Research, and connecting it to the Beloit school district

I have finished a pile of articles regarding various approaches to teacher development. After doing this I feel like I can organize these into a few groups. Those who focus on specific teacher motivation, individual school environment, or those who focus on leadership at either the district, state, or national level. So I have alot of different policy suggestions and frames for understanding one issue. I found the articles on what created teacher development that was self-motivated to be the most interesting. However, since I am trying to look how different parts of the system interact I also want to understand what best practice at the district level looks like.
Today I met with Carol Heallis (sp?) and Tracy Stevenson who organized the new math and social studies curriculum in the Beloit school district. I was interested to see what made them choose the curriculum approach for Beloit and what implementation of the new curriculum has been effective and ineffective.
The math curriculum was radically different from the way most teachers are used to teaching and I think there are still alot who resist the new program. I was interested to hear her opinion that the majority of teachers now support the curriculum. I also thought it was interesting that from the outset, the math approach they are trying to encourage is meant to take 5 years of more before it is fully and successfully implemented. The social studies program seems to have the same ideas behind it, but unlike the math there was no packaged curriculum they could adopt to achieve their goals. Both really seem to rely on the effect ongoing staff development will have.
The other concern I had was why these two subjects have been such a huge focus as opposed to literacy, science, or just classroom management. I am not sure I was satisfied with the answer, but I do agree that this new program deserves ongoing attention, it just seems it may be at the price of other things teachers could benefit from.
I asked both of them what the one imporvement they would want to see was. They both agreed that common prep periods for teachers is key. At this point elementary teachers only have thirty minutes of prep time in the day. It is critical that teachers have scheduled time to share strategies and ideas. I have found this in my research too, apparently 90% of improvement in teaching practice is fostered by another colleague. I just don't see teachers being able to give up their meager thirty minutes for forced prep-time. It should be something that is done in addition to their prep, or after school.

Interesting Article

One of the readings I just got from EBSCOHOST keeps coming to mind when I think about this issue. It criticized the tendency to try and fill the gaps in quality educators for high-poverty schools by filling positions with Teach for America volunteers or others who use alternative licensure methods. I think a lot of states fail to appreciate the value of having highly qualified teachers in all their schools. The only way to correct this seems to be to provide greater monetary incentives for teaching in high-poverty schools, and providing grants and scholarships to help teachers meet more demanding licensure requirements. Finding the political will to pay for this seemed unlikely when I was reading this at first, but apparently high rates of teacher attrition costs states 2 billion dollars annually so it a far better use for these funds. I am trying to balance studies of teachers with some literature on policy suggestions to get a better idea of how education policy in the US is impacting teacher development.

Goals for my second week

After meeting with Bill I decided that a lot of what I am interested in is pretty broad and there is a lot of literature, more than I can include in one semester. So rather than getting bogged down in one aspect of this issue (such as all the literature on staff development, or all the literature on school leadership, or all the literature on teaching methods in high poverty schools, and on and on) I am trying to consider the system at a macro-level. How do all the components come together to create quality, motivated teachers who won't get overwhelmed and disillusioned?
I am going to add work by Any Hargreaves, Michael Fullon, and Anette Lareau to my list for this week and see how this adds to my understanding of the overall beurocracy of the school system.

Intial research

I spent last week going over alot of reading that focused mainly on what creates quality staff development. They were mostly JSTOR articles from various education research journals. Two of the studies I looked at were done in England. However, I still think they're reallyl helpful because NCLB was actually influenced alot by the education policy in England. The whole accountability and high stakes testing atmosphere that has been created in the US has alot of its roots in policies that came out in England several years before NCLB. So it was interesting to hear the studies talk about the impact of 'accountability' measures and how they influenced staff development. Some of the important ideas I got from these articles was the difference between self motivated development versus enforced staff development. Teachers are less likely to integrate methods taught to them when they are not the result of less formal training. More successful methods of encouraging teachers to continue to develop their teaching methods is through informal mentoring from fellow teachers. Also academic theories were also successful when teachers then applied them in the classroom through trial and error, but the bottom line is that requiring teachers to attend staff development meetings dosn't mean it will impact their teaching style.
One of the key problems with education policy and attempts to improve teacher quality is this idea that curriculum needs to be 'teacher-proofed'. Assuming that teachers are not capable of making decisions about what affective pedagogy is. So all these curriculum ideas get forced onto a district with very little teacher input. The disconnect between the ideas behind the content makes it unlikely that teachers will accept or be able to properly teach all this new curriculum. So as I keep researching I want to focus on two things. What are successful ways to encourage ongoing development in a way that will actually create change that does not degrade a teacher's sense of professionalism. Also, I am particularly interested in teachers in low-income school districts so I also want to keep in mind what good curriculum and development should be encouraged? Even if teachers are using the methods encouraged in staff development programs dosn't mean they are good ones. So what will effective and quality staff development look like and encourage?

Research Ideas

Alot of my interest for this thesis is based on experiences during student teaching. One of the things that particularly struck me was the difficulty the district has with choosing and implementing new curriculum. It seems that teachers get inundated with new theories and approaches until they finally stop paying attention. Seeing the jaded view many teachers at my school had toward new district policies and curriculum approaches made me interested in professional development and motivation. I want to know what strategies are the best way to reach students and how to integrate these research and theories in a way that is useful and accessible to teachers. So far my reading is based on what I have already done. I am using my literature review from my last semester in the Duffy program. I read alot of studies on reasons why teachers choose to leave the teaching profession and why they stay when they shouldn't. Recently, the most interesting thing I have read is Jonothan Kozol's "Shame of the Nation" (I can't find the underling tool so I am using quotes instead). One chapter focused on the Success for All Model that has been adopted in some failing schools in low-income areas. I really disliked the approach because, according to Kozol's description, it takes away a teachers ability to make decisions on how any aspect of their class is run. I feel this approach to improving education deprives teachers of any sense that the district believes they are at all competent, and drives away the most motivated and talented teachers. I think alot of teacher motivation is based on their belief that they are given the time and tools they need to reach their students, but in a way that does not degrade their sense of pride as an educated professional.
I want to find more research on strategies for encouraging teacher development. Both what curriculum and strategies should be available for teachers and how it can be presented in a way that is usable. I am particularly interested in teaching strategies in low-income communities since I think this is where teacher retention and motivation is currently suffering the most.