North Central College
ACI Member Partnership Case Studies: North Central College
By Rebecca Clemente and Maureen Kincaid
Author Biographies:
Rebecca Clemente, PhD, is Professor of Education and Director of Pipeline to Urban Teaching Program at North Central College.
Maureen Kincaid, EdD, is Chairperson of Education and Associate Professor of Education at North Central College.
Abstract:
North Central College participated in a federal grant with the Associated Colleges of Illinois Center for Success in High-need Schools. The TQE-P grant provided funding and support to determine how to transform the teacher education program curriculum, including field experiences. The “Junior/Senior Scholars: Pipeline to Urban Teaching Project” provided the foundation for a teacher preparation model that allowed candidates to gain knowledge, skills, and teaching experiences in high-need schools. Critical components include staff development for faculty, infusion of content across the curriculum, ongoing opportunities for field experiences in high-need schools across the curriculum, faculty ownership and engagement, and the addition of supplementary coursework in reading, ELL, and special education to enhance the preparation of candidates for high-need schools.
Introduction
For more than a decade, the focus of education has been on the increasingly diverse population of students that now occupy classrooms in P-12 settings. As noted by Crouch (2006), “soon there will be no majority racial or ethnic group in the United States—no one group that makes up more than 50% of the total population.” Specifically, population trends indicated that between 1990 and 2000 the total U.S. population increased by 13.2 %, with the Hispanic population growing by 57.9 percent, the Asian population by 52.2 %, the African American population by 16.2 %, while the non-Hispanic white population grew only 3.4 %. Additionally, the U. S. Census Bureau (n.d.) projections through 2050 indicate an increasingly diverse nation, with the Hispanic population increasing 188 %, the Asian population increasing 213 %, the African American population increasing 71 %, with only a 7 % increase in the non-Hispanic white population (Crouch, 2006).
In the ten years between 1996 and 2006, the nation’s K-12 ELL population rose by over 60 % while the size of the overall student population remained essentially unchanged. As a result, the proportion of school children who are English learners has grown markedly—f rom 6.8 % of the total K-12 school population in 1995-96 to 10.3 % in 2005-2006. (Batalova, Fix & Murray, 2006).
The increase in the diversity of the P-12 student population naturally has caused teacher education programs to examine the content and experiences in their programs to ensure future teachers are prepared to teach this changing population of students. Because most teachers are white European Americans who speak only English, most teachers do not have the same cultural and socio-economic perspectives and points of view as their students (Banks, et. al., 2005). Because of this disconnect, it is essential that schools of education incorporate content related to diversity throughout their programs.
North Central College is one of several higher education institutions that participated in a federal grant with the Associated Colleges of Illinois Center for Success in High-need Schools. The TQE-P grant provided institutions with funding and support to determine how to transform the teacher education program curriculum, including field experiences. This article provides an overview of NCC’s efforts over the course of the grant and since the conclusion of the grant.
Background
North Central College, founded in 1861, is an independent, comprehensive college of the liberal arts and sciences affiliated with The United Methodist Church. The college offers bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees to its undergraduate students and MS, MBA, MA, and Master's of Leadership Studies programs to its graduate students. Since 1916, teacher preparation has been part of North Central College. Current College enrollment is 2,900, including 2,600 undergraduates, mostly traditionally aged (18-24-year-olds).
The education department offers programs to prepare elementary, secondary (English, math, science [designations in biology, chemistry, and physics], and social science [designation history]), and K-12 (art, foreign language, music, and physical education) teachers. In addition, Master of Arts degrees are offered in education leadership and administration and curriculum and instruction. The education leadership and administration program prepares students for Type 75 certification (i.e., principal). The curriculum and instruction program allows graduate students to specialize in pedagogy, teacher leadership, mathematics, or reading teacher strands. The department has nine full-time and two half-time faculty members in addition to a large contingent of part-time faculty members who supervise and teach on a per-course basis. The department has two placement coordinators and two support staff. There are 347 undergraduate students, 152 in elementary education and 194 in secondary education. The current enrollment of graduate students is 108.
