respondent was interviewed to elicit more insights into the PDS relation, ship and what features of the partnership matter most. Descriptive statistics were performed for each item by developmental level and across NCATE standards. Interviews were then coded for three foci: value of partnership, understanding of PDS partnership, and PDS activity. Preliminary findings suggest student learning is the most important component of the PDS parmer..ship; howevert schools appear to be at different stages with the PDS partner .. ship, affecting what is valued and opportunities afforded.

. . -·- ... Introduction A commitment to teaching and learning within situated practice and collaboration with school educators is vital to the preparation of new teachers. Institutions of higher education and schools have a growing interest in professional development schools (PDS) as one way to build such collaborations. The Professional Development School (PDS) is a form of collaborative partnership between an institution of higher edu .. cation and birth .. t2lh grade (Teitel, 2003). The purpose of the partner .. ship is to build a learning community that supports the development of teacher candidates, their educators, and community constituencies. This partnership is guided by a common vision of teaching and learning grounded in research and dedicated to helping children learn {Holmes Group, 1990).

Truscott, Wells, Mays • 33

Over the last decade, we have seen an increase in the literature avail.able on PDS (Book, 1996; Kochan, 1999; Pritchard & Ancess, 1999; Teitel, 1998;) and in particular on its' role in improving teacher edu .. cation (Gimbert, 2002; Levin & Rock, 2003; Taylor & Sobel, 2003 ). While several studies have examined particular components of PDS such as preservice education (Levin & Rock, 2003 ); collaborative ac .. tion research (Gimbert, 2002); teacher attrition (Fleener, 1999) and partnership roles (Ambrose, Murphey & Schumacher, 2000; Simmons, Konecki, Crowell & Gates .. Duffield, 1999), most of the literature con .. centrates on how to build school partnerships and centers on aspects of program implementation (Teitel, 2001 ). Also absent are publications that investigate educators' perceptions of university .. school partnerships and what is valued.

Purpose of the Study Many teacher education programs, such as those found at Georgia State University, are built upon an understanding of teaching and learning with .. in situated practice. Courses in content and pedagogy, as well as research, contribute to supporting real needs in local urban communities-their children, their families, and their schools. Therefore, institutions of higher education have entered into partnerships with local schools, developing a PDS network or consortium consisting of committed educators who share our goal of quality teaching and learning. The mission of the PDS partnership is to build and sustain a community of educators dedicated to helping children succeed. The PDS model is guided by four areas of collaboration: 1) exemplary school .. based experiences for teachers in training; 2) applied inquiry designed to improve practice; 3) new teacher mentoring; and 4) quality professional development.

This study explores the perceptions, understandings and values associ .. ated with PDS work. Our study is guided by our interest in what matters most to school partners as they consider and commit to collaborative PDS relationships. The research questions ask: 1) what aspects of uni.versity .. school partnerships are most valued by urban schools as reported by partnering school administrators and classroom teachers? and 2) how do these compare to what university PDS faculty report as valuable?

Method The PDS network in the Department of Early Childhood Education currently partners with seven elementary schools from four districts in the metro .. Atlanta area. Each school works with university members

34 • Professional Development Schools

on various projects and programs including site .. based graduate courses, undergraduate fieldwork, teacher action research, and participation in large grant .. funded research. This research study reports on five current PDS partnerships.

Participants Initially, one school administrator, one teacher, and one university faculty liaison from each of the PDS sites were selected based on their participation in the school partnership during the 2004-2005 school year. The school administrator, teacher and faculty liaison from each school were selected based on recommendations from the university liaisons in consultation with the school principal. Teachers were recom .. mended based on whether they were actively engaged in PDS during the previous school year. All schools are considered urban and high·need based on poverty levels and high concentrations of diverse learners. This study reports on a portion of data from initial larger data set and repre ... sents beliefs of five school partnerships. A full report of all participants is provided in another study (Mays, Truscott & Wells, 2006).

Surt~ey Instrument & Interoiew In 2001, the National Council for Accreditation ofTeacher Education (NCATE) published national standards to guide PDS work. These stan .. dards were developed to support ongoing improvement in both schools and universities through partnership activities. The NCATE PDS standards are considered to exemplify the core components of how a PDS can improve student learning. Each standard is defined by descrip .. tive elements representing beliefs, practices, and policies as illustrated in Table 1. These elements are further delineated by four developmental levels that an individual PDS school could be categorized as beginning, developing, at·standard, or leading.

Table 1. NCATE Standards and Elements for Professional Development Schools

Standard 1: LeamiAI Communitv Elements: 1. Support multiple learners 2. lnquiry~based work 3. Common shared vision 4. Serve as instrument of change 5. Extended learning community

The learning community includes the university, school district, and the teacher union or professional education associa, tion. lt supports the integrated learning and development of P, 12 students, teacher candidates, and PDS partners through inquiry,based practice grounded in research and practitioner knowledge.


