Welcome to the fifth installment of the TERI Update. We hope to use this regular email communication as a way to keep all of us informed about works in progress, deliberations, decisions, and events related to the Teacher Education Redesign Initiative.

June 10 & 11 Working Dates
8:30 – 4:30
Walter Conference Center, Room 101

We are looking forward to 60-70 people from the University and school partners attending two days of professional learning and TERI work. Topics will include the Teacher Performance Assessment (lead by Mary Trettin and Misty Sato); Language, Culture, and Families (lead by Martha Bigelow, Michael Goh, Carole Gupton, and Susan Walker); Assessing Teacher Candidates and our Programs (lead by Jane Gilles); Value-added assessment of our candidates (lead my Michael Rodriguez and David Heisted); and coherence and integration in the teacher preparation curriculum (lead by Cassie Scharber). Ivan Charner from Academic Educational Development in Washington DC will be joining us to provide some national perspective and feedback on our work. If you did not RSVP, but plan to attend, please let Michelle Gabrielli know at: cehd@umn.edu .

Welcome Stacy Ernst as Partnership Coordinator
After a broad search that brought over 30 applicants, Stacy Ernst has been hired as the Partnership Coordinator for our new efforts to establish and sustain school-wide partnerships in the metro area. Stacy comes to us with experience as a high school English teacher, as an instructor at Winona State where she spear-headed a community of learners Masters program anchored by National Board Certification, as Executive Assistant to the Minnesota Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, a student teacher supervisor, and most recently as a doctoral candidate in the Curriculum & Instruction. Many of you may remember Stacy from when she was the graduate assistant for the Council of Teacher Education for CEHD a few years ago. She will be located in the Preparation to Practice Group as we transition to the Educator Development and Research Center. Welcome Stacy! And thank you to Kathy Byrn who stepped into this role as an interim. Kathy really catalyzed the partnership development this winter and spring. She will now continue with the Elementary Education programs.

Curriculum and Assessment Coordinator Search is Open
The new position of Coordinator for Curriculum and Assessment will provide leadership and support to assure the continuity of core curriculum and assessments across teacher preparation programs. Please encourage qualified applicants to apply. Applications are available on the University of Minnesota employment site with requisition number 166411.

May 17 & 18 Work Sessions Review
Almost 70 people attended the May 17 & 18 working sessions. We heard updates from the Task Groups. This is a brief synopsis of their updates.

Research

• Envisioned the scope of a research agenda, developed a logic model for how the TERI work leads toward a projected outcome, including what inputs, activities, participation and outcomes are contained.
• Launched a web survey for University faculty to report how their research agenda might connect into the logic model: http://intranet.cehd.umn.edu/. Please add your information if you haven’t yet.
• Will make recommendations for needed financial resources, including a research coordinator, faculty leader, and research grant support for faculty, partner and graduate student projects. Specific processes to for these small grants for research and coordination of research efforts related to TERI were suggested.
• Described the importance of embedding the research goals into new structures currently being developed across the CEHD.

Partnerships

• Representatives from 3 school districts talked about engagement with TERI from their perspective. They are excited about the innovation of joining forces to address student learning and are open to different models of having pre-service candidates in their schools. They also want to be clear with their teachers about what will be expected of them and what to begin those discussions as soon as possible.
• New full time Partnership coordinator has been hired.
• Draft Memoranda of Understanding are moving forward with Forest Lake Schools, Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center, Crosswinds Middle School, and White Bear Lake. These memoranda make a formal agreement to continue the development of our partnerships in the 2010-11 academic year. We plan to revisit these memoranda annually as the work continues to develop.

Curriculum & Assessment

• Five common assessments that would tie together the candidates’ overall experience in their preparation year were proposed
• An overview of candidate outcomes was proposed
• 3 possible examples of how common content might extend across the candidates’ year-long experience were presented and discussed in small groups: one for supporting English language learners, one for instructional technology, and one for school and society / human relations

Recruitment & Admissions

• The group has divided its tasks into four working groups 1) Diversifying the candidate pool and improving retention efforts; 2) Recruiting career changers; 3) Redesigning recruitment materials and website; and 4) Determining predictive criteria/dispositions indicative of teacher success and defining “exceptionally qualified” candidates. All workgroups are thinking about implications for admissions policies/procedures
• The group identified that recruitment of diverse candidates also requires ways to support candidates emotionally, socially, culturally, and academically after they enroll with us.
• Recommendations for plans of action from this group are forthcoming.

