The Power of Partnerships in Becoming Accountable for the Impact of Teacher Candidates on P12 Learni

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The Power of Partnerships in Becoming Accountable
for the Impact of Teacher Candidates on P-12
Learning

• Roger Pankratz
• roger.pankratz_at_wku.edu
• The Renaissance Partnership for Improving Teacher
  Quality http//fp.uni.edu/itq
• Western Kentucky University
• http//www.wku.edu
• TQE Directors Conference
• Phoenix, Arizona
• November 15 18, 2004

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Renaissance Partnership Institutions

• California State University, Fresno
• Eastern Michigan University
• Emporia State University
• Idaho State University
• Kentucky State University
• Longwood University, Virginia
• Middle Tennessee State University
• Millersville University, Pennsylvania
• Southeast Missouri University
• University of Northern Iowa
• Western Kentucky University

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• October 1997 San Antonio
• The Renaissance Group
• April 1998 Southeast Missouri State
• Five Assessment Coordinators
• October 1998 Las Vegas
• Las Vegas - 12 Assessment Coordinators

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• Spring 1999
• Proposals submitted to Title II for a Teacher
  Quality Enhancement Grant
• September 1999
• Renaissance Partnership for Improving Teacher
  Quality Funded
• 5,730,011 Federal Support
• 3,573,921 Matching Support

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Project Goals

• Become accountable for the impact of teacher
  candidates on P-12 student learning
• Improve teacher performance in key areas and show
  an increase in teachers ability to facilitate
  learning of all students

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Project Objectives

• Accountability Systems
• Teacher Work Samples
• Team Mentoring
• Program Redesign
• Networking Across Project Sites
• Research that Links Teacher Performance to P-12
  Student Learning

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• Teacher Work Samples
• Candidate performance results on seven teaching
  tasks that focus attention on P-12 student
  learning over a three- to six-week
  standards-based unit of instruction

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• October 1999 Cedar Falls, IA
• Orientation to Teacher Work Samples
• Spring 2000
• Visit to Western Oregon University
• Development of First TWS Prompt
• Training in Nashville and Asheville
• Fall 2000
• First Semester Pilot of TWS

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• January 2001 St. Louis
• Revision of TWS Prompt Rubric
• Spring 2001
• Second Semester Pilot
• 198 TWS Produced

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• June 2001 St. Louis
• Benchmarking and Scoring
• Revision of Prompt Rubric
• Fall 2001
• Third Semester Pilot of TWS

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• January 2002 St. Louis
• Sharing Successes and Concerns
• Advanced Scoring Training
• Benchmarking New TWS
• Inter-rater Reliability Check
• Spring 2002
• Fourth Semester Pilot
• 964 TWS Produced

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• June 2002 St. Louis
• Sharing Successes and Concerns
• Advanced Scoring Training
• Benchmarking New TWS
• Training Material Development
• Fall 2002
• Fifth Semester Implementation of TWS

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• January 2003 St. Louis
• Sharing Successes and Concerns
• Advanced Training
• Mentoring Manual Development
• Assessment Tools Manual Development
• Spring 2003
• Sixth Semester Pilot
• 1,245 TWS Produced

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• June 2003 St. Louis
• Sharing Successes and Concerns
• Credibility Manual Development
• Assessment Tools Manual Development
• Consideration of Research Design
• Fall 2003
• Fifth Semester Implementation of TWS

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The Renaissance Partnership Quest for Performance
Accountability

• January 2004 St. Louis
• Revision of Mentoring Manual
• Revision of Credibility Manual
• Revision of Assessment Tools Manual
• Selection of 24 TWS exemplars
• Spring 2004
• Eighth Semester Pilot
• 1,780 TWS Produced

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History of Renaissance Group Quest for
Performance Accountability

• June 2004 - Nashville
• Celebration of Achievements
• Final Revision of Assessment Tools Manual
• Annotation of TWS Exemplars
• Plan for Institutionalization

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Renaissance Partnership AccomplishmentsAccountabi
lity Systems

• Number of Institutions Implementing Five Critical
  Components
• as of June 2004 ( and Projected for June 2005)

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Renaissance Partnership Accomplishments

• Teacher Work Samples
• Nearly 2,000 student teachers are completing
  teacher work samples each semester
• Eight institutions require all student teachers
  to complete teacher work samples
• More than 2,000 teacher candidates complete
  pre-student teaching teacher work samples each
  semester

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Renaissance Partnership Accomplishments

• Teacher Work Samples
• Renaissance Standards, Prompt and Rubric
  published
• Validity and generalizability data collected
• Proficient performance increased from 50 to 80
• Assessment Tools for Teachers Manual developed

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Renaissance Partnership Accomplishments

• Mentoring
• 3,000 school practitioners, 480 teacher educators
  and 170 arts and science faculty trained to
  mentor teacher candidates to produce teacher work
  samples
• Mentoring Manual on web site
• Teacher Candidate Manual on web site
• Twenty-four TWS exemplars selected, annotated and
  available for training

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Renaissance Partnership Accomplishments

• Program Revision
• 189 identified teacher program preparation
  courses across eleven institutions revised to
  address one or more of the seven teaching
  processes of teacher work samples

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Renaissance Partnership Accomplishments

• Networking
• Eleven two to three day work sessions for fifty
  to seventy project site representatives
• Project Web Site ?