S~i!llda[d 11: AccQJ.mbhilitt & PDS partners are accountable for uphold-Qualitt Assurance ing professional standards for teaching and Elements: learning. They collaboratively develop 1. Professional Accountability assessments, collect information, and use re-2. Public Accountability suits to systemically examine their practices 3. PDS Participation Criteria and establish outcomes goals. 4. Formative Assessments 5. Engage with PDS Context

Standanl III: Cgllabm:ation PDS partners commit to joint work Elements: implementing the PDS mission. They col-1. Engage in joint work laboratively design roles and structures and 2. Roles & structures systemically recognize and celebrate collabo-3. Celebrate joint work rations and partner contributions.

Smndard IY: Qi:Y~uitt & ~uin PDS partners develop and demonstrate Elements: knowledge, skills, and dispositions result-1. Equitable learning opportunities ing in learning. They ensure that policies 2. Policies and practices and practices result in equitable learning 3. Recruit & support diverse outcomes. PDS partners include diverse

participants participants and diverse learning communi-ties for PDS work.

Standard V: Sb:Y"mr~. Re1Qur"~s PDS partnership uses its authority andre-and Roles sources to articulate its mission and establish Elements: governing structures and partner institu-1. Governance & support structures tions ensure that structures, programs, and 2. Ensure goal progress resources decisions support the partnership's 3. Create PDS roles mission. They create new roles and modify 4. Resources existing ones. Lastly, the partnership effec:-5. Effective Communication tively uses communication for coordination

and linkage.

Using the NCATE (2001) Standards for Professional Development Schools, a JO .. item survey was designed to explore what is most im .. portant to urban schools and their needs for supporting children and advancing the teaching profession. Each standard and corresponding elements of criteria for each developmental level (beginning, develop .. ing, at .. standard, leading) was analyzed and coded for key terms by two independent researchers. These key terms resulted in a survey item pool. Survey items were then selected to represent each standard area, their corresponding elements across all developmental levels. For example, the survey had eight items devoted to NCATE Standard I (Learning Community) . Of these, two items corresponded to element 1 (supporting multiple learners) at beginning and at-standard levels; a third and fourth item for elements 2 and 3 (inquiry .. based work and shared vision) for developing and at .. standard levels, respectively. Three items focused on element 4 (serving as instrument of change) at beginning and


at,standard levels, and a final item for element 5 (extended learning community) at leading levels. This resulted in all elements covered within a standard and items targeting each of the four developmental levels: 8 beginning, 6 developing, 10 at .. standard, 6 leading. All survey items were then randomly ordered and masked so neither the standard, the element, nor the developmental level was detectable.

Each respondent rated each survey item for how much that particular goal or activity mattered to his/her school (4 .. point scale) and where he/she saw the school at that point in time in response to the goal or activity (J .. point scale). Figure 1 illustrates a sample of a survey item and Likert scale for each category.

Figure 1. Sample of a survey item and Likert scale. The following matter ... Our school is ...

What PDS goals and/or activities matter most to A you? Least little A lot Most

Envi· Gearing In sioning Up Progress

2. Systemically 0 D 0 0 0 0 0 collecting data to examine how PDSparmer# ships increase learning

Survey reliability and validity was determined by field testing the origi .. nal survey with a group of teachers from local urban schools and doctoral students in educational .. related fields (n=6) in order to determine items of ambiguity. Only two content changes were made as a result of this field test: 1) one item was determined "wordy., and was reworded, and 2) the addition of the word "research" with items asking about "inquiry." The addition of the question "did you have any difficulty answering any of these items?" concludes the survey and serves for reliability purposes.

To conduct the interviews, each PDS participant met individually with one of the researchers at the school or university at a prearranged time convenient to the subject. Surveys were provided and completed prior to the participant interviews. Each participant was asked four interview questions (two forced .. choice response questions and two open .. ended questions) regarding his/her understanding of PDS, where he/she saw the


school in terms of NCATE levels, and additional probing on what mat .. tered most in the PDS work. On average, each survey and interview ses ... sion lasted 30 minutes. Immediately after the interview, each researcher transcribed the interview notes. Each subject was given a subject code to maintain confidentiality.

Analysis of Data Survey responses were analyzed by partnership role (school, university) across NCATE standards and developmental guidelines. Descriptive statistics were performed calculating frequency responses, means, and percentages for each item by developmental level (beginning, develop .. ing, at standard, and leading} and across the five standards. All inter .. views were read independently by two of the three researchers and coded explicitly for key ideas. Three threads emerged from this initial coding: activities characterizing PDS work, conceptions/misconceptions about PDS, and value statements about PDS. All interviews were then com ... pared across these specific themes and analyzed.

Results Survey respondents ( 89%) ranked both student learning and supporting preservice teachers as the most important priority in the PDS work they did. Interview data supported these results through various descriptions of PDS activities that centered on classroom teaching and learning. Many participants reported that they saw the partnership as a way to get "extra hands, in the classrooms. Similarly, the focus on producing quality new teachers was within the context of student learning. Edu, cators stressed the need for good teachers who can support children in challenging educational settings. Moreover, interviews revealed that the partnership works diligently to bring into alignment practices and beliefs and that the partnership does not end with solely supporting preservice teachers because many preservice teachers are now inservice teachers within the school community. Focus on research or inquiry as a PDS element ranked last. Consistent with the surveys, discussion regarding research or inquiry were notably absent throughout the interviews.

