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Teacher Training and Development

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Beykont, Z. (Ed). (2002). The Power of Culture: Teaching Across Language Difference. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Publishing Group.

The Power of Culture: Teaching Across Language Difference examines the pedagogical and political supports necessary to give language minority students a high-quality education in mainstream classrooms. The volume focuses on three key issues of educational reform— high-stakes assessment, effective pedagogy, and teacher preparation—as they relate to teaching a diverse student body to high academic standards. Contributing authors assess the effects of high-stakes testing on language minority students, and debate whether educational reform has, in implementation, drifted away from the principle of equity.

Blasi, M. (2001). Returning to the Reservation: Experiences of a First Year Native American Teacher. PDF (406 KB) Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED456001).

A case study of the experiences of a Native American teacher (Joseph) during his first year of teaching examined the transition from the idealistic world of college to the stark realities of actual teaching. Data were gathered through bimonthly semistructured interviews, classroom observations, and telephone communication. Joseph picked a reservation school to teach in because his grandfather had come from the same community. Deeply grounded in the community and his own heritage, Joseph understood the learning styles of Native American students, which he described as "step-by-step" and "beating around the bush." Because of this knowledge, Joseph was able to adapt the strategies he learned at the university, which were centered around white middle-class experiences, to his reservation setting. Joseph sought support from the teacher next door, a Navajo custodian, other colleagues, his professor at the university, and his parents. He felt that the ideal support for a first-year teacher would be a trained instructional classroom assistant who could reinforce student learning. His biggest challenge was inadequate instructional materials. Much of Joseph's success can be attributed to the high standards and expectations he set for himself and his students. He showed his students through his actions that he would not give up on them; he challenged without embarrassing, empathized, and developed strategies for his students. Joseph exemplifies the teacher needed in schools today.

Cegelka, P. & Alvarado, J. (2000). A Best Practices Model for Preparation of Rural Special Education Teachers. Rural and Special Education Quarterly 19(4), 15-30.

This district-university partnership program is meeting the personnel needs of a 17-district region in the California desert where over 40% of their special education teachers had been employed without appropriate credentials. The program was designed to respond to the geographic and population (68% Hispanic.) demographics of the report. Utilizing an alternative credential option (the Internship Credential), courses, extensive practical support, assistance and supervision, and continuing professional development opportunities were provided for teachers in this rural desert region. Preliminary results indicate that 70 teachers completed their Specialist Credential, and the retention rate of these professionals has been approximately 85%. It has been indicated, too, that coaches who provide extensive mentoring of Intern teachers during their two years of working toward full certification have favorable views of the program.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Zeichner, K. (2005). Studying Teacher Education: The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Published for the American Education Research Association, Studying Teacher Education cites a need for research on teacher quality that expands the concept of pupil achievement beyond standardized test scores. Among the findings on teacher profiles and teacher performance, the research shows: (1) More teachers major in academic subjects, such as English or biology, rather than in education, a response to changes over the last two decades to state institutional subject-area requirements (2) College graduates in secondary education programs have Scholastic Aptitude Test/ACT test scores comparable to other college graduates (3) Studies show a correlation between prospective teachers' college study of mathematics and the mathematics learning of their high school pupils and (4) Evidence favors teacher certification in the field of mathematics as one measure of successful achievement by their students.

Education Commission of the States (2005, September). Eight Questions on Teacher Recruitment and Retention: What Does the Research Say? Denver, CO: Michael Allen. Retrieved December 6, 2005 from http://www.ecs.org/html/educationissues/teachingquality/
trrreport/report/introduction.asp.

This report is based on a review of 91 studies. These studies were used to answer eight questions about teacher recruitment and retention that are of particular importance to policy and education leaders – such as what are the characteristics of the teacher workforce and what impact do those characteristics have on teacher recruitment and retention and what practices and strategies hold promise for improving teacher recruitment and retention? This report is the second in a series of reports on teaching quality.

Fillmore, L., & Snow, C. (2000). What Teachers Need to Know about Language. PDF (764 KB) Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 444379).

Today's teachers need access to a wide range of information to function in the classroom. They need a thorough understanding of how language figures in education, and for that reason they must receive systematic and intensive preparation in educational linguistics. A thorough grounding in linguistics would support teachers' undertakings overall, and in particular in teaching literacy skills and working with English language learners. If approached coherently, such preparation would also cover many of the desired teacher competencies, relating to skills in assessing children, in individualizing instruction, and in respecting diversity. This paper lays out a rationale for why current and perspective teachers need to know more about language, and what specific sorts of knowledge they need. Requisite knowledge about oral language, oral language used in formal and academic contexts, and written language is discussed. In the final section, courses are suggested that teacher preparation programs should offer to teacher candidates. This course list may also be seen as specifying aspects of an integrated, in-depth professional development program for in-service teachers.

