Quality Indicators

Research clearly shows teaching residencies, modeled after medical training, have a deeply positive impact on teacher preparedness, satisfaction, and retention.  

High Quality Teacher ​Preparation

Research shows that teachers’ preparation makes a tremendous difference to children’s learning."
-Linda Darling-Hammond

Experience Matters:
Experience for educators needs to be contextualized, modeled, practiced, and guided by carefully selected, high-quality teachers in the communities that the candidates may serve.  The student teaching model of the 1950s, dropping candidates for 40 day placements in districts,  with volunteer teachers willing to accept them, can not adequately prepare candidates for a job of this importance.  Given the opportunity to be embedded with an expert teacher for two years the Classroom Academy (CA)--a 500% increase over traditional models of student contact time-- produces a classroom ready novice, familiar with the community, the school personnel, norms and protocols within the school community, and any instructional priorities or curriculum resources used. It removes barriers of equity by providing classroom ready new hires for all students and will encourage retention.  ​

Recruitment & Teacher Shortage

 ​The Classroom Academy provides a pathway to equity for both candidates and students.  By providing a $22,000 per year living stipend, the program eliminates the need for candidates to “volunteer”, thereby providing equitable access to a full-time classroom placement.  This offers all candidates the opportunity to immerse themselves in a school setting with a carefully selected, and compensated, expert lead teacher to learn, practice, and develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of a classroom ready teacher.  This model provides “student ready” first year teachers by capturing two years of experience, application of theory, and a working knowledge of the school priorities, curriculum, and community prior to becoming the teacher of record. In addition, students benefit from this model as individual needs are more adequately addressed with an additional adult, the resident, in the classroom.   ​

Principals find graduates of residency programs to be well prepared, and in many cases to be better prepared than typical new teachers."
  Guha, R., Hyler, M. E., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2016)

Retention for Equity

Many early career teachers leave the profession. Research has shown three main reasons (Harris 2015)  are:

• high stress and lack of support,
• [Inadequate preparation causing] difficult working conditions, and
• career change.

The residency model addresses these key areas. It provides guided practice and explicit support navigating the entire school community.  This in depth work includes the classroom, student instruction, adult relationships (ie. administration, faculty meetings, parent conferences, student data teams, support services, transportation) and physical and mental health services.  This integrated support relieves stress and familiarizes the resident with the working landscape and explicitly connects the scope of impact the classroom teacher has on students.  It also serves to establish a deep connection and partnership between the resident, the school, and the community it serves.  Furthermore, the CA residency, in order to build teacher leader capacity in teacher candidates, created a lead resident role for a second year resident.  The responsibilities of this role include participation in the leadership team, assisting with the development of recruitment materials, communication liaison with first and second year residents, and collaborating on the facilitation of the monthly professional learning conversations.

​Accountability

We can not improve what we can not measure.  The Classroom Academy establishes data points such as, clear targets and metrics, for measuring program impact and sustainability.  The Classroom Academy provides opportunities for teacher candidates to develop, practice, and demonstrate the content, pedagogical knowledge, and skills that promote learning for all students.  It creates a common understanding of the competencies required and uses a common tool for measuring and providing feedback.

Evidence of these targets and metrics include:

• Shared Understanding:  Common use of an articulated NYS approved rubric with competencies assessed against the seven NYS Teaching Standard.
• Collection of data for Mixed Methods Research study including:
  • student perception surveys,
  • parent surveys,
  • resident and lead teacher self assessments, and
  • longitudinal achievement data on students involved in a resident’s classroom.
• Use of the Common Tool:  Observations, both video and in-person, are scored against an approved common evaluation rubric.  The same tool is used across districts, with both teacher candidates (for benchmarking, assessment, guidance and feedback purposes)  and the lead teacher. The common tool is used specifically with the candidates in both pre and post conference conversations with both P-12 administration and IHE supervisors to assess competencies and provide feedback.
  • Calibration of observers, inter-rater reliability between higher ed and P-12 evaluators,
  • Observer outside of placement,
  • Use of common tool to evaluate expert teachers. 

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Preliminary Research Data

Learning & Improvement

The Classroom Academy uses data to improve resident and lead teacher effectiveness.  Collaborating about improving instructional practices does two things:

• it models continuous improvement to teacher candidates as lead teachers continue to work to improve their own practice; 
• also makes the learning of the lead teacher transparent by completing a formal research based professional learning (National Board Certification process Component 2), focusing on differentiation of instruction during the first year of the residency.  

In addition, the lead educators join residents in a professional learning community, a monthly dialogue to develop a common language to better articulate professional decision making and development of thinking and writing around description, analysis, and reflection regarding instructional practice (needed on both the edTPA and in the National Board component).  This work creates a meaningful shared learning experience for all participants.  Finally, a flexible mindset has been imperative as adjustments have been needed which impact all partners.

Examples, implemented in Year 2, of this cognitive flexibility, continuous learning, improvement, and adjustment include

• Building Capacity
• Guidance
• Clinical Experiences: 
• Curriculum and Coursework:
• ​Quality control and targeted learning for resident advancement:

Shared Governance Structure

Historically, teacher preparation has been owned by institutions of higher education, even though the consumer of their product was the P-12 districts and communities.  The student teaching  model, developed in the 1950s, placed preparation candidates in districts willing to accept them with teachers willing to volunteer for brief 4 to 8 week periods.  Ironically, in this prevailing model the district, or future employer, had little input into the process or training of future teachers.
​
The Classroom Academy has envisioned and enacted a very different partnership model.  P-12 and higher education have forged a collective efficacy, responsibility, and ownership around teacher preparation.  This required significant shifts in how the participating organizations — unions, school districts, and institutions of higher education — traditionally interacted. To navigate this shift, the Classroom Academy instituted shared stakeholder governance. Districts have an equal voice at the table, identify target certification areas for recruitment based on local context, and leverage local resources to meet local needs.  Higher education has responded to the shifting needs of both candidates and demands of the field through more open communication, recruitment efforts, program adjustments, and course delivery changes producing classroom ready teachers for the communities in which they were trained.

I have done over 2,000 observations in my P-12 career, and what I observed in [the resident's] classroom is on par with many more seasoned educators.  Well done!"   
                    -Dr. Steve Danna

The Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES does not discriminate in its programs and activities, including employment and admission as applicable, on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, economic status, marital status, veterans' status, political affiliation, domestic victim status, use of a guide dog, hearing dog or service dog, disability, or other classifications protected under federal or state law, and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The designated district compliance officer(s) will coordinate compliance with the nondiscrimination requirements of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended, the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act, and the New York State Human Rights Law. The BOCES Civil Rights Compliance Officer is: Turina Parker, Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES, 267 Ballard Road, Suite 5, Wilton, NY 12831. phone: (518) 581-3716, email: tuparker@wswheboces.org.  Complaints may also be filed with the Office for Civil Rights, New York Office, U.S. Department of Education, 32 Old Slip, 26th Floor, New York, NY 10005- 2500, phone (646) 428-3800, fax (646) 428-3843, email:OCR.NewYork@ed.gov.