Project Overview
The “Junior/Senior Scholars: Pipeline to Urban Teaching Project” was developed as part of the TQE-P grant. This provided the foundation for a teacher preparation model that allowed candidates to gain knowledge, skills, and teaching experiences in high-need schools. The model consisted of integrated experiences, on campus and in the field, infused throughout North Central's teacher education program. Candidates were and continue to be involved early and encouraged to participate in ongoing experiences with students in high-need schools to increase their probability of electing to teach in high-need schools.
East Aurora High School, Cowherd Middle School, and Oak Park Elementary, in East Aurora School District 131, and North Lawndale College Preparatory High School and Johnson Elementary School, in Chicago S.D. 299, were NCC’s original school partners. These schools have long-term relationships with North Central College through the Junior/Senior Scholars program, a college readiness program established in 1989 for students K-12. At the time of the grant, the East Aurora School District 131 elementary school partner was 62% low-income and 94% Hispanic. The middle school was 80% Hispanic, 14% Black and 76% low-income. Students struggled to meet or exceed ISAT standards (47% at the elementary school and 62% at the middle school). Only one-quarter of the district’s high school students met or exceeded state standards on the PSAE and less than one-half (46%) were low-income. Johnson Elementary School and North Lawndale Charter High School in the Chicago Public School District were 90% low-income. Only 14% of the high school students met or exceeded PSAE standards.
The project model goals were to:
1. Provide knowledge, experiences and support to pre-service teacher candidates as they gain understanding and skills for teaching in high-need schools.
2. Provide support to cooperating teachers, principals, and regional coordinators in high-need schools.
3. Strengthen the supportive structures in high-need schools to retain highly-qualified teachers.
4. Increase the numbers of highly qualified teachers in high-need schools.
Implementation of the Model
The department has systematically infused content throughout its curriculum to enable students to develop knowledge, skills, and dispositions for teaching in high-need schools. According to Darling-Hammond et al. (2005),
A number of studies have offered empirical evidence that teacher education programs that have coherent visions of teaching and learning, and that integrate related strategies across courses and field placements, have a greater impact on the initial conceptions and practices of prospective teachers than those that remain a collection of relatively disconnected courses (p. 392).
North Central College's Department of Education planned for a systemic change in its curriculum, including the infusion of concepts, skills and dispositions in both courses and field experience.
Introductory Field Experience
The main curricular entry point for the teacher education program is through Introduction to Education (EDN 100 ) that requires all candidates to gain their first field experience (a minimum of ten hours) through participation in the Junior/Senior Scholars tutoring program. Students can elect to work with elementary, middle, or high school students from high-need schools during the term of this course. Over the course of the project, approximately 570 students in EDN 100 have accrued 6,910 hours in tutoring students in grades K-12 from our original partner schools. The department has continued this experience after the conclusion of the grant.
Infusion of Content into Course work
Both the elementary (EDN 240) and secondary (EDN 242) education program classroom management courses were increased from 2 credit hours to 3 credit hours and a significant amount of content related to diversity and teaching in high-need schools was added to both courses. Content addressing high-need issues was also infused into the department’s capstone course, Philosophy of Education and Teaching (EDN 475), required of all elementary and secondary education program completers. Finally, content that addresses working with English language learners was infused in Elementary Language Arts Methods (EDN 367), including a field experience component that allows candidates to examine three models of ELL education: sheltered, bilingual, and all Spanish at Cowherd Middle School in Aurora and Pioneer Elementary School in West Chicago. Pre-service candidates have the opportunity to observe ways in which teachers work with ELL students and reflect on their observations. In the graduate curriculum and instruction master’s program a new course, Teaching Diverse Students, was developed and is a core requirement.
Field Experiences
While curriculum infusion of diversity content is a critical component, this “cannot substitute for a curriculum that provides opportunities for teacher education students to engage in frequent, extended, and authentic in- and out-of-school cultural experiences with diverse groups.” (Irvine, 2003, p. 21) In addition to field experience connected to EDN 100, the NCC department of education made significant and deliberate efforts to increase the number and types of placements in diverse and high-need schools.
