TPAC Training the Trainers

TPAC (Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium)

The past two days I shared time at the Westin Hotel in Columbus, Ohio, with several educators from across the nation in a training to learn to evaluate performance assessments for teacher candidates.  Specifically I was trained in the area of science performance assessments.  There were participants in the science training from Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington and Massachusetts.  I was excited to meet another Iowa, Ted Neal, from the University of Iowa.  Although the two of us have many questions as to how this will roll out in the state, we were both pleased to consider that we may be able to train others together as a team.

The TPA is currently in the field test stage.  Accelerated states such as Minnesota, Washington and Ohio are already beginning to embed the prompts and rubrics into their course work and anticipate scoring these yet this spring.  Once results from this field test are analyzed, the information will be used to revise the documents and "finalize" TPA materials for a pilot study.

The trainer in Science was Fred Freking from USC.  He is quite experienced with the PACT (Performance Assessment of California Teachers) and did a good job of overviewing our tasks as trainers.  It seems that two key things to keep in mind when scoring are: seeking evidence and then determining a preponderance of the evidence.  We noticed how easily our biases came into play and continually found ourselves being reminded to look for evidence in the narrative and the videos.

The process consisted of starting with reviewed/scored rubrics (benchmarks) and comparing our scoring of the evidence to determine a match.  We began with a benchmark of 2 on Thursday.  Then today we completed the 1 and 3 benchmarks. There are 11 components that are reviewed on the TPA, all on a 4 point scale where a one is a "failing' mark and will need to be re-scored and then potentially revised by the teacher candidate.  Now that we have been trained, our next step is to be calibrated.  We will have two weeks within which to complete the calibration process.  It is estimated that scoring a TPA will take between 2-5 hours.  To be successful our marks must match the reviewers in 6 of 11 rubrics and the others must not be off by more than one.

The 11 rubric components are as follows: 3 in Planning, 3 in Instruction, 2 in Assessment, 1 in Reflection and 2 in Academic Language.  The process is still a bit raw and rough and as long as I continued to remind myself of that, I was OK.  Part of the problem is that we are dealing with TPA rubrics and PACT portfolios as the TPA portfolios and benchmarks do not yet exist.  Hopefully these will be available by October 2011.

The burning questions that I have include:

• will these TPAs be used by candidates and candidate preparation programs to inform improvement or are they a glorified hoop jumping process
• there appears to be a bit of disconnect in the rubrics yet between "next steps" taken that inform instruction (formative assessment) and "next time" I teach I would do such and such different
• is this a fair form to use if this eventually gets tied to teacher pay

Columbus, Ohio

I love to travel . . . and when I do I like to get a bit of the flavor of the area.  So I was thrilled to meet new friends as we disembarked from the plane last night.  There were seven of us on the flight from Minneapolis it turns out.  Two others were in science and we warmed up to one another right away . . . even shared a cab to the hotel.  We decided that we were each up for an adventure to find a place to eat.

Suzann from Gonzaga had read online that our hotel was close to Germantown.  Furthermore, she had read that the place to eat was Schmidt's.  So with a rough map from the hotel desk, our adventurous spirit and this bit of knowledge; we set out.  It was a gorgeous night!  Once we got off the main drag it was like we had transformed ourselves into an earlier time . . . cobblestone streets and brick buildings and no one out but lights lit up all the homes that we passed.  After a bit of walking (30 minutes) we finally stumbled upon our target.

The servers wore traditional German clothing and the menu was all German food.  It turns out the "Man vs Food" show visited there two years ago and the host ate the smorgasbord and then 3 cream puffs.  Not just any cream puff, but half-pound cream puffs. (And yes, we tried one~split it!)  Also, the waitress learned we were educators and she thanked us.  No kidding.  That floored me  . . . so much so I got up and gave her a hug.  Suzann, Barb (from U of Minnesota) and I each agreed that it is not often a teacher receives a thank you, particularly from a stranger.

Today was the training and an opportunity to meet more new friends.  The guys on my table were a lot of fun: Ted, Jim and Mark.  And I also got to meet three from Drake and three from the University of Iowa.

This morning I took a short walk to the Capitol Building so that I could complete a virtual cache there.  And this afternoon Ted and I found a ride from an instructor at The Ohio University to campus.  I wanted to complete an EarthCache at the Orton Geologic Museum.  We visited the Union where I had my photo taken with Brutus and also the 11th Floor of the Library to be able to see Columbus and to view the Horseshoe.  We walked part of the 3 miles back before taking the bus back as I learned my friend Jeanne was also at the hotel!  So fun to catch up with her too . . .

Seven of us then ate at "Tony's", an Italian Restaurant just down the street.  Then back to our rooms to do homework for tomorrow . . .

TQP Talking Points

Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) Talking Points

Partnership between Iowa Department of Education, University of Northern Iowa, and Stanford University

A focus on highly effective teachers, rather than highly qualified teachers.

