95 percent of teachers in apprenticeship program stay at Central Ohio's neediest schools after three years, continue to make a difference
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Project ASPIRE, Apprenticeships Supported by Partnerships for Innovation and Reform in Education, funded by the US Department of Education, is a $12.9 million collaborative effort among innovative partners providing teacher candidates with deep content knowledge and preparing them to become successful teachers who support the learning of all children, particularly those attending schools in high-need, urban areas.
Two pathways into the teaching profession were targeted to attract the most qualified people into the field. The first was a reconstitution of our prebaccalaureate pathway to teacher licensure. The second was a reinvention of our one-year teacher graduate residency and initial licensure program in middle and secondary mathematics and science, and in K-12 foreign language – the three areas of highest need for our partner school district, Columbus City Schools. Beginning in 2009, we opened seven new pre-baccalaureate educator preparation programs, giving prospective teachers choices in how they earn their teacher license at Ohio State.
Several important components of our work are integral to the success of our one-year graduate program. The year-long teaching residency apprenticeship model, where our interns work in partnership with their mentor teachers in the Co-Planning, Co-Teaching (CP-CT) model, has been a critical component to success. The CP-CT model was developed by Patti Brosnan (Teaching and Learning), with the goal to provide a framework for our interns to focus on student learning as the central tenet of their work in the classroom. Integral to that process is a Cognitive Coaching™ model led by Marguerethe Jaede (Office of Accreditation, Placement, and Licensure). This method provides a structure to guide conversations between the mentor and intern teachers, again with the ultimate focus on improving student learning.
The second component that has been integral to our success has been the Urban Teaching Seminar (UTS) developed and led by Valerie Kinloch (Teaching and Learning). The UTS is a weekly seminar designed for prospective teachers to deepen their understandings of culturally relevant pedagogy and social justice, and to explore how lived experiences shape approaches to teaching, learning and leading in light of the diversity found in classrooms and communities.
Once per month, mentor teachers attend this seminar so the lessons learned can be directly applied inside the classrooms where our prospective teachers are learning to teach. This year, with the support of the Department of Teaching and Learning, UTS is being offered to mathematics and science education students who are participating in the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows program. We are in discussions to determine how this program will be offered to larger groups of graduate and undergraduate students in the department in order for it to become an integral component in learning to teach in an urban context.
The third component is the ongoing support our interns receive after they graduate and become teachers in our partner school district, Columbus City Schools. We have worked collaboratively with the district to support growth and expansion of the Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program in support of all teachers into their fourth year of teaching in the district. As the state of Ohio has implemented the new state residency licensure requirements and implemented the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System, we have worked to expand the one-year PAR program to a continuum of support from preservice throughout their career. This 2014-2015 academic year, all teachers in years one through four in Columbus City Schools are participating in the program
Evidence of Success
A qualitative research design was utilized to determine the project’s impact on teachers and interns. Data were collected at professional development meetings, where focus groups were organized in role-alike groups. Data consisted of verbal and written statements, drawings on chart paper to provide perspectives on the impact of the programs, and short surveys to share formative feedback throughout the year during professional development sessions.
At this time, our findings indicate a positive impact on both people and on the school and university systems that will ultimately lead to opportunities for sustainability of the successes we have had with Project ASPIRE. The impact on people has been profound, as can be seen from the impact on both mentor teachers and our ASPIRE interns.
Mentor teachers say ASPIRE has impacted their practice in the following ways:
- Students were the greatest benefactors of the entire process.
- Students benefit from having two adults in the classroom at all times.
- The focus shifted from teaching to learning in the classroom.
- Teachers became more reflective.
- The mentor roles shifted to facilitators of learning for the interns and for their students;
- Interns were better prepared to enter their first year of urban teaching.
- Interns became urban problem-solvers who facilitated student learning.
Intern teachers valued the urban cohort model and yearlong residency and felt prepared to work in an urban environment. They said the program helped them:
- Shatter stereotypes about urban schools, communities and students
- Not only to embrace difference, but also to teach our students to embrace difference
- Use the program’s experiential nature to work in urban schools and communities
- Establish positive relationships with students
- Value the community of practice approach to working with colleagues in professional learning communities.
Project ASPIRE’s impact on systems has also been impressive. At this time, we have over 50 graduates from our Master of Education program, and of those hired in Columbus City Schools, we have a 95 percent retention rate after three years in the district. Graduates from Project ASPIRE have demonstrated their ability to be successful in our high-need urban schools.
We have more than 500 majors and 1,000 pre-majors enrolled in our newly developed undergraduate programs at our Columbus campus and four regional campuses.
More than 50 experienced teachers comprise a core set of highly-effective mentor teachers who have participated in professional development around co-planning, co-teaching and cognitive coaching. They provide a foundation to change our mentoring model to better support our preservice candidates to be successful in high-need settings.
More than 400 teachers are being supported through the Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program as they are in their first four years of teaching in the Ohio Resident Educator licensure program.
Finally, we have 37 teachers seeking National Board Certification this year, a direct result of the contribution of collaboration between Project ASPIRE, the National Board Office, National Education Association and Columbus City Schools.
And finally, district personnel speak highly of ASPIRE graduates, and actively seek to hire them in the district:
- Principals actively pursue ASPIRE graduates for high-need schools
- Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) mentor teachers state that ASPIRE interns are better than more traditionally prepared teachers in the following ways: 1) have higher levels of content knowledge, 2) better understand culturally relevant teaching in an urban context and have a better understanding of urban children, 3) manage their classrooms by setting positive expectations for children and framing consequences in a positive manner, and 4) implement active learning and child-centered instruction.
For more information about Project ASPIRE, contact Sandy Stroot, Director, at stroot.1@osu.edu or Patti Brosnan at brosnan.1@osu.edu.
This article first appeared in the Spring, 2015 issue of In Review, the EHE Office of Research Newsletter.