Little variation was noted for separate ratings of "most, and "a lot" between the five standard areas as referenceclin_Table 2. However, when combined, what appeared to matter to participants, ~as~a commitment to equity and diversity (80%), accountability (79%), and building a learning community (77% ). Du~ing the interviews, participants de, scribed powerful relationships between the school and the un~v.ersity,


with both stakeholders illustrating strong commitment to the principles of a learning community. Interestingly enough, though equity and diver .. sity ranked among the highest standard of what mattered the most, none of the participants spoke to the importance or an active engagement with eliciting activities related to equity and/or diversity. Accountability was rated high as an element of the PDS work that mattered; however, explanations of why this was important or how this facilitates the PDS work were absent from the interview data.

Table 2. Frequency Percentages of Participant Responses to Standards That Matter Most

Standard Most A Lot Both

I. Learning Community (7 items) 33 44 77

11. Accountability and Quality Assurance 23 56 79 (7 items)

Ill. Collaboration (4 items) 29 32 61

IV. Equity and Diversity (3 items) 34 46 80

V. Structures, Resources & Roles (7 items) 17 51 68

Table 3 shows that frequency percentages for participant responses to what mattered least ranged from 3% to 28%. Combining ~tings of "least" and "a little" resulted in collaboration as the standard area that was reported as not being valued much. However, inconsistent with the survey findings, interview data suggested that the school .. university part .. nership is, in fact, highly regarded for its value in improving the school culture by providing collegial and school .. based support and by imple .. menting quality professional development that is tailored to the specific school .. related needs.

Table 3 . Frequency Percentages of Participant Responses to Standards That Matter Least ·

Standard Least A Little Both

I. Learning Community (7 items) 3 16 19


II. Accountability and Quality Assurance 5 15 20 (7 items)

III. Collaboration ( 4 items) 21 19 40

IV. Equity and Diversity (3 items) 19 0 19

V. Structures, Resources & Roles (7 items) 3 28 31

Discussion Preliminary findings suggest student learning and preservice teacher training are the most important components of the PDS partnerships. This is not surprising for several reasons. Research suggests that PDS programs positively affect the performance of preservice teachers, partie, ularly student teachers by situated practice (Darling, Hammond, 1996). ~lost PDS partnerships are initiated by institutions of higher education who typically take the lead in building the structures, roles, and design. Also, many educators during the interviews made reference to the state tests and other student performance accountability measures, placing learning at the foreground of the work.

The fact that inquiry and research were rarely described in the PDS activities and was ranked the lowest in the four components listed could be related to the PDS level representing the school, and hence the opportunities afforded. PDS participants reported that they were at different stages within the PDS partnership. Some saw themselves as a well established PDS and could talk about the interplay between place, ments, induction, research, and professional development. Some PDS personnel did not think of themselves as a PDS even though they had partnered with the university for many years and had in place all the elements described. As PDS partners struggle to place themselves within an NCATE developmental level, interview data support the emerging theme that identifying one "level" of partnership (emerging, develop, ing, at,standard, leading) may not be the most appropriate criterion to identify PDS activity. Indeed, Daniel et al. (2000) found that the PDS standards should "extend their scope" and evolve to be more reflective of what is really happening in the schools.

The fact that what participants reported as mattering the most, learning communities, could not really occur without what they reported as mat~ tering the least, collaboration, is perplexing. Instead, the importance


of collaboration was conveyed repeatedly throughout all interviews as a key component of the PDS partnership. Our findings do not suggest that the partnerships do not value collaboration even though it was rated low. Anecdotally, we know this cannot be the case and the interview data suggest that it is a high priority and perhaps participants just assume that collaboration is a "given." Relatively speaking, when combin .. ing both survey and interview data, the findings suggest PDS partners recognize the importance of collaboration within learning communities. The importance of learning community is well .. documented in the PDS literature (Boudah & Knight, 1999).

Finally, this study represents the first part of an exploratory study with PDS partners in nine schools. The sample size represents slightly more than one third of the larger data set and is small. Findings are limited, . based on two converging data sets from self .. reporting instruments. Nonetheless, these preliminary findings suggest that although determin .. ing an NCATE developmental level of partnership appears to be dif .. ficult for PDS participants, there are incontrovertible similarities when it comes to "what matters most" to PDS partnership. Student learning emerged as the foundation upon which building a learning community that supports the development of teacher candidates, their educators, and community constituencies is driven.

References Ambrose, T., Natale, D., Murphey, C. & Schumacher, D. (2000). Profes ..

sional development school partnerships: Reflections and perspectives. Peabody Journal of Education, 74(3 ), 289 .. 299 . .

Book, C.L. ( 1996 ). Professional development schools. In J. Sikula (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, Second Erution (pp. 194 .. 210). New York, NY: Association of Teacher Educators.

Boudah, D.J. & Knight, S.L. (1999). Creating learning communities of research and practice: Participatory research and development. In D.M. Byrd & D.j. Mcintyre (Eds.), Research on Professional Development Schools, T-eacher Education Yearbook VII (pp. 97.-114 ). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

Daniel, P.L., Brindley, R.N. & Rosselli, H. C. (2000). The goodness of fit between the voices in the field and the NCATE PDS draft standards. Teaching and Change, 7( 4 ), 3 72 .. 391.

