Quincy University
ACI Member Partnership Case Studies: Quincy University
By Ann K. Behrens
Author Biography:
Ann K. Behrens, EdD, is Dean of the School of Education at Quincy University.
Abstract:
The primary goal of Quincy University's project in participating in the ACI Teacher Quality Enhancement program grant was to transform the University's undergraduate teacher preparation program into a professional development school (PDS) model of instructional delivery. As a result of the initiative, the School of Education has completely transformed its method of instructional delivery. Faculty now collaborate with one another in planning appropriate activities for courses, finding ways to address content coverage with reduced contact time with candidates, and working with K-12 teachers to plan syllabi, schedule classroom interactions, and evaluate the courses. Teacher candidates report feeling well-prepared to enter the classroom as first-year teachers, and their teaching peers describe them as confident and better-prepared than other first-year teachers. Increasing numbers of teacher candidates have indicated a willingness to consider teaching in high-need schools as a result of their earlier exposure to at-risk students. Students in most partner schools are meeting AYP, and scores continue to improve over time.
Body:
Introduction
Quincy University is a private co-educational liberal arts university affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church and the Franciscan Friars. Founded in 1860, the University is home to 1,270 students and offers 34 major areas of study and seven pre-professional programs. The faculty consists of 49 full-time and 67 part-time members with a student/faculty ratio of 12:1 and an average class size of 20.
The School of Education prepares approximately 50 undergraduate teacher candidates each year on the main campus. The majority of these students are elementary education majors, but degrees are also offered in special education, physical education, and secondary specializations in history, biology, English, music, and math education. Additional degrees are offered in sports management and sign language interpreting. Endorsements available to students include Reading, Middle School, Special Education, Bilingual and ESL. Most undergraduate teacher candidates are full-time, residential students. Quincy University has other preparation tracks for non-traditional programs, but these have not adopted the professional development school model of teacher preparation, which grew out of the Quincy teacher quality enhancement project. At the graduate level, the Master of Science in Education degree offers concentrations in alternative certification, curriculum and instruction, leadership, reading education, school administration, special education, teaching certification, and counseling.
Thirteen full-time faculty and staff and 22 part-time faculty and adjunct instructors comprise the School of Education on the main campus. In addition, four full-time arts and sciences faculty members teach methods courses to upper level students. All full-time faculty members hold doctoral degrees.
Quincy Public Schools is a K-12 district with approximately 6,400 students. The low-income rate for the district is 52.7%, and the mobility rate is 14.9%. Of the ten schools in the district, four elementary schools, the intermediate school, the junior high, and the high school have participated with QU in this collaboration. One elementary school partner was closed last year as a cost-saving measure. The district failed to make AYP under the No Child Left Behind guidelines for the last two years and is on Academic Early Warning Status. Two of the elementary schools have been recognized as Blue Ribbon schools for outstanding achievement with high-risk students. Two parochial elementary schools and Quincy Notre Dame High School, a private Catholic high school with 500 students, are also currently involved in this partnership.
Project Overview
The primary goal of Quincy University's project in participating in the ACI Teacher Quality Enhancement program grant was to transform the University's undergraduate teacher preparation program into a professional development school (PDS) model of instructional delivery. The PDS model emphasizes collaboration between schools and universities and addresses four goals: improvement of student learning, teacher preparation, professional development, and research and inquiry into improved practice (Teitel, 2008). During the term of the grant, this initiative was known as the Collaborative Academy for Teacher Training (CATT). Increased collaboration between the university and K-12 practitioners was an additional goal. Improving the communication and collaboration between education and arts and science faculty members was a third objective.
As a result of adopting the PDS model, teacher candidates are introduced to K-12 classrooms as early as their freshman year. Through a variety of experiences such as observation, mentoring, tutoring, small and large group instruction, and even recess supervision, teacher candidates interact with K-12 students throughout most of their teacher preparation courses.
They are immersed in authentic experiences in K-12 classrooms beginning with their first course in education. Freshman and sophomore students, before even being admitted to the teacher education program, enroll in four pre-professional courses: Foundations of Education, Educational Psychology, Media and Technology in Education, and Survey of the Exceptional Child. By the time students complete these four courses, they have had experiences in classrooms K-12. Exposure to all levels early in their preparation allows teacher candidates to see that good instructional techniques transcend a particular grade level. As an example, a common misconception is that young students are not capable of higher-level thinking. Yet, having candidates observe classrooms in which higher-order thinking is stressed not only convinces them that it is possible but also gives them a framework from which to build when developing their own lessons. The K-12 exposure also helps candidates realize that problems exist with students of all ages, and that the relationship teachers build with those students is a key component to helping them learn.
The first meeting of every course is on-campus. During this session students are required to sign confidentiality agreements. Issues of transportation, parking, school security measures, university ID requirements, professional dress, and other logistical situations are addressed. Many instructors have the site coordinator for the building attend this first meeting and discuss the building protocol and site-specific expectations.