Based on notes from the small group discussions, the follow areas of agreement were identified:

• Transparency of common curriculum and common assessments, and agreed upon outcomes/expectations for students will help prepare better teachers.
• To do this, we need more collaboration & more communication across programs and more time to do it.
• Need for embedding more preparation in teaching diverse student groups throughout our students’ experiences (ELL, Special Ed, race/culture/socio-economics).
• All faculty–CEHD and schools–need more professional development in issues of multiculturalism, technology, special education.
• We have many strengths to build on: great students who enroll in our programs, a rigorous curriculum, and expertise among our faculty

The following areas need continuing attention in our work:

• University and Partner Schools as equals. We each have a great deal to offer the other, and we must proceed with respect. This can be shown in our tone, our attitude, and our use of language.
• Strong training and support for teaching mentors, TA’s who are often teaching the coursework, and clinical faculty coming out of partner schools.
• Support, $$, graduate credits, CEUs, professional growth, and recognition/incentives for participating mentor teachers
• Scheduling concerns: team teaching, collaboration across program areas, collaboration with school faculty, assigning credits.
• Being cognizant and mindful about the impact these changes will have on current students and practices.

AACTE Proposal Submitted
In the last update, we called for those interested in submitting a proposal for the annual American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) conference to be held Feb 24-27, 2011 in San Diego, CA. A group (Misty Sato, Cassie Scharber, Martha Bigelow, Lori Helman, and Michelle Gabrielli) submitted a joint proposal titled: Teacher Education Redesign Initiative: Preparing teachers with adaptive expertise.

Program area support for TERI summer engagement
The TERI Leadership Team is working hard to use the TERI budget in ways that invest in our time and creativity, our professional growth and development, and our expertise in research and teaching. Toward these ends, we would like to invite each of the licensure program areas and a group of faculty associated with the common content (formally called “foundations”) to engage in discussion and planning sessions with compensation. This work will be done after the TERI meetings in May and June of 2010 and prior to a retreat to be held in late September/early October 2010. This is the fourth announcements of this opportunity. If you need additional information or clarification, please contact Misty Sato (msato@umn.edu) for more details.

TERI team attends Bush Summit
The Bush Foundation hosted a two-day summit on June 1 and 2. The 14 partner institutions shared their progress and challenges. Many identified the complexity of the work (lots of part of preparation system shifting all at the same time), engaging broad participation with their colleagues (time and strong communications are needed), and the many logistics of changing programming as challenges. Most of the partners reported the powerful lessons they were learning with their school partners and by engaging in conversations with their colleagues. We were proud to report on the strong participation we have had at the January, May, and upcoming June meetings and the ongoing work of the task groups. School partnership development is also moving along with our first Memorandum of Understanding approved by the Forest Lake School District Board of Education on June 3. We are working on developing “common metrics” with the Bush Partners so that we jointly learn from this initiative.

Hold the Date for a Fall TERI Work Day
Friday, October 1, 8:30 – 4:00
Please hold this date to participate in a fall TERI work day. Program area faculty and common content faculty will present the results of their summer / early fall conversations.

TERI Timeline
Design
Jan–May 2010: Task Groups and LSP developing recommendations for recruitment & admission, curriculum & assessment, partnership development, and research processes and structures.

May 17,18: TERI work days for reviewing task group recommendations and refining plans brought forward by Task Groups

June 10, 11: Performance assessment of candidates, professional development for all teacher education faculty, staff, and supervisors.

May–August 2010: Program areas have access to support for program-specific curriculum and assessment development; common assessment development.

Pilot, Test, and Build
2010–2011 Academic year: Professional Development Schools begin some placements of candidates; piloting common assessments; test out and refine new curricular structures/ content; course approval processes.

Launch
May 2011: Launch new teacher education design with partnership districts and schools