Teacher effectiveness is determined by the teacher’s performance in the classroom linked to documented evidence showing impact on student achievement. Standardized tests fail to provide a holistic and valid picture of the impact teachers make with students in their classrooms. This is a shift from highly qualified which is determined through a credentialing checklist process. The TQP grant seeks to increase the learning and achievement of Iowa PK-12 students by continuously developing more highly effective teachers from pre-service through the entire teaching career.  UNI will focus on our pre-service program and the transition of our graduates into Iowa’s classrooms.

Pre-service through in-service accountability system intended to retain highly effective teachers and improve student learning.
We need to be more accountable at all levels. The TQP grant will establish this by focusing on measuring teacher effectiveness from pre-service throughout the entire teaching career.  Central to this measurement process is the creation of a technologically mediated platform. By the end of the grant this platform will be available statewide.  It will be a place where teacher candidates, faculty, practicing teachers, and evaluators can upload and access evidence of teacher effectiveness.  UNI will enhance our teacher preparation program by building on our rich history of teacher performance assessment.

Redesign and enhancement of current pre-service programs to address the needs of the next generation learners.
As a result of this work, attributes of effective teaching will emerge. Using data from our performance assessment process, based on these attributes, will allow the examination of programs as part of a continuous improvement process. To prepare future teachers to address the needs of the next generation students, pre-service programs must find ways to redesign courses and programs to better prepare candidates as highly effective educators.


Mutually beneficial university and rural district partnerships will strengthen programs through embedded clinical experiences.
Central to the success of this grant are the partnerships established with rural districts.  The TQP grant is working with small, rural districts that have a high rate of teacher turnover and constituents with low socioeconomic status.  The realities of being an educator in a rural school district are different than those of urban settings. Rural clinical experiences will prepare our students to lead as effective teachers who understand the importance of school and community partnerships.  These partnerships will allow school district and university educators to learn from one another and strengthen programs.

An Open Letter to Tripoli Community School District Members:

On Monday, January 17, 2011, I attended a school board meeting prompted by reading the report printed in the Tripoli Leader from a meeting held the previous Tuesday.  At issue was a major decision about choosing to either remain in or remove our district from the special education pool.  After talking to three board members on the telephone it became clear to me that leaving this pool was probably the decision that would be made.  At least there was data presented I could reason with in this decision.  The concern to me was how the board might choose to spend the “surplus” money from a decision to leave this pool as I was not hearing any data about this.

After a lengthy discussion at the board meeting about the decision to remain or rescind from the pool and some input from a few community members, the decision was made to leave the pool with a vote of 3-2.  The follow-up as to what to do with the money saved by this decision appeared to be something that board members said could wait for another meeting.  So when the discussion moved on to other agenda topics, and I noted that the agenda had not indicated an opportunity to decide about this topic, I chose to leave the board meeting with unanswered and unasked questions, determined to follow up in the next few days.  Imagine my disappointment when I talked to faculty the next day and learned that the board had decided to move ahead to look to hire a new part-time administrator.

At a time when I see Iowa districts pushing education forward through making decisions that are best for kids, I see our district making a decision that is best for administrators.  I have asked to see the data that indicates that our current administrators have any more work today than they did when the decision was made to go with this current administrative structure or any more work than other districts.  I would also like to see the data that having two part-time individuals fulfill a full-time principal position is an effective working model.  The current practice of hiring a lead teacher to fulfill this role does not appear to be very effective for our children, ask any of them that have disrupted class time due to this model.

Several years ago our district chose to move to the current structure of having one person serve as both secondary principal and superintendent.  At that time we were told that it would save our district money and be a viable way to allow the Tripoli Community School District to not be forced to merge with another district.  What has changed?  You would be hard pressed to find any educator, administrator or teacher, which has not been asked to do more paperwork in the past few years due to our compliance-based statewide system.  Administrators are hired knowing their plate will be full and that a normal workday of eight hours will not be the norm.  One argument I heard for hiring another administrator is to keep up with administrative paperwork with the transition out of the pool.  But by Mr. Heller’s admission at the board meeting it was discovered that this paperwork would be minimal.  Another argument is that hiring another part-time administrator will allow the current administrators to have more time.  (Which leads to the question, more time to do fewer duties at no change in pay?)  This is an interesting model to consider when the trend in other districts is to have administrators share duties, like we currently do.  And if a part-time administrator/part-time teacher is hired, what courses will our students either gain or lose in such a structure?

Reading about current educational trends and participating in other district professional development over the past year has shown me other models based on what works for kids and teachers.  A very common example is one that gives the teacher more time to be a more collaborative, connected learner that allows them to be a more effective teacher.  There is research to show that giving teachers a consistent, frequent common time to collaborate during the school day improves performance.  A decision to offer this to our teachers is one way to consider using some of this money.  This would more directly affect our children.

Another trend in education is to use computers in direct instruction.  Although there are many steps in preparing a district to be a 1:1 computer school (which was also talked about during the January 17 meeting), one of these is purchasing computers.  Choosing a potential project like this would certainly impact our students directly, more so than hiring another administrator.

One concern I have heard from people for hiring another administrator is that of having the principal and superintendent be a different individual, particularly for matters of discipline.  This is a valid concern.  Again, will this be accomplished by hiring another part-time person?  Perhaps there is more validity in the suggestion made by school board member, Ron Orf, to consider restructuring to have a full-time secondary principal and to share a part-time superintendent with another district. 