The tables below show the percentage of placements made in high-need schools from the beginning of the grant in 2005 to the 2009-10 academic year, which is one year after the grant concluded. As the data shows, the department’s efforts resulted in increased numbers of placements in high-need schools. The decrease in the reading and language arts field experiences (see Table 2) is due to formalized partnerships with two schools that agreed to take a substantial number of pre-service candidates for these experiences. While these two schools have diverse student populations, neither would be considered high-need.
Table 1. High-need placements in math, science, and social studies methods – each a 20 hour field experience (number in high-need schools/total in course and high-need percentage of all placements)
Academic year
Math
Science
Social Studies
2005-2006
5/68 7.4%
2/74 3.7%
15/69 21.7%
2006-2007
3/79 4.8%
9/66 13.6%
9/67 13.4%
2007-2008
12/70 17%
26/65 40%
26/67 37.3%
2008-2009
5/61 8%
16/62 26%
16/62 26%
2009-2010
3/62 5%
7/62 12%
6/63 11%
2010-2011
5/20 (fall only) 20%
11/22 (fall only) 50%
11/23 (fall only) 48%
Table 2. High-need placements in elementary language arts and reading methods courses– each a 40 hour field experience (number in high-need schools/total in course and high-need percentage of all placements)
Academic year
Language Arts (fall and winter term)
Reading (winter and spring term)
2005-2006
3/65 4.6%
3/60 5%
2006-2007
7/59 11.9%
5/59 8.5%
2007-2008
1/53 1.9%
2/51 3.9%
2008-2009
0%
0%
2009-2010
0%
0%
Table 3. High-need placements in secondary methods courses– each a 50 hour field experience (number in high-need schools/total in course and high-need percentage of all NCC placements)
Academic year
General methods(fall and spring term)
High school methods (winter term)
2005-2006
5/87 5.7%
3/70 4.3%
2006-2007
3/73 4.1%
3/81 3.7%
2007-2008
10/82 12.2%
3/76 3.9%
2008-2009
2/52 4%
8/59 14%
2009-2010
2/90 2%
3/75 4%
Table 4. Percentage of all NCC student teachers placed in high-need schools
2005-2006
9/137 6.6%
2006-2007
12/129 8.5%
2007-2008
13/144 9%
2008-2009
5/112 4%
2009-2010
12/116 10%
In addition to field experiences that are connected to courses within the teacher education program, the department also recognizes the value that other field experiences offer. Referring back to Irvine’s (2003) idea of “frequent, extended, and authentic in- and out-of-school cultural experiences with diverse groups,” the department addressed this need by developing additional experiences that would prepare candidates to teach in high-need settings, including a summer internship program.
Summer Internship
An intense eight-week summer internship, modeled after North Central's Junior/Senior Scholars Comprehensive College Readiness Program, was developed. This provides year around programming in two high-need school communities and includes a five week summer academic camp offered on campus. The internship takes learning from the classroom to the real world and increases the opportunity to learn by doing while providing a service to meet a real community need. The pre-service candidate interns implement the summer camp, acting as tutors and mentors. Pre-service candidates learn through active learning strategies to collaborate with cohorts, faculty, and the community as their understanding of culturally responsive teaching and effective instruction evolves. Grant (1994) concluded that best practices for understanding differences involve immersing teacher candidates in cultural experiences that help them “to understand the total student and to put curriculum and instruction in a context familiar to students” (p. 13).
Objectives and tasks for intern learning allow candidates to:
• Design lesson plans.
• Implement educational best practices to narrow the achievement gap.
• Monitor, record, and report student progress
• Communicate effectively with students, parents, colleagues, administrators and school personnel.
• Create a safe and nurturing environment for diverse youth to grow academically, socially and emotionally.
• Understand critical issues in urban education.
• Gain knowledge and appreciation for diversity and multiculturalism
• Develop service, activism and leadership skills
• Connect experiential learning with traditional coursework
• Share collective learning with others
After the conclusion of the grant, the department expanded the summer internship to a summer program offered off-campus. Research indicates that
the effect of summer break is more detrimental for math than for reading, and most detrimental for math computation and spelling. There was also evidence that the summer break has roughly equal negative effects on the math skills of students from middle- and lower-income families, but greater negative effects on the reading skills of lower-income students. (Cooper, et al., 1996, p. 264-265)
Further, “by the end of sixth grade the achievement gap between high- and low-income students had grown to approximately three grade level years” (Mraz & Rasinski, 2007). Considering what was at stake, the program was developed because the school district was not able to offer a summer school program in 2010 due to budget constraints. In the summer of 2010, seven North Central College students taught a six-week summer school program focused on reading and math at Lincoln Elementary School in Addison, IL. Lincoln Elementary is a Title I school, serves a low-income community, and is composed of a student population that is 90% Hispanic.