Darling.-Hammond, L. (Ed.). (1996). Professional development schools: Schools for de"eloping a profession. New York: Teachers College Press.


Fleener, C. ( 1999). Teacher attrition: Do PDS programs make a difference? Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas.

Gimbert, B. G. (2002). Mastery of teaching in a school.-universit:y partnership: A model of context.-appropriation theory. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Teaching and Teacher Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED471194).

Holmes Group. ( 1990). Tomorrow's schools: Principles for the design of professional development schools. East Lansing, Ml: Holmes Group.

Kochan, F. ( 1999). Professional development schools: A comprehensive view. In D.M. Byrd & D.J. Mcintyre (Eds.}, Research on Professional Development Schools, Teacher Education Yearbook VII {pp. 173 .. 190). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

Levin, M. (2002). Why invest in professional development schools? Educational Leadership, 59(6), 65 .. 69.

Levin, B. B. & Rock, T.C. (2003 ). The effects of collaborative action re .. search on preservice and experienced teacher partners in professional development schools. Journal of Teacher Education, 54 ( 2), 135 .. 149.

Mays, L., Truscott, D. & Wells, B. (2006, March). Using national standards to examine professional development schools participants' beliefs and values regarding their professional development schools partnerships. Paper presented at the meeting of the Professional Development Schools National Conference, Orlando, FL.

Pritchard, F. & An cess, J. ( 1999}. The effects of professional development schools: A literature review. New York, NY: National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching. (ERIC Document Repro .. duction Service No. ED448155).

Simmons, J.M. , Konecki, L.R., Crowell, R.A. & Gates .. Duffield, P. (1999) . Dream keepers, weavers, and shape .. shifters: Emerging roles of PDS university coordinators in educational reform. In D.M. Byrd & D.J. Mcintyre (Eds.), Research on Professional Development Schools, Teacher Education Yearbook Vll (pp. 29 .. 45). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

Taylor, S.V. & Sobel, D.M. {2003 ). Rich contexts to emphasize social justice in teacher education: Curriculum and pedagogy in professional develop .. ment schools. Equity & Excellence in Education, 36(3 ), 249.-258.

Teitel, L. (2003 ). The professional development schools handbook: Starting, sus .. taining, and assessing partnerships that improve student learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Teitel, L ( 200 1 ) . Handbook for the assessment of professional development schools. Washington, DC: National Council for Accreditation ofTeach .. er Education. {ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED470235).


Teitel, L. ( 1998). Professional development schools: A literature review. In M. Levine (Ed.), Designing standards that wark for professional development schools, (pp. 33 .. 80). Washington, DC: National Council for Accredita .. tion of Teacher Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED4Z6052).

Author Note Diane M. Truscott, Department of Early Childhood Education, Georgia State University

Lydia C. Mays, doctoral fellow, Department of Early Childhood Education, Georgia State University; member of the Urban Graduate Research Collaborative

Brandi J. Wells, doctoral fellow, Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, Georgia State University; member of the Urban Graduate Research Collaborative

An earlier version of this paper was presented for discussion at Georgia Association of Teacher Educators Conference, October 2005. ParUler .. ship activities are supported in part by grants from the US Department of Education Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant Program for Partner .. ships.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Diane M. Truscott Georgia State University Department of Early Childhood Education P.O. Box 3978 Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3978 £ .. mail: dmt®gsu.edu

Public Opinions Regarding High Stakes Testing in Georgia

Damaris Holt, Miriam E. Johnson, and Raymond J. Waller Piedmont College

Richard Clark Carl Vinson Institute of Government ... University of Georgia

High ... Stakes tests are achievement tests used to determine advancement or en ... trance at critical junctures in the academic process. High ... Stakes tests include high school exit exams and teacher certification tests . While research has shown exit exams to be beneficial to the achievement of students, no such research ex ... ists for professional teacher examinations. However, a random poll of residents of the state of Georgia found a high degree of support for these types of tests. As the use of these tests seems to be inevitable, it is important that members of the educational profession maintain a rigorous watch on the development and use of these tests to ensure that the results are not used in a way that does not support the best interests of students. Further, the use of such tests as a criterion for obtaining teacher certification, at least as currently implemented, may be counterproductive.

• • :Ei( • ::sa: • •

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform which outlined disturbing trends in the American educational system. One of these trends was a weak or inadequate curriculum, which in some states allowed students to earn almost 50 percent of their high school graduation credits through the completion of electives. Another trend was inadequate minimum competency examinations, which the commission claimed lowered standards for all. A third trend noted was a system in which many of the teachers were drawn from the bottom quarters of their high school or college classes. In response to the commission's find~ ings, standards were recommended to ensure students' preparedness for progressive stages of education.

44 • High Stakes Testing

The co.mmiS~ion felt that standardized achievement tests should be used at critical junctures in the academic process to ensure a student's preparedness for the next phase in his or her education. One of these junctures considered to be critical was a student's transition from high school to college. Several such junctures were pinpointed within teacher education programs. The commission suggested that teachers should be held to high academic standards. and should be prepared to demonstrate their "competence in an academic discipline', (p. 5), and that teacher preparation programs should be held accountable for the quality of their graduates.