As you can see, this is a complex issue and one that I believe needs further input from taxpayers in this district and more information showing that this is the best long-term decision for our district.  I encourage you to contact school board members with your views about their plan for a new administrative structure and how it will benefit our kids, the ones designed for schools to serve.

Talking Points

What an exciting last couple days for the small staff in the TQP office. . .

Yesterday we (the three of us: Dan, Leanne and StaceyAnn) decided to organize our timeline and start with some known end points and work back to create a work plan.  It felt good to be working together as a team and to get a list of "do-ables" for us in which to move forward.

Today, just as we were moving forward with some of these tasks, a new task presented itself.  We have been charged with creating "talking points" on both TQP and TPAC that will be used by the UNI President next week in his meeting with Jason Glass, the new Iowa Department of Education Director.  Dean Dwight Watson has requested this aspect as one of the four main points President Allen intends to make with Jason.

We are excited to have this opportunity~particularly after Jason Glass tweeted yesterday the following successive two tweets:  

ANNOUNCEMENT: I have made a decision on the most burning question posed to me in Iowa so far. Cyclone or Hawkeye...

After a careful and scientific review of the allegiances my twitter friends, I have decided... GO PANTHERS!

Oh, how fun it is to be engaged in the Twitterverse . . . but for now, back to the drawing board in composing the Talking Points.

Three Questions

Jason Glass, Terry Branstad's appointee for the Director of the Iowa Department of Education, posted the following on his blog . . .

One of the great things about working in education is that you get the chance to meet so many tremendous leaders who are real practitioners of the servant-leadership concept. One of these tremendous leaders is the Executive Director forBattelle for Kids, Dr. Jim Mahoney.

I had the chance to talk with Dr. Mahoney about my “entry plan” for Iowa being to spend a lot of time up front simply listening. He really liked this approach and he suggested to me a structure for these conversations that includes 3 questions for Iowa education:

1. What should we stop doing?

2. What should we keep doing?

3. What should we start doing?

I love these three questions!  Perhaps I will start asking myself these more often~

Over the past several days, several people have offered a variety of suggestions.  I decided that I should chime in as well.  Below you will find my post.  You might notice that I didn't add anything in the "Stop" category.  This isn't because I think we should continue everything that is going on but rather some comments left by Trace Pickering had me convinced that we need to "transform" rather than reform.  This got me thinking that perhaps the best way to do so would be to stop everything and start with the new transformation.  Pretty idealistic, huh?!  Anyway, here is what I wrote.  To read more, go to:  http://trunc.it/dqrva

Keep

• Learning at the center of education

• High expectations

• Preschool Education

• Some sort of system for mentoring new teachers

Start

• Treating all learners as individuals that learn differently and in different environments and in different timeframes

• Promoting partnerships and communication between all tiers of education (State level, AEAs, LEAs, IHE) so that we speak a common language

• Dialogue about a continuum of learning standards from PK-12 through teacher preparation through induction through career. (InTASC and Iowa Teaching Standards . . . can align but why do we need separateness?)

• Offering increased opportunities for immersion experiences during educator preparation

• Restructuring of the PK-12 teacher work day to include time to collaborate, create and envision as a facilitator for student learning for the next generation of learners

• Encouraging professional learning as ongoing growth and personal challenge for all those that choose to become educatorEmbracing environmental education and place-based education as connections to local communities and allows for experiences rich in critical thinking, complex communication, creativity, collaboration, flexibility, productivity and accountability

Colleges of Humanities, Fine Arts and Natural Sciences

Today our team met with the Executive Council for the Colleges of Humanities, Fine Arts and Natural Sciences.  Very diverse group of individuals . . . which was true of our group yesterday as well.  The difference for me was that I knew one person at the table today whereas yesterday I knew no one.  :)

Again there were some great questions:
How will students be selected?
Will geographic background be a factor?
How does this process change the Teacher Work Sample?
How refined will the model being created be one year later?

John Vallentine, Director of the School of Music felt this was all very positive and positions UNI in the potential for being a leader!

Teacher Quality to Teacher Effectiveness

Much of the discussion at the national level in teacher preparation and evaluation has moved from beyond teacher quality to teacher effectiveness.  Defining what a highly effective teacher looks like and is able to do is at the forefront of many discussions in the national arena.  It appears that many Iowans are ready to get into this discussion.  Here at UNI we are excited about it too!  Today marked the beginning of our campaign to let the other colleges of the university know what is happening with the TQP grant.  Our meeting with the Executive Council of the College for Social and Behavioral Sciences went well.  There were some very insightful questions and a recognition that some of the proposals "out there" for teacher evaluation are "frightening"!

It sounds like teacher performance will be a priority of the new chief administrator of the Iowa Department of Education.  Several of us on the team have been following Jason Glass' tweets and blog with rapt interest.

It is an exciting time to be an educator in Iowa.  We have the chance to give direction to the future of our profession in meaningful ways that will indicate to our communities our commitment to quality and accountability.  Being an effective educator is more than achieving a prescribed checklist.  Let us aspire to greatness for the good of each learner.