Course instructors have a great deal of flexibility in determining the structure of their classes. Most courses meet once a week, but several have chosen to meet twice weekly. A number of methods courses use two or three partner schools throughout the semester so that teacher candidates can have exposure to multiple grade levels. The public schools in the city are organized in a K-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12 grade format. A secondary education major should have experiences in grades 6-12, as that is the grade span for certification in the state. Elementary majors are certified for grades K-9. Limiting their experiences to one segment of that grade range would be a disservice to the candidates. Other Quincy instructors work in parochial schools that operate on a K-8, 9-12 design.
Following the content presentation, the teacher candidates disperse to their assigned classrooms to interact with students or to observe. During this time the instructor circulates through the rooms to monitor the candidates, make notes on their performance, and formulate questions for the discussion period that follows. Instructors also use other professionals in the building. As an example, the head of counseling at the junior high recently spoke to the middle school methods class about motivating the reluctant learner. The principal addressed the same class about her expectations of a beginning teacher and briefly outlined the evaluation process used in the district.
As a result of the feedback surveys administered each year, a new activity was introduced to give teacher candidates an additional opportunity to interact with the parents of the K-12 students. Five methods courses (math, language arts, science, special education, and physical education) held family curriculum nights at the middle school and a parochial elementary school. These joint ventures were planned and executed by the teacher candidates, with assistance from their methods instructors and the site coordinators in the various buildings. The curriculum nights were activity-oriented and designed to have students and their parents interact together. An added benefit was that parents became more aware of the CATT program within their own child’s school. At the intermediate school sessions, the building principal did an evaluation of each teacher candidate’s presentation which he shared with the candidate following the session. Not only was that feedback helpful to the candidates, it also gave the principal an opportunity to view prospective future teachers.
Because of the earlier exposure to working in classrooms, teacher candidates were better prepared when they enrolled in their field experience courses. As a result, the field placement coordinator was able to revise the requirements for each of three placements and increase the expectations for all candidates. Clinical placements were also redesigned: Student teachers now do two eight-week placements at different grade levels within their area of certification.
Another opportunity available to teacher candidates involves off-site visits to more diverse settings. Quincy is a geographically isolated suburban/rural district with limited ethnic and religious diversity. One-day trips for a full day of observation in small rural settings with a high number of English Language Learners or to inner-city urban schools give teacher candidates a glimpse of the varied issues they may face as teachers. Quincy University is currently working to expand these opportunities into more extended sessions offered during the summer and throughout the school year. A newly upgraded distance learning room, for example, offers great potential for expanding the experiences for candidates.
Teacher candidates are required to attend parent conferences and IEP meetings, especially if the candidate has been mentoring or tutoring the student. Insights into working with parents, delivering both good and bad news, and developing plans to deal with problems are invaluable to future teachers.
Project Outcomes and Impacts
The School of Education has completely transformed its method of instructional delivery as a result of the project-funded CATT initiative. Faculty now collaborate with one another in planning appropriate activities for courses, in finding ways to address content coverage with reduced contact time with candidates, and in working with K-12 teachers to plan syllabi, schedule classroom interactions, and evaluate the courses. One important outgrowth of this project has been the renewed appreciation and understanding the university and school partners have for the role that each plays in the development of strong teacher candidates. University instructors value the insights of the practitioners, and the K-12 teachers have benefited from learning about best practices identified through research.
Action research projects have strengthened the collaboration between arts and sciences faculty and education faculty. As a result of these projects, secondary methods syllabi have been revised, creating a common set of essential questions and goals for each of the courses. Evaluation of student teachers has been strengthened by the revision of both the disposition and professional teaching standards assessment tools. Training for university and cooperating teachers has been redesigned to ensure more consistent marking of the assessments.
One significant innovative practice has been the introduction of a new lesson plan format. Built into this lesson plan are places to specifically delineate strategies for differentiation of instruction. The use of the backwards design process for developing unit plans is now a university expectation. Both of these initiatives resulted from discussions between the K-12 collaborating and cooperating teachers and the university supervisors. This design process has supported the work of the partner district in moving to a professional learning community by helping teacher candidates and their collaborating teachers identify the big ideas and essential questions which are the foundation of this movement.
Expectations for the more advanced field experience have increased to reflect the teacher candidates’ earlier experiences in the classroom. They interact with students and teach lessons much sooner than under the traditional course delivery model. The field experience coordinator works closely with university instructors to provide experiences that support course content and, whenever possible, to keep teacher candidates working with the same students and teachers for both the coursework and the field experience activities.
Teacher candidates report feeling well-prepared to enter the classroom as first-year teachers, and their teaching peers describe them as confident and better-prepared than other first-year teachers. Increasing numbers of teacher candidates have indicated a willingness to consider teaching in high-need schools as a result of their earlier exposure to at-risk students.
Students in most partner schools are meeting AYP, and scores continue to improve over time. While the CATT model cannot claim full responsibility for this success, certainly the presence of additional help in the classroom, focused collaboration between the university and partner schools, and opportunities for shared professional development have benefited the students involved. This is especially important in light of the reductions in support personnel and teaching positions that have occurred recently.