Out of this report and these recommendations, several types of standard .. ized tests have been developed and are in use in the educational system today. This review will focus on two types of assessment: the high school exit exam (hereafter referred to as exit exam) and teacher competency exams. The high school exit exam is generally considered a curriculum .. based external exit exam. The test is used to determine if students who have completed a particular course of study will be granted a high school diploma. Exit exams are now required in seventeen states in order to receive a high school diploma. Teacher competency exams are given in most states to ensure that individuals in the teaching profession are qualified to teach in the content area in which they are certified. They may be taken before the teacher begins professional practice or after the teacher has entered the classroom. Strong arguments exist both in support of and in resistance to these types of high .. stakes tests.

The pros and cons of the exit exam were examined by Zorn (2001) in his essay "Diplomas Dubiously Denied: A Taxonomy and Commentary., According to Zorn, the implementation of this high ... stakes test has pro .. duced two camps. One camp asserts that these tests are simply reporting a systematic standard of underachievement in our educational system and that it is our poor educational system that is unfair, not the tests. The second camp defends the interests of students and teachers and considers these assessments to be unfair and unreliable.

It is important to be aware of the arguments for both sides of the issue of exit exams but it is also important to know how many people are for or against the issue. In some cases, public opinion has been made known through overt action. For example, boycotts of the tests were held in Massachusetts, Michigan, and New York (Olson, 2002). In other cases, however, public opinion is not so apparent. In these instances, surveys and polls have been helpful in disclosing the opinions of society.

Holt, Waller, johnson, Clark • 45

Williams (2001) cites a survey done by 'fime magazine that suggests strong support for exit exams. The survey showed that 68 percent of those surveyed believe that students should have to pass a statewide exit exam to be granted a high school diploma and 75 percent are in favor of statewide testing at the elementary level to determine if a student should progress to the next grade. In the JJrd Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, Rose and Gal.lop (2001) found that 57 percent of those polled were in favor of stan .. dardized testing in order to determine whether a student should receive a high school diploma. However, in a separate question, respondents were asked whether test scores or classroom work and homework were better indicators of a student's achievement. Ironically, and perhaps correctly, 70% of respondents believed that classroom work and homework were better indicators. Rose and Gallop emphasized that it is the job of educa.tors, administrators, and parents to ensure that these exams are used in a fair and appropriate way so that students are not unfairly penalized for rheir performance on these exams.

There are researchers and educators who agree with this viewpoint. For example, Reising (2000) also believes exit exams can be helpful if used appropriately. However, he stresses that educators must actively assist in create developing these tests, as they are the ones who are most quali .. tied to judge what students should know to graduate. Regarding parental opinion, he says that many parents share views with educators regarding exit exams and that "even those without a high school diploma, share the conviction that high school graduates must be equipped for the work force, the military, and/or higher education and that a student's perfor .. mance on a graduation exam should reflect his or her readiness for the next stage" (Reising, p. 4). However, he also opined that parents would not tolerate unacceptable exams.

Testing the Teachers In order for students to do well on these exit exams, we must have quali .. tied teachers to help them reach their goals. To hold teachers to the high academic standards recommended in A Nation at Risk, most states require teachers to pass an examination and some require existing teach .. ers to be re .. tested to ensure their quality. There is, of course, controversy surrounding this practice.

Watkins and Coker ( 1988) conducted study designed to determine the legitimacy of teacher testing. This study sought to determine if teacher


-testing was a viable alternative method of evaluation. The study evalu, ated the Arkansas Educational Skills Assessment (AESA) to consider if tests were useful predictors of teaching performance. This study was unable to demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between the AESA and other more traditional evaluative methods. The authors of this study concluded, "Because of the findings of this study, one measure, such as a written test, appears unwarranted as a primary and sole evalua .. tive tool of teacher competency" (p. 116).

In 1998 Massachusetts began to test entry .. level teachers with the goal of improving teacher quality. The idea here, and it was a logical one, was to eliminate those individuals that might not be competent in basic lit .. eracy and content knowledge. Although this began to cause teacher edu .. cation programs in Massachusetts to spend more time preparing students for the test, it must be acknowledged that this is not necessarily a bad thing if the test is a good one. However, the validity of the test required in Massachusetts was uncertain. According to Flippo (2000), the test was found to have little predictive validity. In other words, this test has not been shown to be an accurate indicator of how well a teacher would do in the profession.

In some ways, this issue is more complex than that of exit exams because little consensus exists about what should be included in these assess .. ments. Zigo (2002) claims, "the murky waters of accountabUity hide ideological differences in beliefs about subject knowledge, pedagogy, the role of teacher education, and test construction" (p. 138). One result is that test creators have more control over what is taught in teacher education programs than the program itself. In addition, although a pass-: ing score on Praxis I is required for admittance into a teacher education program, Zigo (2002) points out that there is no research that correlates Praxis I scores with student grades in their first 60 hours prior to accep .. tance into teacher education programs.

