Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learning

Oakland Unified School District, Oakland CA

Investigators

Abstract

The core partners of the Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn (LT2L) MSP project are the Oakland Unified School District and California State University, Hayward School of Education and Allied Studies and School of Science. The Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley and the Education Trust are service providers who are integral to the planning and implementation of this effort. The Partnership establishes a sustained collaboration to align a seamless teacher recruitment, preparation and development continuum in Mathematics and Science across Grades K-12. The program design focuses on the following goals: a) recruitment of undergraduate mathematics and science majors and tutors with close ties to Oakland; b) restructuring of preservice programs to better prepare new teachers entering a diverse and low income urban school district and to comply with state induction legislation; c) increasing teacher retention by establishing a culture of collegial support and life-long "learning to teach," and d) increased student achievement. Colleagues across experience levels, that is university faculty, inservice teachers, and preservice teaching candidates, will have more frequent and substantive exchanges with one another, on-site, at the university and in the science and mathematics community. Ongoing analysis and evaluation of the partnership will include the impact on academic achievement in mathematics and science of students in classrooms involved in the program. Recruitment focuses on mathematics and science majors as well as current Oakland tutors. The latter possess B.A.s and work in Project SOAR (GEAR-UP) and Americorps. Undergraduate STEM majors will be engaged in "Communicating Math" and "Communicating Science" at UC-Berkeley to engage undergraduates in co-teaching of mathematics lessons with veteran teachers. Preservice and New Teacher Preparation will engage college faculty in research on effective teacher preparation and professional development and look to the development of more flexible alternative credentialing programs. Retention will be supported through differentiated professional development experiences driven by teacher experiences and site needs. This will include Education Trust's Standards-in-Practice concentrating on the examination of student work to focus the teaching/learning process, lesson study and peer coaching, principals instructional seminars, subject matter partners with expertise in mathematics and science, science and mathematics leadership institutes, middle school science and mathematics initiatives, and Teaching Fellows. These efforts to construct a seamless teacher professional continuum are built upon past work among the partners, but which now will be brought into coherence. The curricular and professional development offerings from the Lawrence Hall of Science will be infused along the continuum. The various teacher development efforts, preservice and inservice will be refocused on the learning expectations of the K-12 students as well as the State of California credentialing guidelines. Ultimately, the Partnership intends to improve student achievement as a result of more highly qualified professionals in classrooms.