Two committed teachers at Lincoln who were familiar with this research took it upon themselves to create a summer program for their students with help from a NCC education faculty member. NCC teacher candidates received support from both the faculty member and two veteran teachers so that they were planning reading and math lessons and activities that were appropriate for this diverse student population. The department intends to expand this summer internship opportunity to additional candidates in 2011, thus, serving more students from Lincoln Elementary School and extending field experience opportunities in high-needs schools to pre-service candidates.
School and Community Networking
The department also created a network of school and community role models to stimulate conversations about teaching in high-need schools. These included speakers such as Clayton Mohammad, Director of Community Relations, East Aurora School District; Brunell Donald, Public Defender, who attended Johnson Elementary School (an original partner school); Esmé Raji Codell, author of Educating Esmé; Erin Gruwell, author of Freedom Writers; and NCC faculty members Richard Guzman and Stephen Caliendo who used their research to talk about issues of race and social class. Dinners were held with NCC alumni who teach in high-need schools and groups of pre-service students. These events served as an effective way for our pre-service teachers to become inspired and to gain first-hand knowledge of the challenges and rewards of teaching and learning in high-need schools.
Collaboration with Arts and Sciences Faculty
Grant funds helped to support collaboration with the arts and sciences faculty to strengthen teacher preparation. This led to development of interdisciplinary courses that focus on such critical issues as diversity, the high-need school community environment, social justice and leadership, and topics in subject areas such as inquiry in the sciences. Grant staff also developed programming throughout the academic year to invite students to consider the work of teaching in high-need schools. During the last three intersession terms grant faculty sponsored one- and three-week experiences (called Verandahs at NCC). Faculty members took students into schools and community entities (community centers, restaurants, city government, and homeless shelters) to broaden their understanding of the work each contributes for the betterment of students and their families. Additionally, an education liaison committee was established, which is comprised of one faculty member from each of the secondary/K-12 content programs (more on this below).
Project Outcomes and Impacts
Impact of EDN 100 Field Experience
Pre- and post-experience data is collected each term through surveys for candidates enrolled in EDN 100. EDN 100 is for many students (69%), their first experience working directly with children and for almost all (85%), their first experience working in a high-need school. Those who reported prior experience with children had participated in summer camps or high school tutoring programs, but not as extensively or classroom-based. Survey and focus group data from EDN 100 reveal that the course accomplishes two primary goals: 1) It exposes previously unaware students to the high-need school environment and the children it serves; and 2) it builds candidate confidence and motivation regarding their teaching skills and disposition toward the teaching career in general. Introducing practical, hands-on experiences into the college curriculum early in the undergraduate career is an essential strategy in developing such motivation and self-confidence.
EDN 100 appears to be a critical step in this strategy. For example, the students’ exit surveys suggest a heightened sense of confidence in their decision to pursue a teaching career. More than half of the student comments reflected thoughts such as this one, “When I first started school I was not sure if I wanted to be a teacher, the experience has helped me to find my desire of a major in education.” Others came into EDN 100 sure of their major and felt confirmed by the experience: “It definitely assured me that I made the correct choice in choosing a major in education, and I look forward to getting more involved.” Another student added, “I feel that this course was just the beginning of a wonderful experience in teaching. I received plenty of useful and helpful information about teaching. I can’t wait to begin working in this field.” A College of DuPage transfer student spoke highly of the impact of her experience in the Junior/Senior Scholars program, noting: “I would have never been able to set this (experience) up on my own, but here, it was all ready for me and it really helped me figure out what I want to do.” On the other hand, and for just a few students (3%), the experience brought the realization that pursuing a teaching career is not for them: “I don’t really want to teach anymore, but at least now I know.” Several others, while still highly interested in teaching, learned that they did not like working with younger children and instead, would focus their future preferences on the secondary level: “I realized that junior high kids are not the type of students I can handle.” Similarly, another student said, “I knew I wanted to be a high school teacher after this experience because I lack patience with younger kids.”