The Waters Muddy Further According to Evans, Stewart, Mangin and Bagley (2001) there are hun .. dreds of groups studying teacher quality and making recommendations for improvement. A report published in 1996 by The National Commis .. sion on Teaching and America's Future (NCfAF) made the case that wel} .. qualified teachers make a big difference in children's learning. At the same time, America is experiencing an extreme shortage of teachers, which forces administrators to place less than qualified teachers in the

Holt, Waller, Johnson, Clark • 47

classroom. The problem of teachers leaving the profession is a primary causal agent of the shortage. According to Evans and others, some studies suggest that 62% of teachers will quit during the first five years. Although everyone agrees that we need more and better teachers, clear and compelling evidence that high stakes testing for teacher trainees will solve the problem is lacking. In fact, a study using both quantitative and qualitative data seems to suggest that these high stakes tests may have the opposite effect on the profession of teaching (Flippo, 2000).

The Abell foundation recently published a report called "Teacher Certification Reconsidered: Stumbling for Quality, in which they concluded that much of the research that supports testing for certification of teach .. ers is biased or flawed in some way (Walsh, 2001). They believe that deregulating the licensing process would open up the field to more qualified people. However, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future strongly disagrees and defends state licensing as the only way to ensure that we have quality teachers in the classroom (Archer, 2001). These findings provided little evidence to suggest that teacher testing is a valid predictor of how well a teacher will perform in the classroom.

There is strong evidence that education is a top priority in the U .S. among the public. Reading Today (2000) published the findings of two polls. First, a Washington Post/ABC News poll reported that 79 per .. cent of voters said that improving education and the schools was a top priority. Supporting this view was a poll conducted by the University of Chicago, which reported that 73% of respondents were willing to pay $200 more in taxes annually to improve education. Clearly, education is important to our country. High stakes testing may well be part of the solution to some of our educational problems, but as the literature indi .. cates, we need more and better studies and tests that support the mis .. sion of schools and teacher education programs. Based on the evidence reviewed, we hypothesized that exit exams and teacher competency testing have a large degree of support among the body politic of the State of Georgia.

Method The Peach State PoU The Peach State Poll is a quarterly public opinion telephone survey of approximately 800 Georgia residents that is conducted by the Carl Yin .. son Institute of Government (Peach State Poll #23, 2002). Respondents are randomly selected and participants are asked questions pertaining to


social, economic, and political life in the state of Georgia. Each quarter's survey collects data on two topic areas, participant's assessment of the state's economy, the public's general mood, and respondent demograph~ ics. The final data are weighted to account for probability of selection and statewide demographics. Administration of the survey is contracted to trained survey researchers. The Peach State Poll adheres to the strin .. gent standards of survey research endorsed by the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

Results In response to our review of the literature we hypothesized that most individuals would indicate a positive degree of support for testing as a means to insure high~quality teachers and to insure that seniors were qualified for high~school graduation. The randomized survey of approxi .. mately 800 adults yielded opinions that suggest a large degree of support for standardized testing in general (see Table 1 ). These findings support our hypothesis that the public is largely in favor of standardized testing for high .. stakes educational decisions.

In response to the question "Do you think Georgia should require students to pass a standardized test before graduationr' (Peach State Poll #23, 2002) the majority of those polled were in favor. In response to this question 74% of those polled answered yes, 23% answered no, 2% percent felt "it depends" and 1% percent had no opinion on this question.

Table 1. Responses to the question "Do You think Georgia should require students to pass a standardized test before graduation?"

Response Percentage

Yes 74%

No 23%

It Depends 2%

No Opinion 1%

In addition, when asked the question, "Do you support requiring teach .. ers to take periodic tests to assure that they are qualified to teach in the area they teach?" (Peach State Poll #22), 89% of respondents said that they were in favor of this type of requirement and 70% reported strongly favoring this approach (see Table 2). Only 10% of those polled said that they were opposed to such a strategy and 1% said that they had no opinion.

.Holt, Waller, Johnson, Clark • 49

Table 2. Responses to question "Do you support requiring teachers to take periodic tests to assure that they are qualified to teach in the area they teach?,

Response Percentage

Favor 89%

Oppose 10%

No opinion 1%

Discussion We hypothesized that a high degree of support for High~Stakes testing would be seen among the public in Georgia, independent of evidence supporting the use of such assessments, and a high degree of support was reported. This information is important to the future of education in Georgia and around the nation. If we as educators are to se~e our state, wide community well, then it is important that we understand public opinion regarding the best practices in education.

In response to both questions, at least three, fourths of the public felt that these were appropriate and necessary uses of High .. Stakes testing. These results add to the current emphasis on standardized testing and reinforce previous research, which seems to indicate a high degree of support for standardized testing. Of course those measured in this study were the general public who may have very little if any knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of the assessments currently in use. It is impor.tant to keep in mind that these are non,professionals whose opinions (while important as voters in this state) may be based on very little empirical evidence.

Clearly, unless a major change occurs among the body politic, standard, ized testing seems to be here to stay. As indicated by prior research and by the Peach State Poll, the public feels that these types of tests are nee .. essary to insure both quality teachers and quality high.-school graduates.

