Work Plan

Introduction

Pennsylvania has a long and rich tradition of preparing excellent teachers for the Commonwealth’s schools and for schools beyond our borders. Pennsylvania is one of the top five states in producing future teachers – some 13,000 per year. Our public and private colleges and universities have an almost universal commitment to teacher preparation, whether they conduct the programs themselves or partner with others. Many out-of-state school districts turn to Pennsylvania to hire new teachers, and have done so for years. The Pennsylvania Department of Education has a long, commendable history of supervising teacher certification in a way that allows many different styles of programs to coexist and to demonstrate their strengths in the marketplace. In an era of changing needs and increasing opportunities, this is a wonderful and strong base upon which to build – to ensure the continued growth and vitality of our teacher education system. This is what Governor Rendell has asked the Commission on Training America’s Teachers to do.

Major Goals

1. All teacher education programs achieve world class excellence for their students, providing them with the academic knowledge and pedagogical skills to be effective in the classroom.
2. All teacher education graduates are passionate consumers of life-long learning so they communicate these core values to their students and continue to increase their effectiveness in delivering high-quality classroom instruction.
3. The teacher education system as a whole provides quality teachers for all students in all school districts and responds to shortages and imbalances in the teacher marketplace.
4. Pennsylvania meets the need for high quality teachers within the state and enhances its ability to meet the teacher education needs of the nation as a strategic economic development initiative.
5. State laws, regulations, and policies are aligned to achieve these goals.
   

Key Questions and Issues

See following pages.

Goal # 1

1.      All teacher education programs achieve world class excellence for their students, providing them with the academic knowledge and pedagogical skills to be effective in the classroom.

Key Questions

1. What are the skills, knowledge, and personal characteristics a novice graduate of a teacher education program should possess? How can these best be attained in an undergraduate program?
2. How can we best align the state’s teacher education programs with Pennsylvania’s K-12 academic standards?
3. How can we best prepare graduates to use research, multiple assessment strategies, and multiple forms of data to assess student progress and improve their own teaching?
4. What is the appropriate mix of academic coursework and field experience to prepare novice teachers for the classroom, and what are the appropriate roles of teacher education institutions and PK-12 partner schools in delivering coursework and hosting field experiences?
5. For what criteria should teacher education programs be accountable and to whom? How should such criteria be measured and used in state policy decision-making?
6. How can we best ensure that the faculty of teacher education programs have ongoing, substantive experience in schools and classrooms?
7. Are there potentially excellent teachers for whom the traditional teacher education system is not a viable pathway? Can the state’s existing intern certification be used or modified to provide a more appropriate pathway? Are there other alternatives that should be considered?
8. What experiences have other states had with alternative certification? What quality issues have arisen, and how have they been addressed?

Issues to Consider

1. Employer needs (superintendent-HR survey)
2. Employer satisfaction (superintendent-HR survey)
3. Program structure, course content, and role of the entire institution – but preserving institutional diversity
4. Need for more involvement in PK-12 schools – role in supporting tenure and performance reviews of faculty
5. Role of accreditation
6. Role of PDE reviews and program approval
7. Current intern certificate and other alternative pathways – speed of deployment viz. ability to teach effectively
8. PK-16 councils
9. Professional development schools
10. What are other states doing? (Education Trust, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia?)
11. Graduate satisfaction after three years of teaching (new teacher survey)

Goal # 2

2.      All teacher education graduates are passionate consumers of life-long learning so they communicate these core values to their students and continue to increase their effectiveness in delivering high-quality classroom instruction.

Key Questions

1. What are the skills, knowledge, and personal characteristics a career teacher in his or her fifth or sixth year should possess?
2. What are the roles of teacher education institutions and school districts in providing high-quality, standards-based induction and continuing professional education for all teachers?
3. Why do so many teachers leave the profession in their first three to five years of teaching?
4. How can continuing professional education and other school environmental issues (e.g., role and authority of teachers, career opportunities that do not involve becoming administrators, administrative support, student discipline, salary, etc.) be improved so as to keep high quality teachers in the profession?