The other theme that emerged from the EDN 100 student surveys refers to student growth in understanding the high-need school environment. For some, the experience dispelled myths about their safety in high-need schools; for others, it broadened their understanding of the needs of children of diverse cultures within a school. According to one student, “It helped me see what was truly involved in teaching in high risk areas and students.” Another added, “It helped me to learn how to react to students of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. I’m more comfortable with these differences now.”
Impact of On-site course at Hermes Elementary School
As a growing number of EDN 100 students engaged with students in high-need schools, efforts were made to increase the number of placements in high-need schools for the 20-hour field experiences (i.e., math, science, and social studies) as noted in the tables above. A partnership was developed with Hermes Elementary in the East Aurora District, including placement of increased numbers of students in 20-hour field experiences, participation of graduate students in the education leadership and administration program in field experience projects, and Hermes’ hiring of a 2007 and a 2008 graduate.
The partnership with Hermes Elementary was further expanded in the fall 2010 term when NCC held its first undergraduate course, Teaching with Literature in the K-12 Classroom, (EDN 260 ), on site at Hermes. Most of the pre-service candidates enrolled in the course were also co-enrolled in one or more methods courses that included a practicum component. Pre-service candidates attended their course at Hermes Elementary on Tuesday/Thursday from 8:00-9:50 a.m., and then spent a good portion of the rest of the day in a classroom at the school completing their practicum experience requirements. In addition to completing practicum requirements, incidental opportunities arose because of our presence at Hermes that provided NCC pre-service candidates with further awareness of issues in high-need schools. For example, NCC pre-service candidates were asked to conduct phonemic awareness assessments with the kindergarten students, and the literacy specialist provided an overview of the data and discussed the trends and deficits reflected in the data. This type of learning opportunity would not have taken place for these pre-service candidates had the course not been offered on-site. In fall 2011, the department will add a second course on site at Hermes Elementary.
This immersion experience resulted in positive attitudes in candidates about teaching in high-need schools. Data from our pre and post surveys indicate that candidates increased their confidence in (100%) and abilities (55%) to work with students at Hermes. As one candidate declared, “My field experience at Hermes had a huge impact on me! I had never considered the rewards of teaching in a high-needs school, nor had I considered teaching in a high-needs school period. Both of those prior thoughts have changed and I am very happy because of that. I now feel like I have more to think about and more options.”
Sykes (1992) indicates that pre-service candidates cannot learn the knowledge, skills, and dispositions within the confines of the university setting alone. Rather, he advocated for teacher education models that allow pre-service candidates to acquire “multiculturalism infused by core values such as proper skepticism, tolerance for contrary views, breadth of vision, and curiosity” (p. 20). Pre-service candidates who are taking their class in the high-need setting, doing course assignments and conducting field experiences in high-need classrooms have the opportunity to develop such values in a much deeper way than they would if their course was held on campus. As illustrated in another candidate’s comment, “I had heard Hermes is a school that is primarily Hispanic, and that many students struggle. I found that yes the school is primarily Hispanic, and that many students do struggle. However, I learned that the students are smarter than they are given credit for because they struggle over the language barrier—not the academic content.”
Impact of Diverse Experience (EDN 211)
Although grant funding has ended, the department has continued to prioritize placements in high-need schools, as noted in the tables earlier in this article. Additionally, in fall 2009, the department proposed a new course, Diverse Practicum, (EDN 211), to expand the opportunity for pre-service candidates to work in high-need schools. This practicum was developed specifically to provide pre-service candidates with a “full immersion” experience in a high-need school. This practicum is offered during the college’s D-term (December term) and in summer. The D-term EDN 211 experience provides NCC pre-service candidates with an intensive experience in a classroom in a high-need school full days for two full weeks. The summer offering of EDN 211 was implemented for the first time in summer 2010 (see above).