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Renaissance Partnership Accomplishments

• Dissemination
• Three annual Renaissance Group TWS workshops in
  Kansas City
• Six TWS training workshops for non-partnership
  groups
• One hundred state, regional and national
  presentations
• Twenty professional publications

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Results at Five Renaissance Institutions

• Question 1
• What are the most significant reforms or
  improvements to teacher preparation at your
  institution resulting from participation in the
  Renaissance Partnership Project?

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• Adaptation of teacher work samples to meet
  California teacher performance expectations
• Full implementation of a valid and reliable
  assessment system that evaluates candidate
  performance and program effectiveness

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• Focus on PK-12 learning
• Involvement of LAS and school practitioners in
  the development, delivery and refinement of an
  assessment
• Comprehensive assessment of skills and knowledge

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• Advancement to full implementation of a tracking
  database for teacher education assessment system
• Teacher work samples have become a major
  assessment to document teacher candidate
  performance
• Collective responsibility and accountability for
  candidate performance among teacher educators,
  arts and science faculty and school practitioners

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• A fertilization of research, innovation, change
  strategies and group problem-solving occurs
  during collaborative efforts in a partnership
• When clear missions and goals are stated and kept
  at the forefront, usual barriers to progress
  (such as turf, ego or fear of risk taking) are
  greatly diminished

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Results at Five Renaissance Institutions

• Question 2
• What processes, events, actions have been the
  most helpful to produce program improvements and
  project success at your university?

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• Faculty in-depth discourse about the seven
  processes of teacher work samples
• Formal and informal opportunities to share
  successes and concerns in an honest way to solve
  problems with partner universities
• Financial support to develop implement and
  evaluate a performance assessment system

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• Collaboration between teacher educators, school
  practitioners and administration in defining a
  common base of essential skills and knowledge
• The development of teaching materials and
  strategies
• Closing the loop communication between the
  assessment personnel and faculty with regard to
  the TWS data

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• Renaissance partner work sessions
• Initiation of validity and generalizability
  studies to establish credibility of candidate
  performance
• Faculty forum events where teacher work sample
  materials and exemplars were displayed
• Professional development training and scoring
  sessions for teacher educators and school
  practitioners

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• The grassroots bottom-up development of teacher
  work samples
• The ongoing involvement of UNIs Council on
  Teacher Education in the reform development
  process

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Results at Five Renaissance Institutions

• Question 3
• What have you learned in the Renaissance
  Partnership about using partnership projects and
  interactions to initiate program reforms and
  improvements in teacher preparation at your
  university?

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• Bringing together colleagues with different areas
  of expertise, but who shared a common mission of
  preparing teachers who can positively impact K-12
  student learning
• We are not alone in the universe Although the
  partner universities were very different, we
  shared problems, concerns, goals, frustrations,
  etc.
• The scale of what can be accomplished is
  exponentially increased through a partnership
  (e.g. publications, materials, presentations,
  credibility studies, etc.)

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• Diversity is strength each university added the
  whole in terms of materials, ideas and time
• Problems are shared and so are solutions many
  of the problems we faced had been solved at
  another institution or vice-versa

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• External funding for reform initiatives enabled
  development of structures, processes and research
  that was not possible with operating budgets
• Pooling of talent and mutual support has
  strengthened institutional accountability and
  capacity for leadership to impact P-12 learning

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• Establishing a supportive culture to share
  information is important for growth
• Scheduled focus meetings to discuss, collect, and
  explore documents
• User friendly materials to disseminate information

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• Revision of instruction and courses in teacher
  preparation based on feedback of TWS scores to
  faculty instruction and courses in teacher
  preparation
• The shift from a curriculum-based to a
  standards-based system for teacher preparation
• A common vocabulary and framework for all teacher
  preparation courses and field experiences
• An accountability system that includes a rubric
  and scored TWS as one of multiple assessments for
  program completion

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• Meeting in a neutral place far away from
  everyones campus or home results in relationship
  building which greatly contributed to the
  success. The evening informal sessions at the
  hotel were just as valuable to the progress of
  the project as the formal work sessions
• A leader with a clear vision, deep knowledge,
  extensive experience base and effective
  organization brings synergy, motivation and a
  collaborative can do spirit to the project

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Rogers Five Key Success Factors

• Sound concepts and strategies
• User-friendly materials
• Collective professional talent
• History of collaboration
• Learning from experience