Guarino, C., Santibanez, L., Daley, G., & Brewer, D. (2004, May). A Review of the Research Literature on Teacher Recruitment and Retention. PDF (175 KB) Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation. Retrieved January 11, 2005 from http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2005/
RAND_TR164.sum.pdf.

This literature review provides a summary and critical evaluation of the research on the topic of teacher recruitment and retention. It focuses on empirical studies that were published between 1980 and the end of 2003. As a means of organizing the large body of research related to this broad topic the authors group the studies into the following categories: (1) studies that examined the characteristics of individuals who enter teaching, (2) studies that focused on the characteristics of individuals who remain in teaching, (3) studies that investigated the external characteristics of districts and schools that affect recruitment and retention, (4) studies of compensation policies that affected recruitment and retention, (5) studies of pre-service policies that affected recruitment and retention, and (6) studies of in-service policies that affected recruitment and retention.

Heimbecker, C., Miner, S., & Prater, G. (2000). Community-Based Native Teacher Education Programs. In J. Reyhner, J. Martin, L. Lockard, & W. Gilbert (Eds.), Learn in Beauty: Indigenous Education for a New Century (pp. 35-44). Retrieved May 4, 2005 from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/LIB/LIB4.html.

School-based Native teacher education programs are relatively uncommon. This chapter examines two pioneering programs based out of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, serving Navajo students and Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, serving members of the Nishnabe Nation of Northern Ontario.

Institute for Higher Education Policy (2000, September). Educating the Emerging Majority: The Role of Minority-Serving Colleges & University in Confronting America’s Teacher Crisis. PDF (2.20 MB) Washington, DC: Alliance for Equity in Higher Education. Retrieved January 16, 2005 from http://www.ihep.com/Pubs/PDF/FinalTeacherED.pdf.

This report examines the unique and vital roles that minority-serving institutions play and the challenges they face in educating teachers of color. In order to highlight the performance of these institutions, original data analyses of the minority-serving institutions that make up the Alliance for Equity in Higher Education programs at Historically and Other Predominantly Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities are profiled to demonstrate some of the different approaches these institutions have used to prepare qualified teachers of color. Finally, public policy recommendations are offered, proposing solutions targeted on the needs of minority-serving institutions that may have widespread application to other institutions as they attempt to address the teacher shortage.

Lambe, J. (2003). Indigenous Education, Mainstream Education and Native Studies: Some Considerations when Incorporating Indigenous Pedagogy into Native Studies. American Indian Quarterly Berkeley, 27(1), 308-324.

This article presents characteristics of indigenous education based on the authors experience with Mohawk elder and Lakota mentor. Indigenous education is intrinsically connected with culture, informs a perception of something, and includes an act, fact, or state of knowing. Among others, the author explores mainstream education, focusing on empiricism, rationalism, and the factory metaphor and assembly line model of the industrial resolution and their influence on behavioral psychology and education evaluation.

Mantle-Bromley, C., Wilson, C., Foster, A., & Maaka, M. (2003). Context Matters: Improving Schooling for Native Hawaiian Children. Equity & Excellence in Education 36, 259-269.

This case study examines an initiative at the University of Hawai’I at Manoa’s College of Education with the mission of improving schooling for children, mostly Native Hawaiian, of the Wai’anae Coast of O’ahu. The study reports how the initiative recruits, supports, and prepares new teachers for the particularities of this specific location as well as the generalizability of local practice to theory regarding the preparation of new teachers for indigenous minority populations.

Manuelito, K. (2003). Building a Native Teaching Force: Important Considerations. PDF (31 KB) Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED482324).

Since 1975, the political climate has increasingly supported the inclusion of American Indian culture and language in Native education and the training of Native teachers. Native teachers enhance the teacher-student relationship for Native students, are role models for Native youth, and are aware of Native learning styles. The ongoing Native Educators Research Project, examining how language and culture are included in the education of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Hawaiian teachers, surveyed 238 students in 27 Native teacher preparation programs and interviewed program administrators. Although most programs articulated a focus on Native language and culture, course contents and requirements often did not reflect that intent. About half the respondents reported that they spoke and understood their Native language and were knowledgeable about their Native culture. About a third could write in their Native language. Nearly all respondents felt that Native language and culture should be included in the schooling of Native children, but only about a quarter felt prepared to teach their Native language, English as a second language, or bilingual education. While more than half felt prepared to teach multicultural education, only about a quarter felt prepared to teach Native culture. Seventy percent of respondents felt prepared to use cooperative/group instructional strategies, but only 40 percent felt prepared in the area of Native learning styles.