Impact of on-campus summer internship
The project’s more intensive, summer-long high-need school internship appears to provide an equally positive but yet more influential experience for the candidates in the program: 99% (all but one) of the interns reported a better understanding of the high-need school setting after their internship experience; 64% said they now have a much better understanding. About the same percentage (65%) of the interns say they intend to work in high-need schools upon graduation. Many come into the internship having already made that intention known, but more than 20% reported changing their preferences due to the internship experience.
The intensity and rigor of the internship have a significant impact on improving candidate skills and confidence levels. Most cited growth in putting classroom theory into practice, particularly after having responsibility for a “real” classroom of children, complete with lesson planning, assessment, and classroom management responsibilities. One campus administrator confirmed this impact, saying, “I can always tell which of our (education) majors has been a part of the high-need schools internship experience. They are much better prepared and confident once they begin their student teaching, no matter where we place them.” Interns report their greatest growth in developing rapport with students and in managing classroom discipline.
Impact of new faculty with experience in high poverty schools
Since the inception of the project, two new full-time faculty members have been added to the department, both with extensive experience in working in high-poverty schools and low-income neighborhoods. The background they brought enabled the department to cooperate more effectively with administrators and teachers in high-need schools. Their experience also gave them critical insights for supervising our pre-service candidates in high-need placements and engaging pre-service candidates in substantive conversations about teaching in high-need schools.
Impact on other aspects of the curriculum
Work in high-need schools helped the education faculty gain support for North Central’s reading endorsement curriculum developed for elementary educators over six years ago. Administrators in high-need schools continue to clamor for teachers with strong backgrounds in reading, and alumni continue to credit their reading background as the cause of their effectiveness in classrooms with a broad spectrum of student abilities. Since the conclusion of the grant, the reading teacher endorsement courses were expanded to the graduate program level in order to provide area teachers in high-need schools a vehicle for additional literacy coursework. Two additional courses were added so that secondary education candidates could receive the reading teacher endorsement.
The project also fostered collaboration between education faculty and the arts and sciences faculty, especially through the creation of the secondary education liaison committee, as mentioned previously. This committee consists of a departmental representative from each of the secondary education content area programs. The group’s primary focus involves monitoring and keeping programs current with State standards. The committee meets three times a year to discuss standards, changes to and expectations of program review, and to share ideas of how to best prepare pre-service teachers. The department sponsored an assessment workshop for programs considering portfolio assessment as the second measure of content for program assessment.
Interdisciplinary courses also grew out of arts and sciences and education faculty collaboration. For example, to build interest and awareness of communities in struggle, an interdisciplinary course was developed, Teaching in and Learning from Underserved Communities, which professors Rebecca Clemente, education, and Jennifer Jackson, English, team-teach. The course is designed for first-year students and causes them to grapple with the issues and complexity of social justice, social class, race, and concepts of community and citizenship.
Finally, the North Central College Science and Math Learning Collaborative (SMLC) grew out of our project collaborating with high-need schools. The SMLC was implemented four years ago involving collaboration among natural science and education faculty members to explore the impact of professional development for gender equity on middle school instruction and its subsequent influence on girls’ persistence in STEM fields. Faculty participating in this endeavor have worked closely with high-need schools and math and science classroom teachers to complete and present action research that looks at gender equity from a neurological viewpoint, as well as sociological and social/ emotional perspectives.
Lessons Learned
“Colleges of education should assume a leadership role in reversing the cycle of failure for students of color. While colleges of education are becoming more intellectually … they should also become more attentive to issues of diversity than they have in previous years” (Irvine, 2003, p. 15). We discovered that it is critical for early full department support of the direction and implications and participation in the activities of the project to accomplish grant objectives. This proved also to be true of forging school partnerships. Originally, only a small number of departmental faculty members were involved in activities of the ACI Center for Success in High-Need Schools. However, we experienced growing stress levels when it became clear that the goals of the teacher quality enhancement partnership project called for curricular transformation in the department and ambitious collaboration across the college in order to prepare more and better teachers for careers in high-need schools. We also learned that forging programmatic relationships with arts and science departments happens slowly, especially when prior to the project these alliances had been either nonexistent or among faculty members individually. It soon became clear that such collaboration must be transparent and open to develop positive and supportive perceptions and expectations.