It is important for the validity of these tests to be established. If they are found to lack validity, we should lobby for better indicators. This is not only in our best interest, but also in the best interest of our students and the state in general. We may be keeping excellent teacher candidates from entering the field.


We need to hold teachers accountable. The public seems to support the idea of periodic testing in order to accomplish this goal. However, if we administer invalid measures .to educators, the information we obtain is useless and counterproductive. It is important that these measures be rigorously developed to insure the most instruments possible. Further re, search is needed to discover if these are actually effective ways of guaran, teeing a strong, competent teaching pool. Finally, if these measures are to be used, they should be kept in the utmost confidence and under no circumstances should scores or parts of tests be released to the media or anyone other than the school administrators and students and/or teach~ ers. This confidentiality should apply to testing of both students and teachers. When we are doing our best for teacher candidates and when teachers are doing their best for students, it is more likely, not less likely, that no child will be left behind.

References Archer, J. (2001, October 17 ). Foundation stirs debate with repon question,

ing research on licensure. Education Week, 21, 17-18. National Commission of Excellence in Education. ( 1983 ). A nation at risk:

The imperative for educational refonn. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov .. emment Printing Office.

Evans, C., Stewart, P. M., Mangin, M. & Bagley, C. (2001 }. Teacher quality: Issues and research. Education, 122 ( 1) , 200,204.

Flippo, R. (2000). Initial teacher certification testing in Massachusetts. Phi Delta Kappan, 82(1), 34~37.

Olson, L. (2002 ). Two new projects to examine quality, impact of exit ex, ams. Education Week, 21, 10-12.

Peach State Poll #23 (2002). Georgians give state high marks but worry about education. Retrieved August 7, 2006 from www.cviog.uga.edu/ peachpoll/2002 .. 04-25 .pdf.

Reising, B. (2000) . High school exit exams. The Clearing House , 74(1), 4 .. 5. Rose, L. C. & Gallup, A.M. (2001). The 33rd annual Phi Delta Kappa/

Gallup poll of the public's attitudes toward the public schools. Phi Delta Kappan , 83(1), 41 .. 58.

Surveys say education is top priority in U.S. (2000, February/March). Reading Today, 17, 14.

Walsh, K. (2001). Teacher certification reconsidered: Stumbling for quality. Baltimore, MD.: The Abell Foundation.

Holt, Waller, johnson, Clark • 51

Watkins, R. M. & Coker, D. R. (1988). Teacher testing in Arkansas: A viable or liable alternative to evaluation? Education, 1 09 ( 1) , 114, 11 7.

Williams, W. (2001). The plus side of big tests. Principal Leadership, 1 (5), 21,25.

Zigo, D. & Moore, M. T. (2002). Accountability and teacher education: Just like everyone else .. teaching to the test? English Education, 34(2), 137 .. 155.

Zorn, J. (2001 ). Diplomas dubiously denied: A taxonomy and commentary. English journal, 91( 1) , 73, 78.

Author Note Damaris Holt, Miriam E. Johnson, and Raymond]. Waller Piedmont College

Richard Clark, Carl Vinson Institute of Government-University of Georgia

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Raymond J. Waller Piedmont College 468 North Milledge Avenue Athens, Georgia 30601

. Georgia Association of Teacher Educators

Position Statement Fall2005

Given our commitment to promote improvement in the preparation and con .. tinuing professional development and scholarship of all educators in Georgia, the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators (GATE) welcomes the oppor .. tunity to share its insights and positions with others concerned with the same issues. Teacher education and the education of all children in Georgia will benefit from this professional organization's statement of beliefs, policies and visions that may prooide a platform from which to view educational practices that impact all P-12 students . As a leader organization in Georgia, GATE membership seeks to improve communication, collaboration and coordination with similar associations throughout the state and nation. It must be recognized that this position statement is proactive and fluid in ordeT to address the on .. going and ever ... changing concerns that face aU educators .

1. Rigorous standards for teacher preparation programs must not be relaxed in the face of extreme competition for teacher candidates. Private and public teacher preparation institutions (e.g., two and four year colleges and universities) and agencies (e.g., RES~s and school districts) in Georgia are held to rigorous program development and implementation based on standards by the Georgia Professional Stan .. dards Commission (PSC) and the National Council for the Accredita .. tion of Teacher Education (NCATE). The accreditation and approval requirements include continuous program assessment, improvement and adherence to professional and curricula standards. We believe that all teachei preparation program providers must be held accountable and out .. of .. state, for .. profit providers that do not have to meet the same rigor .. ous PSC/NCATE standards poorly serve efforts to improve the quality of teaching and student learning in Georgia.

2. Higher education and p,12 partnerships are essential for teacher retention, professional development and school improvements. Across Georgia most teacher education programs have instituted profes .. sional development partnerships with pre .. kindergarten through grade twelve schools. Partnerships have proven effective to prepare and men .. tor new teachers, provide professional development for veteran teachers and to marshal resources for school improvement and reform reference. We believe that to continue these efforts, teacher education programs need organizational flexibility and resources, while p .. 12 colleagues need additional incentives and support for sustaining these partnerships.