McColskey, W., & Stronge, J. (2005). Teacher Effectiveness, Student Achievement, & National Board Certified Teachers. PDF (4,197 KB) Arlington, VA: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Retrieved October 25, 2006 from http://www.wm.edu/education/Teacher%20Effectiveness.pdf.

This study explored the student achievement results of National Board certified 5th grade teachers in three North Carolina districts (as compared to other teachers in the districts. The study also compared National Board certified teachers’ actual teaching practices using observations, surveys, instructional artifacts, and interviews to that of two other groups of teachers who were identified based on an analysis of student achievement data.

National Bureau of Economic Research (2005). The Market for Teacher Quality. Retrieved July 20, 2005 from http://www.nber.org/papers/w11154.

Much of education policy focuses on improving teacher quality, but most policies lack strong research support. The authors use student achievement gains to estimate teacher value-added, their measure of teacher quality. The analysis reveals substantial variation in the quality of instruction, most of which occurs within rather than between schools. Although teacher quality appears to be unrelated to advanced degrees or certification, experience does matter - but only in the first year of teaching. The authors also find that good teachers tend to be effective with all student ability levels but that there is a positive value of matching students and teachers by race. In the second part of the analysis, the authors show that teachers staying in their sample of urban schools tend to be as good as or better than those who exit. Thus, the main cost of large turnover is the introduction of more first year teachers. Finally, there is little or no evidence that districts that offer higher salaries and have better working conditions attract the higher quality teachers among those who depart the central city district. The overall results have a variety of direct policy implications for the design of school accountability and the compensation of teachers.

National Center for Education Statistics (2006). Teacher Professional Development in 1999-2000: What Teachers, Principles, and Distric Staff Report. PDF (704 KB) Retrieved January 19, 2006 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006305.pdf.

This report uses data from the 1999-2000 School and Staffing Surveys to describe what district staff, principles, and teachers reported about ascpects of teacher professional development. Major topics covered in this report include: planning and implementation of professional development, selection and evaluation of professional development activities, support for teacher professional development, professional development topics, and usefullness of professional development activities.

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs (2002). Balancing Teacher Quantity with Quality. PDF (201 KB) Retrieved August 2, 2005 from http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/tasynthesis/framing/
5teacherquality.pdf.

The success of our education system is fully reliant on the presence in our schools of high-quality teachers for all students. Estimates suggest, however, that there continues to be a profound teacher shortage; some two million new teachers will be needed over the next ten years. At the same time, the number of students in our schools who are English language learners (ELLs) has been growing at an average annual rate five times that of the total enrollment. This paper examines the shortage of teachers for ELLs, the significance of high quality teachers, and directions for ensuring high quality ELL teachers.

Pavel, M., Banks, R., & Pavel, S. (2002). The Oksale Story: Training Teachers for Schools Serving American Indians and Alaska Natives. PDF (66 KB) Journal of American Indian Education, 41(2), 38-47.

This article is one in a series of manuscripts being develops to tell the story of programs to prepare teachers for schools serving American Indian and Alaska Native youths. The series begins by featuring a particular teacher-training program based on a partnership between a tribal college, Northwest Indian College and a public research university, Washington State University. A brief overview provides the readers with a sense of how the partnership developed and describes various components of the teacher training program. The focus then turns to students' views about the institution they attended and the teacher preparation program in which they were enrolled. In the conclusion section, the discussion moves to the overall condition of teacher preparation and offers a transition to forthcoming manuscripts.

Peske, H., & Haycock, K. (2006). Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students are Short-Changed on Teacher Quality . PDF (711 KB) Washington, DC: Education Trust. Retrieved October 25, 2006 from http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/010DBD9F-CED8-4D2B-9E0D-91B446746ED3/0/TQReportJune2006.pdf.

This report from the Education Trust provides new information on the impact of teacher quality on student achievement and offers specific steps states should take to remedy the persistent practice of denying the best teachers to the children who need them the most. The report also offers some key findings of soon-to-be released research in three states – Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin – and major school systems within them. The research project reveals that schools in these states and districts with high percentages of low-income and minority students are more likely to have teachers who are inexperienced, have lower basic academic skills or are not highly qualified – reflecting troublesome national teacher distribution patterns.

Pewewardy, C., & Cahape, P. (2003). Culturally Responsive Teaching for American Indian Students. PDF (34 KB) Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED482325).