The choice of partner schools makes a difference. Existing relationships may not be suited to the goals of the project. School leadership fluctuates. If leadership changed (as has happened in two of our partnering schools), or where there was an inability of school leaders to take full advantage of the financial and human resources the project made available, little movement toward professional development or support for teachers occurred. Where school leadership was strong and stable, positive experiences benefited the curriculum, students, and teachers. Taking time with partnering LEAs to build leadership is critically necessary to ensure access to and reciprocity with administrators and in-service teachers. Similarly, school principals indicate that they are only willing to invest key teacher, staff and classroom instructional time to this program because they have seen evidence of its qualiy and results. Establishing that trust and confidence has occurred over time via consistent and well-prepared college students and coordinators.
Faculty members must be educated and involved just like candidates. At the onset of the grant, faculty members at North Central College learned to be more aware of the needs of high-need schools in the communities the college serves through field trips to partnering schools. It is gratifying that faculty interviews suggest that they have become aware of the “richness of the opportunities there and the tremendous opportunity for us to connect our coursework and our clinical work for our undergraduates.” Faculty members believe that the only way these connections have been facilitated is through collaboration and conversation. Building relationships with area administrators has been critical in this process. Relationships with administrators and teachers in high-need schools have flourished in the past two years. Several faculty members have served as the key contacts for schools with which they have established relationships. Faculty members have also learned that changing attitudes and dispelling myths about working in high-need schools must be integrated throughout the pre-service curriculum. Early field experiences build self-confidence and help to confirm or change career choices and preferences.
It was important as the project unfolded to plan strategically for an expanding involvement of education department and arts and sciences faculty. Curricular transformation to strengthen teacher preparation for service in high-need schools must have strong commitment from all members of a department to assure that it is purposeful, well designed, and implemented effectively.
Sustaining and Expanding the Project
Early in the project we hoped that students would apply in significant numbers to be part of the Pipeline to Urban teaching program. While a number of pre-service candidates were interested, and pre-service candidates who received scholarships were required to participate, fewer than five pre-service candidates formally applied initially. Yet, more than 20 pre-service candidates each term elected to continue their work in high-need schools through the Junior/ Senior Scholars Program where they provided leadership for the various tutoring and mentoring program components. Consequently, placements in high-need schools increased. Our focus then turned to how to engage more pre-service candidates in clinical work in high-need schools and how to embed critical knowledge and skills for teaching in high-need schools in all coursework. Secondary education presented another range of challenges related to the size of our program and the specialization of student majors. In the secondary program, pre-service candidates participate in a middle school and a high school placement (those working towards special certificates also complete an elementary field experience). Since pre-service candidates are placed based on their discipline, finding high-need schools and even diversity in classroom placements can be difficult.
During the grant period the department began to explore the feasibility of developing coursework that would enhance the preparation of candidates for high-need schools in the areas of reading, English language learners, and special education. In 2005, the department added courses for the reading endorsement for elementary education candidates. Coursework was approved in winter 2011 to expand the reading endorsement to secondary education candidates. The English language learning endorsement courses were added and offered for the first time in the 2010-11 academic year. A bilingual methods course was approved and will be offered in the 2011-12 academic year. While the department does not have the resources to add a degree program in special education, the addition of courses in special education that address characteristics, methods, and assessment would strengthen our candidates’ knowledge and skills and will provide them with a LBS1 endorsement. The addition of coursework in all three of these areas clearly strengthens the candidacy of students who want to teach in high-need schools.
Conclusion
Clearly, the work that was done as part of the TQE-P grant and the Pipeline to Urban Teaching project at North Central College was the springboard for our continued efforts to prepare candidates for teaching positions in high-need schools. Critical components to the growth made include staff development for faculty, infusion of content across the curriculum, ongoing opportunities for field experiences in high-need schools across the curriculum, faculty ownership and engagement, and the addition of supplementary coursework in reading, ELL, and special education to enhance the preparation of candidates for high-need schools. While much has been accomplished there is much more to be done, particularly in the area of developing deeper partnerships with high-need schools in secondary education.
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