Eloise Lopez Metcalfe
description
Transcript of Eloise Lopez Metcalfe
Eloise Lopez Metcalfe Grow Your Own SummitChicago, Illinois
May 12, 2006
UCLA Center X
Teacher Education Program
The Center X ExperimentIn 1994, we asked:
Is it possible to create a teacher education program that would attract a racially diverse group of college students with more than good grades—students who wanted to become urban teachers in order to further social justice in the world around them—and then engage them for two years in an intensive program focused exclusively on the theories and practices they would need to stay and be successful in high-poverty urban schools?
Jeannie Oakes, FounderMegan Franke, Director
Center X Teacher Education Program
• An explicit commitment to social justice, made real by continual struggle about what it means and how it is enacted in urban schools
• Engaging a diverse group of faculty and teacher candidates in small, long-term learning communities (teams and cohorts)
• Viewing learning as social and dialogical inquiry within communities of practice
• Constant grounding of practice in theory and of theory in practice, both in university courses and in K-12 fieldwork
A social justice perspective
• Considers the values & politics that pervade education, as well as the technical matters of teaching and learning
• Asks critical questions about how conventional schooling came to be and about who benefits from the status quo
• Pays attention to inequalities & seeks alternatives
• Treats cultural & linguistic diversity as an asset to teaching and learning
Our Mission
• Provide high-status preservice education and radically improve urban schooling for California’s racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse children
Goal…prepare teachers with
•Commitment•Capacity•Resilience
Four roles for TEP Teachers
• Caring advocate for all students
• Reflective, Inquiry based practitioner
• Generative change agent• Community Builder
All about learning
• Learning as a social activity
– Identity– Knowledge and skills
– Inquiry– Community
Identity
Inquiry
• Learning occurs through ongoing dialogue
• Formal and informal– Inquiry groups– Car rides
Knowledge and skills
• Develop as we do our work
• In apprenticeship
• In scholarship and practice
Community
• Multiple communities– Urban schools– Urban communities
– UCLA families
• Situated in work– Developing relationships
– Community projects– Cohort model– Urban Education Network
• We believe that our theory of learning, enacted across multiple sites, supports teachers to become skilled classroom practitioners as well as public intellectuals who work for educational equity and access through multiple forms of democratic participation
“What we need in teacher education is not better generic strategies
for “teaching multicultural education” or “teaching for
diversity” nor more lessons about basket making and other customs in non-Anglo cultures. Instead, I propose that what we need are generative ways for prospective
teachers, experienced teachers, and teacher educators alike to work
together in communities of learners – to explore and consider their own assumptions, understand the values
and practices of families and cultures that are different from their own, and construct pedagogy that takes these into account in locally appropriate and culturally sensitive ways.” (Marilyn
Cochran-Smith)
Center X Teacher Education Program
• Integrating the technical dimensions of teaching with the moral, cultural and political
• Emphasizing the importance of knowing communities as well as knowing schools and classrooms
• Extending formal preparation into the first year of teaching
• Maintaining connections and support beyond the first year
TEP Description2 year program focusing on Social Justice in Los Angeles Partnership Schools:
• Year 1– coursework, observation participation, student teaching (preliminary credential)
• Year 2– full-time teaching, weekly seminar, inquiry project (Masters Degree)
FALL WINTER SPRING
Field Observation & ParticipationNovice Seminar
Field Student TeachingNovice Seminar
Field Student TeachingNovice Seminar
COURSE WORK COURSE WORK COURSE WORK
MethodsIdentitySocial FoundationEd Psych
MethodsCommunityLanguage & Culture Language Acquisition
MethodsSpecial Needs
BCLAD Language BCLAD Culture BCLAD Methods
Preliminary Credential
Two Year Graduate Program
Novice Year: Embedded Assessments and
Teaching Event
Resident Year: Advanced Study Course Work
Resident Year Inquiry
FALL WINTER SPRING
Field Resident Teaching
Field Resident Teaching
Field Resident Teaching
COURSE WORK COURSE WORK COURSE WORK
Instructional Strategies in Urban Education
Instructional Strategies in Urban Education(ELL/Special Populations)
Instructional Strategies in Urban Education (Technology)
Instructional Decision Making Curricular Decision Making / Health Education
Knowledge and Inquiry in the Classroom
Master of Education Professional Clear Credential
• A recent innovation within Center X and TEP
• Goal of Center Schools: Allow TEP to strategically focus its work in urban communities by forming deep connections and reciprocal relationships with the faculties, administrators, and neighboring communities of specific school sites.
