A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Designing Effective Development: Lessons from the Eisenhower Program - December 1999

Chapter 6

Targeting and Recruitment of Teachers

Section Findings

• Most teachers participating in SAHE-grantee projects are in projects whose directors say that they target Title I teachers, and teachers in high-poverty and low-achieving schools. The majority of participating teachers are in projects whose directors report that they do not target teachers of special education or limited-English proficient students.

• Over three-fourths of participants in SAHE-grantee projects volunteer to participate, and most of the rest are selected by the principal.

• Most participating teachers are in projects that try to increase participation in their professional development activities by publicizing them, and about half are in projects that try to increase participation by tailoring the focus of the activities and/or using incentives.

Teachers cannot benefit from high-quality professional development activities if they do not participate in them. While individual initiative influences the extent to which teachers take advantage of opportunities, teachers' opportunities for professional development also are shaped, in part, by the extent to which they are targeted and recruited to participate in activities. As we discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, the Eisenhower legislation emphasizes the importance of addressing the needs of teachers of diverse student populations. These general provisions of the law for teachers of students of diverse needs apply not only to districts, but also to SAHE grantees. Specifically, the law provides that teachers (and others) should have access to professional development that incorporates effective strategies, techniques, methods, and practices for meeting the educational needs of diverse student populations, including females, minorities, individuals with disabilities, limited-English-proficient individuals, and economically disadvantaged individuals, in order to ensure that all students have the opportunity to achieve challenging state student performance standards (Section 2002(2)(D)).

Increasing the participation of teachers of diverse student populations is important because teachers in schools with high populations of at-risk students are generally less experienced, have fewer resources in their schools, and face students who are often more challenging to teach (Darling-Hammond, 1997a; U.S. Department of Education, 1999a). These teachers are often more in need of professional development than their counterparts in middle-class schools (Darling-Hammond, 1997a; U.S. Department of Education, 1999a), and they also are less likely to participate in professional development activities (U.S. Department of Education, 1998a).

Targeting Teachers of Special Populations of Students

To see how well SAHE grantees target their professional development practices to teachers of the diverse student populations outlined in the legislation, we asked SAHE-grantee project directors a series of questions about their targeting and recruitment practices.¹³ We asked them how much emphasis they give to recruiting different types of teachers for their activities—Title I teachers, special education teachers, teachers of limited-English-proficient students, teachers from schools with low-achievement levels, and teachers from high-poverty schools (i.e., schools in which 50 percent or more students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch). Exhibit 6.11 shows the percent of teachers in SAHE-grantee projects whose project director reports placing "no particular emphasis," "some emphasis," or a "strong emphasis" on each of these groups of teachers.

About three-quarters of teachers participating in SAHE-grantee projects are in projects that report placing some or a strong emphasis on recruiting teachers in high-poverty schools (72 percent) and low achieving schools (71 percent). A little more than half of participating teachers are in projects that emphasize recruiting Title I teachers (55 percent), and more than one-quarter are in projects that target special education teachers (31 percent) and teachers of limited English proficient students (29 percent).

To measure the extent of targeting, we created a scale that combines the emphasis SAHE grantees give to recruiting the five types of teachers shown in Exhibit 6.11, where 1=no particular emphasis, 2=some emphasis, and 3=strong emphasis. An analysis of the scale indicates that the extent of targeting does not differ significantly by institution type or departmental affiliation.

One reason that SAHE grantees report high levels of targeting for teachers of some groups of students may be due to SAHE requirements for targeting special populations of teachers. In one of our case studies in Kentucky, the SAHE Eisenhower coordinator indicates that Eisenhower proposals from IHEs must ensure opportunity for equitable participation by teachers of historically underrepresented/underserved segments of society. This consideration extends to gender, economics, disabilities, and racial minorities. In addition, the SAHE reports making aggressive efforts to recruit for participation teachers who are racial minorities, and teachers of minority or disabled students. For example, the SAHE supports specific projects designed for particular groups of teachers. One project is designed to introduce methodology, technology, and classroom practices for teachers of special-need students, and another project is designed for racial minority students to be involved and participate in particular exercises in the professional development activities. Similarly, in Texas, an IHE project coordinator reported that although teachers in Title I schools are not specifically targeted by districts for professional development, SAHE professional development grants have always targeted teachers of underrepresented minority and disadvantaged students for recruitment and participation.

EXHIBIT 6.11
Percent of Teachers Participating in SAHE-grantee Projects Whose Directors Report Placing No, Some, or a Strong Emphasis on Recruiting Teachers of Special Student Populations (n=92)

Our survey data show that less than 20 percent of teachers participating in SAHE-grantee projects are in projects whose director places a "strong" emphasis on targeting teachers in Title I schools. In our case-study interviews, the project director at a university in Texas offers an explanation for why she does not target Title I teachers. She says that there is no specific targeting of Title I teachers because so many of the schools that they work with are Title I schools; only two or three of the schools in the three districts that she works with are not Title I schools.

In addition to targeting, we also examined how teachers come to participate in SAHE-grantee professional development activities. We asked SAHE-grantee project directors what percent of the teachers in their Eisenhower activities come to participate in each of several ways: volunteering, selection by their principal or other administrator, rotation, or other ways. Exhibit 6.12 shows the most common ways teachers come to participate in SAHE-grantee projects.

Exhibit 6.12
Percent of Teachers Participating in SAHE-grantee Projects, According to How Teachers Come to Participate (n=92)

By far the most common method is having teachers volunteer; seventy-eight percent of participations in SAHE-grantee projects come about by having participants volunteer. Twenty percent of participations occur through principal selection. The remaining channels of participation comprise less than five percent of total participations. SAHE grantees vary in the extent to which they rely on these methods. For example, some participating teachers are in projects that rely exclusively on teacher volunteers, while some are in projects that rely entirely on teachers selected by principals.

Methods of Increasing Teacher Participation

We asked SAHE grantees how they try to increase the participation of teachers, paraprofessionals, or others in their activities. Choices included publicizing activities, using incentives, tailoring the focus of professional development toward the needs of special populations, or other strategies. Exhibit 6.13 shows which of these strategies SAHE grantees use. The method used by most SAHE-grantee project directors is publicizing activities (83 percent of participating teachers are in projects that use this method). About half of participating teachers are in projects that use incentives to increase participation (51 percent) and tailor the focus of their activities (50 percent); only 18 percent are in projects that use other methods for increasing participation.

Exhibit 6.13
Percent of Teachers Participating in SAHE-grantee Projects That Use Various Strategies to Increase Participation (n=92)

Summary: Targeting and Recruitment of Teachers

Despite IHE/NPO efforts at recruiting, the effect that this has on actual participation is unclear, since nearly 80 percent of participants are volunteers. Teachers of disadvantaged students may not participate in high numbers even though the activity may be targeted toward them. In Chapter 3 we reported that the actual participation rates of these teachers in Eisenhower-assisted activities are much lower than the SAHE-grantee reports of targeting would predict. The heavy reliance on volunteer participants might help to explain why these participation rates do not reflect reported targeting efforts. Alternative targeting and recruitment efforts, such as sponsoring activities in which the whole school participates, may be effective in increasing the participation of teachers of special populations of students, but in some cases this approach may be unrealistic to implement on a large scale.

[Core Features of Professional Development]

[Building a Vision for Professional Development]