School-University Partnership for Implementation of Common Core State Standards

Abstract The value and importance of partnerships between public schools and universities is more evident now than ever. This paper highlights the design, implementation, and initial results of a partnership between teachers and administrators from a high-needs, high-poverty high school, and university teacher education and arts and sciences faculty to address school improvement plans that incorporated Common Core State Standards (CCSS) at the preservice and in-service levels of teacher education. This effort is part of a continuing federally funded Teacher Quality Partnership project. Keywords: School-University Partnership, Common Core State Standards, teacher education, secondary learners, Universal Design for Learning Fairly or unfairly, teachers and teacher education programs have been criticized for the many perceived deficiencies of public schools in the United States. Much of the recent criticism is based on student test scores in national report cards (e.g., Institute for Education Sciences, 2013), which direct blame for failures at teachers and the university programs that produce them. Indeed, statistics on the efficacy of many secondary schools, in particular, are not encouraging, and are worst in high-poverty areas where the most experienced teachers tend to be the lowest in quality The National Assessment of Educational Progress (Institute for Education Sciences, 2013) reported that only 34% of 8 th graders tested at or above proficient in reading, In survey of over 1500 17-year olds, To examine the relationship between gains in student achievement and teacher preparation, At least part of the problem may be the structurally rigid nature of the secondary school classroom with regard to the processes of planning, adapting, and individualizing instruction, especially for students who learn differently. © Center for Promoting Ideas, USA www.ijhssnet.com 13 Since the primary role of the secondary teacher has been to deliver content, classrooms often consist of teacher lectures, with few interactions between teacher and students or students with their peers, and a great deal of independent seatwork. With the advent of Common Core State Standards (CCSS), however, new as well as veteran secondary teachers must dramatically change the way they plan and teach content. Rather than citing statistics and casting further blame on teachers, schools, and teacher preparation programs, Secretary of Education Duncan suggested that there might be an underlying systemic issue contributing to poor performance in schools: Compared to other important professions, teacher salaries are far too low to attract and retain top college students into the field and barely sufficient for existing teachers to raise families, buy a home, and maintain a middle class lifestyle. Many teachers must work side jobs or rely on their spouses to make ends meet. Something is radically wrong with that picture. Good teachers often must leave the classroom-leave what they love most and what they do best-to acquire more responsibility, advance professionally, and increase earnings. Many simply leave the field… We need to radically change society's views of teaching from the factory model of yesterday to the professional model of tomorrow, where teachers are revered as the thinkers, leaders and nation-builders they truly are (Duncan, 2012). He further suggested that teacher evaluation tied only to test scores creates a situation where "instead of a safety net beneath our children and teachers, test-based accountability has become a sword hanging overhead" Indeed, such systemic issues may compound problems of poor student performance by contributing to low morale among teachers. The 28 th annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher indicated that nationally, only 44% of teachers reported being "very satisfied" with their jobs. This was down from 59% just three years before. About 29% of teachers said they were likely to leave teaching within five years (up from only 17% in 2009). Perhaps some of the low morale comes from only 43% of teachers believing that student achievement is likely to increase in the next five years, despite their efforts (Heitin, 2012). Still, regardless such gloomy reports, it stands to reason that not all schools are the same and not all teacher preparation programs are equivalent, nor does each institution contribute equally to large-scale outcomes. Disaggregation of the data on teacher preparation uncovers some favorable results. For instance, a recent set of studies on "portals" for entering the teaching profession shows that teachers with some pedagogical training (those from traditional university programs and Teach For America) tend to have higher student achievement outcomes when compared to teachers who entered the profession without pedagogical training. In fact, Berry (2010) pointed out that new teachers with limited or no pedagogical training actually tended to lower student achievement scores, at least initially. Thus, the enhancement of pedagogical knowledge and experience, coupled with shifts in educational paradigms, may significantly shape the development of exemplary efforts among schools and university programs that substantively affect the performance of students. This article, then, documents the design, implementation, and initial results of one demonstration partnership intended to enhance the competence of secondary preservice as well as inservice teachers regarding the application of CCSS. Program Development The design team of the Secondary Teacher Education Reform Initiative of the Teacher Quality Partnership Grant (TQP) at East Carolina University (ECU) began work by recognizing the nearly unprecedented paradigm shift in U.S. schools represented by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). To date, forty-five states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) have adopted the CCSS (corestandards.org).This paradigm shift has necessitated a change in how teacher educators must prepare teachers to work in schools, beginning with a frank examination of practices by both university faculty and secondary school partners. The primary goals of the ECU Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant are strengthening both prospective and experienced teachers' knowledge and pedagogical bases, and improving student achievement. The goals are specifically addressed through new teacher induction, revisions to clinical practice, new teacher mentoring, and curriculum reform across disciplines. Within these broad goals, our research and development efforts pay significant attention to the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010a(CCSS, , 2010b in teacher preparation programs and partnering schools. Humanities and Social Science Vol. 4, No. 7(1) Because the original TQP grant proposal was written for elementary and middle grades, plans for that part of the project were well defined, but activities for secondary reform were initially just sketched out. A large part of the planning process took place during spring of 2012 by a carefully constructed design team including specialists from educational foundations, educational psychology, curriculum and instruction, and special education. International Journal o