Position Statement • 53

3. All assessments of P .. 12 students and teachers must be valid, reliable and free from bias. Assessments and assessment practices must be supported by sound re~ search to ensure candidates, teachers and students from diverse ethnic, racial, gender and socio .. economic groups are not disadvantaged by cur .. rent testing programs and admission practices. GATE is also concerned about the current emphasis on testing that characterizes P .. 12 educa~ tion. We believe assessments must include opportunities for students to demonstrate a range of knowledge and skills, including problem solving, decision making, critical thinking and inquiry as well as literal knowledge.

4. Increased admissions standards into teacher education programs should be supported with increased beginning salaries. Despite higher admission requirements into teacher education programs, recruiting new students into the profession remains difficult due to the lack of competitive teacher salaries. In order to attract academically strong candidates to teaching, salaries must approach those available to other college graduates. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, there is a salary gap between education and other majors. Teachers begin their careers approximately $8,000 behind other college graduates and this discrepancy continues throughout their careers. We believe effort must also be taken to maintain the salary increases so that Georgia teachers will be among the highest paid in the Southeast.

5. Georgia should create and refine incentives to attract, reward and retain the best qualified teachers to work throughout the entire State including the most challenging areas. Scholarships and loan~forgiveness programs for perspective educators are effective methods of attracting bright college students and graduates into education; however, few incentives exist for undergraduates to choose teaching in critical need fields or to work in urban or rural impoverished and/or high~needs schools. Additional non .. fiscal incentives include, but are not limited, to smaller class size, reduction of paperwork, and elimi~ nation of non .. instructional duties. Furthermore, partnerships need to be established with business and civic organizations to attract more college educated persons into teaching.

6. Greater support for alternative certification is necessary through sufficient funding, student loans, scholarships and employers' support. With the shortage of highly qualified teachers reaching a critical level, it is imperative that alternative routes to certification be accessible to recent non .. education graduates and career changers. Georgia's colleges

54 • Georgia Association of Teacher Educators

and universities have developed several alternative certification models but qualified students are often prevented from matriculating through these programs. Prospective teachers need critical guided practice before assuming responsibility for the educational of P .. 12 students. Since most field requirements are completed in educational sites during the school day, there are often conflicts with workplace schedules of potential alternative certification candidates. We believe greater support for these candidates by their current employers and/or through sufficient loans and scholarships is needed. ·

7. Support is needed for efforts to bridge the gap between professional preparation and the first three years of teaching through mentoring and similar professional development programs. Novice teachers are often assigned to the most challenging situations with little or no support. Many excellent educators leave the teaching profession within five years due to isolation, adverse working conditions and low pay. We believe it is imperative that teacher education programs and school systems initiate appropriate professional development experi .. ences, supportive learning communities and mentoring programs that pair novice teachers with veteran educators who have reduced responsi .. bilities so that they can effectively observe and assist the new teachers.

8. All children must be prepared for a successful transition into formal academic education. Too many students start school at a disadvantage. ChUdren in the criti .. cal development years of birth to age five are entitled to highly quali .. fied teachers who adhere to developmentally appropriate practices and embrace family involvement as defined by the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) guidelines for teacher preparation and certification. We believe teachers preparing for positions to teach infants, toddlers and preschool children must have the same levels of preparation and compensation as their P .. 12 colleagues.

9. To attract teacher education faculty, credit should be given for years teaching at P~12 levels. Colleges and universities in Georgia are having great difficulties attract .. ing and retaining teacher education faculty and clinical instructors. For teachers to make the transition from P ... 12 schools to higher education, they must often take a reduction in salary. We believe that in order to attract quality faculty and instructors with relevant clinical expertise, institutions of higher education should give credit for p ... 12 teaching experiences.

Position Statement o 55

10. Education leaders must have the appropriate training and experience to meet the challenges of P, 12 education. Individuals appointed to positions of leadership in education must have the appropriate formal preparation as well as depth and breadth of expe.riences in p .. 12 schools. Leadership should not be limited to the building or district level, though. Teacher leaders need to be nurtured, recognized and rewarded to remain in classrooms as role models for preservice candidates and colleagues. Through their positive examples, they can attract their own p .. 12 students to consider the teaching profession. One route to demonstrate teacher leadership is through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards {NBPTS). We believe colleges and universities should consider National Board work when admitting stu .. dents, for example, grant teachers three to six graduate credits for taking the NBPTS Knowledgeable Teacher course and earning National Board Certification and using National Board Certification in lieu of another requirement.

Cochran .. Smith, M., & Zeichner, K. M. (Eds.). (2005). Studying teacher education: The Report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Darling .. Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. {Eds.). (2005}. Preparing teachers for a changing World: What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco: Jossey .. Bass.

Please contact the following for additional suggestions: Executive Secretary: Maryellen Cosgrove www.gaate.org

Additional information may be obtained from the following sources: Association of Teacher Educators American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education National Board for Professional Teaching Standards National Commission on Teaching and America's Future National Network for Educational Renewal

GATEways 2006 (Volume 18 Issue 1)

Documents

appalachian state university

university of georgia

office of university

georgia julia dorminey

ethna reid

teacher education journal

teacher education appreciation

reid associates