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WHAT IF THE EVOLUTION OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING INVOLVED PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS?
WHAT IF THE EVOLUTION OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING INVOLVED PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS?
WHAT IF HIGH-QUALITY PROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN-DISTRICT COULD EARN AN EDUCATOR GRADUATE COURSE CREDIT?
WHAT IF HIGH-QUALITY PROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN-DISTRICT COULD EARN AN EDUCATOR GRADUATE COURSE CREDIT?
PERHAPS THIS IS A CONVERSATION WE SHOULD BE HAVING…
PERHAPS THIS IS A CONVERSATION WE SHOULD BE HAVING…
I finished my doctoral degree in fall 2018 and since then, I’ve been having countless conversations with numerous individuals and organizations about how we might think differently about professional learning. (My dissertation study investigated how leaders impact school innovation initiatives.) I’ve talked with several university departments, school districts, consortiums, and individual scholars and practitioners about the topic, coming to the conclusion: THE EVOLUTION OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING REQUIRES PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN HIGHER ED INSTITUTIONS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
What would happen if we designed educator professional development to not only earn PD credit in-district, but also earn graduate level credit from a partnering university? Let’s consider 3 potential areas of professional development (see the concept map above). Two areas are staples in virtually every school district in the nation: new teachers and leaders/aspiring leaders.
Let’s say a school district wants to develop their cohort of incoming new teachers. Most districts have a construct for training and developing new teachers specifically targeting topics evidenced as high-need areas. Many districts have some sort of mentoring programing, too. (KTIP has ended in Kentucky, but districts are developing their own approach to new teacher mentoring.)
How might it elevate new teacher development if districts partnered with regional universities in order to bridge the gap between pre-service teacher development and first-year teaching experience? The partnership alone is powerful, and some districts and universities have already figured this out. (WKU’s New Teacher Academy is a partnership between The School of Teacher Education and several surrounding school districts, with preliminary evidence suggesting these partnerships are effective.) What if we could continue to build upon partnerships like these and give new teachers an opportunity to earn the PD credit they’re required to have for the district, connect higher ed programs with real-life, day-to-day practitioner experience, and also potentially earn graduate credit hours at the partner university. Disclaimer: I’ve been calling partnerships like this an “innovation network,” but I’m not confident it’s a perfect fit. I do, however, support naming the graduates of this program “highly effective educators” instead of “new teachers” because it alleviates some of the stigma that accompanies the “new teacher” term.
The master’s degree/Rank I requirement no longer exists in Kentucky, so higher ed institutions can’t count on that enrollment in the future. By allowing selective, high-quality professional learning to count toward small awards of credit hours, perhaps institutions can make earning an advanced degree or certification more appealing to their potential students.
New Teacher Academies aren’t the only service that university + district partnerships might capitalize on, either. Leadership programs, certification programs, even innovative approaches to teaching and learning could potentially become an “academy” that provides both PD and graduate level credit. Perhaps if districts and universities share the facilitation responsibilities, they might also share the benefits of this approach?
There are many obstacles and challenges to work out along the way, but this sort of thinking toward the future of professional learning might be the way we address current issues in P-12 education and higher ed, including elevating teacher quality and incentivizing highly developed educators.
There’s so much potential to develop this work further. This framework can be adapted to address ANY district, state, or federal initiative. (Literacy, Equitable Access to Education, Computer Science and Programming... the possibilities are endless.)
I’m sure there’ll be fresh ideas and new developments to come.
BROKEN SYSTEMS… BROKEN RECORD…
BROKEN SYSTEMS… BROKEN RECORD…
Thanks to Afzal for sharing this video with me! I’ll be embedding this video in mid-term paper!
I am supposed to be writing a paper for a policy class. I’ve started… But my brain is feeling quite like a pinball in that noisy and flashing machine. My paper is supposed to address this idea:
Why has school improvement proven so difficult in the United States, especially in urban areas? Draw on sources from this course or from outside reading and your own perspectives to offer some explanations. It is not necessary to agree with the authors we have read (they don’t agree with each other). Feel free to engage with the competing theories of why education change has been so difficult in making an argument.
For class, we are reading the book, The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity will Determine Our Future, by Linda Darling-Hammond. It’s a great book. And it’s about the millionth book/article I’ve read about broken school systems and about the need to redesign institutions. (Granted, I am studying “innovative leadership” for my dissertation. There’s a lofty reading load required for my studies.) I don’t need to be convinced any more. I know that schools are broken. I know there are countless issues with the system. So now what? What comes next? Why IS improvement or innovation so difficult? Why is it a daily struggle to try new things and take risks and empower students to do the same? What is my role in moving innovation forward? These aren’t rhetorical questions. Yet, there never seems to be an answer. And when there is a solution suggested, there’s no real action to follow it.
Writing about this topic made me remember by Google Innovator project–well, my initial Vision Deck—and how much I want to be part of the redesign process. I want to be part of the team that starts from complete ground zero and builds a school for today’s (and tomorrow’s) students. We know that “the way we do things,” isn’t really rendering the results we desire. So what do we DO about it? What do I do about it? How do WE band together and create pathways for significant change to really happen? The complexity of success is bewildering, so how can we better prepare kids for what that means for them and their future?
I am eternally grateful for my role in public schools and I do absolutely love my job and the people I work with. I understand that our local and state leaders are making changes and decisions that will further us on the journey of innovation. I don’t want to send the message that those things aren’t true. I just know there has to be other steps that I can make to facilitate progression.
I know that I’m supposed to keep doing things in my classroom that encourages creativity and “divergent thinking,” but there has to be more I can do. I just don’t know what it is, exactly…
Sunday, March 12, 2017
I am just returning from KySTE this past week, where I presented about blended learning. I've connected with so many educators, I've been inspired to begin blogging again. I really love to write, but sometimes I struggle about how to write honestly about the challenges in education and avoid causing major chaos. I'm ready to try it again, I think! The title of this blog comes from my personal desire to shift the way we think about school and teaching and learning. Schools haven't changed much over the past 100 years, despite the fact that students have evolved at super-human speeds. They are stuck (and we are, too) in institutions that do not have the capacity to meet the needs of students. This is where my passion and vision comes to life. If we could forget what we know about school and redesign it with today's students as the focus, we could create an education system that is incredible. When I think about what it would take to make that happen, it requires a shift in our mindset and our priorities. A quick Google search renders what shift really means: "to move from one place to another, especially over a small distance." I really think if educators and administrators could just change the way they view education a SMALL amount, it has the potential to affect significant change. So... I guess that's my mission. I want to help create those small shifts in the way we think about teaching, learning, and school in general. That's the whole purpose for this site. In whatever way I can help make school more meaningful for students, I want to.
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