The CATT collaboration also depends on the resources of the teachers and administrators of the Quincy Public Schools (QPS). This partnership is invaluable in the implementation and the continuation of this instructional delivery model. QPS not only provides facilities in each of the schools, but the teachers and administrators fully support the effort to produce future teachers better prepared to teach in high needs schools. Central office administrators in the school district give professional development credit to teachers who assist in this endeavor. One exciting professional development opportunity for our teacher candidates has been an invitation for them to attend all of the mentoring presentations sponsored for first and second-year teachers in the partner district.
John Wood Community College is also a collaborative partner in the CATT initiative. As the CATT format evolved at Quincy University, a new articulation agreement was developed between the departments of education at the two institutions. In the fall of 2007, John Wood Community College taught its Foundation of Education course using the CATT model.
Lessons Learned
The most important lesson learned from this initiative is that experience in the field, when tied directly to the content of coursework, is a powerful combination that helps teacher candidates see the connection between theory and practice and the direct implications of their knowledge and what their students learn. The professional development school model is growing rapidly throughout the country as a preferred method of preparation of teacher candidates.
The importance of communication throughout the partnership cannot be overstated. At every level, this is the key to success: instructors to collaborating teachers, site coordinators to university personnel, teacher candidates to classroom teachers. All channels of communication must operate openly and with a spirit of trust. When this element is present, problems are recognized and addressed before they escalate. Procedures and processes to ensure that communication lines remain open are very important.
Formalizing the partnership has been an important step to ensure sustainability of the model. Central office administrators and the dean of the School of Education are members of the project steering committee. Their project commitment, as evidenced through a memorandum of understanding outlining the basic elements of the partnership, has strengthened partner relationships and lends credibility to the efforts of all involved.
Building support for the model by including all stakeholders in the planning process was an important element in the successful implementation of CATT. Nearly a year was spent dreaming and visiting other schools using this model before actual implementation was attempted. Dramatic shifts in the plans occurred because of good ideas presented by community members, parents, teacher candidates, and business representatives.
Sustainability
The biggest challenge has been to maintain the enthusiasm and commitment over time. As individuals become comfortable in a situation, sometimes the attention to detail can slip as procedures become routine and taken for granted. Maintaining close relationships with all of the partners must remain a priority and courses must be continually examined for ways to improve and draw on the strengths of the delivery model. In addition, according to a recent study of the PDS model, “sustainability is an issue in many PDSs when there are changes in leadership” (Walmsley, Bufkin, & Rule, 2009, p. 75). Teacher and administrative turnover at both the K-12 and University levels mean that the commitment to the partnership must be re-examined and renewed every year. Regularly scheduled steering committee meetings address these concerns on a yearly basis.
Across Illinois, the issue of school funding is a problem for all school districts. Quincy Public Schools face severe financial challenges, and many teaching and administrative positions have been eliminated in the last few years. This has created a greater workload and additional stress for the teachers remaining. The increasing expectations of No Child Left Behind to meet AYP create additional pressure. In some schools, these factors have resulted in fewer teachers willing to take on the additional responsibilities of being a collaborating teacher. Another funding issue has been payment for the school-based site coordinators. Originally picked up by the grant, these small stipends were then absorbed by the school districts. This year the payments were one of the cost-saving cuts implemented by the school district, and the School of Education has assumed responsibility for the stipends. Calling it "program suicide," Schussler (2006) warned PDS partners of the dangers of adding to teachers’ responsibilities without taking away other responsibilities. Finding multiple ways to reward teachers for their participation as PDS partners is an important goal which much be addressed immediately if the partnership is to remain viable.
Future plans include finding ways to expose our teacher candidates to even more diverse settings, whether through distance learning or through extended internships in the summer or throughout the school year. Increasing the use of technology as a tool of instruction for university instructors, collaborating teachers, and teacher candidates is another goal.
Acknowledging that any long-term partnership must evolve and change in order to grow, the partners have committed to the use of shared inquiry to improve practice. Despite the challenges of diminishing resources, changing leadership, and increasing standards of accountability, the collaboration between professionals is recognized as a powerful tool to address the problems in teaching and learning faced by K-12 and university instructors and students. To fulfill the PDS mission, partners must “share responsibility for professional and children’s learning and commit and reallocate their resources to this new setting and new type of work” (Trachtman, 2007, p. 198). The PDS partnership between Quincy University and its public and parochial school partners is committed to fulfilling this mission.
References
Schussler, D. (2006). The altered role of experienced teachers in professional development schools: The present and its possibilities. Issues in Teacher Education, 15(2), 61-75.
Teitel, L. (2008). School/university collaboration: The power of transformative partnerships. Childhood Education 85(2), 75-80.
Trachtman, R. (2007). Inquiry and accountability in professional development schools. Journal of Educational Research, 100(4), 197-203.
Walmsley, A., Bufkin, L., & Rule, A. (2009). Developmental stages of a professional development school: Lessons from a long-term partnership. School-University Partnerships: The Journal of the National Association for Professional Development Schools 3(2), 69-79.