Culturally responsive teaching cannot be approached as a recipe or series of steps that teachers can follow to become effective with American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. Instead, it relies on the development of certain dispositions toward learners and a holistic approach to curriculum and instruction. This digest draws on a five-part conceptual framework first derived from the broader multicultural literature by Phuntsog and ties these concepts to recent research in AI/AN education. This framework reflects elements that researchers found to be crucial to culturally responsive education: (1) cultural literacy (teachers' knowledge of Native cultures and history and awareness of Native learning styles); (2) teachers' self-reflection and analysis of their own attitudes, beliefs, and stereotypes; (3) caring, trusting, and inclusive classrooms; (4) actions of the school that model respect for diversity, Indigenous knowledge, and alternative ways of knowing; and (5) a transformative curriculum that promotes critical thinking and the advancement of society toward equality of opportunity and social justice.

Reyes, M. (2002). Reaching Out to the Teachers of Teachers: Distance Education in Rural Alaska. PDF (229 KB) Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED477416).

In the spring of 2001, the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Education included a web-based instructional component in all distance education classes. This component aims to mediate access and equity issues in providing postsecondary education to rural Alaska residents. The number of courses offered through distance education had been limited by the time constraints involved in audio-conferencing, which had been the main means of delivering coursework. Students taking courses by distance delivery, including many Alaska Natives, were taking up to 15 years to complete their college degree. Geographic isolation also made it difficult for already licensed teachers to take additional coursework, either for professional development or to climb the salary scale. Almost immediately following the decision, some members of the rural faculty showed resistance to learning the web-based system. The heightened nature and tone of the resistance suggested fear in using the system, fear of technology in general, and fear of change. In the fall of 2001, a team flew to the rural campuses to provide technology training workshops. Observations made during the campus visits indicated that well-equipped computer labs at some sites were under-utilized; technical support staff was available at each site; and under-attendance at many workshops implicated faculty indifference to learning the web-based system. It was concluded that reluctant faculty must be accorded every possible support measure to assist them in learning to utilize new technologies.

Ryan, S. & Dennis, R. (2000). Experiences and Perceptions of Rural Alaskan General Educators: Implication for Preparation in Inclusive Practices. Rural and Special Education Quarterly 19(4), 30-44.

Special Education policy provides for the involvement and progress of students with disabilities in general education programs. Inclusionary educational practices are impacted not only by the skills of educator, but also by their life experiences, the challenges and rewards they experience in their work, and the perceived integration between the philosophy and practices of inclusion and the culture of their community. This study explores the experiences and perceptions of general education teachers and their special education teaching assistants living in remote Alaskan villages who participated in a distance delivered in-service preparation project to increase skills to support inclusionary education for students with disabilities. Based on (a) questionnaires, (b) permanent products, (c) group audio-conferences, (d) in-depth individual interviews, and (e) researcher field notes collected over a 24 month period, analyses of the data highlighted three major findings of educational significance, all related to teachers' experiences and perceptions. Categories of findings and discussion include: (a) the importance of personal stories, (b) teacher perceptions of challenges and supports for inclusionary practices, and (c) the perceived integration between the culture of special education and teacher experience of Alaskan village culture. The authors conclude with recommendations for the field that build upon experiences of individuals, their values, and beliefs in order to support and enhance the sustainable development and implementation of inclusion of persons with disabilities in school and community life.

The Teaching Commission (2004). Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action. PDF (582 KB) Retrieved July 20, 2005 from http://www.theteachingcommission.org/press/FINAL_Report.pdf.

This report calls for a new compact with teachers, built around clear and attainable goals that recognize teachers for excellence while ensuring that those who do not pull their weight will not bring others down with them. The compact would include raising teacher salaries, something most Americans firmly support, while also asking teachers to be measured and compensated based on their classroom performance, including the academic gains by their students. The Teaching Commission also proposes higher pay for teaching subjects such as math and science, and for working in our toughest classrooms.

Tyler, N., Cantou-Clarke, C., Easterling, J., & Klepper, T. (2003). Recruitment and Retention and Special Education Teacher Preparation in Rural Areas: Diversity, Federal Funding, and Technical Assistance Consideration. Rural and Special Education Quarterly 22(3), 3-11. Retrieved December 13, 2005 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4052/is_200307/
ai_n9241778.

Eight faculty members at rural colleges and universities who received funding from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to support personnel preparation efforts in their special education programs were surveyed regarding the impact of those funds. The faculty taught at minority institutions of higher education and the students supported with the grant funding were from historically underrepresented groups. A total of 117 African American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian students had graduated from these programs at the time of the survey, and were currently employed in 42 rural school districts. Strategies on recruiting and retaining diverse students in rural areas are provided, as well as a summary of the impact of technical assistance efforts with minority institutions nationwide.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education (2005) . The Secretary’s Fourth Annual Report on Teacher Quality: A Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom. PDF (2,821 KB) Washington, DC. Retrieved July 25, 2006 from https://www.title2.org/titleIIreport05.pdf .

A Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom summarizes the data on teacher preparation provided by each state in 2004 as required by Title II of the 1998 amendments to the Higher Education Act.

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