Issues to Consider

1. Role of institution from which teacher graduated, and role of institutions geographically closest to teachers who need professional education
2. Improving induction programs and linking them more closely to preservice teacher education
3. Improving the quality of Act 48 professional education
4. Web-based professional education
5. School, district, and community conditions as barriers to and promoters of teacher retention

Goal # 3

3.      The teacher education system as a whole provides quality teachers for all students in all school districts and responds to shortages and imbalances in the teacher marketplace.

Key Questions

1. How do we ensure that teachers are prepared to improve the proficiency of diverse learners, especially those most at risk?
2. Where and in what fields are there shortages of highly effective teachers in Pennsylvania? Are there patterns in these shortages related to PK-12 schools with the most challenges, the structure of the state’s teacher education system, or economic opportunities for graduates outside of teaching?
3. What are the projected needs for teachers that could result in shortages of highly effective teachers (given no change in current practice), based upon age of teachers and projected retirements, anticipated demographic changes in the state, and expected effects of federal and state policy (especially No Child Left Behind)?
4. How do we attract teacher candidates and incentivize teacher education institutions to focus on meeting these needs?
5. Are there ways that teacher education institutions can cooperate with school districts – especially in hard-to-staff areas – to create a “pipeline” of potential teachers beginning in middle school or high school?

Issues to Consider

1. Current and projected shortages – geographic, subject area, race/ethnicity
2. Institutional specialization – centers of excellence
3. Hard-to-staff schools/districts – focused public policy approach to problems
4. Joint teacher education program-school district efforts to educate and certify future teachers – PK-16 initiatives
5. Role of community colleges in teacher education and transfer of credit issues
6. Pipeline of candidates for hard-to-staff schools/districts
7. Role of teacher unions

Goal # 4

4.      Pennsylvania meets the need for high quality teachers within the state and enhances its ability to meet the teacher education needs of the nation as a strategic economic development initiative.

Key Questions

1. What states and out-of-state school districts are major employers of Pennsylvania graduates? Are these likely to be the same for the foreseeable future?
2. How do these employers define their needs (in terms of employment opportunities and desired qualities of new teachers) and the ability of Pennsylvania institutions to meet those needs?
3. How many out-of-state students are enrolled in and graduate from Pennsylvania teacher education institutions? From what states do they come? Why do these students come to Pennsylvania to study?
4. Are there ways that the Commonwealth and/or individual institutions can effectively focus on serving out-of-state students and those likely to teach in other states without short-changing Pennsylvania’s own need for high quality teachers?
5. Should we consider establishing some institutions as national centers of excellence that focus both preservice and continuing professional education on a national student pool, as well as on Pennsylvania residents? Who would be competitors for such institutions?

Issues to Consider

1. Out-of-state employer needs (ask PDE and deans to identify major employers, and then query them by phone, e-mail, surveys)
2. Out-of-state employer satisfaction (ask PDE and deans to identify major employers, and then query them by phone, e-mail, surveys)
3. Out-of-state teacher graduate satisfaction with teacher education program (survey through employers)
4. Patterns of out-of-state students coming into Pennsylvania and where they go to teach (dean survey)
5. Out-of-state service niche – centers of excellence
6. Role of web-based continuing professional education for in-state and out-of-state graduates
7. Economic modeling of intellectual capital represented by teacher education as an economic activity magnet
8. Economic modeling of ways teacher education contributes to economic growth and cross-state economic activity

Goal # 5

5.      State laws, regulations, and policies are aligned to achieve these goals.

Key Questions

1. How do current state laws, regulations, standards, policies, and program review processes promote or constrain an institution’s ability to prepare quality teachers?
2. How do the requirements of NCLB support and challenge other strategies for ensuring the quality of teacher education programs?
3. What costs are associated with any policy recommendations?
4. How can we anticipate and respond with greater agility to needs for program changes to meet evolving needs?

Issues to Consider

1. Promoting agility – not conformity to rules – while ensuring program quality
2. Effective policies in other states
3. Achieving buy-in from key constituencies
4. Can public be mobilized?
5. Continuing collaboration of PDE, school districts, and teacher education programs to promote understanding of the need for adaptation to change

For more information contact info@pateach.org