• Currently, there are a handful of elementary and middle Center Schools and plans underway for two Center High Schools Jody Priselac, Executive Director
Center Schools
• Neighborhood teams—consisting of first year teacher education students in urban communities of close proximity who are placed in specific school sites for course work, observation and participation, and student teaching
• A faculty advisor and field supervisors—to coordinate each neighborhood team
• Guiding teachers to mentor 1st year teacher ed students
• Weekly team meetings in Center Schools—to debrief their observations, learn more about themselves, their colleagues, teaching in urban schools, including, the nature of urban schools, parents and communities
Center Schools have:
Scale: It’s tough to get a foothold to support new teachers as change agents in huge, year round schools– LAUSD high schools are extremely large, with as
many as 5500 students and 250 teachers, on a “Concept 6” three-track year-round schedule
Working Conditions: high turnover, lack of credentialed colleagues, scripted high school curricula, periodic assessments, etc.
Revolving District Leadership
University Challenges
Center Schools: Challenges
Research Projects
Retention: Karen Hunter Quartz Workforce: Kim Barraza
Lawerence
Social Justice Inquiry: Rae Jeane Williams
Longitudinal Research
• 7-year study: 2000-2006• 10 cohorts of UCLA Center X graduates (n=1,100)
• Survey and qualitative methods• Secondary/comparative databases: NCES Schools and Staffing Survey and California State Department of Education data
Increased Retention
98 97 949096
9084
737667
6054
0
20
40
60
80
100
Percent retained
Comparison of National/SASS and Center X Retention Rates
National/SASS/teaching
Center X/teaching
Center X/in education
2 3 4 5Career Year
Highly-qualified, early career teachers nationwide
6%
5%
5%
83%
White Asian Latino Black
Early career Center X graduates
35%
33%
4%28%
White Asian Latino Black
Diversifying the Workforce
Diversity of Students
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Cohort1
Cohort2
Cohort3
Cohort4
Cohort5
Cohort6
Cohort7
Cohort8
Cohort9
Cohort10
Cohort11
White/Caucasian Latino Black/African-American Asian Other
6 Case Inquiries
• Lisa Winberg - Connecting With Parents Through Oral Histories
• Genessee Quizon - Critical Literacy in the First Grade
• Courtney Moore - The Homework Dilemma• Nathaniel Pickering - Mister What’s with All this Gay
Stuff?: Students’ Feelings About Queer Issues • Claudia Rojas - Students Organizing for Educational
Change • Chi Nguyen - The Impact of Grouping Practices in a
Chemistry Class
Theoretical Frame
Social Cultural Theory Vygotsky (1934, 1980) Freire (1971) Lave & Wenger (1991) Moll (1992, 2005) Valencia & Solorzano (1997)
Learning Theory Collins, Brown & Newmann, 1989; Bransford,
Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Franke & Grouws, 1997
Language & Literacy Theory Cummins, 2001; Gee, 1990; Labov, 1969)
Findings - 6 Teaching Practices
1. Complexity – they are aware of the complexity of urban issues
2. Reflection – they continue to examine their roles as educators
3. Challenge – they question conventional teaching practices
4. Knowledge – they increase their understandings of social justice issues
5. Responsibility – they accept responsibility for student learning
6. High Expectations – they have high expectations of all students
Social Justice Inquiry Project
A necessary, but insufficient definition of teacher quality:
• Expert in the subjects they teach;
• Understand how children learn;• Use pedagogical strategies that make subject matter knowledge accessible to students.
What more does high quality urban teaching require?
Choose to teach low-income students in communities of color Engage students from whom society expects little in producing work of high intellectual quality Develop challenging “urban” curriculum Enhance students’ college access & life chancesBridge the multiple worlds of home, community, and school Contribute to developing a community of professionals Engage in activism to disrupt the status quo of schools in low-income communities of colorCommit for the long haul
Learning to Struggle
• Keeping our graduates working in the schools that need them the most demands that they understand how to struggle within unsupportive systems in order to further both the life chances of their students and a broader quest for social justice
Struggling for Justice
• No teacher leaves Center X believing that their good intentions, social convictions, or their own privileged educations alone could create good schooling for their students– Theories, knowledge and skill– Building coalitions
too angry to leavetoo well-prepared to leave too supported to leave too activist to leave